well one anyway...mine.
We drove up to Santa Rosa today for a little local crit action. We decided to avoid the craziness at Sea Otter and do the smaller race. We had a good time, froze our butts off in the pouring rain and I eeked out a couple of top 10's. I'm not breaking out any champagne but I'm happy and feeling strong.
But, the story of the day was the men's E4 race. As I was getting dressed, in the lightly falling rain, I expressed my concern that we wouldn't meet the field limit in the E4 race. Alicat paused and said 'I'll race, do you care?' My response was go for it. She ran off, registered and jumped in (I don't think she even had time to warm up). For the first few laps I could hear Jess-ter cheering her on in corner 1 but I lost track after a while and thought maybe she got gapped or pulled out. With about 5 laps to go who should ride up next to me but the grimace herself, little miss Alicat. Two thoughts went through my head...cool she's still in it and damn I need to move up. We managed to move up over the last few laps, narrowly avoid a crash and roll across safely. Our field ended up with about 40 riders. Alicat finished 17th (without sprinting as she was trying to warm up for her own race)...Now that's HOT!
It's been suggested that women race the men's fields when promoters don't offer women's races. I've raced with women a couple times this year and think we'll see a lot more before the season is done. All I can say is 'Be careful what you wish for cuz those gals come to play!'
We drove up to Santa Rosa today for a little local crit action. We decided to avoid the craziness at Sea Otter and do the smaller race. We had a good time, froze our butts off in the pouring rain and I eeked out a couple of top 10's. I'm not breaking out any champagne but I'm happy and feeling strong.
But, the story of the day was the men's E4 race. As I was getting dressed, in the lightly falling rain, I expressed my concern that we wouldn't meet the field limit in the E4 race. Alicat paused and said 'I'll race, do you care?' My response was go for it. She ran off, registered and jumped in (I don't think she even had time to warm up). For the first few laps I could hear Jess-ter cheering her on in corner 1 but I lost track after a while and thought maybe she got gapped or pulled out. With about 5 laps to go who should ride up next to me but the grimace herself, little miss Alicat. Two thoughts went through my head...cool she's still in it and damn I need to move up. We managed to move up over the last few laps, narrowly avoid a crash and roll across safely. Our field ended up with about 40 riders. Alicat finished 17th (without sprinting as she was trying to warm up for her own race)...Now that's HOT!
It's been suggested that women race the men's fields when promoters don't offer women's races. I've raced with women a couple times this year and think we'll see a lot more before the season is done. All I can say is 'Be careful what you wish for cuz those gals come to play!'
3 comments:
Good job Merkley. Top 10s are an accomplishment.
But dang Alicat! 17th in a men's race is spectacular. You hammer!
Great goin', AC!
now that's cool!
yeah, i agree with the craziness of sea otter - not planning to go next year...the logistics are nuts!
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