ABR 4 Person Team Time Trial

Daphne, Lauren, me and Stacy on the top step

I love the ABR 4 person Team Time Trial.  I have a great memory of racing this race as a cat 4, on a team with a couple cat 1's.  To this day, it might be the hardest I've ever ridden!

The event is so great because you take turns pulling with a maximum of 4, but minimum of 3 riders, and covering the distance between point A and point B as fast as you can.  You have to finish with 3 riders, so if you start with 3, you must finish with 3, but if you start with 4, one rider can drop out if they are unable to keep up.  The first year I did it we only had 3, so everyone's time counted.  I rode so much harder because I didn't want to let down my teammates than if it had been just me by myself.

I had planned to race with my track teammate Stacy Mosora, and former PWP participant Daphne Karagianis.  Spidermonkey teammate Sarah was to be our 4th person, but she was sidelined with an injury.  At the track the Thursday before my Spidermonkey teammate (and PWP participant) Lauren Wissman offered to fill in.  She's had a fantastic year and had just gotten her cat 3 upgrade that day.

I'm hoping Lauren will write a few more details about her season, but wow has she come a long way from that person who showed up at PWP last winter with down tube shifters and no clipless pedals.  Daphne and Stacy and I were full of advice on what to do when/if you get dropped.....but holy cow Lauren took awesome hard pulls until the very end.  I had known about her cat 3 road upgrade, and I'd seen her race the men's 3/4 madison race at the track, but she forgot to mention that she'd raced and WON a 'cross race the day before!  Super talented, it's going to be cool to see how far she goes!

We had a great time and ended up winning the thing.  We all took strong even pulls and paced ourselves really well.  I really do love this event!