Tri-State Velo

Poolesville is a unique road race in that it has a 1.25 mile section of hard-packed dirt each lap. I decided to do this race because it was 5 laps for a total of 53 miles and the women in the DC area are notoriously strong. I was hoping for a challenging race and I got it! The women's 1/2/3 field was small due to the fact that there was a separate women's 3/4 race in which my teammate Michelle Suplick took 6th place! So there was nowhere to hide in my race.

The race went off at a moderate pace until the first time thru the dirt section. HPC had 4 women there and pushed the pace down the descent and hard right turn into the dirt. There are basically 2 ruts divided by gravel and you have to pick one and hope you're on the right wheel. The pack stayed together despite some attacks until the 3rd lap when HPC put the pressure on sending off attack after attack. They finally got a girl away and kept the pace high thru the dirt section followed by a little, steep hill that was just enough to cause a couple of riders to fall off. I dug hard and stayed with the chase group. There were 10 of us left.

We tried to get something going to pull the HPC girl back in, but with HPC having 3 teammates in the group it was difficult. Still, the pace didn't slow down and it was getting hot. I hadn't ridden in 80+ temperatures yet this year so that was another challenge. Fourth lap I started to get some spasms in my quads but it wasn't a full-on muscle cramp so I could kinda ignore them. Fifth lap I really could've used a feed but made do with what I had and tried to prepare mentally for the field sprint. I knew I didn't have a lot left in the legs but held on for 9th place. Of course I would've like to have placed better but considering my competition, I was happy just to have stayed with the main group. It was definitely one of those days that makes you stronger.

Lynda Maldonado