Ginger Sweeps the Weekend

After winning the Cat 4 race at Westerville on Saturday, Ginger Ballard raced again on Sunday on a crit course in dowtown Columbus and won again.  I was there to witness the event with a camera that had lost its charge so I was unable to take images but am trying to get a couple from someone for the blog.  Ginger used to ride with us frequently on the Thursday New Albany and weekend rides but a job transfer took her to Dublin. After the ride, she credited mostly me (ok maybe others too) for having pushed her to get better and get into racing.  The Cat 1-5 women were all sent off together in this 50 minute race that included many climbs up a cobblestone street before a straightaway leading to the finish line.. 

After a couple of laps on this .82 mile course, a couple of Cat 1/2 women got away and remained away until lapping the field.  At this point, it appears one of the women from the lapped peloton jumped in with the lead two and these three stayed away for the balance of the race.  Meanwhile, as I watched several trips up the course's lone hill, it appeared Ginger was setting pace and putting in a dig once in awhile to test the others.  Satisfied they would not be able to hold her wheel on the climb once a big effort was required things settled in.  The peloton of maybe 8 dwindled down to 5 for the final lap,  Ginger opened the spigot on the final climb, gapping the other gals and sprinted across the line for the win.