2023 Pine Flat Road Race - Women's Cat 4

Date: February 19, 2023
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas
Top Result: Louise (2/3)
Course: (copied from Ian and Nico's reports) 62 miles, 4,000ft. Rolling for the first 26 miles on an out-and-back overlooking Pine Flat Lake. 2 mile fast, non-technical descent into a 16 mile valley with minimal features, then the main 11 mile climb that starts with rollers, gradually getting steeper until the last mile averaging about 10%. 6 mile descent into a 1 mile climb to finish the race.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8589899595
Nutrition: a banana and yogurt before the race, 2 bottles of malto/fructose/sodium citrate mix + a singular cliff blok during the race

Race Recap:
There were only four women pre-registered for the race and one didn't show up, so the race started with just three of us. Christina and Natalia (the other two riders) had both been in the break with me and Steph at Cantua Creek RR the day before, so I knew they were strong and willing to work together.
Since it was unlikely for an individual rider to be able to stay away on the rollers, we decided to work together for the first part of the race. For a while it turned into a fun group ride - the scenery was amazing, I was slowly starting to warm up from the frosty morning, and we all working hard in a pace line to keep the speed up.
We stayed working together until about mile 50, where unfortunately Natalia got a flat. After briefly checking to see if she had a spare tube (she said she did, but we later found out it was the wrong size), me and Christina decided to push on. It was a race after all.
We continued working together for a bit, but as we reached the main climb I could hear Christina starting to struggle so decided up the power and see if I could drop her on the climb. I managed to get a gap of 10 m or so and thought I had her for sure, but Christina just wouldn't give up and managed to catch me just after the crest of the hill.
This was followed by a 6 mi downhill section before the final climb. Christina tried attacking a couple of times but was unable to make anything stick either, so we went into the final climb together. I pushed to try and get a gap like I did on the previous climb, but this time Christina stayed right on my wheel. With maybe 30 m to go she launched into a sprint. I tried to respond but my legs refused to cooperate and go any faster, so I ended up with 2nd place.
Overall I really enjoyed the course, it's just a shame there weren't more women to compete against.

-Louise