Maria's report from Hilltowns/ AKA Helltowns Pro123 Field

I should have known Saturday was going to be an odd day since I woke up at 4AM with a rather large framed painting falling off of my wall and hitting me in the jaw while I was sleeping. I awoke screaming. It felt like I got punched in the face. My left jaw was sore
and a little swollen, but nothing helmet straps couldn't camouflage and Advil didn't make bearable.

The race started out very tame. There were a few descents that were scary due to my second Ksyrium wheel this season dying. (this was a loaner wheel that was to get me through the end of the season) No such luck. The wheel was making an awful noise when we hit over 30 mph and vibrating. A woman from the Independent team asked me what was up with my bike and was freaked out to be near me. (good tactic for the future??)

Anyhow, then came the dreaded 5 mile climb. I was doing OK and pacing myself well. I was able to stay with a few accelerations from the top climbers, but after a while just couldn't stay with them. I didn't want to blow up and end up sliding down the climb
backwards, so I kept a pace I knew I could maintain. I was with one woman for a while, but then she blew up and fell back. I then climbed ahead and found 2 other women to work with. Within a few minutes a couple more women that were behind us joined our little group. We had a nice paceline going taking short hard pulls and actually at one point saw the climbers up ahead. Of course then they accelerated and we never saw them again.

At the top of the climb we got to a spot in which there were cars and people yelling at us to turn left. We did. I saw male racers emerging from behind these cars. My first thought was that they were done racing and cooling down. But why would they be 30 miles from the finish? I followed my group and they yelled to slow as we took a sharp right turn in some sand. Our wheels all slid a bit, but we all made the turn safely. We then had to jump off our bikes. This "road" was crazy! It made Battenkill's roads look pristine. There
were some large rocks, sticks and sand. One woman and I decided this couldn't be right and turned around. A male racer told us this was a detour, that there was a powerline down. Right then I see a woman go straight instead of turning. Then a couple seconds
later Ashley calmly appears from the field. When I realized it was her I let the other girl go ahead and I waited for Ashley so we could ride together. She and I weren't sure if we were still racing, so we tried to make up some ground and ride our bikes up this road. We had to carry our bikes part of the way and I think made pretty good time considering. When we got to the top of the climb, Alan Atwood was there and directed us to turn right and wait. Huh??? We then froze our asses off for the next 30 minutes. It was windy and we
were quite sweaty after climbing and doing some cycle cross. A few of us took nature breaks and ate as we waited for the rest of our field to emerge and the promoters tried to figure out where our pace car and breakaway were. (turns out thatthey somehow stayed
on course without encountering the fallen powerline)

Alan then decided to start us all together. This seemed unfair since I had worked so hard to be with my 5 ladies in our chase group. Now we had to race with people that were minutes back. Many of us now felt the race was pretty much over. Alan mentioned something about figuring it all out in the end. No one wanted to work and our pace was so slow that the cat 4 women that started minutes behind us managed to pass us on the open highway section. A few of us then tried to organize a paceline. This worked for about 2 minutes and then a Canadian rider came up to take her pull and attacked. We quickly caught her. A few attacks followed, but nothing stuck. I chased down a few, Ashley covered a couple others. It was exhausting. I was on the front quite a bit which I usually wouldn't do, but my heart rate was comfortably in zone 2, so I figured why not? After a few more miles of the wind and attacks, I was ready to be finished. I had looked at Elena and Ashley's faces and they looked like they felt the same way. The pace increased
on the last incline before the turn. I stuck with the ladies, but was too far back to take a top 5 spot. I took the turn and sprinted to the line. I managed to pass a couple women and get another right at the line.

All in all this was one of the oddest races I have done. It was my first race that had an intermission.