Deer Trail RR 42 miles, senior co rr championships SW3, 10th/15 failed to defend the title.
Big rollers, L shaped course with 3 u-turns, finish is false flat after a good size roller. Last year I was one of the stronger riders in the pack and held on to win the bunch sprint. This year, competition was stronger. The first 2/3rds of the race was quite moderate with only a few attacks, but each hill found me hurting pretty bad to stay in the group, so I didn't do anything to make it any harder. Sat in and stayed out of the wind.
On the last leg, as expected, attacks started (some by my teammates, good for them!) and I was able to stay in the pack but with difficulty. On the last u-turn a masters men's pack passed us and it got messy and then we re-passed them, which resulted in me burning a few extra matches trying to get around riders in the other race.
Last hill before the finish, the pace was really high and i was dropped. Another dropped rider caught me shortly after, and I latched on to her wheel, and outsprinted her for 10th, a little over 30 seconds behind the winner. Fitness is not where I wanted compared to the other cat 3s. On the bright side, the last hour of the race my NP was LT, and I spent 17 minutes in zone 6, so at least there's an explanation why I got dropped: it was really hard.