Numainville takes three podiums in three days

Joelle Numainville of Team TIBCO/To the Top was a force in St. Louis this weekend, earning two wins and a second place in three races, and narrowly missing out on the sweep. Numainville took a win Friday night, second Saturday and another win Sunday all in sprints to the line.

In Friday’s win, with conditions wet on the course, the race ended up staying mostly together and as the laps ticked down, it became apparent that the race would end in a bunch sprint. In the long back stretch, Numainville’s teammate Meredith Miller led the train before moving over to let Joanne Kiesanowski put Numainville in position for the final corner, with Kendall Ryan sitting on the Canadian champion’s wheel sweeping. Numainville was first out of the last turn and stayed there to the line, with Ryan sitting right on her wheel to take 2nd.

Saturday’s race looked to be a repeat of Friday, with another bunch sprint at the end. But with wet conditions, the final corner proved to be very sketchy. “We had it nailed again,” Miller said. “I knew that whoever came out of the last corner first would be in position for the win, so I knew it would be a race for that last corner. I was going as hard as I could on the back stretch.”

Miller dropped off Numainville heading into the final turn and she was on the front, but then another rider dove the corner, lost her wheels and slid out. The crash caused a near disaster, with Numainville running over the other rider’s rear wheel, coming to nearly a complete stop and unclipping. By the time she got clipped back in and re-started her sprint, Edita Janeliunaite had gotten past her. “If I had another 20 meters I think I would’ve caught her,” Numainville said. “It was very disappointing for the team to work so hard and put me into position and then have that work not result in the win. It was a tight corner and I had the line. I’m still not sure where the other rider came from.”

Numainville made up for it Sunday, however, taking the win after being part of a seven-rider break that was driven by her teammates Wheeler and Ryan. “They did a lot of work today to make sure the break succeeded,” Numainville said. With the numbers up front, Team TIBCO took control on the last lap, with first Ryan and then Wheeler providing the lead-out. “They both worked really hard on the lead-out,” Numainvillle said. “I was right on Jen’s wheel going into the last corner. We were careful going through the last corner. Jen dropped me off and there was a crash behind so she kept going.” Wheeler finished up in 3rd place to add to the weekend’s podium total.