From Ruth...

Hello DBCers: My first road race on the DBC team. I raced in the women's 4B group with Anna and Nicky, while another group of DBC women rode in 4A. I was excited to hear that this is the first year they've had a full women's 4 field.It's great that women's cycling is growing. I was happy to feel well enough to race after being sick all week. I had a higher-than-normal heartrate, but otherwise felt fine. The pack seemed to handle just fine - no crashes. Anna had a little solo flier early on and looked pretty strong. At first I hung in the pack, trying to maintain a good position. Nicky and Anna were very good at staying near the front. I later attempted some attacks with Heather Pryor, triathlete and timetrialist extraordinaire (we need to recruit her to DBC) who was looking really strong and smooth in her first road race. She and I both managed to make a proper launch of an attack, getting some early separation (a first for both of us), but didn't manage to go together. Toward the end of the final loop, I made the mistake of trying to hang with Anna while she (asusual) hammered out of the saddle to lead the pack up one of the rollers. I stayed with her most of the way up, blew up, sat down to recover, and before I knew it they were all gone. By the time I tried to bridge it was too lateand I had too little to hammer down. Nicky and I ended up joining up and cruising to the finish. My first few crits this year, I often got frustrated with my performance, thinking about how I could have done better. After a few years of triathlon, where (barring bad luck) the strongest person finishes first, I'm not used to getting beat by people I know are weaker than I am. But with this race, I learned to look at it as a learning experience as I know I should. It also helped to hear that the collegiate coach Judd says it's better to attack the heck out of the pack and get dropped than to hang in all day and not try anything. I'm looking forward to learning more about actually working with people - is anyone on the women's team riding on Sunday morning? I'm tentatively planning on doing the Wheelworks ride on Saturday morning, which is a great experience but more hang-on-for-dear-lifethan a chance to practice launching attacks. Great to see everyone there, and I wish a speedy recovery to those who crashed. Happy cycling, Ruth