2009 Blogs
Today kicked off the 32nd annual Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, AR.
Here is Katheryn's race report:
Devils Den State Park
2.5 miles/4km
"The course would challenge riders over a 2.5 mile climb out of Devil's Den State Park, beginning with a brief flat secions before the raod steadily climbs 680 feet to the finish with an average grade of 6.8%, with most of the climb at 10%.
We arrived with plenty of time to preview the course before the Pro/1 men went off and it was nice to be able to what we were about to tackle. This also allowed us plenty of time to rest and relax before the first women's rider was off. I took a quick nap in the sprinter and chatted a bit with other riders who I had not seen in a while. As time grew closer to the designated start times, we each climbed onto our bikes, which Dave had set up on trainers. I will say it was a bit of a shock to the system to go from high altitude and very dry, to sea level and warm and humid.
I was the third to last rider off, chased by 2007 winner Kat Carroll (Tibco) and Robin Farina (VAC). As this was a short effort, pacing was less of an issue than a longer one as you had no time to waste get up to pace. I quickly made time on my 30" rider and this helped keep me on top of the gears and motivated. I did my best to keep the legs ticking over at a good cadence and never get bogged down. With 1k to go I knew the road flattened out a bit before kicking up and I dug deep to keep the power up. With 200m to go I put my head down and grunted over the finishline with nothing left to give."
In the end the Webcor women had a great day (see results below).
1 Alison Powers (USA) Team Type 1 9.37
2 Katheryn Curi Mattis (USA) Webcor Builders 0.04
3 Erinne Willock (USA) Webcor Builders 0.18
4 Kristen Lasasso (USA) Mellow Mushroom 0.19
5 Robin Farina (USA) Valueact Capital Cycling Team 0.22
6 Katharine Carroll (USA) Team Tibco 0.24
7 Dotsie Bausch (USA) Jazz Apple Cycling Team 0.25
8 Ruth Corset (USA) Jazz Apple Cycling Team
9 Christina Ruiter (USA) Valueact Capital Cycling Team 0.33
10 Alexis Rhodes (Aus) Webcor Builders 0.39
11 Amy Dombroski (USA) Webcor Builders 0.40
12 Kristin Sanders (USA) Valueact Capital Cycling Team 0.42
13 Rebecca Much (USA) Webcor Builders 0.44
14 Kori Seehafer (USA) Team Type 1 0.46
15 Lauren Tamayo (USA) Team Tibco 0.47
22 Nikki Butterfield (Aus) Webcor Builders 1.07
46 Gina Grain (Can) Webcor Builders 1.56