Tales from the Saddle

Monday, July 10, 2006

Bryan Park's Circuit Race

What better way to beat the 90-degree heat on an almost summer's day than to ride around in circles? Sounded good to me--so that what I decided to do on June 18 in Richmond, VA. I drove down from Alexandria and Nate drove up from his posh military set up in Hampton, VA.

The women's categories 1-4 would be racing together, although they'd be scoring Women Cat 4 separately. It was a fun course with grand turns and very accomodating gradual inclines that favored my legs. Some of the course featured nice shady stretches--a great way to avoid the sweltering, dry heat that awaited us at the beginning of the course.

This was a great race as I kept with the pack for a record 4 laps. It was fabulous and it gave me great encouragement. Though I finally lost contact with the main field, I was a chase field of one between them and another pack of women. For the first time ever in my crit racing experience, I lapped a cyclist (twice!), and yet kept the peloton off of me until the very last lap. I didn't know it at the time but the group of women chasing after me were Cat 3 cyclists. I finished 5th out of 7 in my category. I was very pleased--however these are the unofficial results, as I never went back to the start to check results.

After I finished, I went back to the car to deal with my dehydration and then sat at the bottom of the hill to cheer Nate on. Had I checked the results I would have noticed that they left me off of the results. However, I didn't notice until days letter when results were posted online. They couldn't change the official results, as it was well after the 15 minute protest period and so the race promoter agreed to change the unofficial results. I am a little peeved that they left me off the initial results and a little annoyed that they failed to acknowledge their mistake officially. I think most racers take it for granted that they will accounted for, at the very least for showing up.

Regardless, it was a great race, one of my best for the season and very encouraging-- considering the races I had lined up in the days to come!!

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