Day Two...After another exciting breakfast of Egg Mc Sandwich and Interphase. We gather our goods out of the Merced Best Western and head on the Highway off to the road race. This race is 3 laps and a grand total of 72 miles. Because we are a big bad Pro-Team we get special parking! We bask in our glory as we drive past the miles and miles of cars flashing our special parking permit! One most indulge in the small things in life!
The overall atmosphere around the lot was that of a melancholy state. Everyone seemed to be taking there time getting ready and having nice leisurely chats, so I decided to partake in this as well. A long way of saying that no one else seemed to be worrying about warming up so why should I? I warm-up included about a half mile roll down the road to the less frequented Port-a-potty and back. To my advantage, once again we ended up standing around for a late start, and so the first lap basically consisted of a warm-up! The only problem was that it was almost too slow, I know this sounds crazy, but when you have a group of a 100 people riding shoulder to shoulder, too slow means people are wobbling all over the place. It was actually pretty nerve racking.
At the start of the second lap, the pace started to pick up! When, Wham! Right in front of me two girls collide and go down, I manage to stop and start to run up around them on the shoulder when I look to my left and holy crap...CRUNCH!! What seemed like at least 10 girls came dog piling on top of each other. All you could hear was the crunch of carbon, girls moaning, and others yelling let's go, don't look just go! So I jump back on my bike and high tail it back up to the pack, take a look around and everyone there gave a huge sigh of relief. I try and look up the pack for my teammate to make sure none of them were involved, and sure enough I count 1...2...3..sweet! After the disaster i decide that I am going to stay a way from the back of the group and get myself up to the front, plus I was getting a bit bored! Webcor decided that they are going to start launching attacks and others are launching counter attacks, So I decide to get into the mix and help out! If anything, if there is a break maybe I can get into it, that and it gives me an opportunity to get a good workout and test the old legs...oh who am I kidding, I really just wanted to show off! That and regain my confidence. It's really easy when your a newbie to let these girls push you around, which was one of my major problems the day before. But I decided here that I wasn't going to let them do it anymore and that I deserve to be up here! So I hang and practice moving around the pack a bit, and finally find Christine Thornburns wheel and decide on the final lap that (per coaches recommendation) to follow her around and try and stick with her till the finish. Finally we get to the 5K to go sign and wham! The sprint is on, everyone punches into a bigger gear and goes left, right, from some of the scaredy cats in back you can here"hold your damn line"! I look to my left and there's AMY! Yeah AMY! let's do this! I hit the finally straight away and those girls are off! I try my best but get pinned on the left shoulder of the road by a girl, I try so hard to come around, but just can't manage it..Oh, well still a great finish, somewhere around 30th, once again they screw my result up. This time I didn't even race. I am not lying! Trust me there is nothing more aggravating then working your little heart out as much as possible, to not see your freaking name on the results list! So once again I go to the overweight official who is stuffing his mouth with a burrito..."I will make a note and run it by Janice but I can't guarantee anything". All I can think, is keep your mouth shut Emily, when I would like to say..You go race your butt off and then come to the race results and not see your name and see how you feel ---------!
Aside from my whining I believe Team Wachovia/IBC had an amazing showing at both races. And people will definitely keep their eyes out for us!
Amy was very very proud of her Car Packing Skills!
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