There wasn’t a race on either the VCA or MABRA calendar this weekend, so I decided to head a little south to do a road race. The race was only about 3 ½ hours from my house, it was a road race and a women’s 3/ 4 field. I convinced Maria from TNP to go with me, so loaded up the big red truck and headed South on I-85.
Getting to the race site was uneventful, we drove through a couple of rain showers but actually found the parking lot fairly easily. We did wander around a little to find registration; a couple of signs would have helped. Once we get our numbers we walk down to the Finish line to check out the final 200 meters or so and as described it is a nice uphill finish, but the pavement is smooth and we talk about where we want to be in the race an because of the uphill finish if it turned into a field sprint where we wanted to be and when we should start our sprint.
Back at the truck we start getting ready; it was still overcast and a little humid but nothing real bad. It did act like it might rain, so there was a little discussion about what to wear. Finally, we warm up and head over to the starting line, which is different than the finish line. The CAT 5’s are scheduled to go off ahead of the women, we were scheduled for a 1050 start time.
1050 came and went, and now the sun is out, we’re doing little loops to keep the legs moving and still no sign of the official. I’m not sure what time we eventually went off all I know is that we hung around there long enough that I had to go to the bathroom and there wasn’t porta potty to be seen. I have no problems “going” in the woods, the Army has trained me to do that, but we were in a residential neighborhood and unlike a couple of other cyclist I will not “go” in someone’s backyard.
The race finally started, we rolled out at a decent pace and I’m thinking need to be near the front but not on the front. The yellow line was being strictly enforced so I kept hoping for the left side to open up. I looked down at my computer and notice we’re only 8 miles into the race, so I relaxed knowing I’ve got time to move up. Mean while the pace is like a yo-yo, don’t understand why folks just won’t ghost pedal instead of grabbing break. We had a car in front and a car behind and oncoming traffic was actually really good about getting off the road and waiting until we rolled past but every time we passed a car the peloton would slow up. I am thinking this is going to cause a wreck in the field, I gotta move up. My friend Maria made it up a few spots so she’s to my right front I’m sitting about mid-field but still hanging out near the left. The crash took about several folks, heard later that a gal flatted, panicked ensued and several folks went down. As the field spread wide to go around the carnage, I move left, bunny hopped a gal going down in front of me, CX’d a little then saw the front of the field ATTACK..
There went my race. I know when a crash happens the adrenalin kicks in, but if it happens behind you and you just keep riding and don’t rubber neck why folks have to attack. So I’m pissed I know this is my race I bury myself trying to catch back up. I’m so focused on trying to catch back on that I don’t even notice that I’m pulling a couple of other gals with me. Now I’m really pissed, if they had just worked with me instead of sucking my wheel we would have been able to close the gap. We ended up with a small chase group of 6 gals, that none really knew how to do a rotating pace line. They’d take hard long pulls and then dork up the pace line…
So long story short, finished the race, loved the course, would do it again. But need to work on my skills to move up in a pack. I know how I ride during group rides and letting folks take a wheel or slide in is not necessarily the best way to race. I also learned that I can see a crash, not panic, bunny hop and CX my road bike and stay up right; I just gotta work on my fitness to CLOSE the gap / bridge up.
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