OVR - Reily

What a way to start the season. The weather was nice for this area although it was a big change from vacation last week where the average daily high was around 85...but enough of that and on to the race.

The first time up the climb I was near the front and just rolled up with a steady rythm. Unknowingly I gapped the field. Being so early I sat up and let it come back together. Shortly up the road myself and about 6 other guys started a break but nobody wanted to work. Down into the finishing stretch I slid up past the front again gaining about 30 seconds. That gap stayed until after the top of the climb when I again sat up for the field, I wasn't going to fight that wind all day by myself. The rest of that lap and the next lap were largely uneventful.

With a lap and half to go, one rider came out of the field in the windy front stretch before the RR tracks and went up the road. We really never got a good look at him. Dan from Truesport.com, myself, and 3 other guys had been plotting to make a break for it, so we decided we would just lift the pace and reel this guy in. We caught him with just over a lap remaining. From his number we knew he was actually in the cat 5 race...More important Dan and I had dropped the rest of the field.

At this point we just went for it. I was clearly the fastest through the finishing road and led with Dan and Tony (the cat 5) in tow. We all worked together the rest of the lap after a little bit of prodding (Tony had went up the road by himself on the windy stretch).

Due to the downhill sprint finish I figured it would take a sprint in excess of 42mph to win...I was right, hitting the line at 44.2mph. Thanks to Dan and Tony, it wouldn't have worked without you two. Thanks to Randy who provided some much needed wind shelter along the way. Where are the rest of the 4's?

There were not alot of riders willing to work in this race, I would assume this was due to the high winds. First lap was slow and uneventful. The second, I wanted to livin' things up abit, so I took a strong pull up to the climb. Once I got to the top I was about 10 riders back from the front. This is about the time I saw a guy off the front. I asked other riders, "Is that guy with us??" Everyone was unsure and not willing to to chase him down....my mistake. He ended up being a Cat 5, not a 4, as we all thought. I should of bridged the gap, but lesson learned. Finally on the last lap, (once we made it to the tailwind section) four of us at the front started taking some good hard pulls to drop the excess baggage that had been taking a free sunday cruise. As I took my pull, up the last set of climbs before the finish, I looked back and noticed I had a gap. So I went a little harder, still nobody. Once I got to the top, big chain ring time to the finish line.

Details to come.

Largest Women's field for me so far - 21 at the start. The first lap was fairly slow. In fact, I dropped my chain somehow, stopped to fix it, and still caught back up with the peleton. A few solo attacks occurred, but the gusting wind didn't keep anyone off the front for too long.

The attacks and blocks increased on the second lap . . . good team efforts by Revolution. Once I figured out what was going on, I went around the block and bridged the gap, only for the break to get swallowed again. This happened a few times until they finally got away. I tried to bridge it again, but couldn't battle the wind alone. A girl from Kenda caught up and I tried to work with her, but we ended up falling back to another Kenda girl and 2 Revolution girls. Revolution didn't seem too interested in trying to catch the break since they had a girl up there. I tried to work with the Kenda girls, but the gap was increasing. At that point, the 5 of us just decided to try to maintain our break from the women behind us. I was trying to organize a paceline to get everyone to do equal pulls; however, that didn't work and the Kenda girls were working hard. I sat at the back (probably more than I should have), conserved some energy, and took off hard on the final downhill stretch. I didn't think anyone had too much energy left, but apparently a Revolution girl did, and she got me right at the finish.

The new bike handles beautifully, but I did feel a little squirrelly with the drastically lighter bike and gusts of wind. Overall I'm happy with the end result, but every race reminds me that I have more to learn. It was nice to have some teammates there, so thanks to Wendy and Katherine for coming out!

During warm up I was getting tossed around like a rag doll in the wind. I was not looking forward to riding in 20 to 30 mile hour cross and head winds. The race started out really slow, actually too slow. Craig and I just set in the first lap around to get a feel of the course. On the second lap up the major or semi major climb we gave it a little push and were leading he group over to find that the field let some guy off the front. We had no idea when he left, how he left, or if he was even in our group. We tried to pull him back in but it was useless by that point. Plus while Craig and I were up front no one wanted to pull through to help out. We just had to let him go. The guy was a monster, he ended up catching the leading group of Cat fours. As far as how our race ended up, at the end we were down to a group of about ten or eleven in the last 4 miles, when we decided to put the pedal to the medal and shell off the drafters. We ended up with a group of like five of us for the finish. Craig got up front and set a good tempo and put a 20 to 30 yard gap on us. I jumped up front to block our group and the riders actually set on my wheel. Once they finally figured out what I was doing Craig had at least 100 yards with about a mile to go. Finally the group reacted by blasting past me to try and bridge but it was too late, Craig had what we thought was victory but it ended up being second. I just rolled in with the group to finish sixth. I tried to sprint it out for third but this hundred and twelve pound body had no sprint left.

Is this Kansas or what? The wind was howling all day at 20/30 mph. At least it was warm! Any way, we had 48 riders in our race. My hat goes off to both Will (The Gutter Man) and Blair (Break-a-Fame). Each rode strong, always putting the peleton in the gutter, on each lap in the crosswind section. Man was that painful, OUCH! They widdled the peleton down to less than a dozen or so riders.

In addition, a special thanks to Breakaway’s Mark and Andy for great a team sprint lead out. Wish I had a 53/11t on, might have hit 50 mph, but could only muster up 46.

Gramps

A beautiful beginning to this race season. I have learned I don't fly well the day before and then race. It just doesn't work well for me. This turned into a long, somewhat lonely race. I managed to hang with the pack for the first two laps, but then the wind caught up with me and I lost them. After that, I passed a few other women, and finally ended up working with Pascale from Breakaway. We raced together often last season and worked rather well together. She just had a little bit more energy at the line to outsprint me. But, for the first race and less than 100 miles of training going into it, I was pleased with the results.
It was wonderful to race with teammates. Kellly-congratulations on a strong finish, Katherine-we'll get there. See everyone next week at Morrow.

IPro, Wheelie Fun, and Bio Wheels did a good job early in the race plugging things up and letting a break form off the front. By the time I noticed what happened I was boxed in and was not able to respond. Todd and Blair were farther back and also missed the break. With the big teams plugging up the front, the break just rode away from the field.

With all the blockers on the front it was impossible to get a chase going. Going into the 2nd crosswind section Mark Brown (Breakaway) and I decided to thin things out. We put the field into the gutter and nailed the pace. When we reached the next corner, there were only 6 guys remaining. Blair and Andys (Breakaway) bridged up a few minutes later and Todd arrived a few miles after that. Finally we could get a chase organized. The chase ran for another lap before the blocking efforts of Wheelie Fun started really disrupting things.

As the chase petered out, Blair and I started attacking the field. We got away clean for a few miles but were caught as we turned into the final headwind, uphill section. As the field was about to make contact, I dropped off Blair’s wheel and gave him a gap. The field sat on me and let Blair float. I then put the field into the gutter and set an uncomfortable pace. For all intents and purposes it would appear that I was chasing Blair. But I kept the pace just below what Blair could sustain. Whenever someone came up beside me to organize a chase I picked up the pace until they dropped back behind me. It worked. The field stayed behind me pegged in the gutter for the next 5 miles as Blair slowly rode away.

Meanwhile, up the road, the break had stopped working together and were eyeing each other for the finish. Blair caught the break at the last second and was able to contest the finish taking 3rd! Unbelievable. They were out of site when we started the last lap. Mark Brown gave the rest of us a great leadout into the finish. Todd won the field sprint, hitting a top speed of 46mph. I spun out my gears, clinging onto 5th in the sprint for (I think) 12th overall.

I came
I bonked
I finished

The End

At the start line I did the mental math and put two and two together to find out there was no way i could finish the race and still keep my job: bummer.

I did however race really hard for two laps, figure out exactly what I need to do to get faster (aside from forget there are bars and Ice Cream in town) and then go to Taco Bell: Killer.

As Im writing this the race is still going on and Rish and Fish are no doubt killing it, good luck guys.

The first real race of the year sucks. I was never so happy to have a chain break. For all of those out there riding 10 speed chains. Change them at least once a year.