Froze Toes

This past weekend I raced in Columbia, MO at the Froze Toes Road Race. Temperatures were in the 40's with winds between 15-25. There were only 4 women in the Women's Open field...bummer. It consisted of two riders from Mercy (not ICCC), Emilie Duchow (Mesa Cycles), and myself. It was a fun race though. We really didn't do much, just basically rode together as a group. Towards the end of the race things started to heat up. The last 1/2 the race was headwind, so we rotated fairly smoothly. I started to get tired during the hilly section. This course is pretty flat with some rollers. The headwind made the rollers seem huge. I was able to stick with the group until a little past the last turn. I really have no excuse for getting dropped. Two girls from Mercy (not ICCC) started pulling pretty hard and I couldn't stay on their wheel. They duked it out for the finish, I'm not sure who won. I came in 3rd, not too far behind. I misjudged how far it was until the finish. Who knows if I could have stuck with them. I sort of got a second wind (or maybe it was just a tail wind) and got my speed up pretty high, but didn't make any ground on the two riders ahead of me. It was a good experience and training race. I know where I am as far as fitness level now. Next up is possibly the Cody's Race on March 18th. Then it's the CSU road race and criterium in Fort Collins, CO on March 24-25. Yes, you know what that means. No Kent Park for me :(. Have a good day!
-A