Dinuba Criterium, 2/19/07
Here's my race report for the first crit of the year with my new team (Central Valley Cycling based in Fresno, CA) -- yay! I'm impressed by the spirit and friendliness of the team and I actually have teammates! So this race was a treat in that I got to experience the team cameraderie before and after the race. It was awesome and lots of fun!
As this was my first race of the season, combined with the fact that I'm still recovering from a back injury I sustained on New Year's Day (worsened by the fact I didn't realize I'd hurt myself until I literally couldn't walk! Yeeeow!), I wasn't sure how I would do coming into it. Training has been a delicate task, but the chiropractor I've been going to has been awesome for healing up, too, though he thinks I'm crazy. Can't imagine why. :confused: :D
This race was in a little town just south of Fresno called Dinuba...mostly a hispanic community -- being downtown, the carneceria nearby tortured us with the scrumptious smells all day (and every lap!). As if the freezing windy day wasn't torture enough. Bbbbrrrrrrr!
We were scheduled for 22 laps over the 0.6mi course, which was an L-shaped course of 90-degree turns, contained one big storm water "dip" at an intersection on the finishing stretch and a big, jarring bump at the first corner (punished the back...doc says I did some minor tearing of some of the healing tissue...nothing major, but I was sore all the way home and the next day). Except for the first corner, the others were relatively safe and rideable, the kind with no curbs so you could cut the corner over the sidewalk if you needed to (and did).
The small all-category women's field of about 17 riders was fast from the start and I was in the red zone for about the first eight laps or so (probably an adrenaline factor there too). After that, it settled down a bit and I was able to recover enough to get comfortable and feel in contention. The 22 laps passed quickly and before I knew it, the 3 laps to go card was out, and lo and behold -- I was still in it! I was so sure I'd get dropped! Coming around the final corner, I was in decent positon, but slipped back a couple places and then held it there to finish 10th out of 14 finishers (a few dropped out).
As they were giving prizes to the first ten places, I got a free t-shirt (pretty nice one, I think -- the color's not too gaudy :) ). I was mainly elated to finish my first race, however, so I would have been happy with nothing.
After the race, we ladies bonded with some hysterically funny banter while watching the guys do their thing in their races. All-in-all, it was a great (cold) day!
Thanks for reading you guys! :)
Cheers!
~Kim
