The NC/SC regional road race championships for Masters and USCF categories was held out in the North Carolina sandhills at a horse park, which was more like a cookpot. Hot hot hot and increasingly windy throughout the races each day. Hosted by the Sandhills Cycling Club, this year’s race featured a new course and venue. The start was staged at the Five Points Horse Park, and the course ran through scrub pine forests and tobacco farms. The hills were fairly gentle but long, and the roads were straight, but the wind and the heat would make these races of attrition. In every race, fields were whittled down each lap, ending with a fraction of the original numbers as dehydration and heat exhaustion took their toll.

Master’s Women 35+/45+

There were only 16 women, but that's over 3 times as many that raced last year and 6 of us were category 3 or above. This was to be my "A" race - a major goal for the season, but in order to peak for my team’s race, the Giro di Coppi, in July, I lowered it in my priorities and spent the week prior to the race doing long endurance rides. Still, I was feeling pretty confident since I was using my brand new Zipp 303 front/404 rear tubular wheelset - hot off the presses. That is until the offical decided to check my glue job. To do this, he used all his force to apply lateral pressure to the front tire, and it was no big surprise that he was able to lift it off the rim a bit since the glue was applied the night before. He told me I couldn’t ride the wheel, and I agreed to switch it out for my spare, but that wasn't good enough. He had to further demonstrate to the ingorant female how little she knows about bike gear, and proceeded to rip my tire half off the rim. Bastage fargin' sumnabeach!

The race itself was pretty negative, no one wanted to put in any serious attempts to get away. My former team, the Tricyclists fielded 4 riders, and were the only team with multiple riders. Luckily, they rode conservatively, with the exception of their newest rider, Margaret who set a pretty hard tempo at times, and Suzi who always races tough and smart. Last year's Canadian Masters champion, Jocelyn Belanger, made some nice attacks, and Team Charlotte's Marianne Holt threw in a few of her own, too. Chris Hall (YMCA) attacked several times on the 2nd lap, and I countered a few before our field was neutralized to let the 30+ men's breakaway come through. Then we were neutralized to let the 30+ field come through. Then they brought around the stragglers, and then made us wait to establish a gap. Sigh. So much for those attacks, now that everyone was rested up again. Fortunately, we were neutral for the feed zone, so I was able to get a bottle - I went through two full ones in the first three laps (only 28 miles).

On the 4th lap, I tried a few attacks, but before we could get halfway through the lap (and while Chris was launching a counter-attack) we were neutralized yet again! The 35+ men's break went past… then the field…. then the wheel truck... then the marshall came up again and made us wait while all the dropped riders came by, and again made us wait to establish a gap. At this point, we were all pretty disgusted, and no one was into racing anymore. We rode the last lap at parade pace until Margaret picked things up on the back side of the course. She dangled up the road a bit, everyone hoping to force someone else to work. Marianne finally came by and close up the gap a bit and then I finished it off. Our group rode at a steady tempo toward the finish, and I could just sense the nerves all around me. My former teammate Susan fought me for Jocelyn's wheel with 2k to go, but in the jostling, Suzi got it instead and the pace started to pick up. I was sitting 5th wheel with 1k to go, and frankly, this made me pretty nervous. I hate starting the sprint too far back. But as we approached the final turn with about 500 meters to go, something amazing happened and I couldn't believe my good fortune! The poor course marshalling that had plagued our race reared its ugly head again in the form of a big white van sitting at the corner at the final turn. The marshalls were waving to the van to move, and the woman on the front thought they were gesturing to HER - so she led her teammate and Jocelyn off course! I took the correct turn tight and stayed on Suzi's wheel - saying "holy crap! Let's GO!". I sat on her wheel, not wanting to sprint too soon, then with 250 meters to go I saw Jocelyn come flying by me (how did she manage THAT?). I jumped onto her wheel and sat in for 50-100 meters or so until she started to fade (I guess she used a lot of her sprint getting back on course). The finish line in sight, I sprinted until I spun out and shifted, desperately powering it to the line when I heard a bike coming up fast on my left - I dug for a little more but the line came too late - I got pipped by Chris, while Jocelyn hung on for third. But, since it was the NC/SC championships, I got myself a shiny gold medal for being the first NC resident across the line. Maybe I will decide now that this was an "A" race!

Lesson learned today: when sprinting into a headwind, wait wait wait.

Women category 1-3:

Well, every dog has its day, and mine was definitely not Sunday. I thought Saturday was hot, but Sunday was an outrageous steam bath. Heavy rain overnight turned the sweltering heat into an absolute steam bath. At 9:30, the heat index was already in the 90's and would rise to over 105 during the race. I started the race with 3 bottles (one in my jersey) and 9 other cat 1-3 women. The field was small but tough. Some had raced the day before: Chris, Jocelyn, Rae, Marianne and myself. I knew the race wouldn't be easy because Candice Blickem was there, and with fresh legs to boot. She's a cat 1 who's big and strong. She's quiet, doesn't smile much and looks really intimidating. A perfect race face! The Junior Cyclocross National Champion and super sprinter Lauren Trull was there, as was Jennifer Petosa who had been racing on the national circuit. The rest of us 3's were in for it, I thought.
We took off, and on the first lap, no one seemed to intent on attacking. On the second lap, things got a little speedier when Candice set a blistering tempo toward the end of the lap on a slight downhill - I saw more than 30mph at times. She had us all gasping, but everyone was tucked in behind her wheel. Shortly after the end of the 2nd lap, the referees brought the Pro 1,2,3 men's breakaway by us - they blew by us like we were standing still. Unlike the refs the day before, these guys didn't make us wait forever and we were racing again in less than a minute. Shortly after, two men's chase groups came by at breakneck speed and we weren't even neutralized. I cheered for my friends and fellow Raleigh residents Jeremy Conn and David LeDuc (Mercy Fitness) as they went by. A few miles later, another chase group came by, this one at a much slower pace. They were not making any progress toward the break, and ended up mixing in with us a bit. The refs didn't do much to discourage this, oddly enough. But then the men started trying to attack each other, and we didn't exactly let them ride away, so we were pulled along at a pretty quick pace. This shed one woman who had gotten dropped on the hill and was trying to bridge back up - she had no chance when we were going 35 mph.

Finally, the men started to pull away from us at the end of the 3rd lap, but we still went through the feedzone at 24mph. In the confusion of men and women, my feeder missed me. "Next lap!" I yelled.

On the 4th lap, there were a couple attacks, but nothing too severe. However, we still lost a couple women off the back. I was getting pretty hot, so I took the water from my jersey and dumped some on my head - confident I'd have a feed at the end of the lap. The cool water felt great. At the end of the lap, I came to the feedzone and was searching for my feeder, searching, searching only to miss him again! AAUGH! I had about 4 ounces of water left. Not a good sign with 19 miles to go.

A little while later, the rest of the Pro 1,2 men's field was brought by us, and they had just found out they were 6 minutes down on the break. They were on vacation mode, poodling along at 17mph. Again, the officials did nothing to discourage us from sitting on the back. I was fine with that. It was no work at all, and none of the women could attack and get around 60 guys. The men suggested the refs bring us around them since they weren’t racing hard, but by the end of the flase flat, the men took off on the downhill and rode away. Candice attacked into the next uphill, dropping a couple more riders including Lauren, and then we were 6. I started trying to figure out how to win the race now that Lauren was gone – I had intended to stay on her wheel in the sprint. I was just thinking that I felt pretty good, and I should conserve, get water and wait for the sprint when we brought Candice back. She started yelling at us - "C'mon!! RACE!". ??? "I raced yesterday!" I said. "So?" came the disgusted reply. Huh. Candice went to the back of the tiny pack. "OK missy, you want a race? I'll race!", I thought, and attacked into the false flat, thinking they’d jump right on me, but maybe it would tire a couple girls out. I looked back, and Wha...??? I had about 25m gap! OK, I'll bite. I gave it another push and looked back. Huh? I had an even bigger gap! Wow - this is really cool, I thought. They're just going to let me ride away! I got into time trial mode, and was soon right up on the back of the pace car. "HellOOO!", I yelled. There were some men ahead of the car that the driver was waiting on, I guess they didn't see me coming. I got a nice draft for a while, which increased my gap significantly - I didn't exactly feel guilty, I mean, I can't go over the yellow line to get around the pace car (an SUV!). By the time the car pulled away, I had 30 or 40 seconds on the field! I made the turn, hit the slight downhill and gave it a steady, hard effort. I looked at the speedo - 28mph. Uh-oh. Candice was pulling at 32mph before at this same spot. I asked the legs for more. They said, "you've got to be joking! You haven't given us any water in 45 minutes!". "C'mon", I replied, "the feedzone is only 4 miles away. I'll give you cold water, I swear!". "That's what you said LAST lap" came the stubborn reply. Just about that time, I looked back to see Chris on the front with Candice on her wheel. Just as they got close, Candice countered, and they flew by me so fast that I couldn't catch the back of the pack. I struggled up the hill, and saw them sit up slightly. I gave it all I had and just barely caught on, only to have them surge again. I was toast.

I came through the feed, got my bottle (finally!), went through the start/finish into the headwind about 20 seconds down. Hmm. All the prize money is up the road. There's a big hill in my way and a headwind. I am pretty dehydrated, my legs have seized up, and there isn't even an upgrade point for 6th place because the field is too small to qualify.... there are 9 more miles to go... It's 105 billion degrees out. Screw it! Pride be damned, I turned around and went back to my car. I sat on the sidelines downing bottle after bottle of cold water and Cytomax and watched Candice win ahead of Chris and Marianne. If I had just sat in like my logic had told me to, I would have probably finished well - maybe even in the money. But I let myself get bullied into attacking and they just let me cook out there. But, for those few minutes I was up the road, I really felt like I could do it – I felt like a star. Heat and dehydration-induced hallucinations? Probably. But now that I’ve got a taste I just have to try it again. Next time, who knows, it might just work.