Glad That's Out of The Way

The first race of the season, that is.  I was on the fence about racing this early in the season.  It's always hard for me to get motivated in March, and I usually don't really hit the road until later in the month (of course, I guess it is already the 17th!)...

But, BChan and Borda convinced me to do a TRAINING race.  Yes, that's right... a TRAINING race. I had to keep telling myself - it's just like doing Greentree on Thursday.  It's the same guys, it's a simple little loop, it's gonna be a piece of cake.  Sit in.  Ride some wheels.  If I feel snarky, try a move.

No problem.

Enter really cold temps, a WICKED headwind, and a field with 30 men and 4 women.  Damn.

It started with a prime on the first lap.  Double Damn.

All three of us girls in the first turn - BChan at the left, then Borda, then me

It was super fast for the first two laps and I found myself hanging onto the field as riders were shelled out the back.  Of course, the gaps began to open.  And, I worked on closing them.  Eventually, I bridged up to a solid group of chasers - the first chasers behind the front group of 10, that eventually dropped to 6.  I was pretty stoked to be with a couple of the Viking guys that I've ridden with over the past few months, a Pro Pedaler (we picked up another PP rider a little later), a Somerset rider, and a Caffeinated Cyclist!  We had the lead group in our sights a few times - massive pulls by each of us might have closed it - but the elastic snapped and they started pulling away.

I have no sprint - surprise surprise - so I didn't really have much to say heading up to the line, except to be very happy to have finished 13th and had a safe, fun day in the saddle.

Nick from Caffeinated had a GoPro on the back of his bike.  And, I was behind him a lot!  Once he gets the video posted and I have the link, I'll put it up!

And, here it is.  I think it's great, I even got a shout out as one of the "stars!"  ;)  I especially love that I'm on camera doing snot-rockets at around the 16:10 mark.  Sorry, Mom.

 Great props to BChan who finished our race and then hopped in with Mr. Borda in the 3/4.  And kudos to Mrs. Borda for racing even though she was a bit under the weather.  It was AWESOME to be out there with my Wasabi Gals!

BTW - Congrats to Mr. Borda, who took an awesome 4th place in the 3/4 race after being in a 3 man break (one rider was off the front solo) for most of the race!  Yeah, baby!!