Superweek - Day 5

Superweek – Day 5
Thursday, July 23rd
Cat 3/4 Women: Racine, WI Crit
Approx 18 miles, 22 mph average

I had raced Racine last year and besides the terrible pavement, it was a fun race. I realize on race day that they have changed the course and added a different section giving us better pavement on all but one section and more corners. More corners is actually an understatement - it now had 8 corners (instead of 4) in a 0.7 mile course! Geesh. Fortunately my cornering felt a lot better this year than it had last year. That was something I had struggled with last year. I used to gap on corners and then have to stand up and sprint out of them to get back on. This year, I felt better motoring though corners and holding my line, etc. The attacks started early and often on this mostly flat course with a strong cross wind to the finish. My legs weren’t feeling super fresh, on this 5th day of racing. They actually felt pretty dead and I tried my best to stay out of the wind and just stay on a wheel towards the front in order to avoid all of the yo-yoing in the mid/back of the field. I head a pretty good position most of the race. Though, I had to put up with a lot of bumping and got pushed so close to the barriers once that my shoulder brushed against it. We were also taking the corners so fast that once, I was pedaling though one and clipped my pedal on the pavement…a little scary! No attacks stuck until the end but we had chase after chase going though most of the race. I had held a pretty good position the whole race but then found myself on the front at 5 to go and had to slow way down to pull off and then of course someone attacked and strung it out for most of the rest of the race. I found myself way too far back on the final lap. It was still strung out and really hard to move up and I was not where I needed to be. I worked my way up a little bit, but still only ended up in 15th place for the day but still holding on to 4th overall. Sigh. I think I raced a good race, especially considering how bad my legs felt, I just need to work on those final few laps!