I raced the Women's 1/2 field with my teammates from Webcor/Alto Velo. A Criterium is a shorter bike race of 45 minutes or so on a loop course. This one was one mile in length and had a big hill that you went up, made a 180 at the top and then came down again.
The race started off fast, made a sharp right hand turn into a sweeping left with orange cones placed a little too close on the right hand side. A little S-turn then back to the hill.
A couple laps in I was getting ready to make a move on the top of the hill since you could get a gap on the downhill and maybe get a break from the pack. Right at the top of the hill I was leading and got out of the saddle to go. However, I swung the turn too wide, effectively cutting off the whole field. They were not too happy about that and I think the whole first 1/3 yelled "F*** You" and gave me the finger. Roadies are a bit more vocal than Cyclocrossers. I reined in my attack as I felt bad about my mistake. I think this was actually the bigger mistake as I rode conservatively and timidly the rest of the race.
Lessons I learned: get over mistakes, don't take mean comments personally in racing, continue to race aggressively/confidently even if stuff happens.
Some pics at the start:
I am on the left of the picture above. Teammates: Holly in the middle and Andi on the right. Andi won us a cherry pie to share! Thanks Andi!
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