Once in a while, woman's racing goes backwards. Instead of demonstrating our ability to ride our bikes hard and fast, we sit up, hang out and wait for the race to happen instead of making it happen.
If you want to see what I'm talking about then view this video:
SportVelo Women Points TVC 2010 from Rick Adams on Vimeo.
So what happened? A whole lot of sitting on, cruising around at 17mph, back pedaling and paddy cake. Any attempts to bridge, chase, or change the race in any way were shut down. I was pretty disappointed with the race - usually we shell quite a few ladies from the field. But this year, every single person stayed in. Oh well. I hope I never experience another race like that again.
That night I tossed and turned in bed, replaying my frustrations over and over. Unfortunately my brain wasn't ready to let me rest despite the early morning wake up call for the sprint tournament. Since I've decided to give the International Omnium a go this year, the more fatigue and punishment I can get out at the track, the better! After vowing off doing the sprint tournaments I was back in the mix, throwing down a 200m TT.
Like clockwork the winds started gusting right at the start of the time trials. I did the 7th fastest time of the morning with a 13.02 and Tela rocked the house in 2nd with 12.7. It was so cool seeing her Darth Vader helmet it up and rock that time!
I was seeded with the 8th fastest time of the day and was a little nervous, yet too relaxed against my unknown competitor. She jumped with 3/4 lap to go, and I had to fumble around a bit too much to come around her and couldn't close it. Doh! No worries though, I could still make it into the semi's by winning a three up rep against Camile and another girl (sorry I can't find the results with names!). Going into the bell lap, Camile nearly took herself out by running into the boards at the top of the track, at which point I decided to get out of there and take a long sprint to the line. That put me up against Dana Fiess, the fastest lady of the weekend. Was I intimidated? Um, yes. And being inexperienced, felt like she completely schooled me on how to put your opponent exactly where you want them - behind you at the finish line.
That loss put me into the 5th-8th round - against three other girls. While they were sitting up, looking at who was going to go first, I made a move from behind and threaded the needle through them and hauled ass to put a substantial gap between me and 6th place. I was definitely happy to get on the podium once again!
Some things I learned - don't over think anything. If you feel the urge to go - then GO! Don't underestimate your opponent or yourself. Anything is possible.
That day temps reached 85 degrees and to kill time between sessions we headed to a salad food bar for some A/C and downtime. Saturday was definitely a busier day - with my all time favorite race, the Miss and Out, and scratch race....
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