First I want to say that I was pretty proud of my teammates. My teammate Emily, who sweeped our stage race at the end of last season, came and impressively almost lapped the whole field. We aren't really surprised because she has been so strong and impressive. But I couldn't be happier - she totally deserves it.
My race, however, was not as impressive. This race I really wanted to hang in and impact the field, but I got caught behind a teammate who couldn't get her foot clipped in at the start and felt immediately hesitant on what to do. I know now the answer is just go and I should not have hesitated. I got on the group but coming through the first major corner, at the back of the group, a bunch of the woman hesitated and grabbed a ton of brakes. Just pretty dangerous. This let a gap form and I got stuck on the crappy end of the gap.
I spent 2-3 laps chasing down the field by myself because none of the other women who got gapped came with me. I finally caught them but had completely trashed myself in doing so. They were going a lot slower than I even expected - probably even slower than I was. Still, as we came around that corner into a downhill they picked it up again, and it was a prime lap, and I just didn't have it. Once again, I spent a crit sitting off the back. At least they didn't lap me - I maintained a half lap distance off the back for the rest of the race.
It's definitely not what I wanted after a hard winter of training. I still feel like if I could solo effort to catch a pack of 10 or so women, I can hang on to that pack. Right off the bat I need to not hesitate and get stuck in the back trying to swing around women who can't hold the group or corner efficiently.
At least I got some pretty cool photos from it:
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| Determined to catch the group |
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| At least I have someone to work with |
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| big sweeping corners - hammering as hard as I can |
