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USCF Elite Women's National Criterium
Championships
By Bryan Jew
VeloNews Senior Writer
This report filed August 19, 2001
In a season dominated by the monster Saturn team,
the little guys finally
had a chance to do some damage on Sunday at the women's
national criterium
championship in Downer's Grove, Illinois. It came
down to a battle royale
between two of the fastest women in the county, who
had a total of one
teammate between them. In the end, Nicole Freedman
(Credit Suisse First
Boston) had one move too many for defending champion
Laura Van Gilder
(Verizon Wireless), who struggled through a tough
race to put herselfin a
position to fight for the win.
Going into the race, everybody was looking to see
what AutoTrader.comwould
do with the best numbers - six riders entered, more
than any other team.And
as expected, they took control early, with Pam Schuster
going to thefront
immediately in the 31-lap race to push the tempo.
The team then sentout
multiple attacks, from the likes of Amber Neben, Kim
Smith and Katrina
Berger.
Van Gilder, meanwhile, was suffering some bad luck
in her title defense,
crashing with 19 laps remaining in the race. Although
the morning rainshad
stopped briefly for the noon women's race, the final
turn was still posing
some problems for the riders, and Freedman and Berger
were also amongthe
group that crashed.
Van Gilder got a bike change, but her new bike was
much too big, forcingher
to pit a few laps later to switch again. "I then
used my bike which wasn't
working properly and I couldn't shift for a long time.
Then it all just
started to work again, with a little playing around
with the shifters."
As the race wound down, it saw an attack from a familiar
face in an
unfamiliar jersey, the semi-retired Dede Demet Barry,
who a week earlierhad
won the Nicole Reinhart criterium in Breckenridge.
She was joined byNeben
and the duo maintained a gap of about 12 seconds for
several laps, untilit
was finally closed down by Candice Blickem (AXO-Zeal)
with three lapsto go.
At that point, it looked like AutoTrader
would have its way, as theybegan
their leadout train for Tina Mayolo with two laps
to go.
But things began to get chaotic from there. First,
Saturn's Suzanne Sonye
burst out of the final turn with Freedman on her wheel.
Thinking thatit was
the final lap, Sonye nearly raised her arms in victory.
Instead, shehad
merely disrupted the AutoTrader leadout.
"Suzanne sprinted on the wrong lap, and then
I think it was Julie Young
(AutoTrader.com) and Cheryl Binney (Procter &
Gamble) who attacked, andI
sort of got on," said Freedman. "And then
Dede attacked. Dede was sortof a
fortunate addition to the race. She started leading
it out. Thank youDede."
AutoTrader was still setting up Mayolo,
but came up a little short. "Ithink
we just ran out of gas. We were hoping to pull something
off, and Kim
[Smith] was doing a great leadout, and then Julie
[Young] took over,and
with three corners to go she says, okay, good luck,
and I'm like, uh-oh.
There was just no one there and it was kind of a swarm
and you know,fight
for your spot, and hope it comes out right."
That's when Freedman began to fight her way to the
front. "It got bunchedup
on turn 7 and Tina was up front and I was behind her.
I thought, ‘Thisis
bad this is bad, there's no leadout. I knew I had
to go through thatturn
first and I was boxed in, and somehow the girl next
to me let up an inchand
I just went."
"I started to lead it to the final corner,"
said Van Gilder, "but Nicole
snuck by on the inside and held it to the line, and
it was the move,for
sure."
Behind, Van Gilder took second, Litespeed's Shannon
Hutchison third,and
Mayolo fourth.
Results:
1. Nicole Freedman, Credit Suisse First Boston
2. Laura Van Gilder, Verizon Wireless
3. Shannon Hutchison, Litespeed
4. Tina Mayolo, AutoTrader.com
5. Denise Brander, Saturn of Bellevue
6. Rebecca Conzelman, Talgoamerica.com
7. Allie Warfel, Credit Suisse First Boston
8. Emily Gloeckner, VERITAS
9. Kristin Cuilwik, Montgomery Cyclery
10. Katrina Berger, AutoTrader.com.
15. Amber Neben, AutoTrader.com
18. Pam Schuster, AutoTrader.com
20. Kim Smith, AutoTrader.com
27. Julie Young, AutoTrader.com
USCF Elite Women's National Criterium
Championships
By Bryan Jew
VeloNews Senior Writer
This report filed August 19, 2001
In a season dominated by the monster Saturn team,
the little guys finally
had a chance to do some damage on Sunday at the women's
national criterium
championship in Downer's Grove, Illinois. It came
down to a battle royale
between two of the fastest women in the county, who
had a total of one
teammate between them. In the end, Nicole Freedman
(Credit Suisse First
Boston) had one move too many for defending champion
Laura Van Gilder
(Verizon Wireless), who struggled through a tough
race to put herselfin a
position to fight for the win.
Going into the race, everybody was looking to see
what AutoTrader.comwould
do with the best numbers - six riders entered, more
than any other team.And
as expected, they took control early, with Pam Schuster
going to thefront
immediately in the 31-lap race to push the tempo.
The team then sentout
multiple attacks, from the likes of Amber Neben, Kim
Smith and Katrina
Berger.
Van Gilder, meanwhile, was suffering some bad luck
in her title defense,
crashing with 19 laps remaining in the race. Although
the morning rainshad
stopped briefly for the noon women's race, the final
turn was still posing
some problems for the riders, and Freedman and Berger
were also amongthe
group that crashed.
Van Gilder got a bike change, but her new bike was
much too big, forcingher
to pit a few laps later to switch again. "I then
used my bike which wasn't
working properly and I couldn't shift for a long time.
Then it all just
started to work again, with a little playing around
with the shifters."
As the race wound down, it saw an attack from a familiar
face in an
unfamiliar jersey, the semi-retired Dede Demet Barry,
who a week earlierhad
won the Nicole Reinhart criterium in Breckenridge.
She was joined byNeben
and the duo maintained a gap of about 12 seconds for
several laps, untilit
was finally closed down by Candice Blickem (AXO-Zeal)
with three lapsto go.
At that point, it looked like AutoTrader
would have its way, as theybegan
their leadout train for Tina Mayolo with two laps
to go.
But things began to get chaotic from there. First,
Saturn's Suzanne Sonye
burst out of the final turn with Freedman on her wheel.
Thinking thatit was
the final lap, Sonye nearly raised her arms in victory.
Instead, shehad
merely disrupted the AutoTrader leadout.
"Suzanne sprinted on the wrong lap, and then
I think it was Julie Young
(AutoTrader.com) and Cheryl Binney (Procter &
Gamble) who attacked, andI
sort of got on," said Freedman. "And then
Dede attacked. Dede was sortof a
fortunate addition to the race. She started leading
it out. Thank youDede."
AutoTrader was still setting up Mayolo,
but came up a little short. "Ithink
we just ran out of gas. We were hoping to pull something
off, and Kim
[Smith] was doing a great leadout, and then Julie
[Young] took over,and
with three corners to go she says, okay, good luck,
and I'm like, uh-oh.
There was just no one there and it was kind of a swarm
and you know,fight
for your spot, and hope it comes out right."
That's when Freedman began to fight her way to the
front. "It got bunchedup
on turn 7 and Tina was up front and I was behind her.
I thought, ‘Thisis
bad this is bad, there's no leadout. I knew I had
to go through thatturn
first and I was boxed in, and somehow the girl next
to me let up an inchand
I just went."
"I started to lead it to the final corner,"
said Van Gilder, "but Nicole
snuck by on the inside and held it to the line, and
it was the move,for
sure."
Behind, Van Gilder took second, Litespeed's Shannon
Hutchison third,and
Mayolo fourth.
Results:
1. Nicole Freedman, Credit Suisse First Boston
2. Laura Van Gilder, Verizon Wireless
3. Shannon Hutchison, Litespeed
4. Tina Mayolo, AutoTrader.com
5. Denise Brander, Saturn of Bellevue
6. Rebecca Conzelman, Talgoamerica.com
7. Allie Warfel, Credit Suisse First Boston
8. Emily Gloeckner, VERITAS
9. Kristin Cuilwik, Montgomery Cyclery
10. Katrina Berger, AutoTrader.com.
15. Amber Neben, AutoTrader.com
18. Pam Schuster, AutoTrader.com
20. Kim Smith, AutoTrader.com
27. Julie Young, AutoTrader.com
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