3969 miles later I had checked out. The majority of the 243 hours I had spent on my bike since January were alone. It was cold, then it was windy, then it was windy again and then it was hot.
"Will race for cookies." True story. A friend promised to bake me snicker doodles in exchange for my race entry. Done deal.
Start time was 12:15PM. It was hot.
The race consisted of two, eighteen mile loops. There were twenty five women in the Cat 4 Race, fourteen of them were from the same team. We got off to a slow start. I looked down and saw 14mph, then 16mph...and it stayed there. Seriously? Is this a "C" Ride?
Fifteen minutes was about all I could stand of that. I moved to the front of the field and turned on the gas, which was exactly what I was instructed NOT to do. I stayed on the front, trying to be aggressive and pushing the pace for most of the first lap. After one last attack through the feed zone, I settled back in to recover. My thought was we'd either finish with a group sprint or someone would make a move on the set of rollers with nine miles to go. It was the latter and I was on the wrong wheel. The lead group of five stayed in sight but I never caught them. I time trialed my was to an 8th place finish. which was a place or two better than I had expected.
When it comes to road racing, my downfall is that I race hard, not smart. I'm counting down the days until CX season.
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