Nationals Road Race 6/27/2010

Category: Elite/U23 Women
Field Size: 62 +17 U23
Distance: 113km (~70 miles)
Place: DNF
Teammate: Emily (?)

The course was somewhat rolling with a couple of longer climbs. It was four laps, each with about 1000 ft of climbing. The first longer climb was right before the feed zone, which was on a lesser incline. Then there was a descent, and a couple of miles later there was a much steeper climb, though the steepest portion was relatively short. Emily and I arrived nice and early and got in a nice easy warmup. The morning was a bit chilly, but by the time the race started it was warm enough to take off the arm warmers.

We started off and the whole first lap was a relatively easy pace. Much of the time I was sheltered enough in the pack to not have to work much except on the rolling hills. I dropped back a bit on the climbs, but I stayed with the pack. On the second lap, near the beginning there was a small crash, but it was off to the side and I stayed with the pack. Going into the pre-feed zone climb wasn't too bad, but then I think a couple of people near the front made a move (I believe there were three people up the road at the time) on the hill. I wasn't able to hold the faster pace up the hill, and I got dropped, along with a couple of other people. I chased hard through the feed zone to catch onto a group, and we got five of us together. In that group was me, Emily, two other U23s, and an elite rider. We worked together and tried to catch another small group that had been dropped from the main pack, but we didn't make much progress. I may have expended too much energy trying to chase, because I lost contact at the top of the last steep hill. I wasn't far behind on the descent, and at the end of the second lap I wasn't far back at all. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to chase and stay with that group, my back had other ideas. My lower back had been aching all week, perhaps due to spending 7.5 hours in a car on Wednesday, and it had only been feeling worse. Then, all of the climbing threw it over the edge, from a dull ache to an extremely painful tight feeling. When I was chasing, I felt it pulling and hurting with every pedal stroke, and from experience I knew it would only get worse. At that point I decided that it wasn't worth it to finish. After my experience at Panoche, I knew that even if I was able to hang on for a 3rd lap, I wouldn't be able to do the 4th, and after the 3rd I would be in really excruciating pain, which doesn't sound too appetizing when I was looking at a 9.5 hour drive home that afternoon.

This was the first race that I've really made a conscious choice to pull out of, but I think I made the right choice. I'm glad that I started the race (I had thought about not registering for it), and it was good experience, but I wouldn't have gained almost anything by continuing with little hope of finishing. Now I know my biggest weakness and I will work through the rest of this season and winter to strengthen my back so that this doesn't happen next year.

Anyway, congratulations to Emily for finishing, especially despite having an unhappy derailleur that wouldn't keep her in the correct gear. She likes hills, and I have to learn to like hills.