Herman RR Report - Cat 4 race

We lined up and listened to the rules, and to our (Cat 4) joy, found out that we would not have to go up “the hill” since we were only doing one 20mile lap! Woohoo!

There was a neutral start through the town, nice rolling roads, and I was trying to figure out where the race would start. The only thing I knew was that the pace truck would start going faster. Winding through the outskirts of the town, we found ourselves at the start – the bottom of a pretty big 6-10% grade climb! Great place to start! (moan) The Cat 1/2/3 group quickly pull away from the Cat 4s and then about ½ way up, there is a lot of heavy breathing and suffering going on, and two Cat 4 women (Rebecca Baker and Cheryl Rathert) attack on the hill. I couldn’t catch their wheel, but I tried to stay as close as possible and really push it up the hill. I get to the top and look back and find myself torn between chasing the Cheryl ahead of me on my own, or waiting for Teresa and Allison who were not too far behind me so that I could work w/ them to chase. I tried to chase for a while, but the hill had obviously not fazed the 2 women ahead. It looked like Rebecca was still with the 1/2/3 group and Cheryl was out there on her own. Teresa and Allison caught me, and I enjoyed a bit of a break on the back of the line. Then on the first KOM hill I knew there were points for top 3, so I pushed – hard. I had hoped to catch Cheryl on the hill, but she was a really strong climber. I managed 3rd place though! Then at the top, I was in the same situation again. My legs were pretty smoked, so I recovered and waited for Teresa and Allison. To my surprise, Gina Richard (Big Shark) had caught them as well. Cool, more people to work with! Gina was great, she pulled a great pace and then pushed me to pull fast and keep ahead of the women behind us. I told her I REALLY wanted to catch Cheryl and so we made it our mission to catch her. Cheryl was my carrot the entire 1^st half of the race! Thanks to her for keep me pushing so hard!

We finally caught Cheryl about 3-4 miles from the 2^nd KOM and it was all I could do to stay on her wheel. I zoned in on her rear break for some reason and just tried to ‘embrace the burn’ and find a rhythm in my breathing. Ouch! She stood up right before the KOM line and I did too, but couldn’t get around her. Oh well, 3^rd again. She was an animal. She tried to let me pull, but I wasn’t pulling hard enough for her, she rode next to me for a while, and then jumped back up front before she even caught a draft. I figured fine, she is stronger, so she will have to pull. We hit the flats and the last 3 miles were fast. I just wanted to hold my 2^nd place in line with the hopes of sprinting around her at the finish. However, as we came upon the final left turn in town it was at a busy 4-way intersection. There was a flag guy, but cars were confused as were we. I thought I might get hit my an oncoming car as I couldn’t see around the 2 cars in front of us, but the other women cut the corner and around me. I was suddenly 20 ft off the back and worked hard, but could not make up the loss for the sprint. Oh well, better 5^th place than dead or injured, but I do feel a little cheated out of my sprint. Such is life.

There were some beautiful roads and perfect weather! There were some screaming down hills (got up to 40 mph), and plenty of climbs, but some nice rolling roads as well.

I felt good about the race and my climbing performance. It was a tough race! Hats off to the women who did 3 laps of that! No way could I have done that 3 times! It was awesome to watch them finish and to be there as a group! All the Team Rev women really represented at Hermann!