Category: W1/2+3
Field Size: 26+17
Length: 55 minutes
Teammate: Ange
Place: 11th
The course was a nice flat four-corner loop going clockwise. The roads were fairly wide, and apart from a couple of bumpy bits of pavement and manhole covers, the road quality was pretty good. I met my teammate Ange for the first time the day before at her farewell BBQ, since she's flying back to Australia today. I was glad to get to do at least one race with her before she goes away, and we had a pretty good race together.
The race started off at a decent pace, but not super fast. There were some attacks, and I did my part in chasing them down occasionally. Ange was up there too doing a great job staying active in the race. I know I saw her follow groups up the road a number of times making sure nothing got away from us. At one point I heard her behind me telling me to go, so I went, and actually both of us got up front and got a good attack in - or so I thought: I'd forgotten that they'd called a prime and forgot to sprint for it, so I lost it at the line. I was so focused on trying to get in a break that I forgot to keep track of when I should sprint for primes. It's not the first time I've been rather confused about when primes are - I think I've sprinted for a couple that weren't there in past races, and generally I don't try to contest them unless I'm feeling really great. Ah well, this will teach me to keep better track of things in the future. With about 10-15 minutes left in the race a break of 6-8 people made it off the front and got a 6-8 second gap on the field. Since neither Ange nor I made it into the break, I did my best to either bridge or chase it down with a number of attacks, but I just didn't have it in me.
I made one last attack on back stretch of the last lap hoping to get away one last time, but I just didn't have it, so I rounded the last corner about 10th wheel in the pack. The road was wide open, so I decided to sprint for it anyway, and I actually had a pretty good sprint, I just started too far back to place well. For the first time ever, I sprinted properly by getting out of the saddle and pushing a big gear, and it felt surprisingly natural. In previous races I'd always just stayed pretty much in the saddle pushing a somewhat big gear but spinning more than anything, but that always led to slower acceleration. Standing out of the saddle helped my acceleration more than anything I think. Anyway, I had a good race and it was great to get to finally race with Ange.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Beat the Clock Time Trial 7/31/2010
Category: Open Women
Length: 9.7 miles
Field Size: 10
Place: 2nd
Beat the Clock is a low-key time trial series that raises money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG). It's not technically a race, but it's nice to be able to do the course and compare times to other people and your own previous times (since it's a series on the same course). Jose and I got to the course rather later than we'd intended, but we'd decided to go to sleep early the night before and had to get up early for our 7:12 and 7:26 start times, and we weren't really packed in the morning. As a result, I didn't get in very much of a warm up, but I felt pretty good anyway. It was a chilly morning, but at least it wasn't windy. I was the first woman to start, so there was a minute gap in front of me. I felt good on the way out, and shortly after the turnaround I actually passed the guy in front of me. A while later, I passed one more guy and eventually made it to the finish still going strong. Despite the short warmup, I think I had a pretty good TT and pushed hard the whole way.
Length: 9.7 miles
Field Size: 10
Place: 2nd
Beat the Clock is a low-key time trial series that raises money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG). It's not technically a race, but it's nice to be able to do the course and compare times to other people and your own previous times (since it's a series on the same course). Jose and I got to the course rather later than we'd intended, but we'd decided to go to sleep early the night before and had to get up early for our 7:12 and 7:26 start times, and we weren't really packed in the morning. As a result, I didn't get in very much of a warm up, but I felt pretty good anyway. It was a chilly morning, but at least it wasn't windy. I was the first woman to start, so there was a minute gap in front of me. I felt good on the way out, and shortly after the turnaround I actually passed the guy in front of me. A while later, I passed one more guy and eventually made it to the finish still going strong. Despite the short warmup, I think I had a pretty good TT and pushed hard the whole way.
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