Weekend of March 1-2

[Brandy]

I have my first race EVER...tomorrow. I'm a long distance girl and I'm trying out the crit, road race, time trial thing this year. I'm so anxious. Nervous. Anxious. Just want it to be tomorrow RIGHT NOW!!!

[Andrea]

I won the Pro 1/2/3 road race today!

However, there were only 4 of us, but 2 of the other 3 women were very experienced cat 2s, AND we had to race with a HUGE group of obnoxious, fast category 4 men! I never want to race with those again- they broke the yellow line rule repeatedly and were picking fights with each other and telling each other that they were going to fight after the race. I normally don't have issues with the usual testosterone levels, but this was ridiculous! At one point, I told them to put their penises away and race

What about the rest of you?

[Starfish]

I won the Pro 1/2/3 road race today!

At one point, I told them to put their penises away and race

Way to go, on both counts!!

[Ticia]

I have my first race EVER...tomorrow. I'm a long distance girl and I'm trying out the crit, road race, time trial thing this year. I'm so anxious. Nervous. Anxious. Just want it to be tomorrow RIGHT NOW!!!

How was it B?

[Eden]

First road race of the season on Saturday and second TT on Sunday (the first TT last Saturday was well, messed up. They did not put in the turn around cone until about 45 riders went off..... )

The road race went quite nicely. It was also the first of the CAT 3 only races for the year! We had a good field of around 20 cat 3 women come out. Our team had the best representation there so we put in a lot of attacks and finally at around the beginning of lap 3 one of our riders got off for good with one other person, who happened to be from the team with the next largest number of riders. That meant tempo for our two teams and there were few takers to get up and try to push the pace from any of the other riders... One unattached woman tried, but without teammates she was pretty well out of luck. Around 1/2 way through the final and 4th lap we decided that our gal up the road had plenty of lead and we could play again. We started putting in attacks and really pushed up the pace going in toward the finish. I'm not sure how many we shelled coming into the sprint, but I know a few went. I picked a nice big gal and let her give me a lead out (which even though she didn't know it, she did an admirable job) and took out 4th or 5th in the field sprint. Someone started the sprint waaaay early... its a long 200m in the first place and someone chose to go before the sign - OUCH baby. We didn't wait around for the final results, so I'm not totally sure yet.

The TT today went well also. I wasn't pre-registered so I probably did get a bit more wind than the one woman who went nearly first thing in the morning (it's a pretty typical in this valley that it will be very calm early with building wind during the morning, changing directions right about noon!)- but heck, I got to sleep longer... I think all of us who were there today, also did the road race yesterday, so no fresh legs in the field either. It definitely took a toll on some people - I beat a few that would probably normally take me. I took 6th and a minute off of my best time on this course (and I am not by any means a TT specialist - I'm small and light, not too built for raw power...) so I am quite pleased. I finally have my TT helmet now too - I think I need to make sure I'm positioned well for using it... I'm finding its difficult to hold my head up as high as I'd like, and probably as high as would be ideal for taking advantage of the helmet.

[Brandy]

Okay...did my first crit today!

I'll preface it by saying I was SO nervous and anxious. We were there at 7:00 a.m. to watch the Cat V race and my race didn't start until 11:31

Seeing this (Keith is a BF member) from the Cat IV race didn't help the nerves.



I was able to get a good 45 minute warmup in, along with a pep talk from my 7 year old daughter.



I was feeling pretty good and stayed mid or front pack most of the race. With less than 1.5 laps to go I'm feeling great and our race gets neutralized on the slight incline for the elite women to pass. The race promoter who was riding with us tells everyone to stop pedaling, but only half of the field listens so I go from 4th or 5th wheel to mid-back of the pack coming up on the turn. Totally confusing and I had no idea when he was going to tell us to go again, but by that time there were women ready to take off when he called it at the line with one lap to go. Pretty strung out after the first corner but I managed to latch on to the back of the lead group, definitely lost steam on the incline before the last turn though. There were some STRONG women out there!

17th or 18th out of 30...the results were messed up, someone contested after the results were official and then they had someone listed twice, so we'll see.

Anyway...I didn't get dropped! I never felt like I was going to get dropped! Two good things.

I definitely learned a lot today...mainly...

• I need more intensity work!
• I need to get some better group riding skills so I'm more confident staying on a wheel...spent way too much time in the wind on the outside.

Avg speed w/o cool down lap: 22.29 mph
Max speed: 30.42

After initially being disappointed, I got over myself and remembered that I didn't plan to start racing until June when all of my ultra-distance events for the season were done and I could train specifically for intensity. I made a last minute decision last week to register for this race because I wanted to get at least one crit under my belt before San Dimas at the end of March. So...not too bad and I think that with some work, I could do better.

[Eden]

Wow - we never have more than one group out on a crit course at once. Road races, yes, but it would be crazy to try to neutralize a crit....
Good job staying with the pack!

[Brandy]

Wow - we never have more than one group out on a crit course at once. Road races, yes, but it would be crazy to try to neutralize a crit....
Good job staying with the pack!

Thanks


The 1/2/3 women started a minute ahead of us. It sucked that we got neutralized with less than 1.5 laps to go and their race was ten minutes longer than ours. I heard several people say that if anything, they should have been neutralized instead of us that late in our race.

I don't know...new to all of this. Some of the elite women from our team came to talk to me afterward and assured me that this was not a normal crit. "Dash 4 Cash" with the $10 prime on every lap caused huge surges on every lap.

[Andrea]

Glad to hear everyone had good weekends!

That crit situation is weird- I've been in crits where they combine us with the older masters men. If they start us all together, they'll tell us that we can work together during the race and will just be placed separately. Occasionally, they'll do something like what you experienced and start one field a minute ahead. In that case, they'll say we can't work together, and that we are responsible for neutralizing ourselves if one group is trying to overtake another. It gets hectic. I wish we could all just race in our respective groups by ourselves!