sarals 

Bariani Road Race, Women's 4

Hanna Muegge. Remember that name. You'll be hearing more about her as the season goes on.

I took a PTO day from work and drove 200 miles each way to do this race. And to get a DNP for my efforts. USAC is fixing that.

55 rider field - huge, by women's 4 standards. My teammate and I talked over strategy and positioning for the race, and we were both confident, based on what we were told about years past in this race, that out goals were sound and we'd be there at the end. It was only a 2 lap 28 mile race, after all. The pack went off at the whistle, centerline in effect for the first leg. I was in the back 1/3, and looking up the road I caught sight of my teammate's jersey sitting near the front. I needed to get up there, efficiently, and pretty quickly, because after the first right hand turn positioning would be very important. The wind was from the left, and I was on the right side of the pack and really just sort of coasting along. I noticed that no one was protecting the right, all of the action was on the left, so I moved right, squirted the gas and let my momentum carry me to the front. My plan was to slot in on the right, not go TO the front, but I found myself on the pointy end. I gauged my effort, really pretty easy, but I slowed the pace to get people to move around me so I could have the spot I wanted. After a few minutes, that worked. I was comfortable at around tenth when we made the first right hand turn. The pace came up some, but I was still doing just fine, thank you. My teammate was on my left shoulder, and I said to her "how'd you like them apples?" She responded "pretty cool!" We hit the next right turn, on to a no centerline very narrow chicane section of the course. My teamie and I were positioned right where we wanted to be, and even though there was an acceleration after the corner, we covered it. The next turn, a left/right set, came up pretty quickly. I had been told to expect that pace would remain pretty comfortable through here, but it started to come up. Some gals on the front really hit it after the left hander, and those impatient cat 4 youngsters started to chase. Still, I was managing just fine. The next right turn was ONE LINE only through the turn because it had a lot of sand and gravel on each side, plus a ditch on the inside (these were farm roads). The pack slowed considerably to take the corner. I let a little gap open between me and the rider in front of me because I wanted to see where the hazards were. After that turn, the hammer went down. I was sprinting, and people were riding around me right and left. We approached the next left hander pretty quickly, and I could see the leaders had rounded that corner and were really stringing it out. I was starting to feel the pace and the work, and after I made the left hander I was really struggling. It's funny how your brain shuts down when you become so oxygen deprived, but that's just what happened. My legs were fine, but I couldn't get them going. People were riding around either side of me, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I glanced down, briefly, at the GPS - 26 MPH. Nope.

OTB.

This was supposed to be an easy race.

I ended up in a familiar place, OTB, TTing the rest of the race, pissed off. I had promised myself and my teammate, because I felt I had bagged it in the road race portion of the Madera SR, that I would stay in, I would fight to stay in, I would help her, and I would finish. I did two of those. I actually felt better on the second lap, and was dragging some folks around because they couldn't or wouldn't work. Some of them were juniors. With 1K to go for the finish, my right calf cramped so badly I almost crashed. I had to stop for a few moments until it went away, and then I was able to finish. I literally collapsed after I crossed the finish. I was far worse off than I believed. I was evidently carrying much more fatigue from Madera than I suspected. I really did leave it all out there at Bariani, but the self satisfaction I used to get from knowing that just wasn't coming this time. Once again I was OTB, once again I failed to help my teammate, once again I had driven into my thick skull what a huge difference there is between 30 and 62.

I've had about enough of road races with kids. I've got the endurance for crits, but road races are clearly a lost cause. I hate to quit doing them, but getting beat up time after time in an unfair fight is just not fun. There was a time that I help out hope, really believed, that I could improve enough to be able to hang in in these races, get to use some strategy with my teammate, and really have a good time. The reality is much different than that.