Tough Luck at the Nationals Crit (July 6th)

Today was one of those days that has to be chalked up to experience. We had the horsepower and the teamwork to be in contention for the win, but luck just didn't cooperate. We went into the race without knowing what to expect. The night before we went over who would be a threat and Jeremy pretty much called how the race was going to go down. It was a wide open course with a decent sized hill in it that turned up the finish straight into a MASSIVE headwind and then back down and around - we were up for 35 laps - 42km and we were feeling confident on the line.
Over the opening laps we paraded around the course for awhile and Jeremy made the call to start attacking, so we did. Leah made a great attack and was joined by a powerhouse from Ontario and eventual winner Merryl Collins (La Bicicletta) and they were up the road. I was somewhat surprised that people just let the two of them off the front, but I wasn't complaining. Soon enough Alex Wrubleski (Colavita Cooking Light) started attacking everytime over the top of the false flat and down around the corner. I watched vigilantly and soon enough we brought the top two girls back, but realized that we were down to only 7 girls including Leah and myself, Alex, Merryl, Laura Yoisten (Webcor), Joelle Numainville and Alison Testeroete (both expresscopy.com). It was actually a perfect situation with 2 girls out of 7. It was rolling around fairly hard and then we went through the bottom corner and the two girls in front of Leah and I went down and we were gapped. In hindsight we should have taken a lap, but we didn't and Leah and I were left in no man's land. The two who crashed got given too many laps (and were later relegated to 4th and 5th) and in a couple of laps Leah and I were absorbed into the pack. Eventually the pack was close to 40 seconds up the road so Jeremy had us try to bring it down. So first Alena gave it everything for a lap before I took over, and over 3.5 laps we reduced the gap to 10 seconds - it was awesome. But Alena and I were pretty done after that.Leah stayed strong in the chase group (despite frustration) and won the field sprint for 6th. Also, our Laura is still having difficulties with the injuries sustained at Yaletown, but we'll have her up and running in no time flat!It was a hard day, but we rode strong and we rode well as a team. We are now focusing on kicking butt in the TT (sauf moi - french for "except me") and then the roadrace.