Big storms hit early morning and continued to downpour the entire morning. It was hard to keep a positive mind/attitude in check. Before the race, I rode the last part of the course several times, with my new awesome Psimet wheels and brake pads. (Thanks Robert) I had gotten the wheels on Friday, so I wanted to make sure I was confident racing/braking with them. during this time, I also, took time to visualize myself racing and keep my mental focus.
Kelli and I lined up for the race and I was very excited to have a team mate. Race started neutral until after the bridge. It was raining steady. There where two teams of four women, IS Corp and Mercy-Specialized that I knew might go at it. There was one woman who was wearing all black that I had not seen before. About 30mins or so into the race, attacks came from Mercy and IS Corp. They where fairly strong but, not enough to cause a break. The two teams went at it a bit but nothing took. There was one attack that no one chased. The field was slowing down. I wasn’t going let this go. I attacked and went for it and ended up bringing 2 women with me and the field was not far behind so I just sat up and went back in the field.
Kelli was doing great. She looked smooth and consistent. She had almost taken a fall in the potholes, but she recovered nicely. The rain came down harder so it was pretty much slow and then speed up a bit. Just a lot of huge puddles , potholes, gravel, that was hard to see now. 2nd lap, pretty much the same. After the feed zone, the field was all together. Again, IS Corp and Mercy made attacks but nothing stuck. I stayed conservative but kept alert. I went to the back of the field to eat and refuel a bit.
Last part of race, I was sitting top 10 in the field before the climb. I hit the hill and saw that the women in black was a very strong climber, I shot up that hill, hard with a cadence that was much better than I remember from last year. I past about 5 riders, I was super excited!!! I think my emotions came over me a bit. I couldn’t stand it. I clicked it into a bigger gear on the little false flat and pushed harder. I now knew I was in the lead for 3rd, 4th place. I clicked to even a bigger gear and went all 105 pounds of me down that hill “Like someone was chasing me with a knife,” down that hill holding my line. I hit the cobbles, there was NO breaking, I took the left corner hard and held my line to the right more and pushed as hard as I could, I knew I was maxing out before the sprint. I wasn’t looking back, so as soon as I hit the smooth road, my legs where a little shaky. I held my line on the right side. At about the 200m, I did see 3 or 4 other riders from Mercy team on the left. I pushed harder and tried to gain speed but it just wasn’t enough. I was disappointed. Overall it was good to get the jitters out and 1st race of the season done with. Looking forward to racing with my awesome teammates and seeing how this all comes together.
Results below http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2217913
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