EVENT: Nevada City Crit

CATEGORY: Women's 3/4s, but they started 1-4's all together

DATE: Sunday, June 15, 2014

AUTHOR: Angel Garbarino

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Fast downhill, stair-step climb, two sharpish corners after the descent.

PREVIOUS RESULTS: NA

WEATHER: humid, no real wind.

TEAMMATES: solo

GOALS: top 3, keep with the 1/2s as long as I could.

PLAN: stay with the 1/2s as long as I could, and then hold a strong tempo until I collapsed. Hit the descents hard, with momentum into the climb.

RACE SUMMARY: The field was stacked! Elle Anderson, several girls from Twenty16 and a pro from UHC. Guessing close to 40 girls at the start. The start was fast. I kept up for the first two laps, hanging on Ali T's wheel. I didn't see any other 3/4s in the lead pack. After 3 laps the front pack started breaking apart. I popped right alongside them. I actually pulled over and stopped. I wasn't sure how bad I just did myself in. But as I stood on the side of the road, I saw Alyia (I raced against her in Copperopolis) come up and I jumped on her wheel. From there it was back and forth with some girls, but mostly solo. I passed ladies, and got passed by the main group. It was super hard to tell your position throughout the race because of the mix of categories and the amount of lapping going on. An unpleasant crash happened on the second turn, and because of the ambulance out on course, they stopped the race with 3 laps to go. Understandable, but it made for quite the show. They staggered started us to the positions of how we came in, but again with the lapping there were girls who they started in front of me, but that I had passed at least once. The last 3 laps seemed odd, and hard to really get the race feel back. I kept a solid pace, but had NO idea where I placed when I finished. The protest period last for about 3 hours. 

They posted results with me in 6th, then in 3rd and finally in 4th.  Really, I have no idea how I finished, but I learned a lot.  One, it's a rad course and second never give up.  Looking back doubting myself cost me.  I think I could have had contended for 1st if I hadn't second guessed myself, and just kept going. It took about a lap for me to recover after stopping, more mentally than physically.  I felt strong the rest of the race, and actually got faster towards the end.  

RESULTS

4th... but I don't think anyone really knows.

TAKEAWAYS

- don't doubt yourself, especially if it involves pulling over and stopping.

- I need to work on my recovery after really hard efforts.