Claires Report

My past two experiences with NRC races having been less than rewarding, I was determined to dig deep and have a good race today. I had been unable to finish the criteriums at McLane Pacific and San Dimas, so these NRC races are on my list of challenges to overcome. Nevertheless, I wasn�t a bit nervous before the race and my legs have been feeling great lately, so I was in a good head-space at the start.

(I�d been visiting my family for the few days prior to the race, and my niece Laura seems to be my good-luck charm. If I put up another picture of her in this race report, the whole thing will spiral out of control and these reports will start looking more like a family photo album. I may have to tape a photo of her to my stem or something.)

The race was very challenging, right through to the end. Something I noticed, though, was that many of the pro teams who had been throwing down in the earlier NRC races where either not present or under-represented. T-mobile was the exception; I think they had about 5 women. But I counted only one Quark rider, 1 Ford Basis rider, no Webcor girls�this may explain why I was able to ride near the front and finish!

Another thing I noticed was that the women I�m familiar with from Northern Cal racing were riding really strong. It was comforting and encouraging to have women from McGuire, LGBRC, VP, BAVG, etc. in the race because I know they are great riders and I felt secure on their wheels. Is it strange to feel proud of your own competition? I was!

I can�t write any more about the details of this lap or the other, but some highlights include: riding near the front for much of the race and feeling strong, feeling confident on the technical parts of the course (2 tight turns and a hairpin corner), feeling calm and smooth while argee-bargy and chaos occurred around me, being able to move up from near the rear to the front of the peloton when I needed to and not having trouble recovering from the effort, being in a good position on the last lap so that I could sprint unhindered.

In the end, I passed a few people on the straightaway to the finish line and ended up 27th. I�m very proud of this result because I feel like it was exactly what I had in my legs and the women in front of me were simply stronger. I�m determined to continue improving my positioning on the last lap of criteriums and to keep working on my sprint. I really love it! If I could do it every day, I would!

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004