Mason Lake #2

Well I made it out again this weekend. It should be interesting - did Mason Lake #2 today and will be doing the Sequim Road Race tomorrow. I'll get to see how my recovery is, which is good since I'm signed up for a stage race (its only a two day one!) later on in the year.
The women's cat4 field was pretty big again 50 gals this weekend (it was over 60 for Mason Lake #1) This time it was actually a bit hairyier out on the road though. There were two crashes - neither of which I was involved in thankfully! The first one occured at a corner - I've heard from people behind them that someone touched wheels - at the time I thought someone dropped their chain and went over. 10 gals went down including at least 3 of our team, but no one was severly injured as far as I know. I am so happy that I was up close to the front. The first gal that went down was just behind and to the right of me. The second crash was during the finishing sprint. I don't really know what happened there. I was concentrating on holding my own line and figuring out exactly where the finish was.
My goal was to once again stay up and finish with the group and this time I wanted to try to stay closer to the front for more of the time since Mason #1 I was pretty much at the back of the bunch when the sprint started and I don't feel that I am not a very fast or experienced sprinter (I did move up past some people today at the end so I'm happy about that). In the end I crossed the line 13th so I think I did pretty well with my goals. The more experienced women would like us newbies to start learning to launch attacks, but I feel like I just need to learn better how to manouver in the pack first.
Talk to you tomorrow
Eden

Rather than start a new thread I'm just going to add to this one. So now I've written my first race report for the team so I'm going to take out the names and post it here. I'm still learning and its not easy to take it all in and remember everything so hopefully this makes sense :o

My first though is for my team mates - they were knocked down in corner 3 on the first lap by a several riders who missed the turn and cut across their line they were turning on. It was awful to be behind and see them go down - especially since they were doing everything right - had done their homework, knew the course and were where they should have been. Hope you guys are feeling better soon. We were worried about you guys when we didn't see you come back. Everyone was very, very cautious through that turn on the next two laps.

Over all it seemed like teams were starting to organize a bit more than has been the case with Mason Lake. There were a lot of attacks and several break aways - 2 that stayed away. I'm still really just trying to take it all in and I apologize ahead of time for being a bit fuzzy on some of the details and I hope that I am remembering correctly. Wines was attacking quite a bit- their first went soon after the start and was away for about 1/2 of the lap. They launched another attack on the back of the course that was brought back fairly quickly. There were more attacks by several teams that were answered quickly so we were all together for most of the next lap until we hit the fairly short steepish hill on Woodcock road on the back of the course - then one of the Wines girls launched her attack about 3/4 of the way up the hill. I thought to myself its now or never, if I want to try this, this is it. I pulled out and followed her along with one other person in a jersey I didn't recognize (or have the time or presence of mind to read ;-) - it was dark blue with white writing ) Once we hit the flat she really helped pulled me up to the Wines girl who I must say was really really cool. She organized the 3 of us into a continuously rotating paceline and was very patient about telling us what to do. After a little while 2 other girls bridged up. They went right to the front and started to pull faster than I could maintain. I really wanted to stay up there and I tried, but the other 4 were really strong and dropped me almost immediately. I dropped back to the pack and tried to help pick up the chase, but they were not coming back. One of my team mates was up in the main pack with me and was a great help with advice and encouragement! I tried to save up some energy for a lot of the next lap without falling too far back. There's a nice straight down hill on the back of the course that I used to move back up closer to the front - which leads me to a question - why do so few people use the down hill sections to move up? Everyone stayed over to the right in two nice lines and must have been hitting the brakes to stay that way. They were leaving 1/2 of the road completely open and I could not see any reason to not use it - and it was perfectly straight! nothing technical or scary about going flat out down it. About 1 mile or maybe 1/2 mile from the finish 2 Ti girls launched another attack and no one answered it. That put 6 up the road from the pack. I think everyone was pretty worn out when we reached the line - the sprint didn't seem as lively as the Mason Lake ones have been. I was up near to the front so I can't wait to see the results.
Thank you everyone who came to the race - and a big thank you and congratulations for your win to the WoW rider - I really appreciate your organization and patience.

Wow, both those races sounded like fun. Good job at both! Keep up the good work, eventually you'll be able to hang on and lead breaks yourself.
Thanks your reports are really getting me excited about my season starting next Saturday.

Congratulations Eden. I love race reports, I feel like Im there with you.

Look forward to reading more of your racing tales.:)

Glad you are enjoying the reports. I am having the time of my life. I got into this with a bit of trepidation. I'm really small and I never thought of myself as fast or strong at anything, so I was a bit afraid of being left in the dust.

To even get into that break for a little while was sooo cool. I think if the other girls hadn't bridged up the experienced rider would have tried to keep the 3 of us together at least for a while since even if you might be holding back a bit for a weaker rider 3 are more likely to stay away than 2 or especially 1 and there was still a lap and a half to go (out of 3). They ended up way ahead - at about 1/2 lap to the finish the corner marshall told us they were out by 1 min. That really took the fight out of the pack and it seemed to really ease up for a little while. In any case she seemed like she really knew what she was doing and I can only hope that I get the opportunity again some day.
I can't wait until next weekend:D

Eden,
I think what you're doing is AWESOME!! :D
I wish I were at your stage of the game! I'm hoping to start racing this year, but being fairly new to all of this, I'm pretty clueless! :rolleyes:
Every day the weather gets a little nicer, and I get a little more nervous about things to come. :o
I enjoy reading your reports so I can get a feel of things to look forward to. :)
Keep up the good work!