My legs were feeling strong at the start of the race. After the first few laps of pure sprinting, things calmed down "slightly" and I was surprised to see that I was still hanging with the pack. I actually was able to float back and forth in the middle of the group without completely dying. But towards the middle of the race I decided to stay more in the back, and take advantage of the drafting. The pace of the race was amazingly fast and I wanted to make sure that my body didn't give out at the end. This was unfortunately a wrong move. I almost got caught in a pedestrian initiated crash. In order not to bite the blacktop, I had to slow down a lot. This was the end, as the front of the group took advantage of the crashing sounds from behind and starting sprinting off. Agh! This was my one Wendy's race to finish and to finish strong. A few laps later I was pulled off with some other stragglers (sp?).
Before the end of the race, I got to talk to Jay Baumeister (race organizer... I raced for Wendy's one summer). He told me that I was entitled to a free lap and that I should have put my foot down if I was that close to the crash. I had no idea that I could do this! I thought that I had to be down on my bike, have a flat, be bloody... in order to get this free lap. Boy, things are really different in the PRO races. Any other race, the women would have remained neutral to let everyone re-group after the crash, to be fair. Oh well, c'est la vie.
One last note, I'm not doing any more Wendy's races, so don't be keeping an eye out for me this weekend, if any of you go to watch. But I would like to thank Ryan for advocating team support!
