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For this one, the women were stuck in with
the masters 50+ men, which was OK for the most part. Most
of the 20 something women who started the race were shelled
off after the first two climbs. The 5 of us who remained
duked it out with the men until we were inside of 10 miles
to go. At that point, guys who had been sucking our wheels
& letting us do most of the work (as well as pulling
the entire field up to a couple of potentially successful
breaks) began to elbow their ways up to the front of the
peleton. At that point, the 5 of us made a mutual agreement
to neutralize ourselves and allow the men's field to get
up the road so that we could have a safe and fair sprint.
The remaining girls included Kelly (a very strong cat
1/2 from California), Gina Tolbert (the current cat 4
TBRA points leader), Kirsten Sass (time trial monster),
and Kim (strong cat 3 or better from Chattanooga). After
the men pulled away from us (which took forever, because
they sat up & tried to slow down with us at first),
we picked up the pace and started a great rotation, which
we continued until we reached the Natchez Trace bridge.
My strategy was to sit on the wheel of Kelly since she
was in front of me and let her give me somewhat of a leadout
before jumping around her & sprinting closer to the
finish. My plans were foiled, though, because although
Kelly was a monster climber, she didn't come through with
a sprint! The other 3 girls got a big jump on the sprint,
and I was only able to catch one of them (Gina Tolbert)
for a photo finish. We actually had no idea which one
of us had crossed first until we saw the official results.
I'm very happy with the finish, because I picked up some
cat 4 bonus money as well as a Cat 4 TN state RR championship
win. |
