Topsport Stage Race, March 28, 2010

I was not excited about a 3 lap/69 mile road race after the energy spent yesterday at the TT and circuit race. Yesterday, the promoter asked our group to vote on whether we wanted to race 69 miles or cut it to 2 laps/46 miles. The vote had to be unanimous – five women voted to do the 3 laps – boo! The amusing part was that the promoter then refused to even give the Cat 5 men or the Women 35+ groups the option to cut a lap because the Cat 4 women were doing 3 laps. My group went out last around noon; it was nice to have the morning to get organized, pack and more recovery time. Did a 30 minute warm up just to spin my legs out and we had a neutral roll out a few miles. The course was comprised of challenging segments of very rough roads, gravel, numerous cattle grates and two turnarounds per lap– just a few short hills/rollers. I was feeling pretty good and had no problem responding to any surges or attacks. A few people got dropped on the first lap and I figured I could make it through the 69 miles. Then the peloton got decimated at the narrow 180 turnaround by the lake – the group slowed down so much around the cone that we had to uncleat; the first 6 women around killed it into the wind. I hammered it and thought I could bridge up but to no avail, and we didn't have enough organization to work together to chase them down. Lesson learned – the breakaway was rather predictable and I should have been at the front. I bailed out towards the end of lap 2 and then cooled down because I knew that my third place GC position was gone – DNF. It was still a great weekend of training and, especially, a great time with good friends!