I attacked!?

I declined racing at Mason Lake 3 since I figured it would be nice to get on the bike for at least some kind of spin before racing. The last time I rode was March 6th before I headed to Miami. I opted to go corner marshall the course in the afternoon instead, which was fun!

I opened my road race season this morning at the Market Street RR in Ravensdale. (Beware: long post ahead...) I would have much preferred the weather forecast I saw on Friday, which called for sun. Instead, we had steady drizzle and cool temps for the morning 8:30 races. Ugh. The turnout for the Women's Cat 4 field was large at around 30+ riders, mostly from TGH and WoW. We had 3 Zoka gals there: myself, JoAnne, and Julia. This was Julia's first race and she did a fantastic job finishing in less than ideal weather conditions.

Our race was very uncharacteristic and not the typical "let's all ride together and just sprint it out at the end" type of Women's 4 race. We had to do 3 laps on a 9-mi loop and the first lap right at the end of the neutral rollout was fast. There were several attacks but nothing stuck. Lots of gals were pushing the pace most of the lap. Halfway through the first lap I noticed that we had shed quite a few riders already. I was staying near the rear as it was difficult to move up with the nasty weather and large TGH and WoW teams.

Towards the end of the first lap I saw a 4-5 person break getting away. The rain made it hard to see clearly but I thought there were a few TGH and WoW gals in it. TGH was on the front of the pack slowing things down and I yelled to a few gals to chase but no one seemed interested. I figured with large WoW and TGH teams out there the break might stay away. I noticed I had a completely clear shot on the shoulder all the way up to the front so without thinking I took off and decided I'd try to bridge up. I have NO IDEA what the hell I was thinking. I've never done anything like that before. As soon as I was off the front I heard JoAnne yell "Go Zoka!" and she took off with me. Kick ass!!

I got close to the break before the pack surged and overtook me but hey, I helped get them reeled in so that was awesome! Unfortunately I burned my legs up and had some difficulty catching a wheel when everyone went past so I ended up slipping about 6 bike lengths off the back of the pack with two other riders. I sat back and recovered for a bit but when the follow car started passing us I thought "Oh hell no" and told them to grab my wheel and motored back up there. Note to self: Don't punch it so hard you can't recover!

The 2nd lap was pretty tame and everyone seemed content with a light pace. There was a climb right before the finish line at the end of each lap that kept getting harder and unfortunately right before the last lap I started cramping trying to climb it. I was in good position in the middle of the pack and stood up to get some more speed and my hamstring frieked out. Ever try to climb with cramping hamstrings? Suck! While I tried to work it out I fell off the back and despite riding another few miles I kept cramping so I decided to head back to the finish and call it a day. I was happy to see JoAnne finish up in 6th place, which is awesome for her first year!

Yes, I'm disappointed I DNF'd since I was riding so well but it's early in the season, I had a great race (probably the best ever!), got to reel in a break, and had tons of fun. This was my first time back on the bike in about 12 days so I can't complain too much. I'm definitely stronger than last year. I spent all last season just trying to hang on to the pack for dear life so being able to contribute to a race this time was a blast!

For some reason I seem to have a lot of trouble with cold, wet riding conditions. My muscles seize up and I tend to cramp despite being well hydrated. I'm guessing my 1% body fat isn't helping, but anyone out there have any solutions to this problem? It's looking like there's a good chance Independence Valley this weekend might be rainy as well so I'm all ears.

There were two parts of the race that were funny to me.

First funny: You should have seen the look on the guys' faces who were set to ride at 11:00am when all of us gals showed up back in the parking lot soaked, covered in mud, and shaking uncontrollably. I heard a guy from Hagens say "Wow...it looks bad out there." I even saw a few guys pack up their stuff and head home.

Second funny: When we lined up for the start a few ladies looked around and said "Where's Starbucks?" Once everyone realized there was no Starbucks team there a few people cheered and said "Yeah! We're going to have fun today!"