I raced Spring Prairie today. The cat 4 women had four laps around the 6.5 mile course that includes a lot of rolling hills and one long, steep climb before the start/finish line. We were combined with the masters 40+ women [who, it turns out, were all cat 3s], but scored separately.

I felt good going in -- and my bike was in good working order, no shifting problems at all in this race. I put my 27/12 cassette on my race wheel and with my compact crank could ride all the hills in my big ring. So no danger of dropping a chain. I was climbing well, and after the first lap was in the first group of 5 that crested the big hill. After turn one on the second lap, there was some attacking. I stayed near the front and matched the accelerations. After turn 2, a tall, powerfully built woman made a move on the false flat, three of us stayed with her, and used the descent to gain more distance. The four of us were off the front -- and I realized the other three were masters racers! If we could stay away, I would win the cat 4 race!

The next two and a half laps were very painful. We worked together pretty well to increase our lead well into lap three. And then the jockeying started. I took extra pulls as the masters riders eyed each other and conserved energy for the race up the hill to the finish. Two of them were small and could just float up the climbs. The tall woman attacked before turn four, but was easily reeled in. The two little climbers took first and second, I crossed the line third -- winning the cat 4 race!

It was thrilling to see my name at the top of the results sheet! I've won a cat 4 race and, even better, a road race. A really HARD road race.