The Race: BikeJam/Kelly Cup Criterium
The Course: 20 miles, 20 laps
The Field: 1/2/3 women
The Finish: 1st
A quick wheel change at the start and concern about my front brake being loose and rubbing on the wheel had me feeling jittery when the whistle blew. I was in the second row and tried to jump to the front quickly, but almost ran into the barriers in the first curve. Coming into the start/finish climb at the end of the first lap, the left side of the road was open, so I moved up the side of the pack. Another rider moved left as I passed and reacted when she realized I was there, and the next thing I heard was an incredibly loud, unsettling crash.
It didn’t help that a few laps later, somebody rode into my back wheel and went down in another big crash. People seemed jumpy on their bikes and riders were continually being reinserted into the race from the pits, further shaking up the field. I started thinking that if people were already crashing and I was feeling nervous on the bike, maybe it would be best to call it a day. It was not a good feeling, but I was afraid I’d regret pulling myself. When is it okay to pull the plug and when should you keep going? I haven’t figured out how to reasonably evaluate that.
Erin S. launched a strong attack early in the race that proved difficult to chase down – she wasn’t more than ten seconds off the front at any point, but the field could not get organized enough to close the gap as a group. Once I finally was able to catch her wheel, the rest of the race was spent sitting towards or at the front of the bunch. I was anxious about riding in the group after all of the crashing, uncertain about my own handling, and worried about attacks sticking. Anytime a rider would go, I’d jump to close it down, settle into the front again, and then repeat. When it came to the final sprint, I started at the bottom of the climb and put everything I had into the pedals until I made it across the line. Finishing first was thrilling, but I was just so happy to have made it through without crashing or blowing up.
Next up is Somerville on Monday. An NRC race for the men and one big non-NRC party for the women, but Colavita RSVP’d that they’re sending in the big guns, so it should be an exciting day.
You know you’d never forgive youself for pulling out if you did. You rode through it and came out ahead. Don’t forget, this is still relatively new to you and you’re already a winner! Seems you got your groove; now stick with it. Colavita…meet the XO big gun!
Lindsay,
Love the new photo and the excavated ‘dirt field’. Just goes to show that there’s always a “field” no matter where you are. And where you are always seems to be at the head of said.
You are still so new at this you need to count every event as a marker of progress. I read your words from previous posts and get reminded of just how much this is different from your off-pave’ competitions. You’ve acknowledged the same yourself in your masthead change.
This event was another one of those benchmarks. You looked forward to the possibilities and let them unsettle you when it didn’t matter and then determined that you were going to be the cause of your own fate.
If someone was going to be a mistake it wasn’t going to be you being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Leaders rarely go down. That’s the place to be…
Be a leader tomorrow, too.