Topsport Stage Race: Road Race 3/28/2010

Category: W1/2/3
Field Size: 17
Length: 69 miles
Place: DNF (flat)

The course was a really strange shape, consisting of a 24 mile loop that included two turnarounds. We started at the same place that the TT started, and the first five miles were the same, but then we turned right at a T intersection and went into a loop where we had the whole road (since the yellow line was almost nonexistent - I think I saw a glimpse of yellow paint once) and the road quality varied from somewhat rough to very rough. Obstacles included at least three cattle grates, one of which was preceded by 10 meters of gravel and followed by a lovely dirty puddle to make it a triple annoyance. The loop came back to the same T intersection (rejoining the road a couple hundred meters before it) and went straight across the top of the T for a long out-and-back section that included the feed zone, which was across from the finish line coming back. The road quality improved for this section, but was still not great. The turnaround was extremely narrow, being just the width of the road, which consisted of two narrow lanes. Riders had to slow down and practically wait in line to get around it, which was terrible because then the first people around would take off like mad while the rest of the pack was still making its way around. Then it was back past the finish line to the T again, where we turned right and head back towards where we'd started. There was the other turnaround, which was also quite narrow. Since there were six fields out on the course at a time, everyone had to slow down and stay in lane for the turns at the T, since there could be another pack coming through from another direction.

The race started out at a leisurely pace for the first couple of miles, since no one was really warmed up because our race started about 20 minutes late. The pace picked up soon enough and we really got moving, especially since people started attacking. I'm not sure when the attack went, but one of the ladies on the Third Pillar team (there were two there) went off the front by herself. She actually got pretty far away, and she was out there for a very long time, probably around 15 miles or more, though I wasn't really paying attention to time or mileage. At the second turnaround on the first lap, I was stuck in the back and had to chase down the pack for about a minute to catch back on - there were at least five of us straggling behind trying to catch back on, and I think at about three people did get dropped then. At times I felt like I was hanging onto the pack for dear life in order to not get dropped, but thinking back I think I had a lot more in me than I thought at the time. I think I was a bit intimidated by the pace and the caliber of ladies in the race. Everything was going fine for me, despite being last in the small pack pretty much the whole time, until I hit an unexpected pothole. It was around mile 41 or so, on the way back towards the T before the finish line. I was in the back of the pack, and pretty much just following the wheel in front of me, since I couldn't always see the road ahead. It was a solitary pothole in an otherwise fine section of road, and I think it snuck up on everyone, since the person in front of me barely swerved in time to miss it. I was less fortunate and hit it straight on. I was fine and still riding, and the rider in front of me apologized for letting me hit it like that, but a few seconds later I realized that I had a rear flat - the impact of the pothole gave me a nasty pinch flat. At that point, I wrongly assumed that I was out of the race and should just give up, since I hadn't had any wheels to put in the follow car. Unfortunately, it turns out that I'm actually an idiot and I should have flagged him down anyway, since apparently he had spare wheels anyway (it was supposed to be wheels in wheels out, but I guess he just happened to have spares). Anyway, he didn't see that I had a flat and I didn't flag him down, so I was stuck. I rode the flat tire to the finish line/feed zone where someone was nice enough to give me a tube and a pump so that I could ride back to the parking lot. I'm still kicking myself for not checking, since even though a flat would have caused a big delay, there's still a small chance that I would have been able to catch the pack again and at least hold on to my second place in the GC. I heard afterwords that when the rider in 3rd in the GC realized that I wasn't with the pack anymore that she upped the pace to make sure I wouldn't get back on, though no one knew that I'd flatted, so given that it's probable that I wouldn't have been able to chase successfully, but it's just awful knowing that I could have tried and didn't. Anyway, I won't make that mistake next time I get a flat, especially if it's in a stage race, since this is the second time I've lost 2nd place due to a mishap.