I raced the Fall Fling road race on Sunday. It feels really good to be racing again - my injury is bothering me less and less and I'm feeling stronger. And ABD really knows how to put on a good event – I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed Fall Fling.

The 123 women were combined with the 50+ men - we could work together, but were scored separately. This makes for a very different race - much less likely that any of the women will break away. You just sit in until the end and see what you can do in the sprint. And that was my goal - to hang onto the pack.

I started out in the front, grabbed the wheel of a guy going by and sat fifth wheel to the first corner. Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to ride through a corner without letting a bit of a gap open between me and the wheel in front of me. Entering the corner, suddenly there were riders on my inside and outside. By the time I hit the other side, I’d gone from fifth wheel to 20th.

I sat behind two of the other women. I had some chances to move up, but didn’t take them – thinking that I could stay in touch with these girls and be OK. The second corner sent me to the back of the pack.

Corner three was sweeping, no problem for anyone. I rode through the rollers feeling good. It was fast, but felt like a run-up to Old School on the team ride. No problem.

Except I stayed at the back – what was I thinking? I was comfortable in the pack. There were opportunities to advance. Why didn’t I take them?

I got a little gapped through corner four. Easy enough to make up with the tailwind. Back to corner one. Again I’m gapped a little, but this time, I can’t make it up. I trail ten feet off the back, and then 15, and then 20. I’m dropped.

So I failed to achieve my goal for this race. Frustrating.

I spent the next five and a half laps working with one of the men. We didn’t get lapped, we finished in less than two hours, and I broke my power records for 30, 60, and 120 minutes.

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This morning I went out with a teammate and practiced cornering at speed for an hour. If I went through the corner first, I was fine. If he went first, a bike length would open between us. We drilled over and over – and this isn’t the first time I’ve worked on this – and still I could not hold his wheel through the corner. I don’t even feel like I’m slowing – but I must be doing small things that slow me just enough. It comes down to an irrational panic response. I don’t even really FEEL the panic, unless I really focus on what’s in my head while I ride the corner. But its there. I don’t know what to do.