Cantua Creek Road Race 2/13/2010

Category: W4
Field Size: 22
Length: 52 miles
Teammates: Nancy
Places: 1st (me) and 3rd (Nancy)

The Cantua Creek road race was 52 miles on a mostly flat course with some rolling hills and larger hill at the start/finish/turnaround. The course was 13 miles out, 13 back, 13 out, 13 back, so we got to climb the hill twice. The race was very boring for at least the first 39 miles, with the pace being very slow, and there being no serious attacks. As a result, the pack was a little dangerous at times, when half the pack would pass the other half because they got fed up with the slow pace. I think that for me the worst parts where when I was riding on the left side of the pack and people to my right would crowd me such that I had to either move forward (not usually any space), to my left (across the double yellow), or back. As a result, I spent a lot of time at the very back of the pack, which didn't worry me too much since it was obvious that nothing exciting was going to happen in the earlier parts. However, it was a very good learning experience for me, and I got some good practice moving up in the pack. The race only got interesting in the last 10 minutes (I'm not sure how many miles it was), and it was because I decided that it was finally time to make a move. I reasoned that there was no way that I would last in a breakaway for very long on the flat section, since the pack had been going so slowing that they had to have a lot of energy left, so I timed my move to be close to the end. I also wanted to avoid having the finish be decided by a bunch of fresh skinny people on an uphill, since I wasn't sure that I could beat them in a sprint. I attacked going into a small uphill with a big sprint, so that I managed to open up a sizable gap right away, since I didn't want to just pull the pack, and I knew that if I waited for someone to get on my wheel to go with, the whole pack would be with me. I was out front by myself for a couple of minutes, but I got caught by two other girls on an overpass. They had bridged to me and we still had some space on the rest of the field, though I wasn't looking back very much to check. Despite being caught, it was actually my salvation, as I was beginning to tire from my continued hard effort. I managed to draft the pair of them as we went over some of the remaining hills (the hills got bigger near the finish), and was soon rested enough to attack again. I knew that I needed to keep attacking and keep my pace up, as I think at that point we were slowing and some of the field was getting closer. I dropped the two ladies with me and went as hard as I could up the finishing climb. My attack had helped string out the pack and gave Nancy the chance to break away to follow me up the hill, along with one other girl, and I could hear Nancy cheering me on as we went up the final hill. I managed to hang onto my lead, and Nancy pulled off 3rd place, with the rest of the pack quite a ways behind us. So although the race started out being boring, it was a great finish for both of us - it was my first road race, and Nancy's first podium finish!