WN Precision Blog

US Crit. Cliff-Ryan, Leogrande takes elite crit after Tina Pic & Laura Van Gilder collided at full speed. This is real racing and they sometimes get upside-down before hitting the ground. These girls are the real deal and they really race.

In the elite women's race, run earlier in the day, Colavita's Tina Pic looked to be the favorite. Having won the last four of the race, Pic showed that at 40, she is still fast, taking the $500 mid-race sprint and riding very near the front for most of the race in Downers Grove, Illinois.

However Team Lipton had no intention of rolling over, however, with former national crit champ Laura Van Gilder, they knew they had a shot at it. With only a few laps to go the team got its yellow train going.

Into the final corner, Pic and Van Gilder were sprinting full gas, shoulder to shoulder, when they collided. Van Gilder's right foot shot into Pic's wheel, the result was Pic went sliding across the course, taking down Jenn McCrae (ConexTrain). Quickly Van Gilder gathered herself, recovered, clipped her foot back in, and came out of the final last corner in the lead, with an uphill 150 meters to go. On Van Gilder's wheel, however, was strong inline skating Theresa Cliff-Ryan, who showed the legs that won her national and world championships - on skates - and came around Van Gilder for the win.

Just like NASCAR, a lot of stuff can happen in a crit, you never know who is going to win until it is over! Go out and watch one of these races, they are good!

Results

Theresa Cliff-Ryan (USA) Verducci Breakaway 1.16.40
2 Laura Van Gilder (USA) Team Lipton
3 Mackenzie Dickey (USA) Aaron's Corp Furn
4 Shontell Gauthier (USA) Team Joy
5 Brenda Lyons (USA) Victory Brewing
6 Anna Webb (USA) Karl Strauss/SDBC
7 Candice Blickem (USA) Aaron's Corp Furn
8 Rebecca Larson (USA) Aaron's Corp Furn
9 Kelly Benjamin (USA) Cheerwine
10 Kacey Manderfield (USA) Wolverine/Redken