Can I do a Belated TGIF? 4/28/2012

This weekend's "chase the race" routine finds me in Pittsburgh, where a small-ish crit on Saturday prepped us for the big show - the Steel City Showdown.  The big weekend of travel came as a bit of a surprise even to me, as only a few days ago I commented that I had no desire to drive to Pittsburgh, I was staying local (relatively speaking) to race the Rock Lititz stage race.  Unfortunately, that plan fell apart when the promoter removed the women's category from bikereg.  No announcement, no "last call" ... 4 days before race day and a very unceremonious withdrawal of the women's category.  We can get into the whole "womens racing" debate at a later date - suffice it to say that I'm seeing some new faces and new places and that's good enough for me.

Back up to last week - the All American Road Race.  Decent open women's field with quite a few Category 4 and Junior Racers.  Again, the trouble was partly that the newbies were strong enough to stay in the field but didn't really have the experience or finesse to understand racing in a pack - much less with a yellow-line rule.  I appreciate that they're out there and, hey, we've all been there as beginners with more hubris than common sense.  Once 2 girls got off the front, no one cared to organize for a chase.  With the firepower we had in the field, we could have run them down but everyone thinks they're going to be a sprinter so, we rolled around more or less as a parade, with accelerations here and there along with calls to "organize" and "paceline" from the back.

Favorite moment in the race was when I decided to pull my weight and hopped into a short-lived paceline.  This whole "racing for myself" thing is very odd for me and I'm not sure yet when to use a match and when I should conserve - I'm erring more on conservation until I can figure out the tone of the races and my own limitations.  Anyway, I'm in a very innocuous jersey and a lot of girls don't know that it's me.  So, I pull through, put in a decent dig and proceed to pull off in due time.  The girl coming up next to me kindly coached me through the proper technique (ok, now slow down a little so I can pass you.  good job).  I just smiled and drifted back.  Most of you know that I've been well indoctrinated in pacelines for many years.  I still appreciated that the girl was at least kind and nice about it.

Speaking of which, I'm noticing in no uncertain terms that the tone of womens racing has changed since I last raced (more or less in 2009).  I'm not sure if everyone is just angry when they get to the races or if people think they're going to go pro by bombing the turn at Dolan.  There's definitely an element of middle-school lunch table politics - if you're not in our color than you are the ENEMY, perhaps even the spawn of satan.  I'm all good with healthy competition and, coming to the line, there's only one goal - to WIN.  What I'm seeing, though, is a complete lack of respect and common civility in races.  To the point of taking the safety of the pack for granted - eg. I'm NOT going to let so-and-so get this wheel or make a jump and if I take her out (along with everyone behind her), sobeit.

When someone speaks in the pack, people automatically take offense and mark that person.  I tend to let people know when, coming into a turn, I'm on their inside - you're looking ahead, not to the side, so it's a courtesy and a safety precaution.  If you don't like the heads up - ignore it.  No need for snarky comments or threats.

Ok, I'll climb off my soapbox.  Today started with hail on the drive into Pittsburgh.  Chilly, but not cold - we've been spoiled by the fabulous weather we've enjoyed the past couple months so I keep reminding myself that IT'S NOT THAT BAD.  Time for a quick warmup and off we went with a pack of maybe 15 or 20 girls.  Only a couple were active and after a few nice digs, the eventual winner took off, never to be seen again.  Ok, we could see her, we just weren't going to chase her.  For reasons unknown.  A couple girls tried to activate the field but, again, no one wanted to burn a match to make it happen so we all became sprinters.  I'm not a sprinter but - as mentioned above - I'm just not sure of my limitations yet so aside from a verbal tiff with one of the younger girls (again, note the commentary above), I stayed relatively calm and waited for the finish.

As expected, an attack came on the 2nd to last turn of the oval - unfortunately, it came from the inside, pushing a few of us off our line and I scrubbed off some speed.  Played catch up and made a good run of it to the finish, coming up 8th.  So I'm coming to the line and the girl I had the tiff with saw me coming and kicked it up.  We both threw our bikes and she came up a quarter wheel ahead of me.  I looked over and - graciously said - NICE!  "You didn't get it" she retorted. As I rode away, I told her "I was saying nice job, (insert expletive here)".  See what I mean about lack of respect?  Here I was being gracious to someone who gave me a run for my money and I catch sh!t about it.  Back in my day, women's racing was a lot more fun.  I'm hopeful that we can get back to that but I'm not sure how.