Iowa City Road Race (Sat April 25th)
Twenty five women started the Women’s 1/2/3 segment of the road race. Team Kenda was the largest team represented with five women racers. Catherine Walberg wins the race.

Well wishes goes out to Monique Karlen who suffered a nasty crash. She is currently resting and will be in recovery for the next few weeks.

Race Report by Kristin Wentworth

Saturday morning Monique Karlen and I made the three hour drive in the rain to the road race. Somehow the rain let up as we got closer to Iowa City and the cool and windy conditions were certainly better without the precipitation. We had a great team for this race. Catherine Walberg traveled from Kansas City, Jessie Cole from IL, and then Mo Karlen, Jill Kislia and I from Madison, IL.   A solid field of 25 riders lined up including Team BH USA and ISCorp being the other largest teams with three riders each. We wanted to be aggressive and try to get a break off. On the first of our four laps the fun began as we began to attack. The field had many strong solo riders in addition to the teams and nothing was sticking for very long. It wasn’t for our lack of trying! I am so proud of how every single Team Kenda rider raced. One would attack and a break would last for a bit or things would be strung out and once we were back together another teammate would launch. It was so much fun! Near the end of the first lap Mo Karlen had just attacked and once things were back together I went off the front with Jill Kislia on my wheel.

We had a gap and worked it for a couple minutes before we were sucked back in by the field. I didn’t see Mo after that and didn’t realize she had slid out on a tough off camber corner while Jill and I were off the front.

The remainder of the race consisted of the four of us consistently trying to get a move to stick. There were many small breaks and even some valiant solo efforts by both Jill and Jess. Catherine was involved in so many moves off the front – her tough perseverance is amazing! At one point I was in a break with Katie Antonneau (ISCorp) on the last lap and I thought we were going to hold it. Five minutes later we were back to the whittled away group of maybe 17 riders. I began to wonder if all of our attacking was just a waste of our energy as we were all pretty tired. I was just hoping that everyone else was pretty tired too!

As we got down to the final miles things started to bunch up. I was not feeling very snappy and decided I could be of the most use by going to the front and trying to string things out a bit for the other girls. I got up there and sort of felt like I was going in slow motion but I think I at least disrupted some of the other team’s plans and brought the pace up. As the line approached Jill attacked on the right with another rider on her wheel. With the line still probably 200m off she couldn’t hold it and the swarm of riders came around her and Catherine Walberg popped out to take the win ahead of Jessie Prinner (ABD).

We had so much fun racing as a team and to get the win was a huge accomplishment for us. Catherine is so strong and is such a smart racer – it was excellent for her to come across the line first. Every one of us raced so aggressively and well together. It was great to feel like we really controlled the race even though our plan to get a break off just didn’t come to fruition. Great team chemistry and a hard race and it was nice to hear positive feedback from other riders in the field. Jill rolled across in 10th, Jess 11th, and I watched in all unfold and finished 16th).

Old Capitol Criterium (Sun April 26th)
Kristin Wentworth wins the race with Katherine Walberg  in 2nd and Jill Kisla in 4th.

Race Report by Kristin Wentworth

Sunday’s race found us down one rider due to Monique Karlen’s crash the day before. This gave us more determination to have a great race for her. Scattered storms were on the weather menu for the day. We had experienced a light rain about two hours before our race. As a result, the scary fast corner at the bottom of a steep little hill was spray painted so riders may “avoid” the potholes/cracks. With the wet conditions some riders were sliding out in earlier races. Luckily things were drying up for our race but safety was on all of our minds.

After two laps of riding the course at a steady pace and making it through safely I decided it was time to play. On the third lap I attacked on the uphill and was solo for maybe a lap when I saw two riders coming up on me; Kim Eppen (Mercy) and my superwoman teammate Catherine Walberg. We began to work together and I saw the field maybe 15 seconds behind us. We were going to have to work hard for a few laps here if we were to solidify our gap. We worked well together and soon the group was no longer in sight. Catherine urged me to try to get the win today and to attack at the end of the race. With about six laps to go we saw the group ahead of us and we soon lapped back in the field. There was a bit of confusion about whether anyone was off the front of that group and whether the main field could work with us. By four laps to go we confirmed that we were all just one big group and we could utilize the help of our teammates in the main pack.

Jill and Jess played things perfectly. I told Jill to attack on the hill at two laps to go and that I would be on her wheel and go with her. My hope was to ensure the win for us and also place another rider in the top five. Jess strung things out before we got to the hill and then Jill went as I desperately tried to stick to her wheel. She turned the gas on and we had a big gap. I asked her to just push through a few more corners and then I came around to give her a break. Up the hill again we needed to keep the pace up but I knew our gap was good. Jill crossed the line ahead of me to take 4th and I got the win. As we expected and hoped Catherine crossed the line ahead of Kim to take 2^nd and Jess snagged 10th!

Another fantastic day for Team Kenda! We had so much fun racing together and to see the execution of our tactics play out was phenomenal. Everyone played their role so well; as a result, we achieved 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th. This was better than we had hoped. What a great weekend of racing!

And I won some flowers for Mo! We called her immediately after the race with a report and the good news. I’m actually writing this entry from the hospital visitor computer lab!

Thanks so much to Robin (Mercy) for letting me crash at her place last night.