I honestly was not expecting much from the race, other than trying to enjoy it, stay safe, and place top 10 to help with the BAT points race. I am coming from 2 weeks of minimal riding, and a weekend wedding enjoyed perhaps a bit too much! ;) It was so great to see all the girls (our team and others) and I instantly remembered all the reasons I race as soon as I pulled up! I felt relaxed, social, and just happy to be there. It was a perfect temperature, although a bit windy. I rode around with Shelley and Rob for a warmup, and came to the line nice and loose…and full of rocket fuel! The biggest threats were Mcguire, with Martina, Taitt, Holly, and the redhead whose name I always forget! Also there were several Los Gatos, Tracy and Alexis of P.A.B.W., Mary Maroon, and the super sprinter from Velo Girls. I told Lori that the V.G. would win, so stick on that wheel. I wasn’t even factoring myself in for the final sprint!
Anyway, Mcguire led the first lap, and then I went slowly up to the front to try to burn off some of the sugar. I kept it easy on the two headwind sections, keeping an eye out for anyone wanting to pass me. When we hit turn 3 and entered into the tailwind stretch, I hit the gas a bit and pulled hard through the start/finish. After turn 1, Taitt countered, with Emily from Los Gatos on her wheel. I jumped with them and we were 1-2-3 through the second turn. I looked back, saw that we had a gap and yelled “go, go go!” and we went, went, went! I knew this break was perfect – we are three riders who love to work, and we all had the numbers back in the field. The one drawback was that I was with 2 sprinters, but oh, well, no time to think about that now! At any rate, we went hard for the rest of the race and it actually felt pretty good. We kept yelling for times, but it was so windy that we couldn’t hear! The one time we did hear, we were at 20 sec., which we weren’t quite comfortable with, so we drilled it and by the end it was 1:20. Pat Briggs and Jamiel both said after that they couldn’t believe the distance we had achieved!
Apparently, there was a lot of action back in the field, with a lot of riders trying to bridge up. Shelley, Lori and the Mcguire girls covered everything, blocked, and helped our break stay away to the end. I couldn’t have done it without them! Needless to say, I was outsprinted in the end. I should have attacked earlier, as I was guaranteed 3rd anyway, but oh, well…20/20 hindsight messes with the head everytime! All in all, staying away from lap 2 and a podium finish was a good way to re-enter the season. Huge thanks to Shelley (who won the field sprint for 4th!) and Lori (another awesome leadout!) - Emily
Anyway, Mcguire led the first lap, and then I went slowly up to the front to try to burn off some of the sugar. I kept it easy on the two headwind sections, keeping an eye out for anyone wanting to pass me. When we hit turn 3 and entered into the tailwind stretch, I hit the gas a bit and pulled hard through the start/finish. After turn 1, Taitt countered, with Emily from Los Gatos on her wheel. I jumped with them and we were 1-2-3 through the second turn. I looked back, saw that we had a gap and yelled “go, go go!” and we went, went, went! I knew this break was perfect – we are three riders who love to work, and we all had the numbers back in the field. The one drawback was that I was with 2 sprinters, but oh, well, no time to think about that now! At any rate, we went hard for the rest of the race and it actually felt pretty good. We kept yelling for times, but it was so windy that we couldn’t hear! The one time we did hear, we were at 20 sec., which we weren’t quite comfortable with, so we drilled it and by the end it was 1:20. Pat Briggs and Jamiel both said after that they couldn’t believe the distance we had achieved!
Apparently, there was a lot of action back in the field, with a lot of riders trying to bridge up. Shelley, Lori and the Mcguire girls covered everything, blocked, and helped our break stay away to the end. I couldn’t have done it without them! Needless to say, I was outsprinted in the end. I should have attacked earlier, as I was guaranteed 3rd anyway, but oh, well…20/20 hindsight messes with the head everytime! All in all, staying away from lap 2 and a podium finish was a good way to re-enter the season. Huge thanks to Shelley (who won the field sprint for 4th!) and Lori (another awesome leadout!) - Emily
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