Today it was just Pam and I at the criterium. Our sprinter Tammy was there…but she was the victim of the dreaded “I know I’m forgetting something but don’t know what it is” syndrome…unfortunately it was her shoes. The good news is that will probably never happen again to poor Tammy. We missed having her in the race, for sure.
But, on the bright side, Pam won the race...and this is how it happened:
There were 8 women from NOW, probably 6 from Helen’s…a few SDBC…some LaGrange and a bunch of other players thrown in. As usual, we had a pre-race meeting and it was Pam telling me to take a shot at primes (which would mean I would have to attempt to win a sprint…a scary thought for me), and to not do too much of the work but let other girls attack.
Well, it was only ten minutes into the race and attacks were happening…honestly I can’t remember who was doing the attacking because I was still trying to find my legs…I just knew I didn’t want to be in the back…ever…So as attacks happened Pam and I were there. Actually I think that Pam was doing some of the attacking…no, I’m sure of it. Anyway we had a little attack that seemed to make a tiny gap. I looked back a few times and the pack wasn’t closing which was a bit surprising. As I looked around I saw that our “break” (I was calling it a break now) had 2 NOW women and I think 3 Helen’s, SDBC, La Grange and a few others. So obviously the pack was slowing things down behind us. However, no one wanted to work this break. Pam did a few good pulls and I got on her wheel. But I was thinking “hey, wait a minute here…why isn’t anyone else working?” I knew I couldn’t outsprint at least 6 of these girls but I would much rather race for 1st through tenth than go back to the pack so I just started working and yelled at the others to do the same. After two laps one of the girls yelled at me “so you want to work this?” And I said “what do you think I’ve been doing for the last 2 laps”. I mean, I thought I was working, I can’t be that slow!!!
So that’s pretty much how the next 20 minutes went, with a few attacks that didn’t amount to much and the announcer yelling “hurry up cupcakes, make something happen”. With about 4 laps to go Pam came over to me and said “You’re going to have to attack”. I said “Okay”…but every time I thought I’d try something someone else would make a move. So my “attack” actually came as we went into the last lap, and like I said, I wasn’t going to outsprint anyone so I just went as hard as I could into the headwind past the start finish and by the last turn coming off the uphill the pack went by me and I just hoped I had done something to help Pam. When I saw she was 3rd wheel behind the two NOW girls I knew she was going to get it…and she did. Yee haw. And…I came in 9th…in a break of ten. So that’s pretty exciting to me. I am pretty sure that I am the only woman in the Pro 1/2 category that gets really excited about a top ten crit finish.
Oh, and about the primes. Well, I never did actually get to sprint for one. But Pam did, and guess what. Yep, it was the wine prime. And she split it with me. It was a good day!!!
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