For the very first time ever (I think?), there were an amazing four Quad women in the Women’s 4 race at Sterling. I’d done the race last year and recalled the course being hilly but not overly technically difficult. The race starts with a two mile neutral roll out and then a neutral climb up this small wall of a hill; the race then begins in earnest with a long grind uphill that Christine correctly described asthe “pain cave” followed by a fast rolling descent, another vaguely uphill grind along the highway and then back up that sharp little wall. Repeat for three laps.
Last year, I saw NEBC line up their people at the front and go for a break but was unable to get my act into gear or organize the other dropped riders into an effective chase. If I’m not getting hugely stronger in races, I am determined to be less stupid at the very least and I was determined to get one of us Quad ladies in the break when it went this year.
The four of us lined up in a rather non-optimal position toward the back as we rolled out for the neutral roll out. Right away the pack was somewhat sketchy with people jockeying for position and shifting around in the pack; the pace was mellow but not entirely ‘neutral.’ In ‘neutral,’ we ground up the hill en masse and the race began at amoderate pace. The slow grind up the “pain cave” hill was fine with a pace in the low 20s for the most part; I expected a break to go along that stretch but no one went. I was dealing with some nerves handling in a pack so I was sitting too far back to really move up or go for something. As we hit the rolling descents, the pack got sketchier with a lot of random breaking and cursing. There were some accelerations off the front but, as Jeremy has often said to me, attacks on downhills are really not that effective. Without working too hard, I was able to close down the gaps that formed. A couple racers fell off the back on the rollers but all the Quad ladies stayed in it with Nancy maintaining a very strong and dominant position atthe front, pulling some but not too much.As we sped along the highway portion of the course, I noted that a CVC rider was pulling at the front and a couple other CVC women were moving to the front to attach themselves to her wheel. Okay, I think we have a break setting up.
With several CVC and Talia of Cambridge Bike at the front, someone had just dropped the hammer when…most of the pack went down just to my right. I saw a couple people bump each other, try to recover, and a girl somersault right over the handlebars. I steered left to stay clear and attached myself to the leaders.
Clear of the carnage, I yelled to my fellow racers in the break that there’d been a wreck just behind us and we took the tempo down a notch; not too many reattached. Those of us who didn’t wreck broke into three smaller groups at The Wall. Never a terrific climber, I fell to the back and yelled at Jon on the sidelines (my fiance) to find out if the Quad women were okay since I’d seen none of them since the wreck. Post Wall, I traded pulls with Daria from CVC; we could see the pink jersey of Talia in the distance but didn’t have the legs to close. Along the highway portion on the 2nd lap, Nancy (who had gone down in the crash) impressively caught up with us and proceeded to take massive pulls; she let me know that the Quad women were fine although Jen had also gone down. As we hit The Wall for the third lap, Nancy (still in her big ring) takes off up the hill. Daria looks at me as Nancy upshifts to a harder gear and drops us, “Your teammate is a machine!” she says. Daria then heads up the hill and despite mybest efforts I couldn’t follow her wheel. As we grind up the long slow hill, I can see Daria look back for me for a mile or so for me but I’m just utterly unable to close down the gap. I’m tired, I’m in the pain cave. I can see Nancy ahead of Daria the whole time, the three of us strung out in our own respective time trials for the last lap of eight miles. I remember to actually shift down to my 25 as I grind up the Wall the very last time and end the race in 10th place.Post-race, I find out that all of my team is okay except for some scratches. I know at least one woman went to the hospital but I’m not sure who.
On the way home, we buy a first aid kit to keep in the car. Seems reasonable.
Posted by oceansword 
