We drove up to WA and the weather was beautiful. Mostly clear andsunny, but with a vicious, vicious headwind that seemed to stay a headwind no matter what direction you were headed on the course. That was fine with me though - I'll take wind over rain ANY day. My stomach was a bundle of nerves as I envisioned all the possible scenarios during the race where I might get dropped -- this continued until about 10 minutes before the race when I reminded myself that if I focused on getting dropped and being slow then that was probably exactly what would happen to me during the race -- so I shifted my focus to trying to ride 'smart' and conserve my energy for as long as possible. I am notoriously bad for hanging on the wheel in front of me - so I decided to try and focus on drafting well -- AND paying attention to which way the wind was coming from so I could position myself on one side of the pack or the other (this is relatively easy to do when you're at the back and can just switch from side to side without worrying about running anyone over! I'd be careful about trying this if you're at the front or mid-pack). I'll just start by saying that the race was fast and hard (and I will take this moment to say that Beth Burns thought the pace was fast too -- so I didn't feel like as much of a weenie for thinking the same thing!). We managed to hit 31mph on the flats in the first lap --which was very fast and painful for me but I kept talking myself through it and kept saying things in my head like "focus on staying on this wheel and making it to the next corner" -- then "okay you made it. Now stay on this wheel until you get to the barn". I pretty much self-coached myself this way entirely through the first lap and into the second.
Mid-way through the second lap the pack started attacking& re-attacking. We were averaging about 24-25 mph at this point and I really didn't want to get dropped, but I just couldn't quite keep up with everyone and the gap started to open a bit. We dropped a VeloBella rider and a LandRover/Orbea rider and they just faded away --I'm not sure if they even finished the race. I think I finally got spat off the back for good around mile 28 or so -- but I rode as hard as I could and I don't think there is anything I could have done differently to stay on the pack -- so I wasn't really upset at all about getting dropped. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had been imagining! I managed to catch up with Tessa Sugahara from Group Health who got dropped about a .5 mile after me and we worked together to finish out the last lap. All in all I had a GREAT time. I think I finished 12 out of 13 (not counting the 3 or 4 riders who we dropped and must not have finished the race) so I wasn't even DFL! It was fun to get out and race -- the weather was soooooooooo nice (maybe not as nice as summer, but I was so thankful just to be on my bike and not freezing)and it felt good to get out and ride hard. I'm really lookingforward to the Cherry Blossom Classic this weekend - I think it's going to be great riding in some beautiful country, and the weather is looking pretty promising as well!
There weren't many great pictures from the women's 1/2/3 race up online, but here are a few where you can see my orange peeking out!
Right before the start of the race. There I am at the far right side of the pack.
The beginning of the 1/2 mile neutral roll out (that means you're not supposed to race until after a half mile). p.s. I'm still on the right.
You can barely see me at all here, but our lead car gapped us by just enough to allow this semi to turn out in front of us as we were coming around the corner. Yikes! Lots of braking & swearing, but no one went down.
***All three of these photos were pulled from Heidi Swift's Flickr site -- Thank you Heidi! (I hope it is okay to use these...I really don't know much about copying photos from other locations on the internet...hmm...)***
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