Jeff Cup Road Race

What an experience!  I survived my first W1/2/3 race, although it's taken me a couple of days to digest everything that happened (and possibly to come down off my high from actually surviving).  I can't say that I was nervous about this race.  I had zero expectations.  I was going into it with only one goal... race respectable.  Here's a very quick "executive memorandum" of what happened.

I had a hard time of it the first time up "the hill."  Though I wasn't quite dropped I was struggling and Ilana Iguana came to my rescue.  After the hill, she came whizzing by me and motioned for me to get on her wheel.  In no time, I swear it was the blink of an eye, we were back with the pack.  I tried to work my way forward and settled on Jen Ras's wheel, but when she moved to all the way to the front, I wanted no part of that.  I quickly found Sue H's wheel and what better place to be?  That is, unless you are going uphill.

The second time up the hill I quickly lost Sue's wheel and found myself dropped from the main pack but in a wonderful group of chasers that included Ilana Iguana, Carol E, Mandy L, and Christine W along with some other strong women that I didn't recognize.  We quickly organized a chase and eventually caught the main pack right before the start/finish.  Mind you, this was after an entire lap of chasing.

Third time up the hill and none other than the Goat decided to attack hard and the same 6-8 people (minus Mandy but plus Melanie) that had just chased back on were left staring at each other.  We were once again off the back and did not have it in our hearts or legs to chase back on this time.  We did organize a good paceline to keep others from catching us but didn't have the same urgency as before.

Bell lap and 4th time up the hill I took it easy.  I had thought of attacking but honestly I would never have gotten away from this group.  We were all evenly matched and it was just too much fun riding with them anyway.  Being so thrilled with my race, coming into the stretch to the finish, I announced that I was happy to lead out and that's exactly what I did.  I punched it after the turn to the finishing stretch and must have done a good job on the leadout because no one came around me until after the 200m to go sign.  I came in 27th and honestly wouldn't be much happier if I'd won.  I had such a blast and big thanks to Ilana and Carol.  It was so much fun racing with you guys.

So really I can't say I made any mistakes.  Maybe I should have had better position in the turn to the hill, but honestly, I can't climb with those girls.  Yes, I like climbing, but more the 10 mile long drags uphill... not these 2 min power climbs.  They kill me.  So some people may see 27th and think I had a bad race but I am thrilled.  In the end, it's all about having fun anyway and fun was definitely had.

Results here.

Another race report by Anna.  Seriously, read her report.  She has pictures and is a much better writer than I am.

And the winner's blog... rockstar Lorena, although she has not written a race report as of yet.

Jen Ras and Sue H are part of HPC, the best women's cycling team around.

And even though I didn't see much of her during the race, I still want to be like CK when I grow up.