Yes, that hill hit us like a brick wall about 5 miles into the race...I was seriously in the pain cave trying to keep up as all 100 lb of Anona attacked. A group of 5 pulled away near the top, and I had to chase hard with a few other ladies to catch them. There were a couple other short, steep hills right after the long one, then a descent. I knew we'd be much better off in a larger group with the wind coming up. I remember at one point looking at my computer and thinking "oh crap- we've only gone 8 miles and feel like I'm ready to be DONE!!". Anyway, we caught them, became a group of 10, and pacelined at a pretty good pace the rest of the way. There were a couple sections of really strong wind...and a lovely, rolling, sunny section where the sun was heating up the pine needles and it smelled wonderful.
Then a FUN descent. Brubaker decided to attack at this point. I've never chased downhill at 40+ mph, but darn that was fun!
The long, gradual ascent to the finish wasn't too steep, but folks were attacking, jockeying for position, and generally being kind of annoying. A few sketchy moments, a near crash, bad cross/head wind, more attacks. I was trying to stay on the wheels of the strongest sprinters (there were several in that bunch). I had hoped to feel better at this point in the race, but just plain didn't. They jumped with about 1/4 mi to go and there was a little mess as one rider didn't go too hard and we had to swerve to get around her. I lost my wheel at that point, was cursing, but I stayed upright, grabbed another wheel, and passed that gal before the line to finish 6th. Not bad, but I had hoped for a better sprint..still working on that :)
Sprint for the finish (courtesy of Oregon Cycling Action).
Awesome to have Lindsay at the finish, and we cheered on the A's (Amanda, Anna, and Alice), as they came through. Alice and I rolled around for a while to cool down, then Alice's Bill (and Lucy), and Sara Fletcher joined us for fun times in White Salmon drinking, eating, and making snide remarks about our bitchy and rather
unpleasant waitress.
All in all, a great day!
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