Cat 4 Women’s Race Report as told from the voice/eyes/legs of Cassie Dickerson:
As a first time contender of the Eucha Road Race, I gotta say that was easily one of the hardest races I’ve ever competed in. Throw in some climbing, followed by more climbing, and just when you think the climbing is finished… you get to climb more! Despite the wind, there really wasn’t much to complain about in regards to the weather; it even got a little.. dare I say… hot, out there! After learning from a few mistakes the last couple of races the cat 4 ISO girls lined up in the front of the pack, along side fierce competitors, Becky Lowe and Elise Donovan. At the blow of the whistle we headed out, wind just pushing us along. The same few women stayed up near the front as the pace picked up and we ripped through the little circuit loop, bringing the group of 19 down to 10 about. We rolled our way back and began pedaling hard into the wind. Ouch. The pace slowed up quite a bit up some of the steeper climbs, but to no avail Teresa, Margaux, Lori and Becky put the hammer down on some strong attacks up the hills, causing some of us (me haha) to barely dangle off the back. Becky was doing a great job of pestering all the girls in our group (now down to 9) to do some work in the front.
At one point I remember seeing about 6 medium sized dogs all lined up along the left side of the road. That was weird. Did I imagine it? Who knows…. so we eventually take some right turn that leads us up a punchy climb, and once again the same ladies put some serious hurt on. Ouch. I got dropped again but thanks to the pace slowing way up myself and Sally of the ponies caught back on. Somewhere up yet another hill Becky attacked and the group blew up. Lori managed to hang in as long as she could and snagged a solid 3rd place finish. Margaux and Emily from OKC were working together and I bridged to them and tried to help give Margaux some relief so she wasn’t stuck doing all the work on the last 3k. She finished 6th (yay upgrade point!!!) I rolled in 7th, Teresa had a wicked awesome looking sprint photo snagging 9th (heck yeah being in the drops and standing!!!) And Lisa had a strong 10th place finish, passing a lady who dropped off the main group even. Super proud of Lisa for embracing the climbs and pushing herself to ride hard even through the windy sufferfest that was . Cheers to climbing, tongues out, hands up, smiles, water shots, chipmunk faces, bloody noses, getting lost, wrong turns, wind, more climbing and general badassery!!! We couldn’t do any of it with out all of the love and support we receive from each other and our amazing sponsors: Isocentric Networks, City Cycles, Chinowth and Cohen, Flintco, Burnco, Psimet, RossoFango, Dr. William Paiva
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