EDWARDSVILLE - Dr. Amy McClintock of St. Louis, a sports medicine specialist for the BJC organization, won the Women's Pro, the women's main event race, at the Edwardsville Rotary Criterium festival Saturday evening on the course in downtown Edwardsville in a close finish.
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In her podium ceremony, McClintock did the traditional spraying of the champagne bottle across the crowd, who cheered in much appreciation of her win, and at the start of her post-race interview, took a drink from the bottle with a big smile.
"I'm feeling great," an enthusiastic McClintock said. "I mean, this was a great race and I got the win, so that's amazing."
McClintock was racing unattached, so her strategy involved simple tactics designed to keep her within the leaders, which paid off in the end.
"So I was riding by myself," McClintock said. "I had no teammates, so my job was to kind of just cover things and save my energy and hope I could get into a sprint at the end. And so, I really did as little work as possible and I knew I wanted o be first in the second to last corner, just carry as much momentum up the hill and sprint long. And it worked."
McClintock was a very happy racer following her win and was very excited to have achieved it.
"It's amazing!," McClintock said. "I mean, champagne showers around. It's awesome."
McClintock has been involved in cycling since 2012 and has enjoyed success in her career.
"Yeah, I've had a handful of wins," McClintock said. "So, I've won this race before, but it's been a few years."
McClintock races as a hobby while working her regular job at BJC and also feels she's near the end of the line as far as her racing career goes.
"This is my hobby," McClintock said. "I'm a full-time doctor, so I do this for fun. I"m actually at the tail end of my career; I"m actually cutting back and racing a little bit less, just because I have a day job and can't afford to get hurt. In criterium racing, there are always risks. And so, I'm cutting back at this point, but I'm going to still enter the local races when I can."
McClintock also praised her competitors and gave her props to the field.
"Yeah, it was amazing," McClintock said. "We had a great field today, it was just a little bit smaller than we were used to. But the women were really strong and we raced and raced and raced."
