Plymouth South Race Report

Well, it was nice to finish in the top 10 instead of 40 something (or 50 something)! Granted this was a Cat 4 only race and there were only 17 competitors... but still... it felt good. It was fun to hear Geoff and Cathy R shouting "you're in the top 10!" as I came by them - I think it inspired me to keep going faster than I might have otherwise. Thanks for the encouragement!

When I previewed the course the first time I was a little scared about how slippery it seemed. Everything was still wet from the last couple of days of rain, and there were lots of tight twisty corners. There were also quite a few short power climbs, which was interesting. On the second warm-up lap I started to loosen up a bit and found I could take the corners tighter and faster. The third time, I only practiced the technical sections and was happy to be able to ride up all the hills. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do that in the race or not, but wanted to give it a shot.

On the start line, I stood next to Leah, who was really, really nervous. I tried to "talk her down", but I don't think it had much effect, sadly. However, she rallied enough to grab the hole shot at the start. I think she held it for half of the first lap - that was cool! The first off-road section of hairpins was carnage as expected. I think I managed to get around a few people here. Then I passed a few in the sand, and the first power climb, which I could ride. Coming onto the flat grass section, I drafted Emily C. and then passed her on the dirt. I don't know when she passed me back though - the results have her finishing ahead of me. I made it just to the top of the climb by the football stands, but was forced to dismount by other riders in the way. I think I passed someone at the barriers, and then going down the slippery tight turn before the finish, I saw Leah wipe out (oh no!) but was able to get around her without going down myself. The next lap I don't remember so well. I think I might have gotten passed by Rebekah and Alison on the flat bits during this lap, but not sure. I rode all the climbs again (well, except for the one after the stadium with the tires - I never did get that one right).

Janet L and I duked it out a little bit playing leapfrog.
On the last lap I was following Janet after she passed me at the barriers (need to get better at this!), planning to stay on her wheel and then sprint it out for the finish, but she took the super muddy corner at a bad angle for me, and my back wheel slid out and I nearly went down, but instead went off the course (flags, not tape, luckily) and then got back on track, but had lost her wheel. I just didn't have enough oomph to catch her before the finish. Oh well. All in all a great race for me since I actually passed a lot of people instead of the other way around. Hooray for the technical sections! :-) I ended up in 10th place, according to the results they posted at the race, but they still have not posted the results up on BikeReg, unfortunately.