Arcadia Grit and Gravel

Arcadia Grit and Gravel is my favorite race of the year. It's part gravel and part single track. The course starts on the road and continues on gravel for 11 miles. The race goes off in a few waves beginning with the Elite Men and Elite Women starting off together. My strategy for this race was to hold on to the lead pack of Elite men for all of the gravel.
We took off and it was easy to hang in the draft with the guys. At about mile three there is a pretty big climb. I was killing myself trying to hang with them on the climb and I fell off the back. One girl had made it with them. I got to the top of the hill and it was me, another female rider, and the lead female and Elite men pulling away from us quickly. I had to make a split second decision to either ride with her or chase the pack of Elite men. I went with the chase...I tried to get as aero as possible, stared at the ground and pedaled as hard as I ever have in my life. I looked up, and holy crap I was gaining on them!! Head down I kept pushing, looked up, I was almost there! I did catch them! As soon as I was in their draft it was a piece of cake to hang on. The other girls did not make the breakaway. I flew along the gravel with them sometimes barely pedaling except for around the corners where I had to hammer it to stay on. Once we got to the end of the gravel section there is a climb that goes for miles. I lost them here.
The single track starts right after this climb. It took me a few minutes to get comfortable on the single track. I settled in and tried to just keep pushing. I've done this race many times and with 100's of racers there is almost always someone to ride with. However, this year I was completely alone. Dropped by the Elite men and minutes ahead of anyone else. I found myself accidentally lollygagging along a few times. I also clipped a pedal on a rock and did a quick super man over the bars...I was back up pretty quick. The trail popped out on more gravel and this is where being alone really sucked. Against the wind just grinding along. Looking at my Strava later, I saw that the lead female rider did this section almost 2 minutes faster than me. Ugh, I so wish I could have made that long climb with the leader and the guys...it would have changed my race having "a wheel" the whole way. Goals for next year...
About 15 minutes from the end of the race the lead expert guys caught me. I followed them and rode their wheels to the finish for second place!
I love this race!  It's so much fun.  I plan to keep this one on my race agenda every year!