The race on Saturday at Red Shedman Brewery was not part of either local series, so the race times were a bit different than normal. The women's races were at 1:00 and I was solo for the day since my significant other was not interested in another two race weekend, so no need to get up early for the men's races. Woohoo for getting to sleep in for once!
The venue was pretty cool. There was both a winery and a brewery on the grounds and there was beer flowing from both the local place and from Monocacy, another local brewery. One of the main reasons for me going to this race was because I had never had their beer. And trust me, it was worth the drive!
Lining up for the race was a bit confusing as there were four women's fields: 1/2/3, Master's 40+ 1/2/3, Beginner 4, and Master's 40+ Beginner 4. There was also the added confusion of Bike Reg advising that the 1/2/3 races would be 40 minutes and the Beginner races would be 3 laps. After doing one pre-ride lap, we realized the course was really short (barely 1.3 miles), everyone in the beginner category was confused since that would mean our race would only be about 20-25 minutes. The officials were just as confused as we were and did not give proper instruction at the start of the race, so we all assumed all of us would race the full 40 minutes.
For once, I actually got a decent start. I did not seem to struggle off the line and only got passed by a few women before we hit the hole shot. I quickly started to pick people off as usual and after the barriers was in sixth spot. The course was pretty easy with no real technical spots, so it was a course that favoured those with power, and I am not one of those racers. I managed to hang on and ended up moving into fourth on the second lap. I battled back and forth and bounced between fourth and sixth for the next half lap when I heard the announcer say there were four laps to go. I slacked off, since I knew I could not keep that pace up for another four full laps (there was a LOT of flat power sections and gradual hills that I was redlining on).
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| Battling it out on the third lap. Photo courtesy of Jason Calderon. |
I let a couple of girls get by me to try and recover before starting the downhill into the start/finish stretch thinking I had a few more laps to pick them back off in the rooty/rocky woods section. I could easily see the first and second place women go through the start finish and go out for another lap, so I was not setting up for a sprint up the finish stretch. And then... we got pulled. The officials let several of the Cat 4 Master's and Cat 4 Open racers go through for another lap, but pulled several of us after three laps.
Needless to say, I was not a happy camper at that point since I feel that had we all (including the officals) known at the start what the plan was, I could have had a podium spot. But either way, it was a fun course and many of the women expressed their frustration to the race director, so I am sure next year it will be better and they will let all of the women's fields race for the full 40 minutes.
After the race, a teammate grabbed me a beer (Red Shedman Vanilla Porter, go have it, it is DELICIOUS!) and all was right with the world again. I congratulated Laura and Sarah who both came in first place in the W4 and the Master's W4 races (they both totally deserved their wins and crushed the competition!). High fived all the other women that raced because we are awesome and ran to my car to change clothes. It was COLD!
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| Women's Cat 4 Open Podium |
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| Women's Master's Cat 4 Podium (Not Pictured, Tania in 4th and Jocelyn in 5th) |
I ended up hanging out for the last two races of the day and was glad I did. I got to hang out with some mountain bike buddies that were helping out with the race and a few more than stopped by to spectate. I got to heckle with friends and enjoy some more great beer. This race, while frustrating for most of the women's Cat 4 group, was a ton of fun and at an amazing venue. If you did not make it out this year, I highly recommend it.
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