Merced Crit 2/28/2010

Category: W4
Field Size: 22
Length: 20 laps
Teammates: Heather and Nancy
Place: 5th (Heather), 8th (Nancy), and DNP (me)

The Merced Crit course had 3 right turns plus a loop around the courthouse with a chicane right after. Road quality was decent, although there were some bumps all around the courthouse. The race course was crowded though, due to the fact that the race organizers scheduled one time slot for 22 Cat 4 women, 10 Cat 3 women, and 20 Cat 1/2 women. They ended up starting the 1/2/3 women in one group, then 30 seconds later the 4 women. We got passed once, but the race also ended a couple of laps early for the 4's field to avoid field overlap at the finish. Unfortunately, my race ended even earlier. With about 6 laps to go, I crashed on the second corner. I was about seventh in the line at the front of the pack, and I was distracted by seeing the first rider around the corner hit the lip of the gutter and nearly go down. Unfortunately, since she had taken a bad line, and I had been watching her, I accidentally took the same line and was down before I knew it. I tried to spring back up and get on my bike, but a half second after standing up the pain kicked in - I had road rash on my right upper thigh. Instead, I rode back to the start hoping that there were enough laps left to get back in by taking a free lap, but there were only five left. They had the medic lady clean my wound, and neither of us realized that I had another scrape until noticed a hole in my sock. I had also scraped a layer of skin off of my ankle, on the bony part that sticks out. I hadn't even noticed the pain since I was paying much more attention to the larger wound. Anyway, I got cleaned up just in time to watch Nancy and Heather in the final sprint. I saw Nancy going up the center just behind a couple of others, then I noticed that Heather was sneaking around the right side to snatch 5th place. I later learned that Heather had actually lost one of her contacts and rode the last lap half blind, so well done Heather!

I was disappointed that I crashed, since I think I could have placed well or won, but it wasn't the end of the world. I knew that I'd have plenty of other races to do, so there was no point in getting all upset. Dwelling on the past is no way to move forward in life - or bike racing! I've been learning something from every race I do, and I think the lesson this time was to pay better attention and to not blindly trust the choices that other people (especially Cat 4's) make on corners.