The Race: Sunset Road Race
The Course: A 5-mile uphill prologue from downtown, followed by 9 laps of a hilly, technical course, ending back in town
The Field: 1/2 women
The Finish: ??
This is going to be another short and dry race report, because these episodes of Downton Abbey are not going to watch themselves.
Going into this race, we knew the five-mile “neutral” prologue from downtown to the start of the lap course was going to be a fast, chaotic, uphill grind of riders fighting for position. We warmed up accordingly and I felt fine at first, but the effort started to hurt towards the end and by the time we hit the course and the field took off hard to grab the first KOM, I didn’t stay with the front for long. Laura, Mary, and Jamie (our GC contenders) rode on ahead, while the rest of us trudged over the climb.
After a lap or so, my small chase group was caught by a group, and we went on to catch another large group that contained all of the Colavita GC riders. Reports from racers in that group and spectators along the course indicated that there were more riders several minutes ahead in fractured groups. I wasn’t sure how many people were up the road, but our pack was substantial. We rolled through the laps and I started feeling better on each one; the climb hurt at times, but the pain that had initially flared up in my back subsided, I felt stronger and smoother, and I was getting a feel for the multiple turns on the descents. The group lost a handful of riders in an uphill crash, but Team Colavita made it through unscathed.
Then, as we rolled down into the turn to begin our eighth lap, the officials neutralized us that and that was it. There was definitely a feeling of indignation – it turned out there were only 21 riders ahead and it was a while before the first of them passed us to start the next lap – but there was nothing that could be done. Our group of 25+ stood around for a few minutes and then rolled back downtown to our team vans. Out of 66 ‘finishers’, only 21 were permitted to complete the race.
It was a disappointing end for Team Colavita. Our GC riders reported that there was a small window early on where they could have bridged to the group that made it to the end, and they spent a few minutes after the race kicking themselves for not making a move in that moment. I felt badly about not having the legs to be there to help. If only, if only, if only. But that’s racing – we will learn from it, we will dig deeper next time, and we will look forward to the next race together.
