‘Quippa – May 18, 2009
Why do I feel sometimes that I race for food.
Today’s ‘Quippa Crit was sunny, windy and chilly. Well, chilly for mid-May that is: maybe 50 degrees at start time of 9:45. If it was mid April and Mingo, we would say it was a ‘heat wave.’ So we stayed in our cars or bundled up in fleece w/ wool hats and debated shoe covers and wool gloves. As there were only 5 of us women, Gary the Wonder Promoter Dugovich started us with the M 4/5s and gave us a 50% discount on race entry. Yeah Gary D. !!
A brisk wind out of the W/NW meant a seriously big head wind on the long finishing straight. Stacie, Carol, Rachel and I along with Erin Quinlan (formerly of the Elves, now of Carbon Racing) lined up with EJ and the rest of the boyz and off we went. There were a few squirrely guys, both Rachel and I found ourselves being eased off a wheel a couple of times, but all in all it was OK. It sure was nice to be able to tuck in behind everyone else when we turned into the head wind. Jump to the last two laps of the race — Rachel and I are still sitting pretty as we near the end of the backstretch, approaching turn 3 when we observe that a bit of a gap has opened up a few riders ahead of us. Well, as we exit turn 3, the wee gap has grown to a 3-bike length gap and, too late, we try to get around the gap-maker. DANG!!! Once in the wind, there is no making up ground. Here I must invoke Bike Racer Excuse No. 107: “I got gapped” and No. 108: “No one else would close it.” Well shucks. I got so complacent about sitting in on all those wheels behind all those big guys, that I waited too long to close the bloody gap myself.
Oh well. I got in a good hour of speed and hard efforts, got to hang out with my peeps, got to be outside in the sunshine, AND have a loverly breakfast of eggs and potatoes afterwards. Yum.
