The five "Dunnigan" Tri-Flow girls finally did our first race all together this past Saturday (given that it's season end, it's probably also our *last* race together, at least 'til 2009).
The course was an 18 mile mostly-flat loop in Henleyville, California, just west of Corning. The Cat 4 women's race was three laps, for a total of 54 miles. Due to low registration, the Cat 3 and Cat 4 groups were combined (although placed separately at the end). There were only four Cat 3 women, and about 14 Cat 4 women. Tri-Flow had the biggest team representation, by far; most others were there solo.
We started at 8:30 a.m., quickly organizing into two long lines. The first lap kept a very conversational, even recreational pace, scarcely exceeding 18 miles an hour for most of it. On the second lap, the attacks began. The first was in the feed zone, of all places -- fortunately the weather wasn't hot enough that any of us yet needed to get any more water. From there on out, there were occasional attacks off the front, but none of them lasted very long, and the pack quickly regrouped each time.
At the beginning of the third lap, the Cat 3 woman from Reno Wheelmen attempted to get us all to work together in one big paceline. Some of us participated in good faith, but others didn't seem either to know how or to want to do a paceline, and the attacks soon resumed.
Thus, with one or two exceptions, the pack stayed together for the entire three laps. Just before the end, the Reno Wheelmen woman encouraged us all to sprint safely -- watching our lines, etc. At the 1km sign, the pack took off. I held on as long as I could but fell off before the 100m sign, crossing the line in 11th place out of 14. Ann got third place, and Emily finished somewhere before me (they didn't correctly place her at first).
Overall I'm really happy with how it went. The pack was mostly civilized and comparatively experienced, with a few exceptions although none nearly as bad as at San Ardo. My goal had been to hang onto the pack for at least one lap, if not two -- so the fact that I stayed on until the final sprint was just a bonus. I do still have work to do if I ever want to win, or at least be able to help Ann and Emily in any meaningful way.
I'm looking forward to next year!
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