Snelling Road Race is the unofficial start of the Northern California racing season. The Northern CA teams were well represented; in particular, Stevens, Metromint, TibcoII, Red Racing, and Touchstone all had great turnouts. There were also women from a few other teams, including Vanderkitten, who came out to usher in the start of the Northern CA season.
This is what I’ll deem a Nor Cal “flat” course, which consists of mostly rollers and no large climbs or descents. The race consisted of five approximately 12-mile laps. I started the race having to fight for position and got pushed around quite a bit. I eventually made my way up to the front and fought to keep second or third wheel, jumping on the front when appropriate. Because I am not familiar with the riders in this area, I treated every rider as if she was a breakaway rider and did not let anything go up the road without me on a wheel. This was a tiring strategy, but it kept me in a comfortable position and certainly provided me with a great workout. If you read my UCLA Road Race Report, you will recall that I was a little “bummed” that I didn’t have a headwind on the flat section of the course. What in the world was I thinking? There were headwinds and crosswinds on most of the Snelling course- the one portion with a tailwind, although beautiful because we were surrounded by blooming fruit trees, was rough, as the road was not well paved and was filled with potholes. The headwinds hit us on a few of the rollers, and we had to grind gears to get up the short climbs. The crosswinds nearly knocked me over.
Stevens set the pace for the race, always having at least one rider on the front. A few breaks made attempts to go up the road, but I covered all of them. On lap four, I was in a break with women from Vanderkitten and Metromint. A few other riders joined us and I worked hard to increase our gap on the field. Unfortunately, I pulled a very “Amber-like” move and missed a turn (I was seriously spacing out). I veered off of the road into the grass and nearly went down. I had to work very hard to stay up and even harder to catch back up to my group. When I finally caught on, I was unsure if I would have it in my legs to take off with two miles to the finish as I had planned. I hesitated for too long, and a woman from Exergy went hard. My legs were tired and I knew that I had missed my opportunity. Her gap increased and it was clear to me that she had won the race at this point. With approximately one kilometer to go (I should have made my move earlier), I broke away from the group and went hard. A few women went with me and I sprinted (yes, I sprinted and yes I was in the drops!) on the uphill finish, taking fifth. Apparently many of the riders had dropped off on the second and third laps, so fewer women finished than started. This was a competitive field with many strong and hardworking women and the course was not an easy, but it was a great workout and a fun race.
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