Ravensdale Cumberland Road Race
Yeehaw! got my first podium position.
Wow that was a lot of fun. This was a cat4 only field on a 34 mile rolling course with one short, but very steep climb. We had a small field of 13, but this is the first year that this race has had a women's field so the hope is that there will be more women next year.
The first half of the race was fairly uneventful, with the whole pack staying together even over some of the small climbs that broke up the field this spring in a race that used 1/2 of this same course. A little less than 1/2 way we hit the first somewhat sustained climb. A group of 5 of us got away, but we took too long to orgainize and were caught by the rest of the field. We had to slow for a deer crossing the road! and were soon up to "The Wall" (.15 mile at 20% grade - ouch) 4 of our original break away group got to the top together and formed a new break. This time we orgainized quickly and were rolling along good. After some time two of the chasers, one of them a teammate of mine, caught us. With six in the break now we really started to move along. There was one more small climb about a mile from the finish. Our original group of 4 once again dropped the other two, but my teammate managed to get back on. I dropped back and asked her if she was a sprinter (this was actually the first time we raced together)- since her tt'ing back on to our break twice made me feel that she was likely the stronger of the two of us on the flats, and offered to give her the best lead out I could. She quickly agreed and told me that as soon as I saw the 200m sign to go - then seconds later like out of nowhere the 200m sign appeared and she shouted go!go!go I gave it all I had and she came around, she was so close, but was just taken at the line and I came in third! YES! man that was fun. I think that this is the first time I really really felt like I was participating rather than just hanging on. It was great.
