Race report:
This weekend was the Pivotal Fitness race weekend and the GTSC team was ready to tackle a new set of venues as well as their first women’s race. The weekend started Saturday with Lynn’s first ever cycling race and although she might not have been at the fitness level she would have liked, she did want to get a feel for what this was all about. A bobble on the first lap caused her to get gapped and after chasing for many laps Lynn decided to throw in the towel and call it a day.
This weekends racing was going to be a solo affair for GTSC in the Cat 4\5 and I was planning on testing the legs and putting in a solid effort in anticipation of the race on Sunday. A crash in the first chicane in the first quarter mile of the race set the tone for what would be a very dangerous day of bike racing. After managing to avoid the first crash, I chased hard to make the first group and this put me on the defensive and at the back of the pack for the first few laps, finally resulting in getting gapped and relegated to no man’s land for the next couple of laps. I continued my solo effort until it was obvious that there were not going to be any others to regroup with and give chase. The group that finally caught me however was not willing to go very hard and seemed to be content with sitting in and letting whoever wanted to pull, do so at their own pace, and so after taking many semi-hard turns at the front, I started planning on attacking on the last lap with an all out – all in effort to the line. Even this was to be ill fated as we were caught just before the treacherous third corner and in the confusion, there was yet another crash (the third or fourth of the day). After narrowly escaping the tangle, all that was left was to pedal to the line and lake my 19th place finish.
Sunday would be an even faster but less technical course. The first lap was uneventful with the fireworks starting on the second lap, just after the start finish line. It was at this point that some of the heavy hitters ramped the pace up and I put in a hard effort to make the selection in the first group. From there on out it would be good clean racing with some very hard efforts until the last lap when the pace really strung things out, but I was able to hang on just long enough to turn in another 19th place.
All in all it was a good weekend for GTSC in that we learned a lot about where we are and where we want to be as a race team.
Side note: I also got to witness a sprint that was nothing short of spectacular by the POA team that also hails from the upstate. Good job guys (and girl)!
