March 3 & 4 weekend race report

Sorry again...somehow i have to force myself to get some darn pictures! Anyhow the college team traveled to Greenville, SC again this weekend for road races. It was the same race course as saturday last weekend and we did the same thing both days...a little boring but good training non the less. So here are the quick run downs:

Saturday:
We had a large field of women, i would say 50+!!! The pace was pretty tame, especailly because there was a strong wind, so whoever was at the front was doing a lot of work, hats off to Mo (one of my teammates who was pretty much on the front all day). I really focused on trying to keep all the team in the race and getting Jo (another teammate who came from triathlons) to feel comfortable in the pack. Jo dropped on the first lap last week but we knew she had the power to hang in with the girls. So after some romping around this week we threw her in the mix and i just helped her along, teaching her all the things the guys back in MI taught me...use the pack to protect yourself, pay attention to the wind and base your positioning off of that, etc. It worked like a charm and before the finish she was doing everything without any prompt!!! I was so proud! Ok, so for the finish. We were coming up the final climb (not too steep or long) and the Cheerwine girls (Beth and Clara - Clara also rides for the collegiate team but usually races with Cheer when they are around) come flying up the left, Beth pulls off and Clara books it for the finish, which is a long ways off at this point (at least 800-1000m out I would say. I thought someone would jump on it and i could tag along, but no such luck. Mo had just done a hard pull up to the front girls so i felt like i had better do something...which of course ment i was going to have to start working a lot harder than i had planned a lot earlier than i had planned. I geared up and started off in pursuit of Clara who at this point had quite a lead on all of us. As I passed i heard Mo say something along the lines of "you better win"! I could tell I was starting to gain and I just prayed she was running out of energy becuase I didn't know if i would be able to catch her. I got to her rear tire just before the 200m marker and was EXAUSTED...so much so that I had forgotten to check behind me and see how close the next girl was. This resulted in Clara easing off and my doing the same sense I figured i would recover for a few strokes before i got ready to go for the line. Well, another girl came flying by on the left and I thought to myself "how am i going to explain this...i had better get her". I was skeptical at first but was able to nab her by about a half wheel or so at the line for the win of the day! Lets just say i was pretty worked over and only sat in on the guys race for a few laps before deciding to cool down and call it a day.

Sunday:
Womens field was much smaller and the day was much easier overall. Not as many attacks and the wind wasn't as strong. I basically sat in and kept myself protected for the majority of the race. Once again making sure the girls on the team were doing ok and trying to help them out. I taught Ally that when your chain falls off to the inside of the chainrings 99% of the time you can just shift up and get it to catch back on...she was lucky to have me there sense i can remember the numerous times that happened to me in NRC races when I thought the only way to get the chain back on was to actually get off the bike completely and do it by hand, which resulted in a lot of pain on my part trying to chase packs down. Jo did great and i focused more on just getting her to start understanding tactical stuff through out the day. All of our girls raced really well and I think we looked great out there as a team. We will be a force to recon with at collegiate races, especially becuase we will also have Clara racing with us. O i forgot about the finish, it was a pack sprint. Mo, Ally, and Jo pulled up the last hill and then I jumped on a few other girls but Mo was close on my wheel. One girl jumped and Mo grabbed her wheel so i took the 3rd position and kept an eye out for any others attempting to come around...no one tried. Once i felt it was safe and i have enough power i left the draft behind and punched it to the line taking the "W" for the day!

So much for a quick run down. I appologize for those of you who don't understand some of the bike jargon...just drop a comment with any questions and I would be happy to do my best at answering! Overall a good racing weekend and this week has some ineresting training in store so we will see how that treats me!

Take care all!!!