Sterling Road Race Report – Ivy from Maine

News from Ivy in Maine:

The weekend started out with Susan and I traveling from Maine to a friends house in Southwestern Mass, they have offered to help me out with a place to stay if I am doing any races in that are relatively close by. It was so nice when we got there too, as my friends Jean & Doug had dinner all prepared for us. They know I love pasta, so Jean had made a wonderful sauce and some yummy cheesy breads to knosh along with that.

We had a wonderful evening conversing and gossiping, lol!

The next day we drove up to Sterling for the Race.

When we arrived in Sterling, it was a nice warm day temps in the low seventies, and all though I felt a bit cool at first I was able to done my gorgeous Bella skinsuit for the race. I’ve gotten so many positive comments about how kewl our team kit looks :o).

Our race was to go off at a 11:25 so I had plenty of time to warm up and make my usual multiple visits to the bathroom, and give anything not to be so nervous before Road races…they seem to work on my nerves more than Crits & time trials do.

Our race went off right on time. We had a neutral 15mph – 2 mile escort by the local police. When we climbed the hill to the start finish area we started to pick up the pace. The hill sent shivers through my body as I knew the next time we climbed this thing someone would be attacking, I was right on that mark, and there was going to be three laps of this thing for us Cat 4’s.

The first lap we started to sort things out and I finally got myself placed towards the front to get away from this woman that was making my crazy with her squirrelly riding. We started the descent at the top of the course and group wanted to coast down the hill, but I wanted to start making this a race, so I got on front and inspired the group to start hammering over the rollers so we could string things out and make the yellow line rule more livable.

Other than that, the first lap was uneventful till we made the last turn for the climb for lap ‘2’ where one of the women from International bike made an animalistic attack that shattered the field and made me the, non-climber, sink in my shoes, so it was time to hold on and limit my losses.

I lost about 150 yards to the two women that were in the front, but I started to gather up a string of riders and we worked….with some wonderful help from Amy Moralez from ‘Team Wooly Mammouth’ & Amy Wong of ‘Harvard University’ to reel in the breakaway that had escaped. I also used my speed & descending skills to shake off anymore passengers that might be with us and we settled into a group of 12 riders.

I was getting angry at some of the women because they were coasting down hills (racing negatively) where we needed to be pedaling down hill chasing after the two escapees, so I motivated them to do so as we sped over the rollers making our way to the bottom of the course. And when we got to the highway, the lowest portion of this RR, we set up for the right turn where I came hammering around at full bore, and about a half mile later with some help from Amy M, Amy W, and Bonnie Fletcher, I made the final surge to catch the last survivor of the breakaway – we had reeled them in :o).

Then I knew it was time for me to take it easy and ride conservatively. So we reached the last turn and it was time to climb the hill for the ‘third lap’. We made our ascent of the hill pretty fast again and so I made this planned, yes planned, holding back on the hill for myself as I knew I could bring them back once we got going again. I gave them 50 yards distance, and I took it easy. It was easier for me to give them the distance than burning myself out trying to stay with the front runners on the climb.

I got my wattage cottage in gear and with the SRAM neutral support car blowing its horn behind me, I caught the group and we made the descent once more. This time the group worked a bit more with one another which made me happier and we rolled down the hill and over the rolly parts of the course once more and down to the highway where we rolled along at a decent tempo and everybody started to sort themselves out as best they could for the finish.

We made the last turn with Amy Moralez leading going around the bend, then the climbers in the group started doing their damage, I went as fast as I could up the hill trying to match them as we dropped two riders off the group, but I started to slip back and it wound up being me and my old teammate from last year, Tracy Clemons, fighting to stay in the top ten. I came across the line in tenth place, but, for me, it was the best thing that could happen because I had held on and represented myself well in a Road Race which is not something I did very well last year – most times I got dropped totally. So I was very happy and it showed this 46 year old lady that her hard work over the winter had paid off….and it’s early in the season so things should only get better :o).

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