Feeling Like Rockstars!
Janet and I raced in both races this weekend at the Hagerstown Crit and the Capital Criterium in Washington D.C, and here's how they went down.
Saturday, 7/10: Hagerstown Crit
The pouring rain in Baltimore gave way to sunny skies in Hagerstown in time for the MABRA crit championships on Saturday morning. Janet and I raced at the same time, but she was in the W1/2/3 race and I was in the W3 race, 45 minutes long, both for the white champion's jersey. There were about 25 women in the race, pretty evenly split between the fields. Things got off to a quick start, and Janet found herself in an early break for a few laps, but the field brought it back. That was the story of the day: breaks would get away, maybe gaining 8-10 seconds on the field, but they always came back. I burned a few too many matches in some of those chases, and with 2 laps to go, I went from first to worst in the pack as the break was caught. I managed to gain a bit on the last lap, and came across the line 7th in the W3. Janet finished 12th in the W 1/2/3.
Sunday, 7/11: Capital Criterium, Washington, DC
The weather was picture-perfect for our early race. It was a really cool venue, definitely made me feel like I was in a big-time race with all of the announcing and spectators lining the streets. It was a great course with lots of turns through bumpy intersections, and a u-turn on Pennsylvania Ave. that slowed the field way down going into it, and resulting in a sprint out of it every time through. There were about 25-30 women in the 1/2/3 race, most of whom were 1's or 2's. The pace was blistering right out of the gate, and riders were getting gapped and shelled out the back left and right, because only about half of the racers who were at the starting line ended up finishing the race. Unfortunately, Janet was one of the unlucky ones who was worn down by the little hill on 13th street, along with the repeated sprints out of the u-turn and long efforts to try to catch on to the leading group. I found myself struggling to stay in contact with the main field for about the first half of the race, doing some solo bridging, sometimes for a couple of laps, but I managed to latch on to the end of the field, where I stayed for pretty much the rest of the race. On the last half of the last lap (of course), I heard what sounded like a flat rear tire, and my bike seemed to feel funny (which was probably purely psychological). With all of the turns, I didn't want to go 30mph into a corner and wipe out, so I slowed down to see if I could tell if it was a flat or something else. By the time I realized i didn't have a flat tire, I had lost contact with the group, so I was the last one to roll across the line. 16th place overall, 4th place Cat 3.
I'm looking forward to a road race on Saturday! All these crits are wearing me out! Hope to see lots of you at Giro di Coppi!
Oh, and congrats to Sara Clafferty, who got her upgrade to Cat 2 last week! :-)
Sue McQuiston
