Fitchburg last year was awesome. Deborah, Meredith, Beth and I went up and just had a blast racing against a strong field of women.
This year, Fitchburg was a blend of great and magnificently craptastic.
The team did beautifully this year - me, Deborah, Gabby, and Emily went up and knotched a top 10 finish in each of the three days of racing. We worked hard, we pushed limits, we fell down and got back up, we had fun.
But, it was cruddy for me. The first night was great - I felt tired from a long day in the car, but my legs came around and I was able to do some good work at the front, launch some attacks, chase some breaks, and still sprint for the line.
Saturday started out great - my legs were feeling good and I was pumped for another decent finish. But, the field was SKETCHY. REALLY SKETCHY. Riders making silly moves up the gutters into the curbs, bad cornering skills that weren't smooth, lots of surging of pace without stringing things out enough. I became nervous and just after a corner that we'd done 23 previous times and approximately 2 seconds after saying to Gabby, "We need to move up," it happened. We were on the ground.
I bounced up pretty quickly, but knew that I had gone down hard and bruised my right side pretty much from hip to shoulder. I managed to get back in and finish, but the damage was done. I'd been hit by a concrete truck and that wasn't going to feel so good in the morning.
Sunday's race came and I was shocked to even feel like I could get on the bike. In fairness, swinging my leg over was a little challenge, but once I was on, pedaling wasn't so bad. My legs felt super heavy, and my brain was still worried about the sketchiness of the some of the riders in the field. But, I lined up and started anyway.
For the second time in three days of racing, the rider in front of me couldn't clip in and I found my 2nd line start position turn into "now I need to pass 43 riders to get to the front" position. Nonetheless, I did that and began what I knew would be a shortened version of day 3. I went to the front several times in the next few laps, pushing the pace, stringing out the field, trying to drop riders. I would get swarmed, hit the back, rest a bit, go back to the front and do it again. I did that until I couldn't do it anymore, and then I pulled myself out. It was an unfortunate decision, but the only one I could make that made sense. I could have sat in for another 13 laps - done nothing - sprinted for 20th. But, why? Why do that when I could do something for the team and feel decent about that, at least? So... that's what I did.
In the end, I'm lucky. The crash has left me achey and bruised, but that's it. Bike is fine, I am fine, my teammate Gabby has some cute road rash, but is also fine. But, I'm also disappointed. I had bigger hopes for this past weekend, and they were quickly dashed in that 1st corner.
Alas - this is bike racing... and it doesn't always go well.
I'll be back to fight another day - this Sunday, actually... and hopefully things will resume their positive programming!
Most important - I do have proof of my work on Sunday, thanks to Jeff Bowers' lovely camera work!
No comments:
Post a Comment