July 8, 2009: Celebrating the 4th of July racing style!
race report by Raegan and Rae…
Saturday the nation celebrated another birthday and before the fireworks started, Raegan, Jamie, and I took on the circuit race up in San Luis Obsipo…we had our own fireworks going off during this grueling 5 lap race! The race started with about 44 women of which only 29 finished and yes, the IE Bikes girls were apart of the finishing 29!!!
The group took off very strong from the whistle and tackled the mile long climb as if it was the only lap…don’t I wish. Raegan and I battled to stay on with Jamie not far behind but it was Raegan who had the best legs of the day! Here is Raegans report : On the second lap a couple of girls got away and I was part of a 10 girl chase group. We were doing good until the 3rd lap, the men’s cat 4 caught up to us on the downhill. It was complete chaos. The guys just came on both sides of us. I lost a wheel to be on and didn’t want to risk being DQ’d by riding with the guys. I ended up wasting a ton of energy being in the winds looking for another girls wheel to be on in the huge chaos. Just before the 4th climb, I was dropped. Finished the race in 13th of 29.
On Sunday the racing continued with a downtown crit. Jamie and I lined up with about 40 women, we were missing Raegan who was not feeling well and cheered us on from the sidelines. The group took off very strong and I don’t think they took their foot off the gas throughout the race. Jamie hung on for much of the race and did a great job…keep it up girl! As for me, I was on empty from the git-go and each time I worked my way up the front, I found myself falling back once again. I guess the end of a 4-week block doesn’t leave much in the tank, but regardless I needed to hang on for one more effort before Wisconsin. With 4 laps to go, I found myself on front FINALLY and rather than sitting in and waiting for the final sprint, I got greedy and went for the prime. My mind said “do it” but the body had other plans and that was that…I moved back into the pack and stayed safe till the final lap. All in all, it was a very sketchy race with 3 crashes during the race and one final crash right at the finish line where one rider was taken away in an ambulance. Scary stuff…
For me, it is finally time to rest and get ready for Superweek…for the rest of the girls, there is more racing to be done here! Keep it up girls, you are amazing!
