Race Report: Wake Habitat Cycling Challenge, Cary, NC. May 18, 2002. 28.5 miles.

It’s been a long time since I had the luxury of a home town race - sleeping in my own bed, eating a normal breakfast, drinking decent coffee, only having to travel 15 minutes to the race, knowing every pothole and patch of every inch of the course… so why was I praying for rain? The forecast called for a chance of showers in the morning, with clearing skies, windy and cool conditions in the afternoon. It had been super windy all week long, and I was tired of it. I wanted rain – it’s not usually windy here when it rains. Plus, if there were going to be a bunch of super strong women out there, I wanted something to level the playing field a bit – I like racing in the rain! It makes me feel like a Belgian, like Musseuw, hard like stone. So when the drops of water appeared on my car window as we drove to the course, I was psyched. “BRING IT ON!” I shouted to the sky…

You have to be careful what you wish for.

Eighteen women lined up for the race, none of the big teams were present. A Southeast Series race in TN attracted the Atlanta and Charlotte teams, and Charles City had the Virginia women. The superstars were all at Housatonic. The rain probably scared some more away. Considering this, the field was huge, albeit 89% cat 4’s. Natalie Kelly, a paralympian (captain of a blind tandem) and former elite rider was the only other 1,2,3 racer, but even she was recovering from knee surgery last fall, and didn’t expect to contest the finish. Still, there were some strong riders and I wasn’t going to just walk away with this. My former teammates had the numbers on me, and a very good sprinter, Amy. There were a couple expert mountain bikers in the race, Amber and Hope, and a strong duathlete. My first strategy was to get a break going and get away from Natalie and Amy – they were clearly the strongest sprinters in the race. I tried to make a deal with Amber and my former team to get some of us away.
We rolled along on the first couple miles at a very slow pace, soggy, everyone wondering who would make the first move. Halfway through the first lap, Amy came to the front and sped things up. When we rounded the start finish, the bell rang for a $10 prime. This oughta get things going, I thought.

There were a few fiesty moves early in the second lap, but the hills in the middle of the lap toned things down since no one wanted to use up too much energy this early in the race. At the 1k sign, I decided to attack and go for the prime, but also to test the field – to see who would chase, to see who would be gasping. After a good 500m effort, I looked back to see Amy on my wheel, and a big gap to the field. I sat up and stopped pedaling. She didn’t come around me immediately, and I looked back to see the field gaining. She did too, and while I was willing to let the field catch us and lose the prime, she wasn’t and she started her sprint early – I got on her wheel and came around her on the uphill sprint to take the prime! Over the top, I looked back and still had a decent gap, so I kept going in full time trial mode, but my break didn’t stick long into the headwind and I was caught shortly after the first turn.
The next two laps were pretty tame, no one seemed willing to attack but they weren’t going to let anyone go either. On the fourth lap, I decided to try and take the sting out of the sprinters’ legs by attacking on the short, sharp hill in the middle of the lap. I managed a decent gap on the climb, but over the top my former teammate Suzi was on my wheel. I started to sit up, but she said we had a gap and to keep going. I jumped out of the turn and sped it up only to look back and see Suzi 10 feel behind. I had to keep her with me so her teammates wouldn’t chase. I waited until she caught on and pulled for a while, then asked her to pull through so I could take a breather. She was pretty tired, so I took over after a few seconds, but the pack were on us before the start/finsh. It looked like it was coming down to a sprint finish, despite my best efforts.

We were halfway through the last lap when the skies got dark – really dark. In fact, I said outloud “That’s an UGLY sky”. Ten seconds later, a blast of icy cold wind hit us and every single person in the group cried “AAAAUGH!!!”. By the time we hit the short hill and the turn to the finish, the rain was coming down in torrents and the wind so strong it made the rain feel like hail. So of course, my first instinct was to attack. I didn’t get far through the lake that used to be the road when the pack was once again on me – but they were all breathing pretty hard so I attacked again. Again, I didn’t get far, but the rain was letting up a bit and the wind had changed direction so the finish would be with a tailwind, so I settled in behind Amy while the duathlete set a nice tempo on the front.
1k to go (should I go for it??? No… patience…..) - 500m, the duathlete was still on the front, but starting to slow (patience….), 300m to go, the duathlete pulled off and Amy was left at the front to start her sprint too early, I stayed on her wheel. When I saw the hay bales at the 100m sign, I came around her on the left, using the shortest line as the road turned right – she growled as I came by and I gave it another kick to cross the line in first place! Whoo HOO!

The post race cool-down was pretty quick, considering the temperature had dropped from 74F to 59 on our last lap, and mostly consisted of standing around shivering and trying to get into dry clothes. There is nothing better than a dry pair of socks after a race in the rain…