The 16th Annual Liberty Squeezer was held on Sept. 26, 2010. The weather cooperated this year, unlike the muddier conditions of last year. The turnout was great and the women's field strong.
They did a call up of a few elite men and women, which gave me a great starting spot, front and centre. The start went well and I was able to grab wheel of the lead group. Once on the gravel double track there was a pile up crash which I avoided to the left and maintained my position 2 wheels behind the lead women, Emily Batty (Trek World Racing). My legs felt good and I was where I wanted to be to set myself up for the first section of single track. Only to have things take a quick turn!! The 2 guys in front of me hit a dip in the ground the wrong way and one guy went left, the other endoed right and I tried my best to avoid them but still clipped one of them. This sent me on the ground. I tried to make a quick recovery only to see that my chain had fallen off. At that point many racers had past and I knew I was going to have to battle back to hit the single track before them. I made several passes but ended up behind a few riders taking a slower pace then what I had wanted to go. The single track was so tight that I had no option of passing. That's all part of racing. Finally once it opened up I made some passes. It became more of a chasing game at this point.
The course was fun, tight, with a mix of climbing and super dry!!! In the end I came in about 3 min behind Emily to take 2nd place.
Liberty Bicycles did a great job with the event. So much fun and well organized.
Top 3:
1st -Emily Batty - Trek World Racing
2nd - Sue Stephens - Bell's Brewery/Quiring Cycles
3rd - Laura Bietola - 3 Rox Racing
Cheers,
Sue
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