This is my first attempt at a race report and I am doing my best to follow Lisa’s lead. While I’m guessing that she has much smaller feet than I, her shoes for race reports are not easy to fill!
Today at Dominguez Hills, I first raced the 3/4 race in search of my final Cat. 2 upgrade points and the much-needed experience of crit racing. Although I was without teammates in this race, I had PC’s voice ringing in my head, “SPIN!” I created a break and I worked with a few women and even did a little coaching of my own, telling another woman to spin to save her legs (I’m passing on the knowledge!). I had a big enough gap in this race that I was comfortable enough to work on my pedal stroke and I achieved my goals for this race, grabbing the win, the points, and the experience.
Now, for the fun race (the 1-3 where I got to race with the team)! Jenny and I had a very brief pre-race meeting and Bea and PC showed up just in time to line up and start the race. Jenny did a wonderful job of getting in an early break with Kristin Armstrong- this break was really all Kristin needed to be off on her path to eventually lapping the field. After Jenny rejoined the pack, she jumped on the front many times and helped to give my legs a break as we tried to bridge Kristin’s gap. PC had some amazing attacks, which helped to speed up the group. I did my best to listen to Bea’s words of wisdom during the race, which I find not only help me to learn to race crits, but also help to calm me down. In general, although the four of us raced well in this race, we could have benefitted from better communication, because as hard as each of us worked our moves were somewhat disparate and had we worked in unison and harnessed our abilities, I believe that our team would have placed higher than we did today.
I certainly learned a great deal in this second race and I was pleased with the fact that I actually initiated some attacks and I was less “squirrely” than I was at Ontario the previous weekend. Until I have a little more experience, I think that I could benefit from a thorough pre-race meeting to plan out a specific plan of action. I need this type of structure at this point, to ensure that I am making moves that benefit the team. In general, the experience of this race is invaluable, and racing with Bea, PC, and Jenny was a great experience. In addition, there is nothing that compares to witnessing the strength of a rider of Kristin Armstrong’s caliber. An exciting day!
Here’s to next weekend- Poor College Kids and Mothballs (for some of us at least)!
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