Originally Posted by SalsaPodio

My first collegiate race at U of Iowa this weekend.

Road Race was on Saturday. 26 miles, since I am a D. There weren't many C's so the official started girls and guys C/D together. Race started off at a pretty easy pace. After the second turn someone from KU attacked and I was lucky enough to be in a good position to chase after him. We ended up forming a successful break of about 10 people, 3 of which were D's. I spent most of my time in either 1st 2nd or 3rd, which was probably a stupid thing to do, but I felt pretty good. With about 700m to go all three D's who were in the break were at the front of the group. I stayed in second for as long as I could then started to sprint with about 200m to go. The finish was uphill and into the wind, and I managed to pull off a win by about three bike lengths. So overall I was pretty happy with the way my first race went.

Sunday was the crit. The course was changed at the last minute to a 1/4 mile car race track in Cedar Rapids. The race was 30 min + 3 laps. Again it started out pretty easy and about 2 laps in someone attacked. I chased them down and we were in a break of about 8 people. I still felt pretty good so I decided to attack again for the hell of it. Another rider from Minnesota followed me and we tried to hold the field off for a while. A prime came and since my team only brought three people and didn't have much of a chance in any sort of team points I let the Minnesota racer take the lap. The field eventually caught us, but I still wanted to be out front so I attacked again, and when I looked back I was all by myself. I kept that going for about 10 minutes, until I decided that I was an idiot and couldn't finish the race that way, so I slowed down and let the lead group catch me. Everything was going pretty normal for the next 10 minutes. The bell rang, there were three laps to go, and I found myself at the front of the group. Not really the place I wanted to be so I slowed down a little hoping someone would pass me so I could get on their wheel. Everyone seemed content with just following me so I stepped it up a little on the last lap. With 200m to go I started my sprint and ended up winning by about 15 feet, or so I was told.

Overall pretty good results for my first two races.