Sea Otter

Sea Otter Classic --Women's 1/2
15th April- 17th April

This was my first experience at Sea Otter and for the most past I was doing it solo, without my usual Bridge Team teammates!

Thursday brought about a 50minutue criterium around a race smooth asphalt track, the shape of the course being a hot dog with sweeping bends and a hill up to the start finish line. The race was on from the gun and with Team Tibco and Colivatia having full or close to full squads made it a challenging race. The race broke up quickly and soon 10 riders were off the front. I missed the break and my effort with the other teams to bring the break back was unsuccessful, mainly due to all the teams represented and no one willing to help and not that they should, a big mistake on my part. Amanda Miller from Team Tibco won the race in a solo break from the original breakaway group.

Friday was the road race and what a race it was, 6 laps of a tight technical road loop with one descent 1 mile steep hill amongst rolling and pitching terrain, finishing with a 2mile climb to the start/finish. I was annoyed with my race yesterday and was set to be in the moves. The pace was on from the moment we hit the 1st lap of the circuit. I attacked first to get things moving and to try and spark the break away. The first four laps girls where attempting to go off the front but nothing was sticking. Then at the bottom of the fifth I attacked solo and made some ground. I was caught at the top of the hill on the 5th lap to be counter attacked by Tibco, I made it over to the move before another counter went and my legs this time didn’t make the cut. 8 girls were now up the road, everyone was content with being in groupetto. The last climb saw me hold it up the front to finish 12th, not happy with the result, again a breakaway I missed.

Saturday was the hardest stage yet 2hours of the race course route with a nasty climb of approximately 600meters. After 2 days of working hard and being aggressive my legs certainly knew about it while I was standing on the start finish line ready to begin what I knew was going to be a painful 2hours; however, I had some relief knowing my teammate Lauren was racing as well. The first hour was solid but no serious attacks. Once we were at 50minutes to go the pace heated up and again for the third time this weekend the break went and I wasn’t in it. That break survived and Kathryn Mattis did a fantastic job for Webcor finishing 3rd.

This weekend I learnt some big lessons on when to put my efforts in to make breaks and to change the race to my favour. Unfortunately it didn’t come together this time round, but I know with more racing, I’ll be stronger and smarter to make the right moves to get the results the Bridge Team and I want.

Till next time

Angela