I’ve been slacking on the blog posting recently, for a few reasons. I live my life in a dichotomy: there is always too much going on, or nothing at all. I had planned to race Tour of the Hilltowns, but I pulled the plug due to some back pain I had been having for weeks leading up to the race. The back pain was a remnant from my Exeter crash and after trying to train through it, took a few easy days and some physical therapist visits to get the muscles all sorted out. It seems to be under control now. Never be too busy for proper stretching, people.

Also, I GOT A JOB!! I am working as a bank teller at Northway Bank. Not science, but it will afford me enough cash to put food in my face. So this will be interesting to find out how to fit training in some days.

Concord Crit. Hometown race. Also happened to be the New England Criterium Championships. The course a short bike roll from my front door. I registered at least a month early in hopes to boost some pre-reg. Well, that was a failure, as only 17 women pre-registered.  I was hoping to inspire the women to come out in droves! Alas, 22 women showed up the line to take the start. There were a few tricky turns on the course that made me a bit nervous. I felt confident navigating these on my own, but doing things with other people at speed seems to increase the risk of pavement trolls and telephone pole meet-and-greets.

The race started fast, apparently by design of Crystal Anthony and Stephanie Wetzel. (It’s not even cross time yet!!) Normally this would have caused me a high level of distress, though I think the norm has shifted because this did not cause a problem for me at all. I responded to the speed and managed to settle in to third wheel or so.

The pace remained pretty high throughout the race, driven by Crystal and Stephanie. They were periodically attacking and taking pulls, and I loved it. I was okay letting them do work, because they seemed to have some sort of grand plan the way they were working together. I took a few pulls and made a few attacks in an effort to gauge an escape route. My half-hearted attempts resulted in the competition doing a lot of work to pull the group back on. Excellent. Eye-for-an-eye on those test attacks it seems.

I took the first prime against Leslie Timm, who has been riding strong and aggressive. We took it straight to the line and I pulled one of those bike-thrusty thingies to take the line. The second prime inspired some shifting in the group, and I was okay sitting back and letting the front work itself out, being too familiar with crashes when people get antsy over points or primes. On the third prime I was inspired to make my move. I think it was 5 to go. There had been a lot of heavy braking going into the downhill chicane at the back of the course, and that is where I decided to make my move. I pushed hard up the back hill to take the lead and held nothing back on the turns, thus achieving my gap.

I took the prime uncontested and kept pushing in order to maintain the gap I created through the downhill.

The heat prevented me from going sooner, and it was taking a toll as I rode away. I ran out of water, THE WORST, but managed to maintain my gap to take the win by nearly 2 minutes.

 

The race was fast and technical, and overall a lot of fun. I highly suggest it: EVERYONE SHOULD RACE IN CONCORD NEXT YEAR!!

This win means I am still undefeated on the road this year and undefeated in criteriums ever. So I am ending on a high note, and declaring I am through with crit racing for the season, as cross is too close and I have a fear that if I kept racing crits the pavement would also be close.

It was so great to have a good race on familiar pavement, and to have Chris Plummer drag his too-pretty wife and daughter out to watch!!!!