Today was a much more satisfying day for us in this tour. We raced a criterium today in downtown Silver City - 20 laps of a 1 mile circuit, so the race was less than an hour long and there were no big hills! Ina Teutenberg was all fired up to do well today and after a double espresso she took off from the gun.
Although she was reeled in a couple of times she continued to attack and eventually she forced a split in the field. In the lead group was Sarah Ulmer (Autotrader), Katrina Berger (800.com), Joanne Kiesanowski (Proctor and Gamble), Jessica Phillips (Intersports) and myself.
No one was willing to work too hard and so Ina attacked again and rode solo for several laps. I sat on the back of the small chase group while they tried to catch Ina again, and when I saw that they were getting tired I attacked them and bridged up to Ina. I was pretty glad that I had the talkback radio on today so I could talk to Ina and tell her I was trying to bridge to her so she could wait for me.
Once I reached Ina we rode as hard as we could to establish the gap. Meanwhile, the main pack caught the little group that was chasing us, leaving only Ina and I in front. Ina and I gained over a minute on the field and it was clear we would hold on for first and second. In the end it was Ina who took the win over me. Behind us there was another small split in the field containing first and second place in the overall classification. Joanne Kiesanowski won the sprint for third place over Lyne Bessette and Genevieve Jeanson.
In terms of the overall lead of the tour, today's stage had very little impact. Genevieve Jeanson still has an enormous lead that is unlikely to be threatened tomorrow in the final day of racing.
Cheers
Anna