San Ardo women's cat 3/4/5, short course

By Helena Merk

San ardo women's cat 3/4/5, short course The Route: middle of nowhere, 2 large laps of a rectangle, mostly flat.. total elevation over 40 mi was about 1600ft. road is in a terrible condition; there's sections that are incredibly bumpy and filled with potholes (rip @Haley Smith’s tires :poop: ) hot & fully exposed

Pre-Race: We had 3 teammates (Haley, Diana and I), we drove down 2.5 hours in the morning; only other team with presence was Alto Velo (they had 2 people) Warmed up shorter than normal bc the drive was so long-> got there about an hour before race started at 915 We assumed it'd be a super slow race bc lots of independent racers; also assumed nobody would do any work. Plan was to do an early extended attack on the second lap and lead Haley to the podium

The Race: LAP 1: Pretty much right out of the gate, the field of 11 riders split. Not entirely sure what happened here– it was a slight incline but nothing crazy. We took turns pulling w/ 2 pulling at a time. Everyone took strong pulls, rotated, communicated well, was cordial Half way through the first lap, Haley hits a pothole and gets a flat :poop::disappointed: massive bummer. the entire road was poorly paved, honestly shocked we only got one flat. Towards 2/3 of the first lap, there was a small hill that Holly (independent rider) attacked; I followed and caught up, as did several others.

LAP 2: For lap 2, the bulk of it was 5 people at the front; the two alto velo folks, two independent strong riders (Danny and Holly) and myself. Everyone continued to rotate and take strong pulls. The Alto Velo team seemed to be protecting Steph but she still put in pulls. Diana was in the second pack and managed to keep closing the gap – which is an insane feat. I thought I could attack on the hill that Holly had attacked on in Lap 1, but everyone held on to the faster pace. We slowed down a tiny bit and kept alternating pulls. Near the end, we cross a bridge and there's a 1km sign. Steph from Alto Velo took off and I grabbed her wheel; half way up the climb though she gave up and I passed her. I pushed for a bit but honestly no idea how far the finish was (we had to turn left off of the main route, no finish line visible) so I eased up until I could see the finish after turning left. By the time I started sprinting, Danny had snuck up behind me and we raced to the end. Danny won & I got a close 2nd.

:dizzy: this was my first race where everyone took turns pulling– it was so fun & very different from the other two races I've done (regalado & pescadero) knowing where finish line is... is super important (hopefully goes without saying) less hot than expected, more hilly than expected