Athlete Profile: Rosanne Lent, Caitlyn McCullough, Megan Guarnier and Anna Drakulich

Capital Bicycle Racing Club’s Women’s Cycling Team

by Tim Huneck

The power puff girls, dynamos of energy and teamwork, have nothing on the Capital Bicycle Racing Club’s women’s cycling team. The team – Rosanne Lent, Caitlyn McCullough, Megan Guarnier and Anna Drakulich – were a force in races throughout the Northeast all season.

“The emergence of the women’s team has benefited CBRC and women’s cycling in the area,” said Dieter Drake, the club’s vice president. “I hope they inspire more women to give bicycle racing a try.”

The women said they have enjoyed riding for CBRC, adding that club members are always ready to offer advice on race tactics and training. Rosanne said CBRC gave her the opportunity to ride with women on a team for the first time. “I knew what to do. I just needed people to ride with,” she said.

Each woman had impressive results, but they were most impressive when racing together. Rosanne, Megan and Caitlyn placed in the top ten in the elite women’s race at Bear Mountain State Park in the Hudson Valley. In the Green Mountain Stage Race, a grueling four-day event in the Vermont mountains, Caitlyn won the 72-mile second stage and Rosanne placed fifth overall. But the team’s best results and best display of teamwork came when Rosanne, Megan and Caitlyn teamed up at this summer’s Empire State Games in the Hudson Valley.

“It was the first time we were together as a team and we really clicked,” said Caitlyn, a feeling that was shared by the other two women, and by Adirondack ESG coach Chris McBurnie.

“Everything came together on the first day,” he said. “Racing as a team at the Empire State Games inspired them. They played off each other and raised their game.”

This success came despite the trio’s lack of a plan entering the races. The women said their only goal in each race was to ride strong and stay near the front. Using that strategy in the road race, the team managed to drop everyone and ride to the finish together for a medal sweep.

“To be able to win a hard hilly road course with your teammates in a break isn’t likely to be repeated in an entire career,” said Rosanne.

At least not until the next day, when the threesome dominated the points race in similar fashion. A points race has multiple laps of a short circuit with sprints every few laps. The top four finishers in each sprint lap win points and the race winner is the one who has the most points. The women not only swept the medals, they took turns winning sprints. It seemed as if it were a planned strategy, but all said they were merely staying at the front and riding strong as they had the day before.

“We never had a team strategy, but it looked like we did,” said Megan. “We surprised even ourselves.”

In the team time trial, all three women raced together against the clock. The winner of this event is often a team that has spent a lot of time practicing together. The team from Western New York is exactly that type of well-schooled and well-practiced team. But the Adirondack region women came within 15 seconds of defeating this perennial powerhouse. And they did it in their first team time trial together, without any practice.

The Adirondack region has not always had such a strong team of women. Often the region hasn’t even fielded a full three-woman team. Since overall medals at the games are awarded based on the combined placing of the men’s and women’s teams, the Adirondack team has not won many team medals in recent years. But the success of these three women propelled the team to a silver medal, something that was very much appreciated by the men who had been on the team for the lean years and very much noticed by the other teams who weren’t used to such a dominant Adirondack women’s team.

“It killed other women who had been racing for years to be beaten by newcomers,” said McBurnie. “They were absolutely amazed. I’m still hearing about it.”

The women all came to cycling and to CBRC via different routes. Rosanne, 32, a physical therapist who lives in Keene Valley, began her outdoor-oriented life as a rock and ice climber. She switched to biathlon, a combination of Nordic skiing and marksmanship, because she wanted something more aerobic. Then, after watching the Ironman triathlon when it came to Lake Placid in 1999, Rosanne decided to give that sport a shot. She got hooked on cycling after competing in the Green Mountain Stage Race three years ago. In addition to her exploits with CBRC this year, Rosanne signed on as a guest rider for professional teams at some major national and international races.

Caitlyn, 21, is a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, studying biomedical engineering. She is from Bethel, Vermont, and this was her first year racing. Previously she was a runner and a member of the RPI crew team. In the fall of 2004, she did some rides with the RPI cycling club. Some of those riders suggested Caitlyn ride throughout the winter to increase her fitness for the spring crew season. She enjoyed cycling and in May attended some CBRC training rides. That spurred her to try the ESG qualifier, where she caught the racing bug and has been going strong ever since.

Megan, 20, is from Queensbury and is studying neuroscience at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. She began her competitive life as a swimmer at age 7. She tried a few triathlons in high school and liked cycling, but her commitment to swimming kept her from pursuing cycling as a sport. Once in college, Megan decided she had reached all her swimming goals and switched to cycling. She entered a couple of collegiate races before taking part in the ESG trials. She too caught the cycling bug and has raced nearly every weekend since.

Anna, 23, is a student at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. She did most of her racing early this season and had a lot of success on the collegiate circuit. Anna was raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and she is currently studying in Costa Rica.

The women stay in touch as much as possible now that the cycling season is over. All remain active. Caitlyn is taking a stab at cyclocross, a mixture of road and off-road cycling, this fall. She won’t go back to the crew team this year so she can focus on the collegiate cycling season next spring.

Rosanne also competes in cyclocross, and soon she’ll be telemark skiing and competing in biathlon and Nordic skiing. She hopes to target some bigger races next year, perhaps as a guest rider, but she has no plans to seek out an elite team. “I get exactly what I need being a weekend warrior and riding with my teammates,” she said.

Megan fits cycling in around her school work. She plans to do some alpine ski racing this winter, and she looks forward to an off-season cycling training routine. She wants to be better prepared for next year where, like Caitlyn, she plans to focus on the collegiate season. Megan is also interested in giving some bigger races a try next season. All three women stressed that they want to remain together as a team next year as they reach for new heights. “I’m sad this season is over,” said Megan. “I can’t wait to train for next year.”

Tim Huneck of Rexford is an avid cyclist and CBRC member. Besides cycling, he competes in cyclocross, Nordic skiing and biathlon. A long-time ESG team member, he is grateful to the CBRC women for this year’s medal.