A year after rival Einstein Racing went 1-2 in the Competition, Hagerty is now poised to return the favor.
With teammate Lauri Brockmiller on the sidelines looking ahead to the Cherry-Rouabaix, Bridgit Woodring took matters into her own hands in a duel with Einstein’s youngest challenger at the Elite level. Zoe Reeves went up against last year’s CAT 3 road state champion, a title Widrig won high atop Sugar Loaf Mountain. It was on similar terrain that Widrig took her win at West Branch, with Reeves giving dogged chase all day long.
The women’s field was a virtual ghost town, with numerous injuries and changes of focus at the top level of women’s racing thus far this season. It’s a big testament to racers that show up, especially third placed rider at the moment Chelsea Strate. She’s raced consistently, who’s Top Banana Competition ambitions are now turned to the cyclocross and mountain bike races left on the Programme.
For Widrig, the win sets her up nicely with the Cherry-Roubaix on the immediate horizon. She’ll be on home turf and on her favorite, rolling, steep terrain where she enjoyed her biggest win of her life last season. Brockmiller and Widrig enter the Cherry-Roubaix weekend as riders equally capable of winning, a luxury they’ll use to their advantage on Sunday. There’s no sign of a Froome/Wiggins scenario, and if they can, they may even carve up the weekend’s events between them.
The standings will be updated with points hauls from Mount Pleasant before the weekend. Here are the standings after the West Branch Road Race.
Lauri Brockmiller 45
Bridgit Widrig 39
Chelsea Strate 31
Melissa Ryba 22
Zoe Reeves 19
Kati Krikke 16
Erin Disterheft 15
Mackenzie Woordring 15
Amanda Schaap 14
Kim Chapman 14
Samantha Brode 13
Janet Edwards 12
Wendy Zamzow 10
Stephanie Swan 10
Victoria Steen 9
Michael Mihelich 8
Elizabeth Hiser 8
Katie Mann 7
Molly Wolf 7
Jane Van Hof 7
Sarah Fredrickson 6
Janelle Cole 5
Melissa Colflesh 5
Kristen Arnold 5
Sarah Demerly 4
Mindy Fernando 4
Merry Van Der Lind 3
Gabriella Sterne 3
Maddi Miller 3
Rachel Decker 3
Alicia Trevino 2
Angie O’Brien 2
Kathy Roche-Wallace 2
Christina Peek 2
Joann Cranson 1
Gail Ranville 1
Elizabeth So 1
Michelle Ryan 1