The womens race started at 4.55pm and with the first section of the race snaking down the valley the pace was pretty solid right from the start. From the start I felt that this was a race where 110mm wheels did have a great advantage over 100's. The first attack was made only after a few kilometers into the race but with the weight of the pack going down hill the few skaters in the group were quickly swallowed up.
The big down hill is about half way into the race and this section was neutralized. I went to the front of the pack before this section because I wanted to lead the down hill. There are quiet a lot of new skaters this year in the WIC that have never raced this course and the hill can be a little intimidating the first year. I didn't want to get caught behind skaters that weren't too confident and may drop off the pack in this section so the safest place to be was the front. After the down hill the course headed up to Pontresina which is the only uphill section of the race. The gradual hill went on for about 2.6km then there was a u-turn at the top and we headed back down. In the womens race this is were the attacks are usually made and in past years a few of these breakaways have lasted until the finish. The first attack was made by Cinzia Ponzetti from the Alessi team but myself and Liana Holguin slowly reeled her in. The next attack was made by India Kuhn from X-Tech, I also chased her down and caught her just before the u-turn. There were about four skaters slightly ahead of the pack at the top of Pontresina including myself but we were caught by the pack on the way back down.
With about 2 to 3 km to go Elma de Vries escaped from the pack. Our team did not realize she had gotten away as we were trying to position ourselves in the pack for the bunch sprint. By the time we realized it was too late and Elma had drifted well up the road, all we could do was wait for the bunch sprint and concentrate on winning that. The Alessi team started the sprint followed by our team, Bont Wheels. Tamara Lorens made the first move for our team with about 500 meters to go. The finish in Engadin is tricky because with about 150 meters to go the road narrows due to a traffic island. I had to hit the front earlier than planned just to make sure we didn't get trapped in and get Cecilia in the clear for a straight run to the finish. Cecilia won the bunch sprint, finishing 2nd and Alexandra coming in for 6th. I was getting rolled by skaters a few meters before the finish and hung on for 9th and Tamara coming in 15th after starting the sprint for our team.
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