ERICA's BEST FINISH! TOUR of HIGHBRIGE 6/8/08

Tour of High Bridge:


I would say that about 15-20 riders lined up for the race. A lot of the New Jersey regulars, Betty, Elaine Molinaro, Carol Becht, Jackie, Becky Koh, etc., along with 4 Raddies. I had intended to start toward the front each time up the wall, but in my pessimistic distracted state I lined up at the back and had just made it to mid-field by the time we began the climb. I was relieved to find myself more or less still with the group at the top of the hill. Pretty uneventful first lap, went by pretty quickly. Quickly enough, in fact that we were at the base of the climb again before I knew it. I shifted down, but somehow didn't feel like I had shifted down enough. Tried again, but alas I was already in my 23. My 50-23 that is. Much to my dismay I realized that I had forgotten to shift into my 34. Aargh. Suffered through it and still came up with the group or just behind, but was concerned that I may have burnt out whatever energy and good will my legs had left for me.

Third time around, I shifted into my 34 WAY early, by the parking lots, just so I could be sure that wouldn't happen again. Hill felt relatively easy this time. Somewhere along the way there on that set of uphills we dropped about half the group. Cecelia did a great job of pushing the pace on the back side rollers and downhill to make sure we stayed away for the remaining two laps, and I was fortunate to be able to hold on.

I tried to pay more attention as we went around to where we were so as to be able to know when to sprint. I was still not totally sure how close we were going into the final turns, but asked Ashley if she'd like to take my wheel for the sprint. But then I realized I was going to be headed for the inside on the corner, which would be a terrible place to lead out from, so when it didn't look like a leadout was going to work, I just started sprinting. Scared myself a little coming around the final turn at speed but apparently I had a good gap going. I think I was one gear down from where I would have ideally been if I hadn't started by sprinting into a turn, and Jackie was able to bridge the gap and get a ride into the finish to take first. Nonetheless, I got second!!