Women's racing

I raced this weekend in Arkansas. Becky and myself drove over to Fayetteville on Friday for the Joe Martin Stage Race. I was a little nervouse because this was going to be my first non-local race of the season. We decided to ride out to the start of our race on Saturday to get in a good warm-up. We also rode up the big hill that is about 2 miles into the road race and Becky says, "wow, that really isn't that bad!" To me, that hill is steep and my butt does not go up steep things very fast. So, we finally start the race after seeing one of the 1/2 women crash head on with a parked car on the side of the road. I'm sure glad I wasn't already a bit nervous! The race started as usual and one of the OKC Velo girls attacked before the climb so the pace picked up substantially. A group of 10 or so girls were off and I found myself in the same predicament as both years before. A small group of 3 of us began chasing. We were rotating well and started picking up chics that had been dropped from the leaders. The first was Becky, so I was stoked to have her with us. We ended up with about 8 girls and we were rotating well for awhile. The last 10 miles it seems nobody wanted to pull or work. So I found myself at the front for most of the last 10 miles. I wasjust trying to minimize my time loss. Anyway, some chic starts talking crap to me about this is probably my first race. I just smiled and kept going, And then another girl says something along the lines of "oh are you not going to work with us?" Even though I had just came off the front after 3 miles of pulling. I needed a little break to shove down some Gu. Anyway I think I ended up 4th in the sprint of my group, but maybe 11th overall. I'm sure we lost at least 5 minutes to the leaders.

Going into the TT I was just thinking about getting it over with. I warmed up pretty decent and then started my TT, Angie from OKC Velo started right behind me so I knew she would catch me. Sure enough, she caught me a passed me like I was standing still. And then Helene, another OKC Velo chic passed me too. Wonderful! I lost a bunch of time on the TT, but again, my butt doesn't go too fast uphill.

I was really excited about the crit on Sunday. I love crits and I wanted to do well. It was a pretty chilly morning, so the warm-up was difficult. We rolled to the line to start and took off. Some chic braked hard in the first turn and her rear wheel washed out and nearly took out the whole pack. That was enough for 5 girls to get off the front. I was behind the sketchy chic so I was stuck in the field. And what is even better- the sketchy chich is the same one that was taking crap the day before. How ironic is that? About half way through I felt the dreaded bouncy feeling from the back of my bike. Great, I flatted and I am at the farthest corner from the wheel pit that I could possibly be. I tried to ride it over to the wheel pit but I couldn't ride it up the hill. So, I was off my bike pushing it up the hill. I got to the wheel pit and got my wheel change and then got shoved back into my group. The same sketchy trash talking chic says to me "you took two free laps instead of one!" I looked at her and said, "are you kidding? You need to worry about not taking out the entire pack instead of how many free laps I get on a wheel change!" And then I took off. They caught me, but she was breathing hard so I went again. They caught me again. And then a Kenda chic attacked on the last lap. She got pulled back in on the climb and Melissa from Mercy won the field sprint. I think Helene got 2nd and I got either 3rd or 4th.

I was so relieved to be done with this race. It was possibly the most negative women's race that I have done. I don't know why women can't just race their bikes and worry about themselves instead of critique what everyone else does. This race has opened my eyes, for sure. I really need to start training hard! I am way off track from where I had hoped to be this year.