We had a pretty good turnout in collegiate women's B for my team with 4. It was insanely cold at 9am, so I spent a lot of time on the trainer while watching the first two men's races. I got a good spot at the line while others did a lap around the course. The official gave us a lecture about the cold and our hard tires and where others had been wrecking.
I started off too slow, as I kicked my pedal around to the wrong side and had to coast too much going into the first weird turn to clip in. I made up some ground in the wind and caught up to my teammates on the hill, who were fighting through mid-pack. One girl next to me was swerving all over the road, forcing me into the rain gutter by the curb. Then no one ahead of me could figure out what line to take through the chicane, and they were all over their brakes. I worked my way into a safe spot for the 90 degree turn at the bottom and then blew by everyone down the straight, thinking "Get me away from these crazy swerving maniacs!"
Our two strongest riders (who should move up to As) caught my wheel and I led them until the hill, where they dominated. They got the space to go off the front, and they stayed there for the remainder. I got passed by some others..I don't remember how many. I had completely blown up the field by this point--we were all stretched out and mostly single-file. Even though it was early in the race, this was fine with me, as I didn't want to get wrecked. I worked with my other teammate through the next couple of laps where I got my sights on another girl at the top of the hill. I took the pull, but my teammate couldn't follow. Then I spent some laps chasing the next one in front of me.
My biggest mistake was miscalculating how many laps were left--I didn't see a lap counter anywhere. So I made my move with 3 to go, when I thought it was 2. This allowed the other girl I was chasing to take a rest behind me (I couldn't drop her for long), and she blew past me up the hill the last time as I suffered. I didn't gain on her through the chicane as usual, since she had the benefit of seeing my superior line through it the lap before.
She wound up passing someone else, who I almost caught in the final stretch...maybe if I had another 100m.
I'm not sure where I wound up overall. No better than 5th (probably a bit worse).
It wasn't a smart move to spend so much of the race out by myself, but I broke up the pack, kicked up the pace of the race, avoided getting wrecked, and, I think, help our girls get positioned for 1st and 2nd. Not terrible for my first outing I guess.