Dianna Henry

Saturday the 4th saw me racing crit race number 2 of my illustrious career! The previous week had been rained out so I was chomping at the bit for another go. This time I managed to convince Krissy Kedwell to join me - so we had 4 women in C grade! There were no women in D grade and only a handful in A and B Grades so they decided to start us together. This led to a very different experience as compared with my first race. Immediately, the pace was a lot quicker and a lot more hussling. The previous week, we had arranged ourselves nicely in a line and quietly rotated through - each having a go at the front for half a lap or so at quite a maintainable pace. Well this race really showed me how unfit I was. After riding out to the course in the blustery weather I was really not ready to start sprinting so early on. I was dropped after a few laps but another lady helped me get back to the group. After a few more laps 3 of us C graders dropped back together - thank god!! Krissy managed to hang on to the faster girls. The 3 of us pretty much worked together in attempt to reduce the effects of the strong, bitterly cold gusts that hit us at every turn. One of the younger girls kept breaking away and so we repeatedly had to chase her down - man was I stuffed!! I was fairly happy when the commissaire held up the card with the big "3" on it. This time I just stayed with the other two and didn't attempt the heroics of the previous race! Coming around the final bend I put my head down and went for it. I had quite a good little sprint and held off the other 2. To spectators it may have looked like I have won but Krissy had finished well before me. Congrats to Krissy for a) having the guts to have a go, b) keeping up with the faster grades and c) winning C-grade in her first race! I understand that Krissy had quite a different first race experience to mine and it made me a little angry when she told me about the behaviour of some of the girls she was racing with. C'mon girls - aren't we all trying to get more women racing? It is possible to be competitive with out being nasty.

So in other news... Krissy, Pip and I have been on a few rides toether now. I must say, it is rather exciting for me! It's taken us a couple of rides to get our communication worked out but we were pretty good on our last ride. I just hope it doesn't rain too much over the next few weeks so that we can get some consistency happening.