When we arrived to the start location for Boulevard Road Race, I almost refused to step out of the car- it was COLD! I reminded myself of the stories that I had heard of this race in previous years (e.g., snow) and tried to consider myself lucky. “Warming” up on my bike, however, I did not feel lucky- just cold.
Bonnie led Jenny, Holly, and me in our pre-race meeting. She told us that we needed to ride smart in this race and that it would be a race of attrition. When the race started, I found myself pushed ever-closer to the mid-back of the field and I watched with envy as Jenny very skillfully worked her way up to what I knew was a perfect position. Bonnie appeared out of nowhere and led me up to the perfect position in the field. When I reached this position, I sat in comfortably and occasionally took a few pulls, feelings of coldness long forgotten.
The first part of the first lap included a great deal of descending. When we reached the rollers, a woman with green booties attacked and was gone! None of the riders I had been watching closely made any move to chase her, and I assumed that an attack on the first lap of this race would soon be brought back. We soon learned, however, that she had gained a two-minute gap on the field. This knowledge was enough to motivate around eight of us to start taking pulls and speeding up. At this point, I lost track of both Bonnie and Jenny, but Holly and I took our pulls and the field eventually caught the woman in green.
There were a few sketchy moments in the second and third laps- a fire truck and ambulance at the bottom of a descent and a big rig truck across the road certainly woke me up and produced several shouts from unpleased women in the field.
Nearing the last third of the second lap, a woman attacked and slowly moved off into the distance. Once again, no one appeared nervous and I rested in confidence that she wouldn’t be off for long. However, when we reached the feed zone, Jacob (a member of our wonderful support team that also included Fernando and Benny) informed me that she had over a one and a half minute gap. Once again, the field kicked it up, starting the last lap, with about six or seven of us taking fast pulls to reel the woman off the front back to us. One of the strong women in the field from La Grange had a mechanical (a broken spoke) and pulled off to change out her back wheel.
Mean while, we hit the descents and Holly showed pure strength, leading us down the descent and I stayed directly on her wheel. I knew that if we wanted a win, our best chance was for me to attack the rollers and the upcoming climbs and to get a break and catch the woman off of the front. The first roller we encountered, I attacked (to no avail), but I countered my own attack and broke off briefly with another woman, but the field quickly caught us. The next hill we hit, I attacked again, and another woman and I successfully broke away. I pulled up the long moderate grade, and the woman behind me let me know that she didn’t think she had it. I was sad to see her go, but I wanted to catch the woman off the front and I was soon chasing alone and being chased by the field, with about 12 miles to go. On increasingly steep sections, I went harder, and I eventually saw the woman that I wanted to catch. I pulled ahead of her and hoped that we could work together. She happily took my wheel and eventually took a few pulls on the downhill sections. I realized that our speed was not quick enough, and I put in longer pulls and then I was alone. I knew that Holly was back in the field working for me, but a few miles alone in the headwind was scary. Each time I felt tired, I reminded myself that everyone was hurting and I went harder. The steeper the hill, the harder I went. The greater the headwind, the harder I tried to ride. Crossing the line felt really nice! I waited at the line for the other riders to roll in now scattered, as the field had clearly broken apart on the last set of climbs. Holly finished at 10th place and I felt so grateful for her hard pulls on the downhill (she did more than “hang in there” as she claimed was her only goal for the race!) Another great day and another race with multiple top 10 spots from our team!
No comments:
Post a Comment