Madera -- Marian Jamison

think that probably two words best sum up the
weekend - hot, and goatheads. Why didn't anybody tell
me that Madera was the goathead capital of the world?
But alas.
Anywho, the crit, pretty much a glorified air center
course, was pretty hard for me. We raced with the
1/2's (I'm a 3) and I haven't done enough racing this
year to feel comfortable in a pack that size. I spent
the whole thing just trying to hang on a wheel, and
was successful until the final spring, in which I
took, er, 2nd to last I think.
Anywho, got to the car after the crit and had,
surprise surprise, a flat tire. Great. So we drove
out to the TT and parked coincidentally next to Darin
and Spencer. They got done with their TT and from the
way they made it sound, it was hot indeed. That made
me nervous. Plus it sounded like EVERYONE went off
course, so I was determined to atleast make all the
turns. I dunno, maybe it's just their TT helmets,
because by the time I got out there, under the ominous
warning of "drink lots of water, it's hotter then you
think," the heat didn't seem quite as bad as I'd
expected. I was feeling pretty good and since it was
a pretty short race I felt like I could push it a
little harder then I would for, say, the district TT.
I caught my minute girl, my 1:30, and 2 minute girls,
and I could see 2:30 and 3:00 not too far ahead, and I
was steadily closing the gap with about two miles to
go. And then, I flatted. Wheel be damned, I decided
to ride it in, but it definitely slowed me down.
Still, I ended up sixth, even though I think I would
have been 3rd or 4th without the flat. Lame. Oh
well.
Anyway, went out to dinner and ended up sitting at a
table with a couple of colorful individuals from the
Truckee RW contingent, who amused me throughout
dinner. But it's good, you know, 'cause I didn't know
hardly anyone before, so it's nice to feel like a
team.
Anyway, for the RR we did 4 laps, which ended up being
65 miles. We were lucky enough to get a little bit of
cloud cover in the afternoon, which made all the
difference in the temperature. I ended up drinking 6
bottles throughout the race, although a few of them
got dumped over my head. They raced us with the 1/2's
again, but no one was really attacking until the last
hill after the feed zone, so it wasn't too intense.
The bad pavement was really really bad. Anyway, long
story short, I managed to stay with the lead group (we
dropped a few people, but were reletively cohesive)
and didn't sprint soon enough so I ended up 7th. But
I held on to 6th in the GC and won a t-shirt that I
will never wear. Worth my $70 entry fee? Absolutely.


Marian