I didn’t have to race until 12:40pm, but since everyone in my room had to race at 9, I was up at 6am despite a poor night’s sleep. I decided I had plenty of time for a big breakfast, so that’s exactly what I did. And later I had breakfast number two. I think I ate about a billion pounds of food this weekend, perhaps more then was necessary, but that can be hard to judge. I don’t like to eat a lot on the bike, so I like to make sure I’ve had plenty beforehand. Although not right beforehand. It’s a constant struggle 
If nothing else, I’ve been learning to eat properly for these types of events.
I went back to sleep after everyone left for a while, then slowly packed up. It was promising to be a beautiful day, and I was stripped down to my jersey and bibs on my trainer. The morning racers slowly filtered in, talking about the so-called 7 mile climb and the beautiful scenery and the amazingly fun decents. I took it all in with trepedition. I was dreading the climb, since that’s where I usually get dropped, and this time the climb started right away.
That’s when I decided it was time for an attitude adjustment. I spent much of the weekend bitching about racing and getting dropped and dreading this or that… not a great outlook. This is supposed to be fun(ish), remember? Obviously it can be hard to have fun when you don’t even come close to contesting the finish, but at least you can do your best without bitching about it. So I decided to 1) Have fun 2) Look around at the gorgeous scenery 3) Go as hard as I can and 4) Set smaller goals within the race and achieve those. I may not be able to win, but I can chase down a group in front of me or try to beat someone close to me in GC or something in that realm.
The time came and we were off. The climb. And I was dropped within about 1/2 mile. I sighed, so it will be one of those days. I will probably be last in GC. I started down the road with all those negative thoughts about how the race was going to be super slow and it was going to suck. But then… but then… I decided to stick to the original plan. I got my heart rate right at 167, sometimes up to 174, but I just sat there. And climbed and climbed and picked people off who went too fast trying to stay up. I saw people up the road and tried to pass them. There was one little group I couldn’t quite pass, and once we crested the summit, I tried to put the hammer down on the downhill to catch them.
But I have a compact, which pretty much screws me on the downhills. Plus you can’t go nearly as fast by yourself then with a group; the group of people I passed came up on me and were just flying. I stayed with this group for the rest of the lap, sometimes picking people up, sometimes dropping them. I seemed to be one of the stronger people (or more willing people), leading the climbs and taking some good pulls. Me and another woman tried to get the group to pace line, but it fell apart quickly.
Once we started lap 2, I saw a group ahead of us that looked like it had the rider I wanted to beat for GC. Game on. I dropped all but one person in our little group, and climbed like mad. I almost caught them before the downhill, but they crested just before me and were gone. Damnit! Thankfully a few others caught me about 2/3s down the hill, one of them being insanely strong and kept saying “let’s bridge this, let’s bridge that”. She was about a billion times stronger then me, but I tried dammit. It didn’t take long to catch the group on the next climb. The person I wanted to beat looked dead tired and was dropped when we caught the group; the woman I was with got them to increase their speed which killed me. I was dropped as well, but ended up riding with a cat 2 woman on the Fred Meyer team, and we kept the pace up.
The last 10K had to be the longest of my life. I just wanted it done, but I wanted a good time so we kept pressing. There was one twisty long downhill section that has to be one of the most fun descents around; we were just flying through the turns. It was SO FUN.
When I finished, I felt proud. I really gave it my all, I was at or above threshold most of the race. I had no idea where I stood in GC or where everyone else was, but I didn’t care. I acheived my day’s goals. I pushed myself and raced despite being dropped 4 miles in. When I looked at the results, turns out I wasn’t even that far off the other strong people in my category, and I feel pretty damned good about that.
RESULTS:
26 Cat 3’s (and we raced with 24 1/2s)
Stage One (55 miles)
Stage Time: 3:09:46
Down: 20:02
I was in a group of people who placed 11th-15th
Stage Two (8-mile time trial)
Stage Time: 23:53
Down: 2:52
Place: 17th
Stage Three (Crit)
Down: 1:53 (for not making it to the end)
Place: 22nd
Stage Four (55 miles)
Stage Time: 3:19:46
Down: 26:15
Place: ?? they didn’t break out the 3’s seperately, but I was 28th/49 combined 1/2/3s
FINAL GC:
GC Time: 7:34:48
GC Place: 14th/26 of cat 3s, 26th/41 1/2/3s
Considering all those things I listed as working against me (like spending the week moving, stress, etc), I still managed to wrangle out a mid-pack finish for my first stage race as a cat 3. Not too shabby.
