I'll begin by noting that the weekend of the race was the wort weekend I've had in a couple of years (for those who don't know what a couple is, couple = 2), including a huge panic attack. I haven't had one like that in ages; I had forgotten how horrible they felt. I didn't race the road race on the 12th due to work, so I only raced the crit on the 13th. After having such a large anxiety attack on Saturday night, I figured that if simply finishing the crit would be an accomplishment.
I got packed and drove to William Land Park. When I got to registration I noticed that the time for my division was moved to 10:20am instead of the original 9:30am start. Crap, because I had somewhere to be after the race! Turns out that the Men's D class was divided into 2 fields because. I'm not sure why because when I saw the first wave, the size didn't seem extraordinary so who knows what the reasoning was. The first wave had one CSUS rider. The second wave had two. You could probably guess that CSUS was completely outnumbered by every other school!
On to my division, which was starting even later. My boyfriend, Randy, had gotten there in the middle of the second Men's D wave and took some pictures. I lined up with the rest of the girls. One of the UCD coaches (I'm assuming. I know they had a coach there), came up and said that because this was a first race for a few riders, there were going to do a 2-lap pacelining clinic. Damn... It was late, I wanted to get this over with before nerves got to me, and I needed to be somewhere... did I mention that we were already starting fairly late? Okay.. I can appreciate what they're doing, but what a shitty day (for me) for the schedule to get all messed up.
I was put in a group with several Humboldt riders, one of them who was riding in regular running shoes and flat pedals. As we were taking turns at the front, Flat Pedal took her turn and when she moved off, instead of going to the back of the paceline, she cut the second person off. No big, shit happens. She got corrected and all was well. On her second turn, the exact same thing, but before she hit the 2nd rider (one of her teammates) and the 3rd (me), we both said, "NOT YET!"
The issue I had with the mini clinic was that they put emphasis on pacelining instead of riding as a group. But I guess that comes more naturally with experience. I'm pretty sure I rode more paceline-like in my first couple of races.
We lined up for the actual race and started. It was a 30-minute race. The group quickly separated into those who have race and the bran new racers. UC Davis had about 4 or 5 girls working together. I was the only CSUS rider. I got to the front, Davis was drafting me and wouldn't switch off so I started to yo-yo with a purpose of making someone move to the front. Davis took that bait. Then they send an attack, which I countered and heard the Davis rider yell, "DAMMIT!" Apparently, she was pissed (Randy has a picture). Hey, toots. It's racing. Your plans aren't always going to go as intended. Another attack, in which UCD, UCLA, and I were in the breakaway for a bit. We all got back together.
Prime lap and UCD and I attacked. I got 2nd for the prime. First time I've ever gotten any sort of prime. I backed off. UCD kept sending kept sending attacks, which I didn't counter after a while because I wanted to have some legs for the last lap. UCD was getting pretty anxious, mostly because their attacks weren't weeding anyone off, I think (UCLA, Humboldt, and I were on them like flies on caca), and they were making some stupid, stupid mistakes. I called an inside for a corner and nearly got pinned on the curb. Whether it was intentional because they were pissed or a mistake, I don't know, but it happened several times. Another UCD girl nearly rammed into me even though I made sure she knew I was there. Choice words were said. Eh, it happens.
On the last lap, I made sure I didn't get boxed in. I attacked on the last corner by making a really tight turn since most of the time, all of the girls would slow down since they yelled out "slowing!" on every. single. corner. Knowing that I could make quick, tight corners, I decided to use the gap they opened on the inside and tacked. A few girls were in front of me, we sped up, and finished. I wasn't sure of my placing, but fuck it, I finished, avoided crashes, and that was that.
Got my results and I got 6th out of 23 girls with points for a prime. I left to get to Randy's dad's 60th birthday party in Placerville. I didn't get to see the rest of the races, so I don't know how the guys in the Men's C and A did.
In my next crit, I'm going to try and ride a bit more defensively instead of offensively. Maybe I'll be able to save some energy if I don't work as much and I'll be able to get a better placing. Pictures will hopefully be posted soon. For now, training until the next race.
No comments:
Post a Comment