Staci and Jenette take on Ohio!

Hey all!

Here is Jenette's race report from the weekend - her first race back after 6 weeks of concentrating on rehabing her injuries - welcome back Jdub!! Kristy, Michele and I raced in Reston, Virginia this weekend - race report coming soon (along with the Philly one from a month ago - Ahhh! And a report about our visit to the National Musuem of Natural History in D.C - exciting stuff!)

So here is Jenette:

Staci, Jeff (Staci's husband)and I headed about 3 hours up the road from Huntington, W.V, to race in Cincinnati, Ohio. The race was in a upscale section of Cincinnati called Hyde Park. The field was comprised of a wide range of skill and experience.
Jeff, who owns the bike shop in our town and is a great mechanic , helped us out for the day-- Despite the fact he was racing himself later, he made sure to get mine and Staci's bikes together, tuned up and ready to go.
The course was an L shape with a 1 block long hill each lap. The pace was fairly fast at the start immediately splitting the field with a group of about 12 - including Staci and myself. There were a couple of good attacks up the hill, but for the most part the pace was just steady. Staci had a great attack up the hill with a couple of laps to go, but the group fought hard to stay with her.

On the bell lap coming into the hill, we had to go around some lapped riders which created a little confusion. Staci and I got caught behind a gap in the final turn and sprinted down the long straight away for 9th and 12th.
Staci and I watched the men's race and cheered on Jeff. It was a fast and exciting race that finished in the dark, under lights.

Staci, Jeff and I headed out of town and stopped and had a great dinner and found a hotel so we could get some rest for our drive to Columbus for our next day's race. Sunday's race was in a great community just to the West of Columbus and less than a 2 hour drive from Cincinnati. So, we were able to sleep in and have a big breakfast before heading out.

The women's race in Grandview, Ohio, had a smaller field and with the strong wind, hot temperature and tough course was going to be a challenging race. Jeff once again had our bikes in tip top shape and ready to roll.
Staci and I were aggressive from the start, and pushed the pace on the backside of the course coming into the fast downhill and into the climb to the start/finish line. Staci attacked on the second lap, doing the same and with the field in tow and not willing to come around, I jumped hard up the second half of the climb. A couple of riders attacked up the climb for the prime and the group started to splinter. I couldn't maintain the pace (nb - bearing in mind Jenette has barely been able to ride her bike in the last 2 months....D.T) . I rode for several laps and when the field lapped me I saw that Staci was not there. I looked back and saw her chasing with another girl so I decided that I could try to help Staci get back to the field . The group was only 25-30 seconds ahead and I thought we had a chance to catch them. We worked hard and very well together and after picking off a couple of other dropped riders, came very close to catching the field at one point, only to start to lose time to them during the closing laps. We finished strong with Staci holding on for 8th place - I got 12th .