Our friend Heather Labance joined the Quark Women’s racing team in May. Here’s her Fitchburg report.
In May I had my first ride with Quark. I did the Mid-Atlantic Crit Series working for Laura Van Gilder to win 3 out of the 4 races. It was exciting and a pleasure to work for such an amazing and gracious athlete as Laura. I was fortunate enough to be called back to duty for Quark at Fitchburg.
My experience at Fitchburg was also exciting. I worked for Tina Pic, another amazing and very gracious athlete. The first stage was the 7 mile TT. Six of us from Quark were in the top 17 places and Tina took third place, 30 seconds behind Sue Palmar-Komar (Colavita). This seemed to be the 30 seconds that we could never close!!
The Second stage was the circuit race. It’s just over three miles with a double kicker power hill at the end. We looped it 11 times. We controlled the race pulling in any breaks or attacks. We also concentrated on leading Sarah Uhl out for the sprint pts. She was able to capture the green jersey easily. Our Quark train set up beautifully with three miles to
go! All seven of us hammered at the front as the other key players tried to break in. It was flawless. We strung out the race and dropped Tina Pic off at the finish line. Not to take away from Tina’s amazing finish which she exploded away from the rest of the racers by many bike-lengths.
Heather, rising out of the saddle, with Sue Palmer-Komar in the orange leader’s jersey.
We did get a 10 second time bonus for the win, but the field was given the same time as Tina???? The third day was the 69 mile road race! We tried a few things during the race but could not shake Sue Palmar-Komar. With six miles to go we had the race all back together and our goal was going to be to get Tina up the final climb with a gap on Sue. The problem was that we let two get away at this crucial point of the race. We had to pull the two riders back in. Tina made the decision, as
she should have, to use us then and not wait until the final climb to pull the riders in. We got to the front and went all out. By the time we got to the base of the final climb, we had closed the gap from around 2 minutes to 10 seconds. In doing
so, we were TOAST. Tina had no one left to help her. Tina and Sue duked it out all the way up with Sue taking the stage by two seconds. The rest of us Quarks were zig-zagging in torture up the mountain. Usually I like to go up, but I was experiencing pain like no other!
The final stage was the crit. We tried a few things, but nothing seemed to work. It seemed we could not gain 26 seconds on Sue any which way we tried. We decided to try to keep the green sprint jersey and work for the stage win. We worked very hard and accomplished these final goals.
The experience was awesome! Who wouldn’t love massages each night after the race!!! It was so easy to work for Tina Pic, she is a true champion. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from all of the Quark riders and staff.