After not getting a good night’s sleep, I didn’t know how I’d feel in today’s cat 2-only race. It wasn’t technically a “championship”, that status was reserved for the Elite men and women’s races and the USPRO race. They called it a “challenge”. Today was a nicer day with mostly sunny skies and a nice breeze. My race was the first of the day and it was right before Heather’s. We got to the race venue early so we could pick up our packets and pin our numbers. I got ready and got a good warm-up on the trainer.

I staged early but still ended up being about mid-pack. But fortunately, today’s category 2 field wasn’t nearly as big as last night’s Pro-Am race. I estimate we had about 80 riders. From the start, I worked hard to get to the front and by the end of the first lap I was actually at the front. It was cool because I got to hear the announcer mention my name, although he pronounced it wrong.

For the first 15 minutes, I stayed near the front and tried to cover moves. There were small breaks of 2-4 riders at a time trying to make a go at it, but most came back together. It didn’t feel particularly fast, especially compared to last night’s race, but for some reason, I just didn’t have much speed. Then a group of three went off and got a pretty good gap fairly quickly. I thought about bridging, but I was having a hard time just staying on wheels in the pack at times. So I ended up being pack fodder for the rest of the race. The pack eventually did catch the breakaway with only 1/2 lap to go but I was so far back I just got to watch the sprint finish from way back in the field. Oh well, not such a great race for me.

Heather’s race didn’t go so well either. She hung at the back for most of the race, only moving up to mid-pack for a short time. So she ended up finishing at the back of the pack as well. She was also disappointed with her performance. But despite traveling all this way and not doing well, we were both still glad we came. We were able to spend a lot of time together and have some serious talks, which we hadn’t done in a while.