Sturdy Girls - SaraB and Beth Fayant
Weather: Beautiful and in the low-mid 60's for most of the race. Towards the end it got a little chilly and the clouds rolled in.
Terrain: 63 miles of AWESOMENESS!!! Five Cat. 5 climbs. 12 sections of dirt road. Some really awesome descents.
Beth raced in the 35+ Cat 4 race. I raced in the U35 Cat 4. It's funny, cause if you ask me to give a play-by-play today, I definitely can't. I can tell you, however, that I am extremely glad I did the Monkey Knife Fight ride last weekend in Emmaus. The course at B-kill is much nicer (when it comes to the roads, anyway), and it definitely prepared me for this weekend.
I drove up with Mary LaSota of West Chester Cycles on Friday. Saturday we drove the course and rode a little bit of the course just to get a lay of the land. While I did race Battenkill last year, the course this year was a little different and I definitely did not remember the race the way I thought I did!
Whatever training I've been doing this winter definitely paid off. My time was better, and the hills I thought were REALLY difficult last year did not seem so bad this year! I got dropped from the main group on the first big climb, but managed to catch up to a couple girls, suggesting we all work together to get the group in front of us. I wound up riding with one of these girls the whole race. And we worked really well together! She could get me on the hills, but on the flats and the descents, I was pulling her around!! The two of us actually kept advancing past a few girls who couldn't keep pace with us, caught up with a couple other girls, and rode with them a bit. They took off on the last hill though and we lost them. We had a blast, and finished together despite my difficulty on the last climb.
Things I learned: I definitely did NOT eat enough during this race. The last seven miles were really difficult because of this. So next year, I plan on EATING MORE!!! I need to work on sustaining a good pace on hills. My climbing skills are definitely better than last year, I just don't have the speed I'd like to have. And when working with other girls, don't stay on the front for as long as I did.
I'm certainly looking forward to this race again next year. I may have to make this an annual thing!!!
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Dear Sturdy Girls,
please give Sara B five gold stars for being such an amazing ambassador for your team, as well as women cyclists everywhere, and for being just a genuinely great person. Around mile 15 of the Battenkill (my first race) I heard a cheerful voice behind me call out "grab a wheel, we'll work together". No matter how many times I told her to leave me for dead, she would always take the front and churn away, head into the fierce wind, helping me and many other girls along the way. In a race where nearly half the field didn't finish, her strength and class really stood out. I hope to get stronger as the season progresses so that I can return the favor or pay it forward. Cheers, Melissa
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