Prologue:
I have gotten matched up through the organizers with Portuguese lady Celina Carpinteiro. She arrived on thursday 3 days before the start. So our first ride together was yesterday – we went to check out the prologue route. After a busy day of registration and buying last few things.
She is a national champ in XCO and road champ. That means her technical skills are great. I’m very excited to ride with her as she can teach me to get better technically as we go.
We had awesome race today. We had the advantage of sleeping in till 7am as our start was at 10:22 only. While others were already on the start.
The weather was perfect. Meerendal can get very hot so today’s overcast was pleasant to ride in. The build up of nerves before start wasn’t too bad. Me and Celina were both in good mood and quite relaxed. Celina took the lead after start going first down the Manor House stairs and I went behind her and taking lead later up the first climb where I felt strong. Soon the RECM ladies passed us and so did Pragma ladies and Meerendal Esther Suss and Sally Bigham.
I went first down the steep climb into the old quarry. Celina passed me half way and took the lead for rest of the race. I just followed her perfect lines. I got pretty out of breath on the last 2 steep climbs. After that we were back to the spectacers and enjoyed the built track with lots of cool bends.We powered it down to the finish and really enjoyed the route.
I heard lots of times Go Kate cheering from my friends and others. It adds on the excitement and helps with motivation to push hard.
We were happy to finish in 10th place in women.