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| Jane Van Hof, Katie Whidden, and myself at the finish. |
I had a good weekend in Frankenmuth, riding a road race with some really fun women. We made the best of the cold, rainy conditions and had a great race. I enjoyed myself, and took home 3rd in that final race as a Cat 4. For a race recap, click here. Taking the plunge I requested to upgrade to Cat 3 and it was approved. Tuesday Night Ride, I decided to hit the A group again, and see how long I could hang with them. It was very windy, and a very fast pace out to Smokey Hollow. I did well and was in front of the group for the ride out there. When ole Smokey came up, though, I realized I had nothing left to climb that hill at the pace everyone was hitting. Well, this being no stranger to me, I headed out to regroup with them. Shortly after regrouping, I was dropped again on the long, gradual climb just past the lighthouse. I pedaled my ass off trying to catch back on, but knew I had a snowball's chance in hell as I was riding into a headwind. I lost sight of them after the Eimen Rd climb. After they crested the hill, they were long gone. I look around and see no one ahead of me or behind me and I am out pretty far. There is a strong headwind beating down on me and I launched into a huge pity party for myself. I was swearing up a storm and talking out loud to myself. I just did NOT want to ride all the way back home alone. Again. Just as I wiped the last tear away and told myself to harden the f up, I came upon a rider who had a flat tire, and who was just finishing up fixing it. I skidded to a stop, relieved to have at least one person to help ride back, and shortly after two others came up who were behind me. Now we were four, and I was grinning ear to ear. We had a great ride into town, fighting the wind together like cyclists do.
Onto West Branch Road Race. It was again cold and rainy. I was nervous about doing a 44 mile hilly course as my first Cat 3 race. I had Bridget with me again, who is a great climber. I set out to do what I could to help her. I was feeling preetty good. Then I wasn't. I couldn't climb those hills the way the others were and got dropped at mile 13. There were just ahead, so I didn't give up and tried again to catch back on. Chasing being too familiar, I decided to pretend for awhile that I had attacked, and was going as hard as I could to win. Not able to fool myself for very long, I kept chasing as I had them in sight until the long climb right before the finish line. They attacked on that climb, and set up to go around for the next loop. As I rolled through, I tossed around the idea if I should quit or do the next lap alone. Nate Shuff from the Hagerty U-25 team was also dropped as he was having knee issues, so we decided to at least rally each other for the last loop. I figured it was at the least a good training ride, if not a good life lesson to finish what you start. So, almost deja-vu like, there I was again, far out without anyone to ride back with in the wind. This time there was no one for me to draft off of though, so I did harden up and battled it out alone. I am proud to say Bridget did awesome and got 1st place. I had plenty of time to think during those 22 miles and was trying to send her winning vibes from where I was. I think it may have worked! Great job Bridget! One other woman dropped out of the race, and we didn't have a big field to start with, so I ended up with 5th.
Next weekend is Mt. Pleasant, a nice, flat course. If it isn't rainy or windy I don't think I will know how to ride.
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