I Won!!!
Twice!!!
Twice!!!
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that I was the only woman in Saturday’s race and there were only 2 women on Sunday. But, I finished with the men’s pack, never got dropped, and can confidently say that it was the hardest race I have ever done.
For reasons unbeknownst to me (chime in if you have insight on this), the Italian women who race pro are really strong, but there are few to no amateur women racing. Pat says that it’s rare to have more than 10 women in a local race.
Consequently, the women race with the 55+ men (aka the Super-gentlemen). While in their late 50s, these men can rip my legs off as our race averaged only 1mph slower than Mike’s (who was with the spry 40-somethings). I am proud, and I mean seriously proud!, to say that I could hang, cause there was some serious digging into the suitcase of pain for most of the race.
Racing here is very different from NorCal. The attacks & bridges are constant, relentless, and fierce. While zooming along at 28pmh, the pack slows to a crawl (19-20mph) while rounding corners. It’s done purposefully so that guys at the front can attack out of the corners while the pack is strung out, but slowing far before the corner. So, post-corner, the accelerations would rip my legs off as I kept my nose as close to the ass of the biggest guy I could find. It was crazy, but so much fun. At one point, I was nicely tucked in and looked down to discover that I was pushing 500wts while fully drafting in the pack. Those guys can push some crazy-watts. Very impressive.
Both races were won from a break, and I finished with the main pack. I surprised myself to be able to do so and am eager to try to move around a bit more next weekend.
Winning here is a huge production. The top 10 guys each win an enormous bag of groceries. My loot included pasta, canned veggies, sugar, risotto, olive oil, coffee, and biscotti. On top of that I won an enormous bouquet of flowers, a medallion, and a kiss from the podium girl.
The male category winners all won one of these. I’m disappointed to share that I was one
Y-chromosome away from bringing home the bacon. Alas.
9 comments:
now that is very very cool! what a great experience1
Fantastic job Alicat.
So cool. Great job.
We've seen no Italian amateur racer chicks while riding around in Italy and France (just ladies in pumps and skirts on town bikes with groceries). The clubs seem to be all men. We did see some chicks who were all kitted up at the top of Tourmalet, but they were Spanish. Definitely a boys' sport over there.
Sounds like a really fun race.
very cool! did mike race as well?
Sweet!
I like the prize list!
Wow, I am so jealous. Italy, racing, kiss from podium girl ... ;-)
Definitely a male dominated sport there, but Ms. Chatterbox does overstate it a bit, but she is less tuned into to looking for women as she scopes out the guys. On our 2002 trip to Tuscany we did see a couple racer chicks near Lucca, and probably 1% of the racing club members around the Lakes in 2004 were female. Stark contrast to here.
is it really a stark contrast? no that many years ago, there were very few women racing bikes. it wasn't unusual to see a field of 10 women (all cats combined). and there definitely weren't large groups of women riding together. when I started riding I only rode with men -- I didn't know any women who rode. Even today, I'd guess you see at least 2 men for every 1 woman on the road.
we all better watch out when she gets back in our local peloton...
so cool!
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