The day dawned cool and cloudy for Part 2 of the Pemberton Classic, the road race. I was racing in Women's B Grade, and for the road race we were grouped in a peloton with boys under 15s and girls under 17s. Because of the younger categories, we had a neutralised start up to the top of Pump Hill for the first time. So, we started on the edge of town near the Caravan Park, rode west out of town up Pump Hill, stopped at the top, regrouped, and then started our race.
We did one short lap, which was only about 8km, and we all stayed together for that. We had about a dozen women in B Grade, plus about 3 under 17 girls and 2 under 15 boys. We then went through the start-finish line again and back up Pump Hill, this time at race pace.
I started the hill at the back of the group, but I could see that a few of the women near the front were taking off pretty quick, so I got out of the saddle and quickly made my way up to about 4th wheel. It was a pretty hard hill, probably less than 5 min but pushing as hard as I could the whole way. When I got to the top, there was a small group of about 3-4 riders who had broken away down the road ahead of me. This included the super lightweight under 15 boys, and a couple of ladies. I couldn't tell if they were in the women's grade or under 17s - it turned out only one of them was in the women's grade.
I found myself with a nice little posse of three riders: Margo, Jane and myself. We have raced and trained together so we were all happy to work together. However, after I had done about 2-3 turns on the front I realised that I was going to struggle to keep the pace. Margo and Jane were good enough to ease back a bit and keep pulling turns, and let me rest on the back. This was going ok, then another rider or two joined us and sat on the back. I decided it wasn't fair to let Margo and Jane keep doing all the work, so I pulled through and did another turn, and the rest of the group came through and worked as well. Unfortunately for me, I just couldn't keep the pace. I stopped doing turns and sat on the back, but even that was a bit too much. Gaps kept opening between me and the group, and eventually the gap became two bike lengths, and then I was off the group.
I still had more than half the race to go, I think I'd only done about 15km of the 42km race by this point. I figured the rest of the race was going to be on my own, so I just hunkered down in the drops and pushed on at just below time trial pace.
After a while, I heard Nat behind me, telling me to jump on the wheel. She had three other women with her, but after I sat on the back for a minute I could see that the other three women were either not capable or not willing to work. By this stage I was feeling pretty ok, so I came through to the front and worked with Nat.
This was my favourite part of the race, Nat and I were working hard, working together, swapping off turns on the front. It was great to be working with a teammate, even if we weren't in contention for podium positions.
We worked well together, then there was a tough slightly steeper and longer 'undulation'/hill that we had to contend with, and one of the ladies who had been sitting on the back the whole time decided she wanted to breakaway up the hill. We clawed her back and caught our breath, then prepared to start our little group working together again. Nat went to the front and pulled a strong turn. Unfortunately, a bit to strong for me, I just couldn't hold on, so I found myself on my own again.
I was about 12km from the finish at this point, because I remember thinking "its just a commute distance to go". So I just pushed on at almost time trial pace again, not going flat out, but still working hard. I continued in this fashion by myself for the rest of the race, with the obligatory out of the saddle effort to the finish line to please the crowd.
I was happy with my race. I had no expectations prior to the weekend. I decided I just wanted to go down and race, have fun, and what happened. I was really happy to be near the front of the race at the top of Pump Hill. Now if I can only stay at the front until the end of the race .......
The Pemberton Classic was a great event. The road race route was quite scenic, karri trees on the way up Pump Hill, and cows and wineries through the rest of the course. The locals really get on board - there were tons of old painted bikes hanging up outside cafés in town, and there were hay bales with big signs on the course "viva la Pemberton Classic". There were even hay bales arranged in the shape of a teddy bear!
Well done to the organizers and all the sponsors - there were many of them!
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