The Race: Farmersville Road Race
The Course: 3 laps of rolling hills
The Field: Cat 3/4 women
The Finish: 1st
There were only two possible outcomes for this race: win or not. To win would mean getting my cat 2 upgrade, to not win would mean not getting my upgrade, not being able to start at some of the planned upcoming races, and also spending six hours alone in the car when I could have gone with friends to the Meadows Farm race.
No pressure, right? To make matters worse, I came down with a head/chest thing late last week that left me feeling drained and shitty by Saturday morning, in addition to coughing up hairballs of horror. I felt completely flat in my warm-up lap of the course and anytime I tried to work hard during the race, it felt like I was sucking wind through a tiny straw.
The race itself was wet and grimy, as riding on any wheel meant taking steady, occasionally poo-scented rain and road spray to the face. I stayed towards the front of the pack until early in the third lap and then attacked, sprinting in several painful bursts to put a gap on the field. Two women were able to chase, so we formed a break that pacelined the remainder of the lap until 1K to the finish. Another racer joined our break briefly but then dropped back. Coming into the final stretch, I was anticipating a sprint finish, so I went early, gunned it hard, and never got caught.
During my cool-down lap, I stopped to see why my front brake had been making so much noise all day. It turned out it wasn’t just regular noise from riding a wet bike – the brake had come loose, tilted sideways, and was pressed against the rim of the wheel. Oops. Apparently it pays to check your equipment before the race, not after.
Despite a long post-race shower, I was still finding specks of black greasy road-love on my face for the rest of the day. Have fun with that one, Gus.
Road love… I’d thought I’d experienced it… until I found out it’s true meaning…
So how exactly does one do a 20 mile course in just shy of an hour yet only attain a 15mph average speed?
Wow. Are you really that predictable? “I’m sick…, “my brake is rubbing”, “nobody could come with my move”… ugh.
You also failed to mention when you asked your 2 break companions to let you win the sprint.
Have fun in the elites, I’m sure you’ll go far.
Thanks, David. I believe my exact words were “I need to win this race, so I’m willing to do extra work in this break to make it stick and make that happen.” I have no problem admitting that I made my intentions clear, and that when the other two women stated that they were in the same position of needing a win, we all worked together until right before the end.
I also don’t see what’s so predictable – I had some race day issues and I dealt with them. But thanks for the comment.
congratulations you dirty, poo smelly girl.
Thanks, Terry. That nickname is kind of a mouthful, though. Maybe something shorter?
You come off very arrogant in your posts… perhaps tone it down a bit?
haha, haters. they’re everywhere.
keep up the hard work.
if she was doing most of the work in the breakaway and the other racers (when not on the same team) pulled the win at the end, then the other racers are the poor sportsman. if they all did near the same amount of work to stay away, then the better racer will win in the end. if you can do the most work and still pull off the win, then you’re just a strong racer…period