We asked Heather Labance for a race report after she won at Grant’s Tomb in March. Since then she’s taken off, guest riding with the Quark team. She checked in with her latest exploits at Christiana, where she swept all three stages.

The road race was a hilly four lap course. On the first hill I pushed the pace to see who was feeling strong that day. Apparently a lot of women were! The women’s field was littered with cat 2 riders and even cat 1’s. The group was strung out and some looked tired so on the next hill I pushed the pace again and a group of six women emerged. This six was the winning break. There were a couple of us who worked together to get a significant lead and of course there were a few duds in the group as well. We had a strong chase group after us that included Lipton’s Elise Gagnon, so I knew we had our work cut out for us. During the next few times around the course we opened up a comfortable lead over the chasers. A rider in our break that did not do much work, surged to the front on our final descent. She took the ninety degree turn much too fast and crashed taking Sarah Bickerstaff with her. I managed to get around them, but I felt awful for Sarah. She had worked hard in our group and deserved to be there in the final climb to the finish line. I looked back and saw Sarah had flipped over the guardrail. Fortunately she wasn’t injured, except for the cracked fork on her bike, and impressively got up and finished ahead of the chase group. So, now there were four. As we started the climb to the finish, Erin Garvin from Fuji and I took off. We separated ourselves from the rest and it came down to a two person drag race. I threw my bike over the line and came away with the win.

@##=#<2,L>@##=#It was Erin Garvin and I that would battle it out for the remainder of theweekend. The 10 mile time trial, which in spots was very technical, was contested on wet, slick roads from the rain that had been falling all morning. Throw in some horse droppings on the road and a few buggy’s to maneuver my way through and it makes for an interesting stage. The most technical part of the course was aptly named “Snake Lane” and I was a little uptight about it. I decided to go with a disc wheel anyway, figuring I’d take it real gingerly through the turny sections and hope to make up any lost time on the long finishing straight. It worked! I was able to beat Erin, who finished 2nd, by 18 seconds. One more stage to go.

I knew that I still had to go for the win in the crit; Erin was too close on GC. In fact, if she were to beat me by more than one spot in the last stage, based on the points system, she would have won the overall. So with two Fuji riders to contend with, I expected the attacks to come early and often. My strategy was to stay at the front, stay safe, and be ready for any Fuji attacks.

I pushed the pace from the start and kept it high throughout. The field was strung out for the entire race. Sarah Bickerstaff led us out of the final corner and toward the uphill finish. I sat in 2nd position with Erin on my wheel. Coming out of the turn I took off and Erin followed. It was now just the two of us sprinting it out and I was able to hold Erin off for the win. What a great competitor she is!

Heather at Grant’s Tomb earlier this year.