Race Report: The 2001 Great Forest Park Bike Race

I had a little help corner marshalling.

Today was warm (55), sunny and windy.  I got to the park with good time for warm up, but I let myself get caught up in watching the finish of the Women's 4 race so I didn't get as long as warm up as I would have liked.  That being said, I did get to warm up with my teammates (Yeah!  I finally have teammates) and talk about what to expect from the race. 

There were eleven women in the race--all local so I knew what to expect from them.  We got the whistle and were off.  Forest Park is a pretty simple four corner course with only one "real" corner.  The rest are more sweeping turns.  Between turns three and four there is a false flat that starts to wear on you later in the race, and the sprint always starts early for the race, right out of turn four (about 330 meters). 

The attacks started early, within the first two laps.  The theme of the race was attack, reel it in, then knit.  The attacks primarily came from Chris, Carrie, and Emily, although Teresa and Cindi.  I also launched one about 12 minutes into the race.  I wasn't planning on it sticking, but I felt good and wanted to see if I could shake anyone off of our field.  I stayed away about 3/4 of a lap, Carrie and Emily chased me down.  I sat on with them until the rest of the field caught on.  The first prime came a couple of laps later.  I decided to go for it when we hit turn four.  Carrie passed me at the line to take it.  When I saw her wheel to wheel with me, I sat up.  That's a bad habit I don't need to have.  The second prime came late in the race and I got pinched in the corner and was not in good position.

With two laps to go, the pace picked up quite a bit.  Cindi was on the front with one lap to go, and I was sitting second wheel.  She kept amping up the pace.  We turned the corner, the field fanned out, and the sprint was on.  I did what I could, but simply could not go that hard that long.  Carrie won the race.  Teresa took fourth, I was sixth. 

Physically I felt good throughout the race.  There was only one point that my legs were screaming at me.  Chris attacked, we caught her and Emily immediately countered.  I talked myself through it knowing that once we caught Emily it would slow down a bit and it did.