Opus

Well, last night I decided to do the Opus crit instead of riding in Afton. Saturday’s beating wasn’t enough for me—I needed more for some odd reason.

I didn’t know what to expect this year at Opus—it couldn’t have been worse than my first Opus race last year. My expectation at this race isn’t high—just hang on as long as I could was my goal.

There were about 16 women racing—a fair number of cat 4 racers, a few new ones in the bunch. Once we took off I heard someone yell “Where’s Teresa?” As everyone knows, Teresa is the top female racer in MN and a great supporter for the women’s category in MN. Teresa showed up in the front and lead the group.

Opus is based on points. Every three laps are for sprint points. We do 9 laps=3 sprints. On sprint one my teammate Jackie was gearing up to do the sprint. I’m not sure what happened but through the mess of me moving to the outside I lost her. She didn’t go for the sprint and pulled back. The pack slowed down once we passed the line, I was in shock I was still with the lead group.

For some odd reason going 22+ mph around a corner with a bunch of people I feel in control. Who would have known the way I’ve been acting lately on some of my group rides.

Sprint 2 (lap 6)—still on!—I had to do it. I went for the sprint. And…I GOT POINT! 3 points, not much, but hell I was happy with that. Laps 7-9 I was done. I could hear the guys on the side say “she’ll never catch-up.” Oh…I was thinking “if I could breathe those guys would be eating their words—I could take them on the downhill.” That’s if I COULD BREATHE, which I couldn’t. The men’s cat 1/2/3 were lined up. I heard a few of them yell at me also. Sorry guys, if I could breathe I would have caught up. By the time I hit the back side of the final lap—I knew the race was done. I was happy with my results. Best yet, I got 4th overall in my category!

I’ll take it.