Third bike race of the year and this one has been by far the most challenging. Bike racing has a lot more field tactics, positioning, and learning how to draft than it does about true fitness. Because the fittest girl, doesn’t always win.

I have a new (future) teammate named Wendy who rides for PossAbilities. There are Bella’s nationwide, but there are none in my local area and bike racing is about working together in a group and I need a teammate! Hopefully soon, I will be wearing a new jersey (not as stylish as my beloved Velo Bella jersey) but the team is local to Redlands and has many women who are interested in racing.

So, today, not even 2 laps into the race, a fairly strong rider attacked after I had just taken a good hard pull at the front. This is generally a time when the whole field will go hard and chase her down. That’s what they should have done anyway! But, she went away and nobody even picked up their speed! The race is going DOWN THE ROAD ladies!! We are here to RACE BIKES not walk in the park.. Ugggggggg, So, I went for it! I took another massive pull and got Wendy half way up to her and I told her to GOOOO. I should have gotten on Wendy’s wheel and gone with her, but I didn’t. I sat up cause I was freakin tired. Big mistake on my part here. Should have killed myself to stay with her.

Then, as luck would have it, the pro women’s field passed us and we got neutralized. Dang it. This meant that we had to stop chasing and those girls up the road supposedly got neutralized too. Except that the gap got bigger and we had to wait for the entire pro field to pass us before we could resume racing. So, one whole lap goes by with me out in the wind and not drafting (using up precious energy). When we could return to racing again I took massive pulls at the front, but the girls behind me didn’t want to do anything about it. So, I’d go hard, only to pull off and the girls behind me would all “sit up”…. then we would turn into a MASSIVE headwind before the right turn into a VERY LONG SPRINT to the finish. The bottom line, I did a TON of work only to finish 6th in the field. Bummer.

Lessons to be learned:

1. Ride smart.

2. Improve my time trialing ability to be able to go hard for 3 minutes at a time (and multiply that times 40 minutes).

3. If they ain’t working with you, leave them. It’s better to be going hard in “no man’s land” then lolly gagging in the field.

4. Going slow causes accidents. Be in the front.

Hubby’s massive 100+ rider field.

Me sitting in fourth position

That’s me coming up the outside.

Me again on the outside. I had a really good (and when I mean good, puking at the end) sprint but that girl in white got me on the line. At least I’m sprinting in my drops!

Both hubby and I felt strong but not strong enough to break out of the field mold! Got lots to learn here.