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Monica Holt's Journal
Burlingame Criterium 2009
posted by at 08:52 PM on June 30, 2009
The regulars were all there. Dolce, CRM, Integrate, Velo Girls, Early Birds, Z-Team, a Mouse, Evan and me. I was pleased to see the familiar faces of the ever improving, stronger skilled riders that keep the pace up and the pack safe. Of note: LaLa is there and all smiles. And with good reason - she is a Closer and you can count on a repeat performance.
To start, we do a weird neutral lap - now every one is clipped in and moving - I kinda liked it. We go on the whistle and I get to sit in a big, big draft right in the middle of the pack for what seemed like for ever. The first priem blew apart my little nest in the middle when the pace picked up. There were two more priems, not very well contested. The race flew by and we were quickly inside of 12 laps to go. With 5 to go, the pack is a little bunched up at the front and I am starting to feel the need to move across the pack to the right side to be on the inside line for the sprint. I chose not to go to the front to make this happen. They will hang me out to dry. I need to ease across the pack with out going back words. To do that I need the pack to move faster and thin out. How do I get the people in front of me to go faster and make a space? Patience. I was just a bit early. I see Dolce moving up and MO is also there and for the first time in the race I see LaLa. Velo Girls are talking too. With 4 to go, the pace starts to climb and with 3 to go the race is on. We thin out on the corners and its just what I need. A couple of turns into the 3rd lap, I hear a scrape and some one gives a little screech as she hits the pavement. There are 4 gals in front of me and we all pause for just a second, I say "go, GO" and time seems to starts again and we resume racing. 2 to go: got to give the Velo Girls credit - they've organized and attempted to lead out with dual attacks. One pink train on each side of the pack. There are two pink jerseys on the outside and three on the inside. A friendly Dolce is in front of me and we work together to gap the third pink jersey off her train as the front two gals try to get by on the inside. It works beautifully and we mess up their lead out. With 1 to go: its a bit slower than I would like and the jerseys in front of me are black and blank and the gals are not familiar to me. Not ideal! I like info and want to be able to make an educated guess about how to move in the last minutes of the race. With a little encouragement, the lead riders pick up the pace. I keep encouraging, " keep it up", "you can do it". The front rider peels off to the inside on the sweeper and her buddy pushes hard on her peddles a couple more time and fades to the outside just as we are coming to the library. I am cornering faster, much faster, than the girl who is drifting to the outside and I can't thread the needle on the inside. I'm not too far off line and I have no bloody idea where the banner is... all I know is it time to go. I sprint and its not so smooth to start. I finally get my wheels down and am sprinting as hard as I can go. Red, White and Black goes streaking by. LaLa -no suprise! Now racing for second: got nipped at the line by Rene' and ended third. What a great race that was!
categories: General
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