It was a beautiful day in Pearblossom…a perfect day to race. For once there was no snow on the ground…and we were actually shedding our arm and knee warmers at the pre-race meeting. Speaking of pre race meetings…we always have them…we always talk strategy...we always attempt to implement those strategies...But it doesn’t always work. There are often 20 or so other women at the races trying to make sure our pre-race strategy does not succeed. Not so today.
Now, our meeting took place at the start line...so the other women were able to listen to all our planned goals. I even said once “hey, Pam…don’t talk so loud, everyone is listening”...the other girls just laughed…but I saw them leaning in closer to get an earful.
Pam wanted her and me to cover attacks…as well as Lea and Tammy. The goal was to get Katie off the front and then have Dotsie bridge the gap on the climb, or vice versa. The race started off neutral through the throngs of cars lining the highway (a first for this race and a great move by the promoters…I thought…made that beginning much safer). Our first turn onto the highway and we were met with what would later become some nasty wind. Pretty mellow pace as we made the right and hit the rollers. The head wind was making things harder than the pace was and the pack stayed together. Unfortunately I bumped Dotsie’s wheel at slow speed (my fault, not hers) and had to swerve off my line and that caused some commotion behind me…a few people went down but everyone was fine and caught back up on the downhill. We were flying and had some pretty strong crosswinds on the descent. As soon as we made our right hand at the bottom of the hill it became apparent that we had someone who wanted to attack and that is what she did. I kept calling her “the red girl” because her kit was red. However, her name is Antonia and she was definitely strong, but her attacks were continually covered by Pam, or someone else on our team. But Pam was on this girl the entire race, like flies on you know what.
After Antonia had attacked and pulled for what seemed like miles, Dotsie jumped and you know what happens when Dotsie jumps….she’s gone. Antonia attempted to follow, but there was no way. So we just kept ourselves on her wheel and she tried to time trial her way up to Dotsie, but Dotsie was gaining time and as we took the little descent right before the sharp right on to the last climb before the start finish I attacked, but it wasn’t enough to drop anyone. However Katie attacked after that on the steeper part of that climb and she got away. No one can match Katie’s attack on a climb so off she went to hopefully bridge up to Dotsie. The pace on the rollers was a bit faster this time, but honestly I lost track of what was going on behind me and was just focusing on keeping up with Pam and Antonia, who was still attacking as soon as we ended the descent for the second time. I tried to cover some of the attacks to give Pam a break, but Pam is so fast. We also had Alexis Ryan with us who was happy to just sit 4th wheel and let us do most of the work covering attacks. I did look behind me as we started to climb and realized that we had dropped the pack. So now it was me, Pam, Antonia and Alexis as we headed towards the climb up to the start finish for the second time. I’m pretty sure Alexis was getting tired cause her attacks were fewer, but she still stayed in the wind and at one point she looked at me and said, “are you gonna go?”. I looked at her like “Ummm…no, I have two teammates up ahead in the break and no way am I gonna help you get up there”…but I just looked at her, slowed down and sat on her wheel. I think that answered her question. On the rollers she attempted some more attacks and then just cracked. I actually thought she had a mechanical. Alexis took off and so did Pam and then Pam backed off and I stayed with Alexis. I learned later that Pam, according to her had “cracked too”. Pam actually offered water to Antonia…Now here is a little side note about that. The officials let us know right before our race that there would be no feeding for our 48 mile race, it was too short. Even though all the men’s races that were 48 miles had been taking feeds…So we had our guys up at the feed zone and coming into the second lap there they were all smiling and happy, holding out those big beautiful Gu bottles…and Antonia yells “No, no feeding, no feeding allowed”…so none of us took any water (which we needed…it was hot today). I could just see us winning the race and someone protesting because we took a feed. So how nice of Pam to share her water…
Okay back to the race. I kept looking back and Pam was still with Antonia so I just kind of paced with Alexis. As we came to the end of the rollers Pam was way back there. I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew we wouldn’t catch Dotsie or Katie, but do I slow down for Pam…but if Alexis takes off….so many questions!!! But Alexis looked at me and said “do you wanna get away cause I really don’t want to let red girl beat us”…so I said okay and we took off…at least as fast as someone with junior gearing and someone like me can go downhill. We got to the straight away and took turns pulling. Then I hear this faint little cry in the distance…”Lisa…Lisa”…I looked back and there is Pam. I don’t know why I was surprised. It’s Pam for God’s sake. So Pam, me and Alexis work it hard, but not too hard and just as we are getting to that little descent I look back and see Antonia…Gosh darn it. I started to pick up the pace. I did not want to take her to the line. I already knew I couldn’t outsprint Alexis. Even though it was an uphill finish, there was a nasty headwind. However, we didn’t have to worry because I think Antonia cracked again just trying to catch us and she never did close the gap.
So I had a futile attempt at an attack coming into the uphill towards the finish. However, Alexis was on my wheel. So now began a game I had no idea how to play…Pam would attack, Alexis would follow…then I would kind of attack…but not really…Alexis would follow. Then like a dork I thought, well I have no idea what I’m doing so I’m just gonna just go over here to the left and watch these two…Seriously that’s kind of what happened. Alexis ended up crossing the line in 3rd and Pam and I came in 4th and 5th. However, our strategy did work…except for Alexis sneaking in there for 3rd, we accomplished what we wanted. And let’s not forget about Lea, who did a lot of work in the first lap and who controlled the pack just behind us and finished 9th…and Tammy did awesome. She had been nursing an injury and finished the race strong. I also got some good words of wisdom from Pam and Thurlow on what I should/could have done going into that finishing sprint. As always it was a fun, positive learning experience riding with this amazing team.
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