Friday Night Lights
By: Hanna Coppens
Who doesn't love a twilight race? Nothing beats the adrenaline and the focus that comes with the sun going down and the street lamps coming on, and some fast racing!
The Friday night twilight race at Fat & Skinny is relatively new, but a personal favorite from getting to stand on the top step in 2023. We all knew that we were heading into the weekend to build fitness, learn from riding with one another in our group all together, and we were all so excited to get to spend time as a team! There is always a little bit of first bigger race nerves on my end, but being around everyone talking and laughing and reminding ourselves that the hard work has been done- this is the fun part- makes all the difference. With this year being my 7th Fat & Skinny Tire Fest, I was super excited for the whole weekend and love coming to Winona Lake and appreciate the immense support of cycling from the community.
From the whistle, it was flat out. Since this race was only 30 minutes in a 45 woman field, I knew we would not be getting a moment of rest in that time- but we had all worked hard and I knew we could hang tough. Sometimes I get myself so into a flow state of focus on being present during a race, that when it's over I don't remember much of what happened! I do remember always moving to be around my teammates, covering attacks from the Fount team that came to make the race quick, and the next thing I knew it was 6 laps to go. I had watched and been a part of all my teammates rotating chasing and attacks to try to bring the field back to the breakaway, but we knew it was sticking at that point. I covered a hard attack with 3 to go to bring a solo rider back to the group, and from there I knew it was going to be up to my teammates to get a good spot for the final bunch sprint. I finished as hard as I could with the chase group, and the rest of the girls also finished in the bunch with Claire placing the highest.
We were all very happy to be safe after a few close calls, and to put what we had learned from that day into practice for the next 2 days of racing! It's not often that you get to test yourself against some of the best riders, and we were so excited for the opportunity to showcase our hard work and kick off the momentum for the rest of the season.
