Walterboro Race Report

Heya folks,
Dale’s working on a school project, so you get to hear from me (Anna M.) today. Yesterday’s race was the 4th race of the week, in Walterboro, South Carolina. Yesterday we woke up in Beaufort and spent a chill morning there. We went for a short spin in the marshland to open up our legs after the previous day’s race, then went back to Nora and Charles’ house to clean up and pack out and say our good byes. The ride to Walterboro was a fairly uneventful hour, and we got in to meet our awesome host, Reaves and to settle into his beautiful 1850s wooden house. We had a short while to relax before it was time to get ready for the evening’s race. We did the usual, rode over to pick up our numbers, rode a lap of the course on the sidewalks to scope out the corners, and then got a good warm up in.
Finally it was time to line up. The field was still a little smaller than the weekend’s, but Tibco was back on the line, adding another big team to the mix compared to Beauford’s race. It’s interesting, some courses, when previewing them look hard and then ride pretty well; Walterboro’s course was one that looked pretty good, but I found it a lot more difficult during the race. The front stretch had several raised crosswalks that come close to knocking your bars out of your hands, and the last two corners were so tight that if a couple of women towards the front of the field took them cautiously, the back of the field came to a near stop going through the turns. That made for a lot of repeated accelerations, every time we found ourselves drifting back in the field. Unfortunately, the bumps on the front stretch were putting a lot of pressure on Jennette’s back, so she decided it wasn’t worth doing further damage and pulled out to cheer for the rest of us. Kate, meanwhile was fighting a losing battle with her front derailleur and after it jumped gears on her for a second time, she was unable to chase back into the field. Dale, however, was having a solid race and managed to play around at the front for a while and picked up a prime sprint in the process. I went for a couple primes, but went a bit too early and was nipped at the line both times. Still, those efforts gave me some hints about where on the course I could move up, and where in the field I needed to be to have a clean sprint after the final corner. As usual, the pace ramped up the last couple laps, but I managed to move up to an OK spot moving through the final corners and ended up sprinting to an 11th place finish. Dale avoided getting taken out by some sketchy moves around the final few corners and rolled in with the field. As with every race, I learned a bunch of lessons and am always trying to figure out how I can improve, but it was another solid finish against some powerful riders. And, after the race, our host, Reaves, organized a little shindig on the course, so we spent the rest of the evening watching the men race and eating some Mediterranean chicken wraps and eating some beautiful piles of fruit salad and pineapple (one of my favorites). Quite a nice way to round out the evening!
Today’s another rest day, and we’re spending the day getting to know Walterboro. Tomorrow we’ll roll up to Spartanburg for the race, and I’m sure we’ll have more stories to tell by then!