Vacaville

by Lula

When I read that Vacaville Crit W 1/2/3 would be the Nor Cal/Nevada Championship Crit I didn't give too much attention. Honestly, now that I think about it, I didn't give it attention at all; not even what it deserved to have.

I just wanted to go to a crit and get beat up; get so tired that I couldn't talk afterwards at least for 5 minutes. And by now, knowing me, you know how tired I need to be to shut up.

Before leaving home, my husband told us, Leislot, who stayed with us for the weekend, and I that we need to approach the bike races like Golfers and we need to focus on playing/racing against the course and not the opponents. Well, that little overpass was killing me each time and the racers were not helping me recovery when I needed so, I sure confess that, the course won.

All I can say is that I got my prayers answered. I did not finish the race and on 6 laps to go they pulled us out. And I was happy. For once, I was working really hard from the begining; no sitting in allowed, no spinning time, no joking around, no "how many kids you have".."do you work" questions. And I loved it. Each and every minute of it.

Jana and I worked together for 4 laps to bridge back to the group and my HR was 195-198 the wholetime. I was in heaven.... dreaming that I was working hard and at this time, I was.

As the race was unfolding in front of me, literally, as I couldn't move up, I saw all these women stopping the race. They would just stop riding and go to the side lines all over the course. All Cat 2s, experienced racers, I don't wanna name them, but great racers who have beat me up all year around. I wasns't happy to see them stopping, I was just amazed that they were too working as hard as they could and not sitting on the back and waiting for the last lap to sprint.

When I was forced to stop the race, I went straight to my car speachless. Yeahhhh!!! It took me a couple of minutes to realize what had just happened and I went back to cheer for Monica and Lisalot who looked so great in the peloton, making the race look so easy and my efforts so silly. But hey, they are awasome racers and I was glad I had them around afterwards to tell me that I am "doing the right thing racing with the strong riders" even if it means not placing cuz "it will make you (me) stronger".

So, Davis here we go! W 1/2/3 for more suffering and realization .... deep....