Superweek - Day 4

Superweek – Day 4
Wednesday, July 22nd
Cat 3/4 Women: AltoLab Lakefront Road Race
Approx 21 miles, ? mph average


Today was a road race format again. It was a 4.2 mile dumbbell shaped circuit with two climbs and one windy descent and an out and back flat stretch along Lake Michigan on Lincoln Memorial Dr. (which was rather windy). It was dry at the lake front until the start and then just as the whistle was blown, the rain started coming down. I immediately wished I had put less air in my tires. On the first lap, coming down the first curving descent, two girls on the front take themselves out. One goes into the guard rail and the other is smack in the middle of the road. I ride between them and take it very easy the rest of the way down the hill. It rained for the first two laps and there were a couple more crashes that I could hear behind me. I tried to stay in the top 5 and avoid getting mixed up in anything crazy. Unfortunately that meant that I did a lot of work. Only about 5 or 6 women were willing to do any work out of the 25 women in the peloton. As the rain stopped, the descent dried out and a few riders began descending faster and faster and would create a gap on the field every lap. I couldn’t quite stay on their wheel (too worried about keeping it on 2 wheels) and ended up having to chase each of the last 3 laps. At three to go I actually tried to attack (off the front - generally not a great idea) on the first hill and my bike started ghost shifting up the hill and so I had to sit down and forget about that. Right before 2 to go, we were neutralized so that the mens field could pass and so the gap our front group had created on the rest of the field allowed them to catch back up to us. After starting again, I think some of the front of the field were angered by this and went back out the flat stretch very hard. The field was pretty strung out for about a mile. I managed to move back up though and tried to stay close to the right wheels. On the last lap I had expected someone to attack on the first hill, but they didn’t. Right before the 2nd hill, one of the Dolce Vita girls attacked and strung out the field again. I think I would have climbed that hill better in my small ring, but I had such a hard time shifting back into my big ring the first time, that I ended up doing all climbs in my big ring to avoid dropping a chain. Anyway, I do my best to hold on, but end up at the back of the group going up the hill. Fortunately, I end up at the back of the field with the overall leader! And, I hear she is a very good time trialist (Jeannie Collins – Atlantic Shores Velo/Golds Gym)! I promptly jump on her wheel at the top of the hill and she works very hard to pull us back to the middle of the group on the straightaway. I tell myself that this is the wheel I need to be on and I hold it for a long time and then I feel like Im out in the wind too much and tuck back on the back right side of the group to do so. This means I loose her wheel and as we approach the final sprint, Im on a terrible wheel AND Ive boxed myself in. Arrrrrrgh! All I can do is do my best to get around and jump out in the wind. I finish 14th and curse myself b/c I knew what I was supposed to do and I didn’t follow through. Needless to say, I’m not so happy with my finish today, but because of the low turnout today, Im still in 4th overall and only 1 point behind 3rd. I hope I can pull out some magic over the next 4 days! Fingers crossed.