So I've finished my last race of the season. I'm sad. It was really SO much fun, I don't want it to end. But unless I take up cyclocross [not likely], there really aren't any more races until March. And Jackie would divorce me.

I raced in the Fall Fling road race--the Fall Fling is a series of 4 races, two crits, a time trial and a road race, with an overall winner. The women's cat 4 road race was three laps equalling 24 miles. We got there early and I rode a warm-up lap --- very valuable to learn exactly how strong the wind was and where it was a serious factor [Very strong. Very serious.]. Jeanette and I were there to try to keep our teammate Cecile in the overall leaders jersey. We were thinking we'd try and push the pace and see who we could drop, but a triathlete in her her first road race got on the front almost immediately and singlehandedly pulled us all around the course at a very strong clip. So we let her do our work for us. I sat on her wheel waiting for attacks and Jeanette sat back with Cecile.

On the second lap, I attacked up a hill. But no one chased. I figured they were going to let me dangle out in the wind until I died. I sat up a bit and they finally caught up. Soon after, we started dropping women. By the third lap we were down from 12 to seven, and dropped one more in the rollers. Cecile's two main competitors attacked after the third turn. Jeanette helped Cecile bridge. It took me longer to catch up, but that is a long uphill section and I had the triathlete's help. [this is the same place there was a big attack in the road race two weeks ago, and that didn't stick either. Its just too long of an incline into the wind. I think you need to either go earlier or wait until just before or after the fourth turn.] When we regained the leaders, Jeanette was pulling and Cecile was fourth wheel. On the next attack, Jeanette was left behind. I stayed with Cecile, hoping to give her a leadout . . . but I couldn't get into position and I didn't want to alert the other riders by talking about it. So when the sprint started, I just tried to keep up. We left the triathlete behind, and the four of us raced to the line. I saw one of the other women crack and I passed her! Unfortunately, Cecile wasn't able to outsprint the other racer, and she came in second, with me right behind [taking points away from everyone else].

I enjoyed the race a lot. I should have done some things differently, but I guess I'll work on that next time. In March.