The start was neutral until the last rider was off the dirt, which was about 2 miles from the start line. Once we got the go ahead to race the men picked up the speed. I felt great. I was about mid field and was just getting sucked along in the draft. I was in the field for the entire lap and my legs felt good. When we turned onto the dirt one of the first riders slid out and most of the group was slowed down. I was not ready for this and wasn’t able to bridge back up to the main field. There was a group of riders just in front of me but I was unable to close the gap. Once I had turned back onto the pavement they had already picked up the speed. I was with another girl but we didn’t work well together and I could see the group slowly pull away from us.
During this lap my little group grew to about 10 riders, but we still weren’t working together. I did a hard pull through the front and ended up just dangling off the front by maybe 40 meters. I held my gap for about 3 miles but let up after my feed on the dirt section when I saw the gap had closed down. When I got back into the group we were finally able to get a steady pace line going and I was content to just stay in the group.
For the next 3 laps our little group stayed together. I had given up the hope of catching the group in front of us and had turned my thoughts to how I was going to work the sprint out. Our group consisted of 5 women, myself, two ladies from Team Naples Cylery and two from Herbal life, along with 3 master 35+ men. I knew all the women and have been racing with them since we were all category 4’s. I didn’t know how the sprint would go down but I was excited for it.
We were still together with 3 laps to go. Then I started trying to conserve more energy and let my legs recover. This lap went without anything exciting happen. On our sixth lap we lost 2 women. They were teammates so the race was down to me and the two Herbal Life riders.
Half way through the last lap we got caught by the pro men. We were passed by the field and the official in the follow car told us to not mix in with the other field. They were going relatively slow so the official allowed us to sit on the back. About 3 miles from the finish the pros picked up the speed and one of the ladies popped off the back. About a half mile later myself and my remaining completion dropped. As we made the right turn onto the dirt I slowed up and let her pull. I could tell she wanted to be on my wheel but I didn’t want to pull through. About 100 meters away from the finish I could just see the start/finish banner. I kept waiting until about 50 meters away then I drilled it. I nearly crashed while sprinting on the dirt but I help it upright and won the sprint. I ended up 8th overall.
It was a great race and I was really happy with my result. I’m continuing to improve from race to race and hope to get my first win of the season in the near future.
Ciao,
Ashlyn
