Today I had my partner in crime, crazy tracy in the men's cat 3 race. The
goal was to use it as motorpacing and hopefully have something left at the
end. My legs were pretty pooped from all the sprints in the crit, but I was
going to give it a shot.
Well, the race started off and bam, people were already off the front. Four
guys were gone. I tried to stay near the front and one guy was trying hard
to ride me off his wheel. I made myself stick like glue. Erick was on the front
and off the front chasing like crazy to try to catch the guys. I settled back
into the pack with Tracy and just tried to hang on. They have this habbit of
attacking on every little hill and it was killing me. Tracy gave me a push
at one point and I yelled at her to hang in there on another climb. We were
going pretty good. At one point I asked a fellow rider how fast we were going, "27mph" he
replied. We were going much faster than last year! We flew along and into the
second lap we caught one of the guys from the break! A little while later,
another one. With about 6 miles to go there was one guy left. Scott tried hard
to bring it back. Even tried to get the guys going, but no one listened. Finally,
it was coming down to the sprint. There were several attacks and Tracy popped
off. I tried to keep my witts about me. I told Eric that since it was windy,
stay hidden and be careful, the sprint will start early. This happens every
year. It is a really long stretch and someone always goes to early and poops
out before the finish. My mind kept going back and forth, first I thought that
I had good legs, then no, then yes, YIKES! I moved up and slowly moved over
and a guy behind me shoved me back. I moved over and the guy shoved me again.
I yelled, "stop it!" Then I moved over again. Do I have legs? I hope
so. I waited and waited, and with just under 1k to go and into the headwind
Eric jumped. Wow he is going early! I just didn't have it in my legs. The hills
took it out of me! I hung on and just finished with the field.
Rock Hill Crit 4/2
Well, I missed the street sprints last night. If the promoter would have posted
start times I think that the turn out would have been greater. As with a lot
of folks I just couldn't get out of work earlier.
The crit had about 40 women on a super windy Saturday morning, including Lynn
Bessette formerly of Quark/Saturn and current Quarkster Candice Blinken. My
goal was to go after all the cash primes and the win. The first prime Candice
and Lynn went for it. I stayed hidden from the wind and came off Candice's
wheel and snagged the prime. The next one was easier. No one went except for
me. I tried to go, but Lynn tracked me down. She worked the hardest of everyone.
Chasing just about everything down. She helped me out by keeping the field
together. Immediately after my second prime they called another prime. I wasn't
really going to go for it, but my former nemisis, The Beast, went for it. I
sprinted next to her, just barely staying in front of her. As she gave more,
I gave a little more, until she cracked and sat down while I continued on.
There were 6 laps to go and the gave out 2 more primes, but I wanted to be
fresh for the win. I didn't really know what Candice or Lynn had left in their
legs, plus there were a couple of other folks that I hadn't seen and I didn't
want an attack while I was spent to spoil the win.
With the last lap coming I set up for the sprint. Things kind of bunched up
and I was in the front. Not where I wanted to be with such a strong head wind.
With about 200 meters to go I got a little itchy. When in doubt, lead it out,
and I went for it. Lynn was on my wheel, but couldn't come around and I grabbed
the win!
