Superweek Day 2

Superweek – Day 2
Monday, July 20th
Cat 3/4 Women: Whitnall Park Road Race
Approx 20.5 miles, 22 mph average

Today would be a different day. This was a course I had done last year. It was a 2.3 mile course I was glad to see that they had patched some of the really bad parts of the road, but the pavement still left a lot to be desired in some spots. Fortunately it’s a very nice park and a fun place to watch a race. The trickiest part of the course is a slightly greater than 90 degree turn into a big two tiered hill to the finish. Good positioning into the turn and good gearing on the hill could make or break your race. Today the Dolce Vita team turned up with 5 racers and they were strong! The race was fairly uneventful until the last 4-5 laps. Dolce Vita set up some attacks. They sent a girl off up the hill with a strong attack. Our group doesn’t organize well at first. Then someone yells, “pull through, we will all work together, this is bike racing!” it was kinda cute, but it worked, and the pace lifted dramatically. Me and the front of the field worked very hard to pull her back. Then, we catch her right before the hill again and they send another off the front. Now we only have two to go. Some others attempt to bridge and I go with them. Three of us (I think three) are gaped off the field and working hard to pull her back. We finally catch her and the XXX girl in our group, Greta, (who is totally kick ass for racing with one arm!) goes off the front on the back side of the course. A Dolce Vita girl looks back at me as her and I lead into the hill and she says “wanna get her” and I say “sure, lets go”. We quickly close the gap on her 1/2 way up the hill. One to go and I need to tuck in a bit after that. I find a good position and the Dolce girls start lining up their lead out train. They have all 5 of them lined up on the front and drilling. I think to myself, self, this looks just like what Team Columbia does in the Tour de France. The only way to stop this is to disrupt the train! So, I put myself out in the wind and push my way into 3rd wheel to break up the train. It sort of worked. Im third wheel leading into the hill but the girl behind me goes to my left (outside) instead of my inside where Im expecting. I end up on another Dolce Vita girl’s wheel, who I also expect to be a good wheel, but then I see a buzz of people on my left just flying up the hill. Im TOTALLY taking the wrong side of the course for this! Ahhh! All I can do is find a hole, grab the best wheel I can find and finish. I end up in 10th. Still in the money, but not where I had hoped since the road races award higher points. Oh well, hopefully Ill know better next time!