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Racing the Syracuse race weekend!!
Another Race weekend coming up all with rain in the forecast...ughhh, not again, well, they haven't been totally right with that lately anyway, maybe we would dodge the rain?? hopefully!!! After all, there are 3 events in 2 days, I must have been asking for alot!
Got up saturday morning for the trek up to Song mountain for the Road race and the new Crooked Lake Time trial. A wet saturday morning, but wait, looks kind of bright and nice out there.. woohoo... will it stay nice for the race? Indeed, it was all blue skies when we lined up to race... how great is that? ahh , so off we went for 15 miles of about a 15 mph sunday afternoon ride.. noone decided to do any breaks, no pushes, just a nice cruising pace..... hmm, thank goodness I had done a proper warmup first because that would never get me up the 2 mile oak hill climb.. just running along at 14-16mph, so there it comes, I placed myself to be first up the hill, there were 13 of us... a relatively small field this year compared with last year's race. We cruised up the hill, there were 4 to 5 of us in the small break-a-way up the hill, then a few more joined in, well, no, can't have this, so a couple of us pushed some more pace to break up the pack.. and we finally did drop most all of the rest of them, to a degree, then the QOM sign on the pavement, and 2 girls ahead of me, by only a wheel or so... hmmm, can I do it?? Why not, I gave it all I had and blasted up and past them to capture the QOM for our field, then we all hammered for a while together making more of a gap.. there were 5 of us... I knew as we pacelined back to the start and around to the song mtn road to the up hill finish, that I was spent.. the QOM took all I had. they were good enough to let me hang in there taking a couple less pulls than the rest of them, I did feel bad so came back into the paceline to do my fair share, I knew I was not going to make it to the finish in front of any of them, they all had strong legs still. So it was, i came in struggling up the hill, but knew I would take 5th place... A great race! nice weather, but would it hold.
After a good long rest with the feet up and a sandwich and banana, I had to gather myself together to get ready for the 3 mile tt.. It started to sprinkle, on and off, dang rain, please let us all get through today then rain all you want!
Us cat 4's had to be the last in the road race for starts then the first to go for the tt... how is that? must be it makes us tougher so we can move up someday!!
I got changed and ready, went out and warmed up around the course that we would do our time trial.. hmmm pretty nice actually, the rain had stopped again, and roads were dry, thank goodness! But there were more dark clouds, yuck, no!
Well off we went in 30 second intervals and each chased the one before, great carrots in front to make you go harder than you want to or really can.. I felt good, legs were a bit tired, as I noticed going up the small rollers around the lake, tried to keep it above 20 mph, but looked down and saw 17 mph, no, can't have this!!! so, through the pain , I cranked it back up the best I could and took the straightest line possible... ahhh, over in just under 8 minutes.. oh yeah, it rained the whole tt.. but not bad , the road was just starting to get spots, so it wasn't too bad, a few others behind us ended up with some wet road, bummer!!
The end of the day, I had no clue how I did, oh well, the day was nice, I felt good, time to go home and reload and feast and sleep, another day coming sunday, which was expected to have rain most of the day.. great...
Sunday 6:00 on the road back up to Syracuse Inner harbor for the crit... hey, looks okay out, hmmm,. maybe good weather? well, we have to start at 9 and so far, it looks good, preride course, great course, 1.19 miles around, one slight hill up bear street bridge, not too bad, straight shot to the finish, could be exiting!! I think this will be fun, after all, I was relaxed enough to sleep all the way to syracuse!
Checked the tt results from the day before and low and behold, I came in 3rd.. wahoo.. better than I had anticipated!! yeay, more $$ for MIM.... cool!!
That got me pumped.. i was ready to enjoy this crit , it was fun, we started and cruised along gaining speed for each lap.. some small break a ways, but generally a nice pace.. alot different from the higher class races I am sure! Just about dropped the chain on the hill, but managed to pedal it back on easy and caught back on to the pelaton. whew.. close call!
The sun was actually out some, not bad, wind picking up some on us, but really pretty nice! Glad we went first.
Bell rings for a preem at about 6 laps to go for points, hmmm. I could use some of those, so I got into a position to be able to shoot up through at the line, and managed to get 3rd place for one point by like a nose, no kidding, I think we just about crossed the line together!! but what fun!! more points is always good in that General Classification thing!
Finally down to the last lap, wow, we slowed down alot, all got rested, drinks, blah blah blah, and everyone jockeying for a good spot to sprint from. Around the last corner we went and everyone jumped! I knew that some would burn up because it was a few hundred yards to the finish, so I just eased my gearing up and pushed a pace harder and harder, staying seated I ended up passing like 4 or so girls, finished in 5th, probably could have stood up and passed another one or 2 but damn, it was just fun and I felt good where I was.. it was a blast!!
Oh yeah, Charlsie broke away from us, but being that she was a junior and racing her own race, we let her go, then find out they stuck her in the 4s.. she is a great girl, awesome rider, and in the end she did well for the juniors.. her placing in our race didn't really count since she was racing as a junior for the weekend, but she tt'd it around and in on her own, good job Charlsie!!
Over all, I came in 4th in the GC and won a whopping $65. to add to the MIM account for Lourdes... a really fun weekend, the rain did manage to come and go at perfect intervals... Sorry for all who had to race when it was really coming down out there..
Looking forward to another fun race up in Syracuse next year... Now for a long weekend off, just some long rides, swims and runs, with a fun trip to see a friend!!!
Happy Riding and Racing this next weekend to all who go and Race again!!! Good luck to all of you doing the Corning Circuit Race this coming weekend!
Tami
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