CCCX Senior Report

By Kathleen Bortolussi

EVENT: CCCX race #1 of a 5 race series
LOCATION: East Garrison of Ft. Ord
WEATHER: 72F (those California Winters)
PLACE: 1st, Expert Women
BELLAS at the race: Julie Starting & Daphne (sport), Katrina (Beginner?), and a young gal wearing a Hawaiian lei…who are you?

I was really wondering why I was going to spend $10 in gas, and $30 entry to race in February for another training ride when my legs were already fried for the week. I decided to just sit-in and see how the race progressed.

There were 6 gals in the race: Bev Chaney, Janel Lodge, Amy Bowen, Melanie Dominguez, Paula from Fairfax, Gal from Santa Barbara whose name I forget. The whistle blew and Paula jumped and I settled into the chase pack withBev and SB-gal. We immediately dropped Janel and Mel, and Paula was way ahead.

On lap 1 it was clear that climbing was not SB-gals forte and I got in front of her and was happy to let Bev pull us around the course. At the beginning of the second lap she and I passed Bev to chase down Paula, I pushed the pace up a hill and we dropped Bev. At the end of lap2 we had Paula in sight and at start/finish I caught Paula for the start of lap 3. SB-gal disappeared from behind me and I really just put my head down and didn’t look back. Meanwhile there was some nice cheering going on and especially from the young Bella wearing the lei…thank you and please let us know your name?!

I let Paula drag me around for lap 3, and then passed her at the start finish hill and led her around for most of lap 4 (and 2 guys on singlespeeds who also wanted the draft). Paula would fall back on the climbs and then claw her way back. Tough gal (35-39 age group).

On the second half of the last lap I finally dropped her for good and hooked up with one of the single speed dudes who really should be in the Marines. He yelled at me to keep going, and ‘harder, harder’ for the last 2 miles. I thought he was trying to get me to kill myself. Dino from LGBRC who says he knows Liz Beneshin….nice guy and certainly motivating. I was happy just to pedal to the finish but apparently Dino the gym spin coach wouldnot have it.

Paula was second, Janel was 3rd, I think Bev was 4th, then Mel, andSB-gal dropped out of the race. She was “just here for a wedding and had ridden a bunch the day before”….oh well. I was super surprised at the win and am very happy and motivated. You never know how an early season training race will pan out, and it was just supposed to be another workout. Of course who knows who will show up at the next race and how things will end. One ride at a time, but for now…..it’s definitely all good.

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