Speed week race# 1- Beaufort Crit

Wow, talk about a reality check- I have never before been pulled from
the race while going at 29mph. Now, it's just my opinion, but I
thought that was pretty fast... obviously the officials and the
Lamborghini(?) pace car didn't agree.
The first hint at what to expect in this race, was the fact that the
prize purse paid down to 30th place ($45 for the 30th).
The second hint came to me when they called up the first 10 women: 4
world (pro) crit champions, 3 national champions and a swarm of
U-23-25 world/national champs. While part of me was thinking I should
just turn around and go cheer from the beer tent, my ego told me I had
to suck it up and go for a spin.
So the race went off with a prime/sprint lap; $100 to the first one to
cross the line for the first lap. I had a pretty bad start, being dead
last out of 50+ women... Lesson for tomorrow: EVERYBODY shows up to
the start at least 25 minutes before the start.

The next two laps were also $100 sprint laps.

About 5 laps in (out of 50), the pack started to string out (kind of
expected when going at 32mph). It didn't help that one of the corners
narrowed into somewhat of a bottle neck and there was no way of
turning the corner more than one rider at a time. Which implied that
by the time the first 30 girls came through, the leader and pace car
were already 2 corners down. It was very strung out, but the pack
tried to re-group after that corner... when I believe Laura VanGuilder
(ultra pro), attacked and ramped it up to who knows what speed. Next
think I knew, I was in a chase pack of about 8 girls, trying to catch
back up to the top girls (all 30+ of them). One by one, our little
chase pack shrank to just 3 of us... we were about 5 seconds behind
them and at around 40 laps to go, the officials pulled us out cause
the pace car was rolling in on us.
Geez. It was awesome to say the least. Those were the hardest 10 laps
I've ever raced, and it was amazing to be in a field where you had no
option but to feel confident that everyone around you knew what they
were doing when flying through those corners.

I did get complimented on our kit/ team name. Some pro reps thought it
was a pretty sweet concept.
Anyway, that's it for the day. I was happy to not be the first one
pulled ( I think there were 15 before me!). Hopefully tomorrow I'll
pull it all together and teach those pro's a thing or two about bike
racing... maybe even podium (...) ???