Lucky: Blackberry Crit

I wasn't originally going to go to this race. It's the last race of the season and Bremerton sounds like a long way from here. I knew you had to take a ferry to get there so I figured it was too much of a hassle. But then I was talking to other racers and they said it was a great race and you could get there by bike.

I was skeptical but decided to try it out anyway. It was only about a 30 minute ride from my house to the ferry. When I got there I saw a bunch of other racers already in their kits waiting to load. I saw quite a few of the track racers and we got a chance to chat. The ferry ride was long, about an hour, but it beat driving. It was a beautiful day and we saw about five seals in the water. I rode the ferry with my teammate Brenda who was doing her first bike race with the faster category women. We exited the ferry with about 20-30 racers and rode in a peloton to the race course. It was a fun way to arrive. You could feel everybody watching the group trying to pick out who would be racing next.

We started off the race and I got an OK start, but not great. Then I realized I was right behind Gina. I knew this was a good place because it doesn't take Gina long to attack. Sure enough just as soon as that went through my head, Gina is going up the side, fast, and I am with her. We round the corner and Gina underestimated our speed just a bit and hit the barriers on the far side of the turn. I got a good jolt of adrenalin but she handled it fine and didn't go down. We came around the start with a small gap as I heard the announcer say "and three riders are making a move already". It was fun but didn't last long. We were swallowed up in the pack. I was on the back resting for a while and then came up towards the front again but I must have moved up too fast because all of a sudden the pace jumped and the riders were in a single file. I couldn't keep up the pace and went off the back. It was too bad because we were only 15 minutes into the race. The group came around I got back in the back but was not allowed to go for points since I was lapped. It was frustrating because I felt pretty strong. Next time I just have to hang on during the rough parts. All in all I really liked the course. It was a bit of a roller coaster with ups and downs. The hills were fine because you could get good momentum going into them.

It was my last road race of the season and I wish I had ridden stronger but it was still fun. My teammate Brenda was very excited to survive her first race with the upper category riders!

I have a few more track races left and then will be in off-season mode.

I have a bunch of things to work on during the off-season. I want to be more flexible and have a stronger core muscles. Today I rode rollers which are supposed to smooth out your pedaling. 20 minutes! It was hard because the balance is tricky and it feels like you are going to wipe out.