Yes, I know - it's been almost a month. And today is not Friday, it's Saturday so I'm even too late to do TGIF. In my defense, I wanted to do a post yesterday, I really did. But with the new job comes new personnel to break in so I thought I probably shouldn't start my second day at the new gig with a blog post. Anyway.
The title of this post refers to my Hagerstown race this morning. I've never raced the "classic" course; I've always done the course a block over - you know, the one with the sharp left into a hill and the sweet 120-degree turn on the backside. On second thought, I think even that course had changed since I've done it (2008). This one was fun and pretty fast when we got going, which didn't happen until we completed a couple of parade laps to feel out the course and acclimate to the heat. Everything was going smooth like buttah until a pair of pedestrians nonchalantly started to cross at turn two - right as the field picked up speed to turn into the hill. There was a lot of yelling and some screeching of brakes; one rider says she actually ran over the pedestrian's toes. At the same time, the front of the pack charged the hill and suddenly there was a split in the field. Of course, that's the lap I had drifted to the back - the absolute worst place to be. I silently cursed myself as I commenced to chase and managed to get my friend about 3/4 of the way across before I was spent.
Once the remainder of the field swallowed me up, I commenced to organizing a chase. It soon became clear that I was the only one motivated to do so - the others would take the ride if I wanted to give it to them but there was no help. I jumped more than a few times but always wound up with people sitting on but not willing to pull through. The second I pulled off, everything slowed back down. I rolled up to one of my favorite riders and asked if she was interested in catching - she was blissfully honest to say she had no interest due to a teammate in the front split but she wouldn't mess things up and might even take a token pull here and there. You know who you are - as always, a class act!
As the race wound down and riders dropped out, my little group consisted of 3 riders with teammates up the road in the 8 rider split and one other rider that didn't have teammates. I roll up to her, introduce myself and say that we're the only two with a reason to try to catch the leaders. She says - ok - charge at the hill. Assuming that she meant to follow and chase with me, I fling myself up the hill on the next lap. Look behind me and ... she was nowhere to be found. At one point I tried to talk myself off the ledge with the theory that at least *I* was getting in a decent workout - my coach should be thrilled with the intervals! With 3 to go, another rider tried to take a flyer and I thought - THANK YOU, at least now we can play a little. She had a nice jump on the hill and I chased to catch her wheel. We had a gap coming into 2-to-go. I was, admittedly, sitting on - I had done a ton of work and knew I wouldn't have the jump for the finish if I did much more. We made the turn into the hill ... where she sat up - the remainder of the riders caught on and we made the turn into the bell lap.
Here's where my mind was - I have no idea how many are up the road and, honestly, my race was done when I missed the split. The rest of the event was experimenting with my jump, how long I could hold the field off and how much recovery I needed in between. Yeah, I tried to motivate a chase but I kind of knew it was a wasted effort. We could see the front group had slowed way down but still - no interest from the other girls to catch them. I knew I could hold a lap at speed but with no jump. So I decided I would charge the hill and take a half-lap-flyer for the finish. It worked beautifully. Both for the finish and the experiment. I held it to the end for a solo finish. That was my consolation prize - I did a ton of work, took a final risk and held it.
Later, one of my very good friends went to collect her prize $$ and came back with cold-hard-cash. She tries to hand me some and I refuse - she had already mentioned she'd share some of her winnings b/c I helped her bridge to the break. Then she forces me to take it by informing me that I finished in the $$ - my response? "NO (insert expletive)!!". Payout was to 8 and I finished 8th - the flyer was well worth it!
So, that could have gone better. I could have made the split and contested the finish, or helped my friend contest the finish. But, in the end, my success for the day was making my entry fee back. So I guess it coulda gone worse.
An aside: people talk to me. I don't know why, but they do. So I hear all kinds of issues and reports about various happenings in the race. For example, one rider apparently went off course - outside the cones- to make her way to the front to attack. Poor form. Also reported in this race, another rider seemed to disappear for a lap or so, only to reappear on the course when the front group caught her - as in, the story goes, she may have sat out a lap or so. Very poor form.
I did not witness either of these instances so the most I can say is
1. If you see it, report it. If people are too scared of the repercussions or too PC to call a spade, a spade, it's not going to stop. Waiting for someone else to say something means you are complicit in the behavior.
2. If you are the one cheating like this, shame on you. It's AMATEUR racing. Yes, it's competition but isn't cheating kind of defeating the spirit of the game? This is only one step down from doping to win the masters races. How do you look at yourself in the mirror?
That's what I've got for the day - more racing tomorrow at Chantilly.
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