Melissa and I got to the race site roughly two hours before our start. We were able to get in a few laps of the course and at the time I noticed a fairly large pothole on the small climb coming out of the finishing straight, as well as some major wind. Other than that the course seemed fairly wide open with nothing that made me terribly nervous.
A phone call with the coach confirmed that the race was going to be a crap-shoot. I had not done any hard riding or training in over a week and we really did not know how my legs were going to feel, let alone my lungs. My goal was to find a friendly wheel (preferably Marian or Lindenwood) stick too it, and HIDE.
Warm ups went well, but even before the race started I was having a hard time catching my breath and there was a lot of coughing. Melissa and I had agreed that she would take the better call-up in the Crit and I in the road race and so my start put me towards the back which was a bit rough. As we started I found myself fighting tooth and nail to get up to the front and having very little success doing so. I am 99% sure there was a small wreck in the first turn out of the start a few laps in, but no one else seems to remember it, so I may be crazy.
The big moment came a little less than halfway through. A rider in attempting to avoid that massive pothole moved abruptly, knocking into Mikayla from Lindsey Wilson. Mikayla stayed upright but it set of a chain reaction in the middle of the pack. I had been following a train of Coryn and Lindenwood up the right hand side and saw the wreck happen to my left. Initially I was safe but the Lindenwood rider went down in front of me. I ramped her wheel, knocking my chain off, but grace of god kept it upright. I was able to shift back on quickly enough that I remained with the pack, which at this point had been cut in half by the wreck.
As we moved through that lap I looked around the pack for Melissa, only to find that I was alone. Teammates began calling for their riders, and I heard one of the Marian coaches yelling "Jackie is out". Never a good thing to hear. As we came around to the start/finish I could see Melissa walking towards neutral wheel support and was glad to see she was moving. Riders came back in and soon enough Melissa was back in the pack.
At this point I had managed to work my way up to the front of the race, sitting comfortable around Lindenwood and Marian, but a few laps later found myself middle back again. Alarm bells going off I saw a line up the side and took it as we came into the start line. That launched me to the front, and I quickly found myself pulling away from the field just a points prime was called. Whoops.
Screen shot of my attack that my dad found.
I was able to hold it for about a half lap but with 70 girls coming up behind me there was just no way to sustain it. Back in the pack I stayed in the front until about 5 to go at which point I quickly found myself moving backwards in the pack, my legs cashed out. I tried to stay close to Melissa and move up in the last five laps but I made absolutely no progress. Rolled in with the main field in 33rd, with Melissa taking 29th.
What was cool after the fact was a few women from the MWCCC telling me good job. I may not have felt it was a very good finish but it was kind of them to say, and good to hear that someone had noticed my feeble attack. I really think our conference has some of the best women in it as far as development of the sport is concerned.
Our men had a rough go of it with Turner getting pulled. Paul was in three wrecks in the crit, and although he had perfect positioning going into the last lap he was in a wreck on that first turn that took him out of the race, John rolling in with the main field. We would later find that Melissa was injured enough that she would not be contesting the road race.
That night was the banquet with the announcement that nationals the next year would be held in Richmond, Virginia on the same course as the 2015 Worlds. How legit is that?!? Huge shout out to Lindsey Wilson for adopting me for the evening, none of my teammates besides myself attended the banquet and it was kind of them to take me in. Fun group!
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