I know that the pace should yo-yos some, it would be nuts to hold 27+ for long when the race is over 40 miles. I've only done 5 races, 1 road race and 4 crits, but in all of them the lead women droped the pace under 15, once down to 8, it's actually hard to ride that slow in a pack. There's not a lot of good racing here for women. Most races don't even count toward an upgrade because there are hardly ever 10 women (even when they combine all cats). It's 3-9 hours each direction every weekend come March!