It was a Learning Experience

Marlton-Evesham-Marlton Crit
Open Women's Race
Crit: 20 laps, 20 miles

Course: Fantastic course...sweeping corners, beautiful road surface, one small bump in the road up to the finish line.

Field: 27 to start...including 8 riders from Verducci (a couple of Cat 1s ans 2s) and 2 Sturdies (Sally and Me)

Race: It was pretty fast from the start, with Verducci launching their trademark attacks every lap. The problem with them is that you HAVE to chase every attack. You can't let one of them go, because each of them individually can ride away from the pack. Of course, you REALLY don't want to let them get out there with two riders...then you're in trouble.

This said, Sally and I spent a lot of the race chasing down the attacks. A lot of the other riders seemed content (of course) to let us do this and to not help, even with our polite "urging." Eventually, one Verducci got off the front and no one seemed to be chasing. Coming into one turn, I launched an attack and found myself off the front. This was good. The bad part was that I had a Verducci rider with me. Uh-oh...come on everyone...say it together...what is about to happen to me? COUNTER-ATTACK! Oh, crap! She attacked me before I could recover from my attack and bridged up to her teammate. Yes, that's right...leaving me in limbo-land between the two leaders and the pack. I managed to TT for about 3 laps until I was caught with just over one lap left in the race. Sally tried to work her stalling magic again this week, but to no avail! Thanks for giving it one heck of a try! :) I tried to reserve some strength for the final sprint, but had nothing left in the tank.

I ended up at the back of the field, finishing 17th out of 19 finishers. Sally was 12th on the day.

What I learned:

- Sometimes taking chances works...sometimes it doesn't. But it feels SOOOO good to try!

- Positioning is everything. I was really proud of myself in this race with my positioning in the pack. I was in the front half the whole time, so reacting to attacks was easy and I felt good. It was the first time I felt like I really held my place in the field well.