I did it!
 

I did it, I entered my first bike race! And I don't think it will be my last!

Five laps of a 4 mile circuit with this elevation profile:
http://pdqcleveland.org/CCRRprofile.gif

Women's racing is slow to catch on in this area, so we had a combined field (Cat 1-4, though I don't think any 1s were there) with 14 women starting and they said this was the biggest women's field they've ever had. I got dropped on the climb after 3 laps, pulled a chase group of 3-4 for most of the next lap, and caught the lead group just in time to get dropped again half a lap later on the climb to the finish. I finished 8th, 19 seconds behind the rider in front of me.

This board has been a treasure trove of tips and techniques as well as encouragement for newcomers. Though most of it wasn't directed specifically at me, I just wanted to say thanks to y'all. :)

Congrats!

Take no prisoners!

sweet, I did that race as well. 9 times up that hill was enough for me even though our race was only 36 miles long it felt ALOT longer :-)

Way to go Alison and sar cycle too.

Joe

You go girl! BTW - it IS the engine, but good equipment makes a hell of a difference - especially if you ever do any time trials.

Nice! Congrats to both of you!

Sweet, congrats! How'd you place? Sounded like quite an intense race for the 1/2/3s! And what's this I hear about a rider getting hurt?

skydive -- I'll stand by "it's the engine not the chassis" for most purposes, but you're dead on that equipment can make quite a difference in TTs; also now that I'm looking ahead to a pretty hilly course in June I'm really hoping that I seal the deal on a new bike by then -- Spartacus is a superb ride with his classic steel geometry, but MAN is he ever a porker! I hate to think that my competition is riding CAAD8 and similarly featherlight machinery!

I finished 7th . . . third in the field sprint which came in after the break.

No crashes in the 1-3 but there was a crash in the cat 4 race that looked very serious. They were hauling the guy out on the stretcher and a head/neck brace when I came past warming up. I guess he hit those potholes on the backstretch downhill. Blood all over him; very sobering to say the least. I always think that people need to be more careful when downhilling. Better to be conservative and make the time up on the next hill (unless you do this stuff for a living).

:( That explains it. It was a Cat 4 friend that was asking my hubby about what happened to the hurt rider. I guess that was because hubby hung around longer, not because it was in the 1/2/3 field. Those potholes were wicked.

From the way he described the really good riders who were getting dropped by the last laps? Your legs HAD to be dying! Ack!

Congrats.

Cheers!

Good job. Stick with it and get some friends involved. The sport definitely needs more women racers...

Outstanding!

Did you ride with a one day license or are you committed to a season of racing?

I did ride with a one day license (I got a USCF license on a whim two years ago but obviously it lapsed). However, I am pretty committed, I'm already hooked into at least one and maybe two more races in May and June. I've gotten my account all ready to go with USCF (had to get it changed to my married name) but I am hesitating to renew the license. That's a lot of money, and I haven't yet done the math to figure out if I will be racing enough to justify it.

Thanks for all the support guys, it means a lot!