Commerce Bank Liberty Classic

CJ Farquason took this photo at Philly and it pretty much sums it all up for the race!!! Tina had a crash on the first lap on the descent off Manuyunk, hitting a bump, hands sliding off and saving it until hitting barriers. Shontelle and Nikki hung back with her as Iona, Ali and Tiffy monitored the action at the front of the race. They ended up doing a monumental effort bringing her back up to us which cooked them for the rest of the race. Once she was with us and we determined she really wanted to try to stay in, especially after the effort those two put out bringing her back up to us, we continued to monitor the front and get into moves, cover attacks while trying to rest her if it came to a bunch kick. The fact that she pulled off 6th with the pain she was in showed how tough she is. It was a fun race as there were many attacks and people not content to sit in. The heat made it tough, and there was only a select group going for the sprint at the finish.
Good teamwork, even though it would have been nice to be on the podium, we gave it what we had and we had each other's backs at all times.
Next race for us is Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Commerce Bank Triple Crown #1 - Lehigh Classic

Today we were treated to a little bit of a step up in pace in women's racing as we are starting Philly week. On the line today were Ina Teutenberg and the Cervelo Lifeforce team that added a bit of Euro flavour to the race. Right from the start it appeared that Cervelo Lifeforce"s intent was to set a high pace to shed some dead weight. After the first few laps, many attacks were made and absorbed and re-shuffled and finally one rolled off that contained 8 riders. Alison was covering that one and made that move. It contained Laura Van Gilder in it but not Ina or Tina. It was only a matter of time that Ina would look for a good opportunity to bridge, and we certainly wouldn't have minded getting another one of us in as well to increase our representation in the break.
When Ina attacked to bridge, both Shontelle and Tina were ready but the problem was that Erica Allar from Aarons was directly on Ina's wheel in front of Tina and Shontelle and slid out in the last corner leaving Tina and Shontelle to skirt around while Ina continued powering up to the break. A chase ensued to bring one of us closer to jump across, whilst up ahead in the break, it was being shattered. Ali made the front selection of Ina, Laura and Sarah Duster from Lifeforce Cervelo. That was good, and we concentrated on absorbing the other 5 left behind, so that the field sprint would be for 5th place rather than 10th.

Up ahead, there were attacks and Ina won followed by Laura and Ali took 3rd place. Tina won the field for 5th.

Overall, we were satisfied as we came with four today and had decided to have 3 cover and get into breakaways and save Tina in case of a sprint. That is pretty much how it worked out and it was a fun fast day. Great job Ali P!!!

CSC Invitational: Dre on the podium!

CSC was a short circuit(only 1 km) with many turns and some good bumps and manholes......which made for some necessary handling skills! Amazingly, there was even a crash at the line (!) as we were starting! So we tried to set the pace high from the start so that we could make it as smooth as possible and swoop through the corners safely. After some attacks and reshuffling of breaks, one rolled up the road with Andrea in it and stayed off almost lapping the field. The only problem was that the race officials left the many clumps of girls on the circuit that had gotten lapped and this was so confusing. We couldn't make sense of how close Andrea was behind us which was a shame as it would have been SO cool to have had her back in the field so we could have given her a leadout!!!

She was a trooper and handled the pressure of being in the winning move and tried to attack her breakaway companions knowing they were sprinters before finally having to sprint. So, with Andrea in the break handling the podium for us, we did a mini-leadout for Tina to win the bunch sprint, which she duly took care of.

Next up.....part of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown Series: LeHigh in Allentown

Huge congrats also go to the boys who had Luca and Luis in a 12 man break with some big protour team names, they lapped the field and then the rest of the Colavita boys completely drilled themselves to set up a furious lead out train for them with Luca taking the win.

Somerville World Cup

We say World Cup
because for us, that is both mens and women's teams for Colavita, this race takes on extra significance as it is right in Colavita's back yard. We want to win every race we go into, but especially this one as our sponsor is right there!

Needless to say, both teams came ready and motivated.

Both teams have been working together for a few months now getting all the kinks out and gelling. This shows when you are able to work seamlessly and smoothly and execute a plan.

Catch all the race writeups on our team site and also on Cycling news and Velonews along with photos here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2008/may08/somerville08

http://www.velonews.com/article/76739/lucas-sebastian-haedo-tina-pic-win-the-tour-of-somerville

teamcolavita.com

yay!!!

Tour of Leelanau

So, this race didn't go smoothly for us. That's the way it goes in bike racing, and it is times when it isn't so fantastic that make you appreciate when things are great. We love this race - it has a bit of everything, climbs, sprints, QOM's, wind, rolling terrain and it is in a beautiful part of the country. Pity we didn't get a great result to go with all the great things that come with this race!

Team Cheerwine had the upper hand from the get go when one of their riders got up the road and so the rest of their riders got armchair rides on all attacks from that point on that took place from our team and other teams. Net result, we were pretty smoked when we got to the finish due to all the attacks on that terrain, and the field shattered into tiny groups of twos and threes!
Only 17 riders made the time cut! We ended up with Tina in 5th, Iona in 6th and Tiffany in 9th.

So sad, ah well, tomorrow is another day - we have an important rendezvous in Colavita-land tomorrow: Somerville, NJ

Kelly Cup

Yeah!!! Shontell won her first race of the season. What can I say?….Our lead out was wonderful. Shontell, Andrea and I (Nicky) raced here last year and we knew how “swarmy” the final laps can get. Andrea was unstoppable today; she went with every attack. We all sat behind her ready to help. Kristin tested her legs out on the first race prime. The finish line is at the top of a small gradual climb. After we watched Kristin win the prime…we almost decided to sprint for her at the finish -- “just kidding”. With two laps to go we started the lead out. Andrea drove the pace for one full lap, and then Kristin took over. About 200 meters before the last technical corner, right before the straight away, Kristin was still going strong. I told her to take one last pull…she powerfully upped the pace and launched me (Nicky) and Shontell through the last chicane. I went from there as if I was going to win. Shontell stayed on my wheel and blew by me at just the right moment to take the win. I got so caught up in watching the final meters, I forgot to keep sprinting (but I did manage to throw my arms in the air). What a team effort! The rest of our team is in Michigan right now racing the Tour of Leelanau. Good luck gals. Our next race is Tour of Somerville.

whew!

So, after stage 3, which was a bit of a hilly affair up Cooper Spur Mountain, the entire peloton was shocked from the sudden spike in temperature. We went from cool and grayish with rain to smoking hot and humid. Many girls were dehydrated and cramping, and almost everyone pitched themselves into the freezing river for an ice bath afterwards in their shammies!


The next day was an individual time trial, which ALSO contained climbs, happily, there were some decent descents to go with it. Tina said Jeannie Longo blew by her so fast that she was positive she had won it. Turns out there was some kind of holdup at the start with Jeannie's tt bars and she started over a minute late and still got third!!!!

Well, lets just say, that the rest of us did not fly like Jeannie in this particular venture....our little Tiffy put in a solid ride to score a top ten place, moving her up into 8th on GC. We went to dinner that evening at a spectacular house (friend's of Dotsie and Kirk) with a view and tried not to think about the suffer-fest that was to come with the next day's stage.




So, the famous Mt. Hood Meadow's stage was indeed filled with climbing.....over 9000 feet of climbing. The heat wave in Oregon continued and our plan was to keep our climbers as fresh as possible until the business end of the race when the climbing turned steeper. Dotsie, Tina and Iona covered moves during the race. When the climbing pace finally got harder and harder, Tiffany managed to come in with the first set of girls after Mara Abbott and Jeannie Longo, holding on for 8th. Our next best climbers were Kristin and Andrea a few places back. There was snow on the top, which Tiffy and Tina sat in to cool their aching muscles!!
The final stage was a criterium and we were stoked at the chance to get another stage win. We thought it would be aggressive with other teams also looking for the same thing, as well as some of the GC people were separated by seconds, so getting up the road would translate into time and therefore a move up in overall classification. We had to be alert. Right off the bat, there was bad luck - Andrea came down in the last corner and had to retire from the race with a pro-rated time. We also lost Dotsie to that crash. Both girls are alright. We were now down to 4. The way it worked out was that Tiff found herself covering moves at the beginning, then Kristin and Iona were taking care of the middle portion of the race, and then by the end, Tiff was recovered to be able to get up front to give Tina a lead-out. Tina took it 3rd out from the last corner and never looked back. We finished this very tough stage race with 2 wins, a podium, and a top 10 on GC. All in all, we were pretty satisfied, and now go home for a bit of a rest before the next races.