Cat Up!

City Park Crit was my first Cat 3 race. I felt very nervous all day and our race didn’t start until 3pm, when I believe the temperature was up to 90. Since I’ve upgraded, I’ve enjoyed a bit of a break from the pressure I was putting on myself as a 4 to get on the podium. Of course, I still want to do well as a 3, but when it comes to races like today when my category joins Cat 1 and 2, well, it’s just appropriate to adjust my expectations a bit!

I found myself especially nervous for my safety. Between news of Susan’s broken Scapula this week and Alison’s broken Olecranon/Humerus, I was feeling like it’s just a matter of time until it’s my turn and I had visions of cracking my teeth on the curb or shattering my collar bone. I tried to stay positive and not be so scary, though, and I set my goals for the race to try to build my confidence/comfort level within the pack and hang on to the group.

I got there super early and watched the men’s pro race – I felt better as I saw they were all strung out through the turns and it was not as tight and narrow as I’d thought. I got to pre-ride the course one lap after their race and by then felt much more confident that the course was not really all that technical at all. Some people warned me to watch out with pedaling through the turns because some of the road was off-camber, and indeed during the race at one point my pedal did lightly skid on the road but it didn’t take me down. Here's the course map:

It was wonderful to meet up with Kat and Ingrid before the start, and I realized that the field was not a large as I had imagined in my nightmares. Only 15 besides me! I was prepared to ride defensively and hang in with the group. The race began and the pace was fast from the get go! Fast through the corners, faster accelerations after the corners, and I found myself quickly in the back and behind a Colorado Bike Law rider I realized later was Rachel. She and I worked together with Betsy Mercer at Deer Trail and Rachel came in third behind me. Anyway, she started to gap and I was behind her barely on her wheel, so it wasn’t but a few laps into the race when she and I were clearly on our own. She commented on how fast the pace was and I told her it was my first race as a 3, and when she said she had just been upgraded too that’s when I realized it was Rachel. Anyway, we worked very hard together. My power meter was right around LT. I thought about the TT Championships next weekend and encouraged myself that this was a great workout. We knew we were not going to catch the main field, but thought surely others would be dropped. We picked up Ingrid before long, and the three of us took turns pulling. Then later we picked up Renee. 

Throughout this time I am delighted to say that I was not feeling negative at all, but actually really enjoying myself. With about 3 laps to go, we made a goal to try and not get lapped by the main field that was really not far behind us now. We all took good hard pulls but the main field caught us right at the finish, and if we had been just a little faster we could have gone one more lap and sprinted for our own little race-within-the-race. Instead, we rolled through the finish staying out of the way and watching the main field sprint through. It was the most uneventful finish to a race I’ve ever experienced…I felt like a spectator not a competitor. In any case, I congratulated Rachel who happened to be in front of me in our pace line but we never even had the chance to sprint each other. Oh well, I’m sure there will be a next time!

Overall I’m pleased and accepting of the results and experience. I was 15^th out of 16 amazing athletes. I know transitioning to a 3 will be a learning curve and there are a lot of exciting challenges ahead!