KSR Day 3: Buffalo Chicken

Audrey Scott Race Report, Killington Stage Race Day 3, Road Race, 62 miles, place: 23rd 14:29 behind winner; final G.C.: 22nd @ 15:06
The day started pretty grey and stormy looking. I put sunscreen on my face and arms but not my legs. It didn't appear to matter because the sun came out soon after we started and after 3:15 of racing all my extremities were the color of buffalo chicken, sunscreen or not.
This course is tough, but if you've recovered well it shouldn't be that bad. Unfortunately, I think I went into this race a little tired, and only went down from there. I was feeling ok up the early gradual climb on route 100, and as we made the right turn onto miles of downhill with some bad pavement areas I was at the back to be able to see what was going on with the road better. This is, of course a bad place to be in the event of attacks or climbs, and not the best way to conserve energy, but If i cant be at the very front because of being tired or it is entirely taken up by a huge team, I revert to the back of the back. At one point I remember asking the woman next to me if Canadians drive on the wrong side of the road because a bunch of Juvederm jerseys were way over the yellow line. Although I didn't see the cause, apparently their darting back and forth resulted in a crash farther back in the field. I immediately went to the left when I heard the yells and cracks of carbon fiber, and luckily AnnMarie Miller announced that she was going down as she slowly tipped over to the left when she couldn't get a foot down. I swerved around her, and either her head or shoulder hit my rear derailleur, but I managed to avoid the woman who was already laying on the road further to my left and keep going. Derailleur looked bent, but was working ok, so I sprinted back up to the now diminished pack as, of course, Juvederm took advantage of the crash and ramped it up at the front.
More rolling road and bad pavement, and we made the sharp right onto the start of the K/QOM climb, which pitches and rolls for what seems like forever. I didn't feel to bad going in and the initial steep sections, but as it ground on, the fight went up the road without me. A clump of us came together as we went through the K/QOM line ( finally) including Jenny and Amy from Farm Team who I will be racing with as a guest rider in Philly this weekend. With us were 3 Juvederm riders and a few others. As we came through the feed zone, I shook my head to Rob that I didn't need a bottle, and as their team director told them not to chase, I went to the front, with the Juvederm girls all lined up behind, to try and catch the group ahead of us I could still barely see. I saw them twice more, and worked as hard as I could, but of course there was no help from them, and no one else was capable or cared, so we fell back. As we made the right onto the dirt road that goes back down to route 4, I went to the back again and resigned myself to my fate. with Juvederm up front, we were going about 13 mph, and of course our group swelled as people caught on. We got to route 100 again, and made the left onto East Mountain Road for the final, steep and long climb to the finish, and I just concentrated on turning the pedals over and getting this over with.
Turns out a Juvederm woman won the stage by quite a bit, and she would have taken over on G.C.
However, at the end of the day, the officials disqualified 8 of the 9 members of their team for "repeated, flagrant and dangerous violations of the yellow line rule." While I am glad they got was coming to them, I wish the officials had pulled them over when it happened, so they wouldn't have been a factor and been able to do all the blocking they did in our group on the road.
But whatever.
I had a fun ride yesterday with Michelle and Carolynn,trying to get out the lactic acid soreness from my legs. Now I need to really concentrate on recovering well for Sunday, the Liberty Classic, where Colavita (with the World Champion) and Tibco and HTC and yes, Juvederm and many other world class and fast and aggressive teams will be vying for the prize money and bragging rights.
Thanks for reading,
-a