My First Ever Bike Race

On the start line there were only six other girls. One of them requests to do only 1 lap of the course thereby reducing the race to 26 miles. The official states that if everyone is in agreement to do one lap then she is ok with it. Much to everyone else’s chagrin, there was no way that I was doing a 26 mile race when I showed up for 52 miles. Come on people! They were sadly disappointed.

So we begin and stayed together for the first 8 miles when the first King of the Mountain (KOM) prime came up. I was in the lead and took the first surge up the hill and maintained my position – score. The pack broke up here and there ended up being four girls, including myself, riding together. Two of these girls made a decision to not work AT ALL. This left all the pulling to me and another girl, Deena, who was quite strong (also from Canada!). Not wanting to be played like a total sucker I strived desperately to have patience. We tried to pull away with a few surges but they responded. When we did try to have them take a pull, they slowed to almost a stop and I am not exaggerating. After awhile I asked what was up. The response was that because it was I who wanted to do two laps they were not going to work the first lap. And that was that. It was painful. I was not happy or having fun…this was not racing.

So the second lap came and I tried to not be suckered into continuing to do all the work by moving constantly from one side of the road to the other. I chilled out and just told this chick to let me know when she was ready to enter this race. The time came on the second KOM prime. I was ahead again going into the hill when she attacked and dove in front of me literally causing me to brake on the hill. There was no way she was going to take it so I punched it and dropped her. Thankfully Deena was not too far behind at the crest and told me to keep going and get away. We did and left them in our dust. Seriously. It felt great. Deena started cramping so I ended up doing the majority of the work on that second lap but I was ok with this because I was glad to be actually riding and she made an effort at least. Last 500 meters was nearing and once again I sensed that despite the fact that I pulled 75% of the second lap, she was still going to go for it. It was a race after all! There was no way though that I was going to let her take it.

It came down to a sprint finish. I had led the whole 500m and new that I had to be in my drops and out of the saddle for the very last surge (thanks Rob!). It worked by a hair. I won. I just (and I mean just) edged her out. I rode straight to the water coolers and drank and drank and drank. It was freaking hot!

In the end, it was fun thanks to my fellow Canadian who was there to race. Maybe those other girls were ready to race but just have a different idea of what this means. Maybe it is me who needs to learn what bike racing is and patience was the first lesson. I kept thinking of Cynthia knowing that she never would have gone for that bull** and would have shared a few choice words. I would have loved to have had her there.

To top the day off Zane had me do my longest run yet… a whole hour!!! It was awesome, had no pain and felt not too bad considering the volume of water lost over the course of the day. Thankfully that night it was a B-B-Q at Allison’s and Gabes. Bless them. Good food and company. Life is good.