UNR Invite Skate Race
I ended up 8th again today in the mass start skate race. I made a risky move and broke away from the pack at 9km to try and take second place on my own (Jana was ahead of everyone already) but got caught a kilometer before the finish.
Here's how it played out: The start was drama-free, at least in the front. I started about 20th place and moved up slowly until I felt comfortably placed. Comfortably placed for me means that I was close enough to the front of the pack that I could see everybody & that if a gap opened up I would be able to manuever myself up to it in order to bridge it in a short amount of time. The first lap, of three, was at an easy pace, easy enough that I single-sticked up Pink Lung Hill and didn't loose any time. Jana broke away at about 3km but no one wanted to chase her. She ended up skiing the rest of the race by herself and winning easily.
The second lap started out slow as well. Maybe not that slowly, we must have been dropping a lot of people along the way, I don't know, I don't look back. A UNM girl broke off the front about 6km but she wasn't one of their top girls so I didn't worry about it, the pack never let her get too far ahead and caught her after a km. It did help to string out the pack though and gave us all more room. Then the top DU girl broke away at about 8km, then the top Utah girl bridged up to her. So I decided that I needed to be there too. Then Utah took the lead DU dropped off with me behind her so I moved around to bridge up to Utah. When I caught her, she looked dead tired & here's when I took the big risk and kept going right on by her. I probably should have just hung out and said, "so you're tired, okay, I'll rest then," but I didn't. So I skied the next 5km by myself. About 1km to the finish the chase pack subsumed me and that was sad.
So I took a huge risk, making a gutsy move, and it didn't work. That's just how racing goes though. Every time you try a move like that you learn something about yourself, you learn something about your competitors, and you learn something about race strategy.
Here's how it played out: The start was drama-free, at least in the front. I started about 20th place and moved up slowly until I felt comfortably placed. Comfortably placed for me means that I was close enough to the front of the pack that I could see everybody & that if a gap opened up I would be able to manuever myself up to it in order to bridge it in a short amount of time. The first lap, of three, was at an easy pace, easy enough that I single-sticked up Pink Lung Hill and didn't loose any time. Jana broke away at about 3km but no one wanted to chase her. She ended up skiing the rest of the race by herself and winning easily.
The second lap started out slow as well. Maybe not that slowly, we must have been dropping a lot of people along the way, I don't know, I don't look back. A UNM girl broke off the front about 6km but she wasn't one of their top girls so I didn't worry about it, the pack never let her get too far ahead and caught her after a km. It did help to string out the pack though and gave us all more room. Then the top DU girl broke away at about 8km, then the top Utah girl bridged up to her. So I decided that I needed to be there too. Then Utah took the lead DU dropped off with me behind her so I moved around to bridge up to Utah. When I caught her, she looked dead tired & here's when I took the big risk and kept going right on by her. I probably should have just hung out and said, "so you're tired, okay, I'll rest then," but I didn't. So I skied the next 5km by myself. About 1km to the finish the chase pack subsumed me and that was sad.
So I took a huge risk, making a gutsy move, and it didn't work. That's just how racing goes though. Every time you try a move like that you learn something about yourself, you learn something about your competitors, and you learn something about race strategy.
posted by LAV at 14:56
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