Firing on all cylinders

Check the girls driving it! This is a picture of the break at Yaletown where we were able to capture 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th - a pretty darn good showing if I do say so myself. It was an action packed day where we unfortunately lost Laura B. to a crash about two laps in. The two of us (Laura and Jenny) decided to take the second corner rather quickly as we were capitalizing on a small gap and ended up visiting the fence. Laura took the brunt of the crash, but she's a fighter and will be ready to rock on Friday when we take on the Nationals field.
So back to the race. Shortly after I took my free lap, Team Giant started animating the race. In what would be indicative of how she rode all day, Leah laid down a killer attack going up the short steep hill on the backside of the course and splintered the group. Fairly quickly we found the six of us (Leah, Lisa and myself from Giant, the Symmetrics duo of Marni Hambleton and Sarah Stewart, and Expresscopy's Gina Grain) off the front with a comfortable lead that would reach a maximum of around 40 seconds near the end of the race. The Giant girls (lead by Leah) ended up initiating a great deal of the work, but we also came away with the first prime as I jumped Gina at the top of the hill (a move that I would see repeated 3 more times in the race, 2 primes and the win - why did I have to show her the move?!?) As you might be able to tell from the gimaces on the faces of all the girls in the break, we were working hard out there, but we were unable to shake our three breakaway companions.
As the race was coming into the final 4-5 laps, Alena made a brave and bold move from the main pack where she and Claire had done an exceptional job of patrolling and controlling the other racers. Alena managed to jump her group and solo the remaining laps for 7th place - while we were jockying with the others out front. The girls got the lead out going with 1 lap to go and I thought we were golden. I knew that Gina would try to jump us wide going into the 2nd last turn, but at the time (with the lack of oxygen) was a bit at a loss as to how to stop it. She did indeed jump where I thought (next time I'm going to have to anticipate that better) and got a good gap going into the downhill section. Coming out of the final turn it is essentially three strong pedal strokes and the finish line. Gina took the win, with myself in second and Marni in third. Also a notable mention to Claire who showed the main field how it's done by taking the sprint for 8th.
All in all, I think it was a great day for the Giant girls and a super warm up for the hometown racing we will be doing in the next month. The crowds at Yaletown were awesome and I can't wait for Nationals and Superweek!