Festival of Speed, Orlando, FL
by Kim Foland-Quattlebaum, Travelgirl

Date: March 19-20, 2005
 

The travelgirls traveled the 7 hours to Orlando and back to mix it up with those strong, incredibly fast crit riders in Central Florida. The main event, Saturday's downtown crit started off at 8:00pm. It was dark, the course was rough with manhole covers, brick walkways, and a four corner course. Florida strong women Sherri Stedje, Rebecca McClintock and Robin Kavan were there to make the pace hard and were relentless attackers. The first 10 minutes were chaos! The course was dark, the lighting was sporadic, teeth were chattering on account of the pave, the cold, and nerves. The course was a bit of a mystery because no pre-riding was allowed, and the attacks went right from the gun. It was a tough few laps. The pace settled in after the 20 minute mark to a eye bleeding, drooling, nose running pace. The travelgirls covered all attacks in a defensive play they talked about prior to the race. Rebecca Larson launched a hard attack on the backside of the course which strung out the field. The pack slowed for a second to regroup after the start finish and Robin took the opportunity to launch a beautiful counter attack from the back of the field. Jenn Green was quick to respond from the front but still had to bridge up due to the speed of the attack. The peloton, still recovering from the previous attack was caught off guard, and since the travelgirls were not going to help to bring it back, the break quickly disappeared into the darkness of the backside of the course. The two worked together to stay away from the field with Jenn doing the majority of the work. With a few laps to go, a lapped rider and a teammate of Robin's jumped in with the break and did everything possible to distract Jenn and help Robin win. But Jenn has too much experience for that nonsense and decided to rip their legs off by starting her sprint halfway through the final lap. As she wound up her sprint the other two could only hang on and watch Jenn as she took her first win of the season.

The rest of the travelgirls in the field geared up for the sprint with Kim F leading out the sprint to the final corner with Leigh, Kim S and Kari on her wheel. Out of nowhere Kristin Sanders came up from the outside on the final turn. The girls responded quickly, got on her wheel and finished 6th (Kim S), 7th (Leigh), 8th (Kim F) and 12th (Kari).

Oh, and Jenn won the next day too!

Once we recover from the drive and the racing we will have a full account on our website, www.travelgirlcycling.com!

Kim Foland