Great Dane Crit #1

What a perfect weekend for a race!! We got up on Sunday morning and it was a little cool but the sun was doing everything it could to warm things up. Cathy was a little nervous being as this was her first road race, but kinda excited at the same time. We got out for a couple laps and practiced in the parking lot for a while, then it was show time.

Her and Christina got a good line position and moved right to the front around the first couple turns, I told them to do this and then move into the pack as they felt more comfortable riding in the group. They stayed with the pack for about 4-5 laps, then started to slip off the back, once they were on there own the pack was gone. It was a bummer too because about 1-2 laps after they dropped off the pack slowed way down. They were going solo about as fast as the pack was drafting, oh well a good lesson learned. Anyway they had a good race, and a good hard workout. Cathy finished around 16th out of almost 30 women so that was really good for her first race.

My race got going a little late but that was fine, it was getting nicer every minute! We took off and the first couple laps were pretty tame, everyone just getting a feel for group riding. Then a few riders tried stirring things up. A break of two was off about 25 yrds. I attached like crazy and bridged to them, hoping that we could get a good break going, but they just sat up and the pack pulled us in. After that the pack really started pushing the pace. I was doing everything I could to hang on and recover. With about 5 laps to go I felt really good but nobody was doing anything so I just worked on getting a good position for the field sprint. Coming into the final corner I was 5th wheel, the perfect position, we sprinted out of the corner but the three guys in front of me died and ended up boxing me in! I tried to work my way out but ran out of time. I finished somewhere 10-15. It was a good race and another lesson learned about field sprinting.
This week is much needed recovery, I was really hurting after this last 4 weeks of HARD training. It is nice out and will feel good to take things easy and get off road.