Giro di Burnaby - by Jenny Trew

Thursday night saw my second night back in Giant colours after a successful weekend at Delta. I was personally pretty pumped to be heading to our local Giro with the girls as we were rather successful here last year and I really like the course: an 8 corner crit with a fast downhill finish. Going into the race I felt we had a really good chance of making the podium and I, for one, was looking forward to honing out my leadout skills for Steph and Lisa - who has returned to super form!
We were really active in the race - definately a force to be reckoned with as we continually threw riders off the front. The most notably attempts were those made by Pickle and Steph, the latter of which was out front for a good amount of time on a very windy and lonely course. I'd also like to give Laura Brown a notable mention for riding as an excellent teammate - most specifically for one point in the race when Gina was going for a flyer but didn't make it much off the front of the pack due to a very strong effort by Downtown.
As the race wound down into the final laps, Lisa and I hovered around the front and she did a good job of sticking to my wheel like glue. The leadouts started relatively early and with four corners to go, Cheerwine decided that they didn't want to be on the front anymore...which left me there! I hesitated for a second, but then I ramped it up and then jumped coming out of the second to last corner (hoping that Lisa was still there!) I accelerated through the final corner as fast as I could and swept it wide so that people could only pass on my left. The first rider to smoke past me on her way to the finish was Kelly Benjamin of Cheerwine - who managed to hold her lead until the finish. She was closely followed by the speedy clump of Gina Grain (Webcor) and Ruth Corset (Jazz Apple) and our very own Lisa Howard, in that order. Lisa did very commendably - considering that the hree on the podium are full time bike racers! Steph also put in a killer sprint to cross the line in 6th (possibly going the fastest!) but she had unfortunately been shuffled back a little earlier in the final lap.
All in all it was another strong day - with lessons to improve upon - for the Giant squad. I love this team!