Topsport Stage Race: Circuit Race 3/27/2010

Category: W1/2/3
Field Size: 17
Length: 75 minutes
Place: 14th

The course was a loop of about six miles that mostly consisted of an out-and-back section on a divided road, followed by a loop through Copper Town Square and then back out. The course went clockwise, which meant that on the out-and-back section, we rode on the left side and took our U-turn to the right. The finish line was located just before the town square so that it could be on a straight section. Road quality was very good, and the terrain was slightly rolling, but no big hills. There were sprints for a 5-second time bonus at the end of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th laps.

The race started out fairly calmly, but soon people started attacking. There were four girls from Touchstone Climbing there, and twice one of them (different ones) attacked and stayed off the front solo for a while. The pack chased them down, but we took our time about it. I had kind of planned to contest the bonus sprints, since I didn't know how I'd done in the TT, but I was boxed in for two of them, and went too late to win the other. On the turnaround on the third lap, I was out front chasing down another girl and I took the turn wide, coming out of it all the way on the left. I must have taken a worse line than the people behind me, since one girl was behind me and passed me but was still going wide herself, so despite my verbal warnings, she effectively rode me into the gravel on the side of the road, since I had nowhere to go, and I think if I had let her actually hit me, we would have caused a big crash. Luckily I got right back going again back on the road, but I was all the way in the back of the pack again, so it was really annoying. I stayed in the back most of the time after that, but by the last lap I was getting rather restless. I made a solo attack maybe 1.5 miles from the finish, but I went too early and got caught, and then passed by a whole leadout train. I burned a little too much energy to break into that train so it passed me by and I hung onto the end and finished at the back of the pack.

I definitely learned a lot from the race, since it was the first time I'd been in a race where teamwork played a big role. With four Touchstone and four Dolce Vita ladies all sorts of possibilities opened up. The Touchstone ladies kept the pack on our toes by attacking and then also by feinting attacks before the sprint to distract us so that another of their ladies could attack on the other side. It was also good to see just how strong/fast W1/2/3 races are, since this was my first time in a combined field.