It was a beautiful day and quite a fun course, some gradual climbing, some steep climbing, a bunch of flattish terrain that was too fast for a compact drive train, and some pretty safe downhills (well safe if you were not in a 3/4 or a 4/5 field).
I had a great ride on that pretty course, but that did not translate into a good race. In fact it was pathetic from a race stand point. They started all the women together which meant we actually had a reasonable pack on the line. With a three mile almost entirely climbing neutral section we should have had plenty of room to work out the dynamic for this pack, but with a pace car that seemed to surge and slow, it was pretty squirrelly in the neutral zone and at least one person crashed. The crash made the pack antsy and as soon as racing began the ladies at the front took off like rockets in an attempt to shell the beginner riders. I was not positioned well in the neutral zone, so I was playing catch up and dangling the first part of the race. I hung on until after we dropped most of the new racers, but then fell off. I worked with a group of 3 others to try to catch back on, but I spun out on the back stretch and did not dig deep enough to stick with my little group. So I ended up in no man's land and switched mental focus to steady endurance (it should have been TT, but I didn't feel like working that hard) and rode over half the distance alone.
My position was DFL for the 1/2 group, but ahead of most of the 3's and many of the 4's, and all of the Master's women. Results were done by Atwood Racing Services and are posted at fastalracing.com and bikereg.com.
There was at least one photographer out there shooting the race and his pictures are posted at Base Twelve Photos. You want to click on the link for "Capital Region Road Race 2010" and look for photos 111, and 349. Incidentally this photographer was also at Tour of the Battenkill and happened to shoot my field. If you click on the "Tour of the Battenkill 2010-Women's Pro" link, I am in picture 12.
good job Marjo
ReplyDeletesounds like the weekend was very crashy. hope Dave is ok.
Dave claims to be OK. But you can never trust an athlete to be honest... we are all stubborn...
ReplyDeleteNothing really good about the ride I put in - it was a beautiful day but I was not in a race frame of mind and it showed. Been a long season.