Pine Flat Road Race

By Victoria Vallstrom
Date: February 25, 2006
Category: Women 3/4
Filed Size: About 20
Teammates: None
Place: 2nd of Cat 4, 2nd overall
Winner: Flavia Oliveira, Joselyn's

Jesse and I drove up on Saturday evening, since weather was supposed to be nice, but Sunday morning it was pouring down. We went to the start with the hope that it would clear, and it did. (I even had fenders on the bike to be prepared.)

Due to the weather there were not too many starters, so they decided to combine the Cat 3 and Cat 4 racers together. We started with about 20 girls. The race was really slow in the beginning, with a few attacks that were always caught.

Then on the flats (about mile 30) the whole group got organized and started to pace line. I decided to do my fair share of work (and get the camaraderie and respect from the others). Most of us had a really great time sharing the load.

The hill came and I knew Lisa Penzel was a very strong climber but another lady (forgot her name) and I started to climb; she was so strong she almost had me blown. The climb was long, and the longer we went the more I could keep up. Lisa fell back. Then came some flats and a downhill in the middle. The other lady and I agreed on working together to make sure we kept the gap up from Lisa and the others, so we took turns pulling. She was stronger than I on the flats. All of a sudden we had 1K left to go and we started climbing hard again. I made the mistake of taking the lead, and the other lady was sitting on my wheel, and I could not pull away. A couple of feet from finish she passed me.

We had a great ride together though -- she was very strong and had a great attitude, and I learned that I need to work on my finish sprints.