Sunny King Criterium 5/6/2006

The Aaron’s Pro Women continued to show their presence on the NRC scene this past weekend in Anniston, AL with another podium finish. For an area generally known for its deep NASCAR roots, everyone was pleasantly surprised with the number of fans and their sincere interest and enthusiasm in the racing taking place.

@##=#<2,L>@##=#The Aaron’s Pro Women’s Cycling Team gathered Friday in the familiar springtime Atlanta residence of the Hutchison-Krupat’s. Saturday morning they took off for another quick ride in the Hank Aaron Jaguar over to Anniston, AL. In the Sunny King Criterium’s first year as a Women’s NRC race, the competition was extremely fierce. While the size of the field was somewhat smaller than the previous weekend all of the heavy hitters were present and there was no lack of excitement or competition.

The Aaron’s Women showed their presence early in the race with attacks from Candice Blickem and Catherine Powers fast and often. Following a combination of attacks from Shannon Hutchison-Krupat and Mackenzie Dickey Katherine Carrol of Victory Brewing put in a hard attack up the inside of the finishing straight that would prove to be the initiation of the deciding break. Aaron’s sent Candice Blickem off in pursuit of Katherine which created a significant separation in the field that resulted in a group of 9 riders that contained Catherine and Candice of Aaron’s as well as great representation from Victory, Cheerwine and Colavita. In addition to Catherine and Candice, Victory’s Katherine Carrol was joined by their top sprinters Laura Yoisten and Lauren Franges while Colavita had their aces Tina Pic and Gina Grain and Cheerwine had Kelly Benjamin and Charm Breon.

@##=#<1,r>@##=#The Aaron’s Women had taken notes from the prior weekend in Roswell and tactically rode the break perfectly all the way. In the final lap Candice made sure the pace was high and that Catherine was in good position as they approached the final turn. As the crowds waited in anticipation, it was Tina Pic putting her wheel into the final turn just ahead of Catherine’s and as they stood up and gave it their all up the finishing stretch Tina held on to the slight advantage over Catherine to take the win with Catherine in second with Laura Yoisten rounding out the podium. As the field came in Aaron’s sprinters Shannon and Mackenzie wanted to make sure that they put the final Aaron’s stamp on the race with a 1-2 in the field sprint.