RR Wente Well

(photo credit: norcalcyclingnews)

Some days on the bike you are gonna feel tired and sluggish.  I had one of those days last weekend at the Wente Road Race.  Going up the climbs, my legs were hurting.  When I tried to jump, I felt no pop.  I just felt sleepy and slow.  It is days like this when you have to quit analyzing how you feel and just race the race.  

Luckily for me, I had a teammate, Beth, who was riding strong and spent a lot of time up the road.  This took the pressure off of me and let me sit in and take it easy for part of the race.  In the end, it came down to a group of 6 going into the final climb to the finish and Beth and I were both there.  

Going into the climb I was a bit nervous... I suffered up the thing all day and didn't think I would be able to survive the final, fast surge up the hill.  Again, I tried to put the tired thoughts aside and positioned myself best I could up the climb.  The first part is steep and then the grade levels off and it is a long way to the finish.  I focussed on staying up front for the steep part and as we approached the gentle grade I was surprised to find I was on the front.  At this point I jumped to get up my speed and was surprised to find that I had created a gap when I looked back.  I told myself to go Go GO (or maybe that was Aspen telling me to Go from the sideline :)  and with the finish line in sight, my gap had grown and I rolled in for the W -- My first of the season!  I turned back to watch Beth sprint her way to an easy 2nd! (she's got a jump!).  I wish we could have traded places at the end -- Beth did a lot of work in the race and it was definitely a team effort for the W!