The Race: Spartanburg Criterium

The Course: 50 laps, 4 right turns

The Field: Pro 1/2/3 women

The Finish: 21st and a prime!

I was nervous in the pack for the first 25 or so laps – it felt fast and aggressive on the short course, and while my legs and energy were ready to go, I wasn’t comfortable doing anything meaningful with either. Managed to move up a bit, but quickly slid back after feeling timid and anxious. Then I realized that feeling so scared was stupid and pointless, so I started getting more confident. I went to the front and didn’t mind doing the work for the rest of that lap, and then the announcer called a prime on the next lap and I was hoping to get it and check that off my list for Speed Week. I sprinted through the start/finish stretch to win the prime, and then looked back and saw that I had a gap on the field. Wow! I kept hammering to open the gap, but then saw a rider pass me on the right…and it was Monika! It was seriously the most awesome moment ever to realize that she and I were off the front together!

After half a lap in our break, I was blowing up from sprinting a few laps in a row, and I yelled to Monika that the field was closing in. There were still six laps to go, and I knew I didn’t have the energy to make the break work for that long. We settled into the field again, worked to get a decent position for the sprint, and finished in 21st and 27th. While we can still work on improving our overall finishing places, this race was great for building confidence and having a good time.

Lesson learned: Put the transponder chip on the most forward part of your bike, not the seatpost. Things like this matter in sprint finishes. Oops.

One thought on “Speed Week: Spartanburg Crit”

  1. They are using transponders… thats new. Good idea as far as location of said item goes. A prime score…NICE ! GOOD EFFORT. Thats good for the team to feature with both ya’ll up the road. Plus to place when off the front soo close to the finish and caught is not easy. Kudos ! Dont disregard a mention as to the male contingent of the team and their results…might be a mo rounded post that way.

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