The huge downpour we received during yesterday's race cleared out the high humidity and looming clouds, and we were blessed with bright blue skies and very low humidity.

Stage 4 would be contested in and around Hollidaysburg, a rolling 20-mile course (completed 3 times) with few flat sections to rest the tired legs. Yet even the roll out of town did not allow for much of a warm-up as the attacks started immediately. Ever dependable Anna Milkowski (where is Cat to follow!!!) launched the first one and there was a constent flurry of attacks and counter attacks. Erinne Willock, Katheryn Curi, and Felicia Greer were doing a great job of covering them. Ina threw her hat in the ring, and a counter after she was caught set up the major break of the day. Represented were Kori Seehafer (T-Mobile), Helen Kelly (Quark), Catherine Powers (Colavita), Amy Moore (Victory Brewing), Erin Mirabella (Coppi), Melissa Sanborn (Subway), Meredith Miller (Lipton), Chrissy Ruiter (Ford/Basis), and Felicia Greer (Webcor). This break had all the strong teams represented and everyone was working well together and pulling their share.

Having missed the break, Honey Stinger, Diet Cheerwine, and Velo Girls were the most aggressive trying to bridge the rest of the first lap. By the end of the first lap the break had been established with a 2-minute lead. About half way through the second lap, the chase started to slow, but we wanted to keep the break at two minutes, so we started to send off a few attacks in order to keep things rolling. At the end of the second lap the break was still only two minutes so we had been successful. Into the third lap, T-Mobile started to be more aggressive, trying to gain time on Team GC. Katheryn Curi, Betina Hold, and Stephanie Graeter did an excellent job covering and nothing got away.

Into the final climb things got aggressive with people trying to gain final time. Ina Teutenberg (T-Mobile) attacked, but was brought back from the group. Her teammate Kristen countered and was brought back again until Gina Grain (Victory) did a final attack over the climb. But the pass was too high and there was still a top ten place up for grabs. Christine Thorburn was watching Genevieve and Annette to make sure they didn't get any time gaps in the final sprint, and of course Christine did a great job since that was obviously Genevieve's plan. Fortunately for us there were no gaps and Tina Pic won the field sprint with Genevieve second and Christine third.

Back in the break, Felicia was not feeling very well and so in order to prevent attacks she set tempo up the final climb. This worked well because Felicia is normally the strongest climber in the group and the girls seemed to be waiting for her. Anyhow, near the top Amy Moore launched an attack which was countered by the winner Kori. Kori, being an excellent descender and cornerer, was able to hold off the chase for the win. Amy finished second and with
Catherine third. Felicia hung on for ninth place! A top ten and we still have Individual and Team GC.

It was a good day at the office again. Tomorow is flatter and hopefully goes just as well.

Cheers!

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