You have to learn what is good pain and what is bad pain (Laura Charameda)

3rd Annual Cycle Sports Circuit Race
Presented byCycle Sports of Doylestown/Zaveta Construction
Doylestown, PA
Sunday, August 03, 2008

Circuit race: 20mi; - 2.8 mile rolling course, course profile
A good field for today’s race, the dominate team with numbers was Sturdy Girls Cycling I really like the mission of this team, the values they present and their commitment to women’s cycling development. Today they adopted me and helped me out to get ready at the last minute (getting to the race is a whole other story). The pre-registrations had the start list as about 30 women. The course was fantastic, quite technical and fast. There were two main hills, one I loved as it was after a big downhill, with a flat finish.

C3-Sollay.com were again represented with strong riders, not quite in the same numbers as yesterday though. I did not have a chance to ride the course before the first lap, so just sat in steady, surveying. Unfortunately someone attacked right near the start/finish line, so I had to wait for the next lap to check out the finish.

Going through one of the corners on the second lap a Guys team rider (I am unsure of her name, and hope she is okay now) came down in front of me, we all went everywhere to avoid her as she slid out. I made it around her but was basically too off balance to stay on my bike and came down as well. Apparently it was quite a sight and my bike landed mostly on top of me.

I was bending my levers back into place, jumping back onto my bike quickly and asking the moto if I was allowed to take a lap or not. He was not responding or could not understand my accent perhaps. On the fifth time I asked him, he said that I could not re-join the bunch (after taking a lap out and had to sit off the back of the bunch for the rest of the race). I rode around to the race director, I explained the situation said that I would forgo any placing/money I may receive but really wanted to contest the race. I had come to the race for racing experience, prizes were secondary. He agreed and I was allowed to re-join the bunch. I was happy as racing the course was so much fun.

There was a preme next lap and I was first over the line (and finally had a chance to check out the finish line). For the rest of the race, there were some good attacks, but we were not letting anything get away today. It came down to a bunch sprint, I was on the front through the final corner 400m or so from the finish. Maria Elena Collazo (Tri-State Velo/Amoroso's/Victory Brewing) took a great opportunity for a quick, early run up the inside, she was coming fast and I had to kick early to get on her wheel. The girls started their runs to the line from there, I was pretty sure I got to the line first (but one lap down because of the crash), and the winner on the day was Sonja with her well-timed run that I could see on my left. The race director complimented me on my sprinting, I was happy with that.

Again, we had an informal race debrief and most of us stuck around to cheer at the women’s presentations. I jumped into the Mens Cat 1/2/3 race for a few laps to do a little bit more in preparation for 3 days of racing in Ballarat in 2 weeks time, I was too sore to stay in for all that long. The ladies wished me all the best for my summer racing at home and seemed keen to have me back next year, today would be my last road event in the USA.