RACE REPORT ONTARIO SERIES #1 1/15/12
Well, it is my honor to write the first race report of the season for the SC Velo/Empower Coaching System’s women’s team. What a great day we had. There were 8 of us present, and that included our newest members…Amber Gaffney, Holly Breck and Jenny Rios. Also racing was our team manager Lea Adams, Bonnie Breeze, Not so PC Calderon, Bea Rodriquez and myself. We had, as we always do, a pre race meeting to discuss our strategy. We were the biggest team out there in the field of 18 and wanted to control the race with attacks and at the same team get a feel for how the newest members liked to race and help them learn some great crit skills.
I have to admit that I was a little nervous on the starting line because it felt darn early for my legs to be following directions to “sprint”(it’s hard for my legs to follow those directions in July, let alone January).
From the gun PC was off, then it was, well, maybe me, to be honest I don’t really remember. I just know that everyone had a turn either attacking, or countering someone else’s attack. No one from the field got away except for our team. We had Lea out there for several laps, picking up some bonus points for the series and Bonnie got away for a bit too. If I forgot anyone I am sorry but after 2 or 3 attacks of my own I was in severe oxygen debt and I’m not sure what was on fire more, my lungs or my legs. Jenny, Holly and Amber did excellent. They listened to directions from the veterans on the team and executed beautifully during the race. After a few laps of all of us together, and me sitting at the back (because of the various burning body parts and all…) I got a little nervous. I don’t like being in the back and I also knew that I did not want to have to go to the line without one or some of us in a break. So with no idea what lap it was I launched what felt like a slow motion move…but it was into a headwind so luckily everyone else was moving in slow motion too. I didn’t dare look back til I was almost a lap out there alone and to my delight I did not see the field. Now I knew I had to work hard because there were 7 women behind me doing an amazing job of slowing down the race. I put my head down and ignored the very scary numbers on my heart rate monitor and flew past the start/finish. I was not so delirious that I didn’t notice that lap card said 3 to go. With a mix of intense fear (I had to do this 3 more times) mixed with overwhelming excitement (there was a chance that I might win a crit for my team??) I just kept going as hard as I could. No sense in saving anything. If they caught me my teammates would take over. On the last lap I stole another look back and I could see them…Crapola! I managed to reach a new heart rate max as I pushed just a little harder. Coming around the last and final turn, even though they were closing in I knew I had it thanks to all that orange, white and blue I saw in front of that pack….
It felt great to win, don’t get me wrong…but it feels just as good when it’s one of my teammates coming across the line first, because a win by one of us is a win by all of us and that is why I love this team. We had Holly, Amber, PC and Bea bringing in the rest of the top spots.
We missed the other four teammates and send speedy, healing thoughts to our champion Pam who is recovering from wrist and elbow surgery, to our little speedster Tammy who is also on the mend, and Dotsie who is on the road to Olympic Gold, and Ruth our machine who will be out there with us soon putting the hurt on.
This is still the best group of women on wheels in southern California.
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