June 4 - ICCC Dash for Cash, Pleasanton

Women's 1/2/3 report by Holly Roberts, Bay Area Velo Girls

All I can say is Wow! We rode one lap and lined up for the start. I spaced and rode through the S/F line (was afraid to slam my brakes on in front of everyone) and my teammate, Denise, moved over to give me room on the front row. Of course she teased me about the "fly by", but that's expected! We were chatty, looking around at the field, and listening to the instructions. Race was lengthened to 45 minutes, which was fine. We start and we’re off! Dashing for cash or something every lap. It was like last year – one gigantic tempo workout! About the third or fourth Dash for Cash, I practiced my sprint. Uggh, pretty sloppy.

A couple of breaks went up the road, and either a Velo Girl was in it, or it didn’t feel threatening. At one point, there was a Dash for Cash (I must have won one, because they had me down for it), my brain said, “You should go if this break happens”, so I went with it. There were three of us in it, and I thought it was my teammates Lori, Susan or Shaun, plus Luzia and then myself. Luzia didn’t pull long, then it was my turn, and I thought, “Oh that was stupid, I should not be working here”. We were caught very shortly thereafter.

After that, I basically tried to stay in the field the rest of the time and let my teammates do the chasing. About half way through the race, Mary told me she thought I had a flat. WHAT? I looked and it was fine. She said she thought she heard “Psst”, but maybe it was the wind? I had wheels in the pit anyway. My teammate, Lori, approached me about two-thirds of the way through the race and asked how I was feeling. I think I said, “Okay, I guess.”. She said, “Okay, so what does that mean?!”. Could I be more vague? Probably not. I said, “Oh, I’m okay, really. A little wiped, but I’m still ready to go for it.”. Race brain, what can I say?

Everyone did a most excellent job checking on me during the race. I stuck pretty close to Lori after that, and the next thing I know, they’re calling five to go, and I started getting nervous. Four to go. Three to go, two to go and suddenly, Shaun and Susan appear like the cavalry! We jumped on their wheel somewhere around turn two. Shaun hit it at that point and the leadout train was ON. I could see someone was on my wheel, but I didn’t know who it was (Monica Neilson) till later. After the third corner, I was going too fast, half wheeled Lori and bumped wheels with her. It was fine. But I quickly calmed down and stayed put. Shaun pulled off after the last corner and Susan went for it. Right before corner one, Lori was getting gapped and motioned me around her so I jumped onto Susan’s wheel. She pulled until she could no more which was shortly before the last corner and she was just wasted. It got weird here. She sat up and pulled left. I stayed in the drops but kind of sat up. Dazed. “Oh my God. I’m alone in the front, with someone on my wheel and I’m a really, really long way away from the finish line. What do I do?” Just then, Nicola came past me on the right and snapped me out of my stupor. I then started to get swarmed and thought, “Nooooooo! My race! My race!” and I gassed it. My hope was to catch Nicola and use her wheel to come across behind her (I’ve never been able to outsprint her). But, I couldn’t get out of the saddle! My legs were not having any part of it (I didn’t even have to TRY, I could FEEL it). I was actually gaining on her, still seated! I passed her and she was out of the saddle, but I was too wasted to even think how cool THAT was! I passed the false finish line (before the tent) and kept thinking, “Where the !#$#% is the finish line???”, never looking back and thankfully, it wasn’t too much further. I had NO idea a Village Peddler was coming up on my left and Nicola was still chasing to my right. I was so glad to finish and in first. OMG. First in the 3’s, as I’d wanted and first over-all, which I hadn’t imagined was possible! What a rush!!! Planning and planning! and wanting to win a race SO bad, and then actually getting to do so!!! I owe so much to my teammates for this and I couldn’t have done it without them, and I sure wasn’t about to give up and let them down after they’d all gassed themselves for me.

This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari. This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari.