Race Reports from Stephanie and Coleen

Stephanie’s Race Report

It was a very fun way to start the season.  The rain held until we were about 100 yards into the race.  There was only one time that my glasses got too foggy, making it sort of hard to see.  It never did feel cold or wet, except for the extra pound of water I was carrying around in my booties.

Lining up at the start with Colleen and me were women from Radical Media, Sanchez, Comedy Central and DKNY.  Tempo on Lap One was set at a nice pace.  There were a lot of attacks and counterattacks and you had to decide who to chase and when.  I spent this lap jumping every time I saw Lisa from CC or Maggie from Radical (Erica said she use to race pro and is now just racing Cat 2).  Colleen marked some of the other ladies.  No break stuck and everyone stayed together. 

That is until near the end of Lap 1 when Maggie jumped again.  Hey wait…she can't do that when I am still recovering from my last chase and who jumps at HS alley?  Her teammate Maria and two Sanchez racers (Cindy and Martha) were able to bridge up to her.  The rest of us missed it.  The group raced to catch and I thought/hoped we'd all regroup by Engineer's Gate – nope.  Four of us – Lisa (CC), Erica (Radical), Deb (DKNY) and I ended up in a chase group.  

In short, it felt like we did a 3 lap TT.  It was fast paced with no resting.  You were coughing on dirt, trying to keep the muddy water that was kicking up from the wheel in front of you out of your eyes, trying to control the drool from your mouth and nose, and telling your legs to keep moving b/c everyone was hurting and you had to keep up and contribute to the group.  Seriously, it was great! 

The highlight – we did work together and that certainly helped us all.  We did some rotating paceline and single paceline.  Yes, it pays to practice this.  The problem, we noted, was that it took us too long to organize and that hurt our chances of catching the break.  I think we were sort of in a double line for ¼ lap before we got it together to start the rotating paceline.  It also fell apart at HH and at Cat's Paw but we were able to get back into it soon after we crested Cat's Paw and by the end of the downhill following HH.  We also struggled on getting the tempo right.  That being said, it was a solid collaborative effort and I can't stress enough what Kaie told us during practice – you need to talk to the other women and you need to be able to organize yourselves immediately into a working group.  The chatting doesn't just have to be about tactics - we also did a little kibitzing too, and that certainly helped pass the time.  

We all stood for the final sprint up Cat's Paw – some (Lisa, Erica and Deb) did this better than others (me) and I was wupped on the final sprint.  Note to self: this is your weakness; keep practicing; it will hurt, but the payoff will be worth it.  Not that I was going to out-sprint these ladies, but as I started to lose the wheel in front of me, this guy who was dropped from his field decided he was going to join in and cut me off on the climb.  If it was another woman who did that – fine, that's racing.  But that just really irked me.  n.b.: pay attention to your surroundings – this was just an inconvenience. You don't want something like that to cause you to go down. 

I rolled past the line glad that we didn't have to do another lap and just pumped up and excited for the season ahead.  Come on ladies – we'll need more of us on that start line next time.  Colleen and I took turns with the chases/counterattacks but we needed another body to share the work.  I can't think of what else I would rather have been doing at 6a this morning.   

Stephanie

Coleen’s Race Report

My race report - short and sweet. Lots of attacks on the first lap with a dangerous counterattack in horseshit alley, which turned into a break with four strong women. I almost bridged to it, but just lost them on Cat's Paw. We then tried to organize to catch them, but never were able to get there. I spent my matches on the chase and lost contact with the group on Harlem Hill. TT'd until 72nd and then joined Kelley from CC to do a third lap. That was it for me. There were two together at the finish, Maria and Maggie of RM (Maggie is VERY strong, she was going to Philly to race this afternoon). Martha and Cindy followed, then a few more after that, including Steph who will give her version. She raced strong. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, rain is just rain, and I hope that we'll have many more out there next time!

Coleen