Of Registering, Racing and Cheating

A lot to cover but I'll do my best to keep it concise. Then again, you have full disclosure that I ramble in this blog so no promises.

First - if you were one of the masses that protested the lack of a Womens Field at Tour of Washington County I assume that you're all registered up for the Tour and the Twilight Crit. My assumption is likely wrong as there are only 10 women signed up for the Twilight Crit as of this morning. One might argue that our field has the second-highest number of pre-registrations as of this moment but 10 registered racers is NOT something to brag about. We demanded this race - lets post up - or be prepared to lose it.  

On a more positive note, we DO have 20 riders right now for the Tour - that's a nice number so far and with a few more we will have a solid field. I'm looking forward to suffering with company out there.

Last weekend was more or less prep for the ToWC. At least for the suffering part. In the TT (Saturday) I had a completely amateur start - the buzzer thingy beeped, I was in the wrong gear and I couldn't clip in. I know I audibly grunted (sorry to the officials who witnessed) as my stupid-heavy gear challenged my first pedal stroke. I spent the next 30seconds desperately trying to clip in. That pretty much set the tone for my ride. I couldn't settle in, my heart rate was through the roof, playing false to my power numbers that were not. Most of the day was in a cross wind, which gets real interesting in the TT bars. On the upside, part of the rough section was re-paved - that was a nice surprise. The end result - Sue took over 2mins out of me to win the day. Not my shining moment (but a solid ride for Sue!).

SO. Time Trials and drafting ...you know,  the "C" word. Cheating. Cheaters suck. I'm somehow still amazed that people cheat in AMATEUR racing. Does a silly white jersey meant that much, and how much can it mean if you KNOW you had to cheat to get it? And, for once, this has nothing to do with chemical substances! While I can do an entire blog series on that subject, we'll save that for a day when I run out of other things to talk about. Anyway. As my grandaddy used to say - if enough people call you a horse, you probably oughtta strap on a feed bag. (shut up. my family is from the south).  Enough credible, upstanding and long-time racers have stepped up as witnesses and in protest - and now we have video! Why do we have the rules and yet fail to enforce them? Doesn't that encourage cheating? Requiring an official to witness drafting is nonsensical and inefficient - a personal moto for each rider, anyone? With a camera, because maybe the official didn't really see it clear enough? Where is the line?

Bottom line: Cheaters suck.

Onward. Miller School road race. I'll save the drama - I felt better than I thought I would to start and made the initial selection. Dangerously dangling off the back as we came up to the start of the last lap - I was close but not on the field as we made the turn up the one big hill - and ohhey, how about that time trial yesterday?! There were several awesome women in there spinning it up and off they went. I had almost an entire lap to contemplate the meaning of life, swear off racing, consider getting off my bike and, when I finally rolled across the finish line I asked the refs "Did I win?". The quizzical looks I received were well worth the effort.

Congrats to fellow Vita Janelle for her 45+ Road Race Championship win (!!) and to all the ladies who posted up in that field. It was great to see Michelle from Artemis back (although my legs weren't as thrilled) and I hereby accuse both Sue and Amanda of softpedaling the TT because they were not showing any signs of it on Sunday! (see above about Sue winning by over 2mins).