Went up to leavenworth on sunday for the ladies crit. she raced first with the 3/4's and then immediately raced the women's 4 race after that. 3/4 field was looking fast before the start. Course wasn't the greatest as it was laid out through a middle school parking lot...narrow, technical, not a lot of room to get going. the 25 mph winds didn't help either. After the first couple laps she was sitting at the back end of the pack. speed started to get faster and the group began to break up. Jane was not in a good position and had a hard time getting up to the main group and eventually settled in with 2 other riders off the back. There were already 2 ladies off the front (they ended up lapping the field twice) and jane chasing the big group of about 10. This went on for the majority of the race and jane eventually broke away from the 2 she was riding with. Long story short she got into a bad spot from the beginning and could have easily ridden the the main group. In the last 10 minutes when she finally broke away her speeds were faster than the majority of the riders and almost closed a 3/4 lap defecit from the other riders (minus the 2 leaders).
4 race was next and she was plenty warmed up and comfortable with the course. Spent about five minutes pulling the group around and when no one else wanted to pull she just broke off in a solo and lapped half the field (including some who beat her in the 3/4) for the win. Damn right.
She still needs a ton more saddle time and slowly gaining race experience. She has excellent base fitness and will do some damage against other 4's in the future.
nice riding Jane!
ReplyDelete