Superweek - Day 7

Superweek – Day 7
Saturday, July 25th
Cat 3/4 Women: Humboldt Park Crit (Milwaukee, WI)
Approx 16 miles, 20.6 mph average

Today we raced in Humboldt park near downtown Milwaukee. This venue brought out a very small crowd today. However, it was a great place to race and to watch a race as you could find many great vantage points that allowed you to see nearly half of the course. The course had a downhill finish into a near 180 degree turn which leads into a steady climb. Overall, it was a very nice course except for the rough pavement on the hill. On the 2nd lap, an ISCorp girl attacks hard on the hill. She quickly gets a very large gap on the field. She had not raced all week and so she had very fresh legs. Still, I was impressed that she kept gaining on us (and stayed away the entire race!). The race leaders were more interested in holding their overall position than chasing her down to finish better. About 5 laps later, a Wild Card girl attacks on the hill to try and bridge to her. Im boxed in at the time and then when I could go, with another woman who jumps with her, I hesitate a second too long and loose my good chance. I should have gone, but you can always “could have, should have, would have…” I decided to focus on the field sprint instead. I didn’t think it was going to stick. I somehow miss that there was another girl that went too and so there are 4 up the road and they were all working well together and stay away from the group. We were all about to sprint for 5th. No one wanted to work long enough to pull them back. On the final lap, someone jumps in the middle of the hill – much too early. I stand and stay with the surge with Teresa’s help. We go into corner 3 and 4 HOT. Someone else jumps, but there is a pretty strong headwind into the finish and even going downhill is an effort. I jump on one wheel and then another and then jump out into the wind and drive my sprint as hard as I can. I cant catch the two leaders in front of me, but I see someone edging up on my right side and I push a little harder so she doesn’t nip me at the line. I look over at the line and realize that it’s Teresa! I get her by a few inches and she looks over and says “That was really fun!” I smile and agree. We snag 7th and 8th (3rd and 4th in the field sprint). We move up to 5th and 7th overall. While I should have, could have, would have, gone with the break, I really enjoy sprinting and overall it was a very fun race!
Because of my work schedule Ive decided not to race tomorrow. I had an awesome time at Superweek though, and it was fun to see how much my fitness and race experience has improved over last year.