The following account is from Trang:
“19 women preregistered but only 16 were at the start.
For today’s race my personal goal wasn’t placement but it was to learn how to attack. I attempted 3 attacks and they were all successful.
The race was a 40mi race: 7 miles out, turn around to the start then 13 miles out and 13 miles back to the finish.
My first attack was up a small hill on the 13miles out. I left the pack and rode solo for roughly 5 minutes. Then the official on the motorbike rode up to me saying the chase group is now 25 seconds behind you. That was disheartening. I haven’t seen the pack for a very long time and when the official notified me, I turned back to check and sure enough I see the peloton in the distance I sat up and rode zone 2. Stayed with the pack and attempted 2 more attacks on the way back just to see how far I could go and I managed to jump pretty far but I knew riding in the headwind wasn’t ideal so I just rode with the pack again conserving my legs for the hill finish.
At the last hill to the finish, I was first, then 2nd, then dropped to 3rd and then became 4th. I just didn’t have anymore legs. I wish that I could had sprinted that last hill. It’s upsetting.
All-in-all, I now know how to attack and make it stick. I can now apply this to crits and when I’m racing track. I also know how far I can hold a steady to time my attacks in future races.
I will now have to work on steady power output to help with the solo breakaway. This I will do at track practices.”