Category: Elite/U23 Women
Field Size: 17 U23 + 54 Elite
Distance: 50km (39 laps)
Place: 52nd
I got the chance to preview the course that morning, before everything was setup. It was a pretty standard rectangular course, five blocks long and one block wide. Road quality was pretty good, but you had to watch out for the curb because the road got wider for parking spaces, but then the curb would abruptly narrow the course again. The short side between turn 3 and turn 4 was also a bit of a bottleneck, since there was a slight rise going into turn 3, then a narrower road, followed by a slightly off-camber turn going slightly downhill into the finishing stretch.
I got in a good warmup, and I was feeling fairly good at the start. I didn't get a great position on the line, so I started near the back and soon lost position and was all the way in the back. It started out quite fast, and I wasn't quite up to cutting off corner-divers, so naturally I got pushed back. Unfortunately, with such a large field, this meant that every turn I had to slow down rather a lot then sprint out of each turn to stay with the pack. The constant reaccelerating combined with the rather fast average speed really wore me down. I think I stayed with the pack for about 8 laps, then spent maybe 3-4 laps chasing on then losing contact again. I was so close to staying with the pack, but they were just going too fast. Me and another lady were dropped at the same time, so for a couple more laps we were chasing together. At that point I decided to keep going as hard as I could until I got pulled, just in case the pack ever slowed down and I'd have a chance to get back on. I think I rode about 5 laps by myself before they finally pulled me. In a way, those laps were easier because I could take the corners closer to full speed, so I could save energy that way. However, I couldn't go as fast as the pack by myself. It was the first race that I've ever been pulled from, but considering who I was up against, I think I did all right.
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