Not Walburg

Walburg has been replaced with Apache Road Race and I would not have been able to tell the difference except that registration was through a giant TP. The course would be the same rolling hills with brutal winds.

I met Kim and Kate at RCM headquarters and Ken drove us an hour to the race in the sprinter van. We discussed different possible tactics and plans. Winds are gusting but it's not cold outside and the sun is out. No base layers or arm warmers! yesssssss!!!!

In staging I didn't recognize a good portion of the women lined up but did see a few other OGs (original ganstas) from years past. Damn I am getting too old for this. We started out on the two lap course (total 58 miles) pretty mellow with ATC's squad up front controlling the pace. There were 5 of us RCM girls and maybe 5 ATC girls, the rest were singles or doubles... After about 5 miles of piddling along we started attacking. And counter attacking. Nothing was successful at establishing a break. A few people had popped off the back the first lap but the majority of us were still on for the second lap. We had a long crosswind section where I tried to mark an ATC girl and burned too many matches. As I decided to go back and find some shelter that ATC girl slipped up the road and I tried to shut it down. That was my last match. Kim tried to as well. We turned a corner into the tail wind and some girls up front charged. The backend of the pack exploded. I was part of the shrapnel, along with Kim. I tried to chase back on but heard my teammate, Kim, calling from behind so I sat up and waited for her to catch up. Then together we collected a few other girls and tried to form an organized rotation with hopes of regaining contact with the lead group. Unfortunately we couldn't organize as the 2 Colavita girls would surge and gutter the rest of us. After a bit of that, I rolled away with a team Mexico girl. We had no idea the pack had further disintegrated up the road. We just quietly took turns pulling and recovering. We didn't catch anyone but finished not far behind.

First road race of the season and not too pleased. I was so glad 2 of my teammates made it up the road, Kate taking 5th and Sammi 9th after a flat. Kim was not far behind me and Celina chose to shut it down after the first lap and save it all for Pace Bend.

I am whopped!