Bicycles Plus Winter Criterium
The crit took place on February 9th. It's not a technical course at all and it's pretty much a D-shape... or a stupid looking horseshoe, whichever you prefer. It's fast, so the field tends to stay together. I usually do well in this criterium, except that this time, I'm against the P/1/2s. When I looked at the start list the night before and saw that Marley Smith was signed up, I pretty much did this:
Eh, oh well. The race was pretty uneventful, except that some chick from Folsom Bike kept bumping into me even after I told her to quit it. I get that in a crit we're going to bump into each other, but four or five times is a bit excessive. So... stop. I was pretty annoyed, but then I got over it.
Marley Smith and one of her teammates broke away. She always pulls that move on that course and she gets away every time. A couple of teams had the numbers to pull them back in, but no one really did any work. I tried a couple of times and failed, because I'm still not fast at all compared to those girls, so eh... I just tried to survive. Didn't sprint at the end because the race was pretty much over. It was a fast race.
The Cherry Pie Criterium
The next day I decided to race Cherry Pie for some stupid reason. I had never raced that crit before, so I thought it would be fun or something. There were about seven or eight pros in my field when I checked the registered riders the night before, so I figured I'd get dropped on the second or third lap since there's a hill. I basically felt how this little guy looks when I lined up with a bunch of pros:
As the race started, I kept up with the field, with the surges, and so on. The hill began to hurt. It's not a big or long (that's what she said) hill, but when you have a big ass while trying to keep up with freakin' pros, it hurts. I eventually got dropped, 25 minutes into the race, with two other riders. Why did I get dropped? For some stupid, stupid reason, I touched my brakes before the 90-degree turn at the bottom of the hill. I didn't even grab brake, I just touched, and that was enough.
Bad touch.
Oh well. Lesson learned. Other riders dropped out, but three of us worked together. That damn hill started to hurt after some time. To add insult to injury, there was a headwind on the hill, too, so the hill went from this:
To this:
To this:
I completely got my ass handed to me, but I was happy. Why? Because I learned how to ride a bike almost five years ago, started racing, and now I'm able to keep up with some of the fastest women out there for a good chunk of the race. Who would have thunk? While it's hard going from being one of the top dogs in the Women's 4 to being low man on the totem pole in the Women's P/1/2/3, I'm happy that I'm improving every single race. I've only done three P/1/2/3 races, and each one gets better and better.
After the race, I got on the trainer and spun for an hour while the men's P/1/2 race was going. I hung out with Boyfriend, who, by the way, got fourth in his race (Master's 1/2/3). So close to that cherry pie... yet so far. We cheered my CAT 2 teammate, Kevin, in the race. After that, we went home and I ate soup.
And that's that. My next race has a Women's 3 category. Let's see how I place in a group of women who are strictly 3s.
After the race, I got on the trainer and spun for an hour while the men's P/1/2 race was going. I hung out with Boyfriend, who, by the way, got fourth in his race (Master's 1/2/3). So close to that cherry pie... yet so far. We cheered my CAT 2 teammate, Kevin, in the race. After that, we went home and I ate soup.
And that's that. My next race has a Women's 3 category. Let's see how I place in a group of women who are strictly 3s.
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