NC.Com Crit #8 (and Post 900!)

The only one on my hoods. Super.
Olga, Valerie, Kathy, Amanda, Marsha, and me

Photo by James Weeks

Team B had only a small group out tonight: Shelly, Valerie, and me. Everyone else was there in spirit, but we were the only real representatives. The field was quite large, 16 women, with a good number of representatives from 3 teams: Belladium had 3, Cumberland Transit had 4 (Amanda, Marsha, Emily, and Chrysa), and SVMIC had 4 (Sandra, Jess, Olga, and Kathy) (the other 5 were either solo or unattached or both).

The entire race was action-packed—everyone seemed to want to race, which makes everything more fun and makes it seem to go faster. Lots of attacks, lots of catching, more attacks, more bridging, and then 2 attacks that stuck. Unfortunately, those attacks put 2 SVMIC girls and 1 CT girl ahead and left me behind to attempt to bridge. I decided to not (if I had, I'd have pulled the other 2 SVMIC girls and another CT girl up), and instead I chilled long enough to let Valerie catch back on. Best. Decision. Ever. She got a couple laps to recover, then shot out with 1.5 laps to go to lead me out. At first, I thought she'd gone way too early. Then I looked up the road and noticed that we were actually making up time on the 3 in the break and thought she'd seen them and thought we could catch them.

Val's leadout was fabulous, perfectly timed, and pulled us away from the group so I didn't have to sprint for 4th place as much as just maintain my position. Val said later she hadn't seen the 3 up the road; she just knew where she could go that would help me most. It worked like a charm. Both she and Shelly rode well, and it was definitely a fun race. A win, of course, is the best; but riding well as a team, learning what to react to and what to let go, racing well, and having a decent outcome also make for a fun, successful night.

Stats from the race: 30:43, 11.18 miles, 21.8 mph (29.0 max), 172 HR (201 max); 4 of 16
Stats from 7-06-11: 27:58, 10.05 miles, 21.6 mph (30.2 max), 179 HR (205 max); 1 of 12
Stats from 5-25-11: 31:16, 10.62 miles, 20.4 mph (27.7 max), 179 HR (200 max); 6 of 11
Stats from 5-11-11: 31:02, 11.43 miles, 22.1 mph (27.9 max), 177 HR (207 max); 6 of 13