Race: That's Nalley-Eagle Cycling Classic
Date: 6-30-2002
Place: North Metro Tech, Acworth, GA
Division: Cat. 4 Women
Distance: 11.2 miles
Speed: 17.8 mph
Time: 38 minutes
The That's Nalley Cycling Classic is put on annually by the Eagle Cycling Club of Kennesaw, GA. The venue for this year was North Metro Tech College in Acworth, GA. The course was .9 miles around the campus and surrounding roads. There were three right hand turns. The start/finish line was on a long flat stretch in front of the campus parking lot. After the first turn there was a small downhill followed by the second turn. A slight uphill preceded the final turn into the start/finish line. The road conditions were generally good with some small gravel in turn two. There were several holes near the top of Turn 3, which were marked with bright orange paint.
Four riders lined up for the Cat. 4 Women's crit. Once again, I pondered where everyone was. I thought some of my Eagle teammates would come out. Some of the other Lady Eagles volunteered, but no one else raced. Rachel and I were up against two women that had never raced before. We conspired a little bit before the race and decided to spice things up after Saturday's rather boring State Championship crit. Plus, we wanted to see how strong the other women were. We were to ride25 minutes plus 5 laps. We settled into a paceline the first two laps. On the third lap, I went to the front an attacked in Turn 3. No one responded. I pulled hard through the finish line and then sat up to wait for the pack to regroup. One of the first timers went to the front and sat there for the next couple of laps. I recovered and talked with Rachel again. On the next lap, she attacked, and I chased her down. We were both winded after that effort; we sat up and let the others rejoin us. Again, the same person went to the front and sat there. The pace was pretty slow, and my heart rate was in the 150's most of the race. That is just below tempo for me. Maybe this would be a recovery ride with some intervals thrown in. Rachel and I got bored again, so I attacked on the final turn and let her chase me. We got a good gap on the other women but decided to conserve our energy for the final sprint. I told her that I would pull her to the line if she wanted me to. There is no way she is going to beat me in a sprint, but I wanted to see if we could get her up there to place 2nd and beat some of the older women. They officials called 5 to go, and the speed was still steady. The same woman was sitting on the front with Rachel second, me third, and the other lady fourth. With 3 to go, Rachel and I switched places in the paceline. On the second to last lap, the other woman decided to attack. She sped up and then swerved to the left and back to the right. She caught me off guard, and nearly knocked me off of the bike when she swerved right again. I cautioned her about holding her line and not riding erratically. With the final lap, we settled back into the paceline. I turned around and asked Rachel if she was ready. She knew I was going as soon as we rounded the final corner. As we came to Turn 3, I started to pull out from behind the first girl. Rachel was right on my wheel. I began my sprint as soon as we were clear of the turn. I put my head down and kept going across the finish line for first place. I glanced back and saw Rachel a few bike lengths back to take second. The other girls were left to sprint for 3rd.
Not bad-a second win for the weekend. I wish there had been more competition. I'm eager to see how I do against other Cat. 4 women before I move up to the 3's, where I know I will get spanked. Still, I felt good both days and was happy to see that the 4 days I took off after West Virginia helped me to recover. Last year after the back to back NORBA Nationals in June, I was wiped out for weeks. Now I know that I need to take a few days off afterwards to relax and recover. With the money I won this weekend, I have almost paid for my plane tickets to the NORBA National finals in Vermont in August. Road racing pays much better than mountain biking most of the time!