Velo Bella's Together At Last!

The Velo Bella's managed to get together for the last road race of the season, the Carlisle PA championship!

The sun was still sleeping as we headed out of town, but by 7am, it was dawning to be a fantastic, and uncharacteristically chilly August day! Zina and I drove up into the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside, and were the first Bellas to arrive.

When the Styer's gang arrived, Hillary and I decided to pre-ride the course; which would have been great had we actually pre-ridden the course! But, I took a wrong turn and we ended up riding in the wrong direction! Oh well....

There were 14 Cat 4 racers, 2 of us Bellas. Now, I hadn't even been on my bike since the Armed Forces Triathlon, so it was going to be a suffer-fest for me, but I thought it'd be fun to get out and just ride with the Bellas, and as long as I wasn't last, all would be well!

It was a short neutral roll to the start and then we were off. The course was 5 times around a 5.4 mile loop in the Pennsylvania farmland. There were a few very gentle undulating hills, with 3 or 4 very technical 90 degree turns, and one very steep 300m hill on the back side.

The first loop was definitely a warm-up, we were going very very slow. I felt relaxed but a bit edgy wondering when the break away would come. As we started lap 2 we kept the same casual pace, and I wondered briefly if this whas how the whole race was going to go!? But no, half way into lap 2 the local PA team made an attack for the hill. I and 3 other gals sped off to catch her. I made it about 250m up the hill and then fell off. Crap. That always happens! So, there were 3 girls off the front, and a middle pack of about 8, and 3 or 4 girls who had fallen off the back end. Around lap 3 I got dropped again, and fell inline with one of the last 4 girls. We managed 2 laps together, but as we started lap 5 the other girl lost steam. I found Katie, an unattached rider at the back side of lap 4 and we climbed the monster hill together and worked together to try to make up ground again. But my lack of saddle time in the last month finally won out, and as we headed into the climb for the final time, Katie dropped me and I never saw her again.

As I rounded the final corner heading into the long steady uphill to the finish, I got passed by two girls who I'd outridden all morning, and they beat me by about 10 seconds. How frustrating! I've got to work on my stamina!

In the end, it was a great race, and I had a great time! Hillary finally did her first race, I'm very proud of her, and Melanie worked hard to get Barb a second place finish for the 1/2/3 race! GO BELLAS!

Race Results

Photos