Race: 2024 Snelling Road Race - Women’s Cat 4

Date: June 8, 2024

AVRT racers: Emily Selman

Top Result: Emily (2/4)

Course: A 12 mile loop with several rollers and decent pavement until the back half of the course, which was very bumpy and had gravel on some turns. Excepted hot weather but didn’t heat up until we finished. 

Nutrition:  Gel at the start, two bottles of Skratch plus 30g malto. One bottle of water from Cam at the feed zone on lap 4.

Recap:  Only 4 women came for this race: Lily Sander (who got 2nd behind Kristin at BHRR), Elisia Varner, and a woman from Elk Grove. At the start, Lily’s dad kept asking if Kristin was coming and casually said “Lily wants to win one Cat 4 before she upgrades,” so I had my motivation. Lap 1 Elisia took the front and pulled at a steady pace so we all let her. When we turned onto lap 2, no one wanted to pull and we were just riding slowly 4-wide on the road, so at the first hill, I gunned it a little to see who could follow. I then pulled up front that 2nd lap, pushing up the hills and attacking corners to see who got dropped. Also got stung on my leg by a wasp on that lap, but just kept pushing. As we turned onto the 3rd lap, I looked back and said, “Lily, it’s your turn” and she took the bait and pulled that lap. On a few rollers before the turn onto the last lap, Lily attacked and I followed, dropping the other two. We held a steady pace, trading pulls for the first part of the last lap, but Elisia was time trialing at full speed on the flat section and caught back up to us. Lily and I attacked again on the hills and dropped Elisia, then Lily put in a big attack at the final big hill and I couldn’t hold her wheel. I finished second at the line.