A Podium, We'll Take It!

The first Spring Series at River Road went down in style for the Giant girls (just FYI, there is NO good way to say that - so get it out of your system now, we are the GIANT women's team). First off, after the supremely successful Learn to Race on Saturday - we got our new stellar kits (thanks to Sean for a killer design and Brian for the delivery). So we got to show up all matchy-matchy and really looking like a team. And we didn't disappoint!

The race was fairly agressive with multiple different breaks off the front throughout the beginning of the race. It became obvious fairly early on that the Bs were going to watch Cody Campbell (dEVo) like a hawk and the only way that we were going to assure sucess was to get someone up the road. Lisa Howard made a good effort in a break early on and made a valient attempt to bridge to a break about halfway through (especially as she's been at med school since September!) I followed a wheel for Lisa's attempted breakaway counter and I was away with one other guy. I did as much as I could, but a few earlier efforts had left my legs a little less chipper. As we were brought back about a lap later, another attack went while the pack was strung out. I had had a bit of time to recover as we waited to be caught, so I went with the counter for fun - and very quickly we had a large gap. The group was working, but it took a bridge by Cody to get things really jazzed up. I would love to say that I was a powerhouse in the group, but in reality - Cody and Jonathan Page coaxed me through and kept me on for the last of the 5 laps that we were away. In the final few laps I was counting down and setting mini-goals - "just 4 more straights left Jenny!" But I made it and followed the wheels in the final sprint. Cody jumped with 400m to go and used up his bullets and Jonathan got a centre line violation - so I ended up 3rd in our group of 5!
That having been said, I couldn't have done it without some stellar work by the girls back in the group who tested out the front - and agitated a few. Our team is awesome!