Claires Report

After Lorri informed me I could race with the men, all thoughts of driving down for Copperopolis went promptly out the window. I knew Rita would appreciate the company, so off I went to Menlo Park! I had a great time: short drive, nice (well, it wasnt pouring) weather, a teammate (!), and a flat course. Perfect. This was a lot like racing a Twilight, but surprisingly, not as fast. I raced with the Cat 3 men, which was really quite pleasant. Plus, I was the first (only) woman finisher, so I won $50! Heck yeah!

Then it was time to watch Ritas race. There were about 6 Metromint riders in her race, and a few other teams with 2 riders a piece. You can read her report to learn how it unfolded, but let me just say that I was HYSTERICAL at the sidelines, YELLING at the other non-Metromint rides to WORK!!! It just about broke my heart seeing the blue dots attack, attack, attack, with Rita doing the lions share of the work to do something about it. She needed teammates real bad! Rita, youre a superstar. I was so impressed with you today!

Ritas Report

We lucked out again on the weather this weekend... it was raining on the drive down, and even while I was warming up on the trainer. But by the time my race came around, the rain had stopped. I was looking forward to a 3s only race -- that doesnt often happen with criteriums -- but as I rolled up to the start line I saw that we had a disappointingly small field of around 13. And nearly half of them, about 6, were from one team (Metromint)! A couple other teams had two teammates each, and the remainder of us were solo. A few laps in, a break of four formed, and I was in that break. We were working fairly well together, and I had high hopes that wed stay away. Unfortunately we did not, and eventually the pack came back together.

There was one crash during the race; it happened in turn two and a Velo Girl went down pretty hard. Luckily I was able to get out of the way, and hopefully the fallen rider is ok. Metromint did what a team should do when it has the numbers, and they attacked fairly regularly. I was feeling good and did more than my fair share of chasing them down. I begged some of the other non-Metromint girls to help, but no one seemed willing. I worked really hard, and it was frustrating. In the end, Metromint went 1-2-3, and me... well I finished 7th. In hindsight, perhaps with one of the break-aways that looked like it might actually stay away, maybe I should have dug a little deeper, suffered a bit more and tried to drop the pack and bridge up to that girl. But I did not -- I think that may be my need-to-work-on non-assertive style of crit racing showing. Still it was fun, and I even took a prime lap that day!

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