Mason Lake #2

Saturday, 11 March

Since I will never be one of those women who can launch endless short attacks just for the sake of getting in a good workout, for the second installment of this race series I started with the Master A/B men. If I could hang on for even one lap at their pace, it would be a hard workout.(Note how anticipated results were not a factor in this decision.) Lo and behold, I hung on for the full five laps--and we lapped the main women's field part way through our last lap.

The race action was all at the front (duh), where I was not. The race was dominated by the Excel Sports team, which had 7 or 8 riders. No other team had more than 2 riders. If something went up the road and it wasn't Excel, it was reeled in. Guys would go to the front, attack until they were toast, and then come hang out at the back with me to recover. And they all complained about Excel shutting down the race, blocking the whole road, etc. Two groups were finally off the front, but still the attacks would string out the field from time to time. It was indeed a really good workout. Even better, after the first couple of laps, the road was dry and the sun came out.

At the beginning of lap 3, Glenn came back and hid behind me (this may be a difficult concept for those who know our relative sizes). I think he was trying the "out of sight, out of mind" approach, hoping guys would forget he was there. He wasn't very chatty, and he for one wasn't complaining about Excel behavior. Once he'd had his lunch, he launched from the field and was never seen again.

Mid-race, I was chided for not mixing it up at the front. Suz was also in the race, and while I think men would never let a woman get off the front of their field, she sure wasn't willing to acknowledge that. "See, Martha, if you attacked like that, you could be number one" (Suz's race number is 1 for being the state champion in 2005--never mind the corollary: if I was strong enough to be number one, I'd be strong enough to attack you guys too). Post-race, I was scolded in another roundabout way for spending my time sitting at the back for most of the race. Thanks, Martin and Eric, for not cutting me any slack for my second post-crash road race (don't you guys know "barely hanging on" when you see it??). This week I will try to move up before lap five.

Two highlights to this day of racing (apart from getting my name in the results from a men's race): Having Mike Rogers back in the NW peloton was great, and he was a super wheel to ride on. And watching from the lead car as Jamie Stangeland won the men's 1-2 race in the afternoon was, as he says, "sweeeeeeeeet"!

Race results are posted here.