The race in Bellingham this past weekend was my first experience of a full collegiate cycling racing weekend. I was super excited and nervous for the weekend not just for my own races, but to watch my teammates as well!
Overall, the weekend was awesome—and we lucked out with some pretty great weather too! Saturday morning for the Road Race was pretty cold but at least there was no rain! The road race was a blast. Unfortunately, only a few miles into the first lap, the leaders took a wrong turn and consequently about a quarter of the field found ourselves on a very busy highway. This included myself and my two Whitman teammates! I was bummed at first because I was feeling pretty strong and I wanted to see how I compared to the other girls in our category. But these things happen and it was good to have experiences like these in races! Almost immediately after the wrong turn, another teammate and I found ourselves riding together just us two. We turned it into a kind of practice ride for our TTT later that day and we had a great time riding together and pushing each other. We ended up passing quite a few of the other girls in the race and that felt pretty good! The wind and the hills definitely made for a long and hard day out on the course for two of us.
The TTT went pretty well later that day (I think it was all of that extra practice we got during the road race ☺ ). I think we worked well together and we both enjoyed working hard for each other and pushing each other. It was really tough to race again, just a few hours after the road race, but luckily it was a short course!
Sunday was the crit race and I was really nervous going into it. Last weeks crit at UW was really tough for me because of the hilly loop! Luckily, this course was very flat and I surprisingly felt strong the entire race. Without the hills, the pack stayed pretty compact for most of the race and it was fun jostling for position and strategically picking lines through the corners. It was awesome to see so many of my teammates lining the course cheering for us and it definitely helped me stay “in it” during the race. The 30 minutes went by really quickly and I wished the race could have been longer!
It is pretty amazing to participate on a team that is so helpful and supportive of everyone. From sharing cooking and cleaning duties to cheering each other on during races, I can always feel the amount of love everyone has for one another. I can’t wait for this coming weekend for the home race!
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