I woke up feeling like a zombie on Sunday morning. After arriving/setting up, I downed a couple of cups of coffee and got dressed/warmed up. I really like to ride a lap or two of a crit course before the race starts, but that wasn’t an option here. Since the P/1/2 field was combined with the 3 field, everyone was lined up on the sidelines as the preceeding race was finishing in order to get to the prime real estate that was the start line. I’m normally pretty good at this, but today it didn’t happen, and I ended up somewhere in the middle. From the whistle, the accelerator was DOWN.

The first few laps were hell- Ashley and Shannon managed to keep up in the front (Ashley moves like a jackrabbit through a pack!) while the rest of us got strung out down the course as riders in front of us cracked and got gapped. After what seemed like forever, we all managed to catch on. At some point, a rider from another team got away from the pack. Ashley attacked for a lap, but it didn’t stay. Next lap, Shannon attacked (all the while, I’m absolutely dying while trying to move up and feeling like Private “Gomer Pyle” from Full Metal Jacket). This time, Shannon got away, and made the bridge to the other rider off the front!

The other 4 of us got to the front of the pack and made the pace just hard enough to discourage anyone else from trying to bridge. Once I finally made it to the front (thank everything holy/unholy), I went for 3 or 4 laps before finally succumbing to to an attack on the start/finish hill, and hanging on to the back of the pack like a booger for the last 5 laps. It was a heroic effort on everyone’s part, and halfway through the final lap, we heard Nathan on the radio yelling, “HANDS UP, SHANNON, HANDS UP!” I was cheering and celebrating in my head as we rode the last few corners to the finish! Everyone sprinted up the last hill, but I’d been prettymuch redlined for the entire race, so I didn’t really have anything left other than holding my speed out of the corner and up to the finish line.
I actually never even looked to see how I finished- maybe somewhere in the top 30? I’m not too worried about it- I am so happy to end the weekend with a win for the team!

Hopefully some photos will start popping up on the internet soon… I’ll post/link to the as I find them!

Before I get to the race report, I figured I’d post a few photos I took pre-race. Even before joining the team, I’ve got to admit that I’ve always been impressed with the Metro Volkswagen setup:

So Casey and I, being the lowest in the GC standings for the team, were given the job of causing some havoc in the first two of three and a half laps (57 miles) in today’s road race. I’d say we did a pretty good job. On the first stretch of crosswind section, we took over the front as a team and guttered the rest of the pack on the yellow line. From there, Casey and I traded attacks. There was one climb on an otherwise flat course, and, though I made it up fine the first time. The next time through the crosswind section, I attacked three times, finally getting away the third time. Casey bridged to me and we traded pulls trying to make it work.

Soon after, we hit the climb. I tried in vain to pull her part way up the climb for a KOM bonus, but I blew up early and went backwards through the pack, and was forced to chase. I made it back on, and managed to work with my teammates once I got there, but each time we hit the climb, I cracked about 1/4 of the way up. Unfortunately, the way the course was set up, the finish line was just close enough to the climb that I was totally useless to my team as a leadout. I’ve got a lot of training to do if I am going to help us get podium spots.

Shannon ended up in 7th, and we all moved up in the GC at least one spot since the woman who was in the leader jersey climbed about as well as I did. All I know is that I am totally exhausted now and hoping that I can do better in tomorrow’s criterium.

Here are a few random photos from before the race started:

It was 22k, and I otherwise don’t want to talk about it.

My teammates did well, though. Whitney is 12th in the GC right now!

This weekend I’m in Phoenix, AZ for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race- debut race for me with MetroVW. I got in yesterday(Thursday) around 10:30, and, after a shuttle trip from the airport, arrived at the hotel just in time to inhale a PB sandwich and change into my riding clothes to head out for some leg-opening. I got to ride my new team bike for the first time as well. The BH frame rocks- it’s a lot stiffer than the Blue Rc7. Something else that’s new is that it’s built with Campagnolo components, which, of course, work fine, though I still have a special place in my heart for the Red group on my other bike.

Anyway- the ride was nice. Once we got back and had some lunch, I hunted down a tape measure so I could make some fit adjustments on my new bike. I also needed to swap the 110mm stem out to a 100mm… though since we’ve got Andrew Gonzales here as team mechanic, I sat back & held faceplate bolts while he did most of the work. I think I’ve got it just about perfect, but I won’t really be able to tell until I ride around on it a little longer this afternoon for the time trial.

I just had some breakfast- a couple of packs of Kashi hot cereal with whey protein and some yogurt w/a spoonful of peanut butter mixed into it. It would have been much more enjoyable if there wasn’t a herd of peewee hockey kids running through the lobby yelling about coffee and waffles while the parents ignored them and made life difficult for the breakfast-bar waitress by switching tables and letting their spawn run through the “employees only” section of the dining area. Then they let their kids monopolize the lobby computers to gawk noisily over god-only-knows-what on ebay. WTF?? Are you kidding me? Other people are hanging around the computer waiting and you’re watching your group of 5 or 6 kids eff around and look at EBAY?!? WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS OK?!?!

I digress.

It’s time to race. I like that we’re starting out with a time trial, because it’s somewhat lower-pressure than a road race, and will give me a chance to scope out how I compare to the competition. As always… updates will follow.

I told you I drug it up the 56% hill…

While Ryan and I were in Chattanooga, there was some weekend CX racing going on independently of our N.Georgia adventure.

Some may call me crazy, but I wanted to race! So we got up Sunday morning and drove to Camp Jordan park for Cross-a-nooga #2. Ryan’s legs were shot and he ended up finishing just out of the money. I, however, felt pretty good! It also helped that Cleve Blackwell from Blue let me ride one of the demo Cx6.5 bikes (SRAM Rival equipped).
Of course, I felt very much at home riding the SRAM/Blue combo… I was eager to give the ’09 Rival group a try since I’d heard great reviews about it. If you’re looking to build a bike and want components that won’t make you poor OR leave you wishing for something better, then the Rival parts get my vote. I think that the only thing that SRAM is missing now is a good set of CX brakes. The Cx6.5 is a pretty sweet frame, too!

So, I was set to race. There were six of us, and within half a lap, we’d settled into the order in which we’d eventually finish. I was 3rd behind Kym from Vantaggio (who is quickly becoming the “Debbie Milne” of TBRA Cyclocross) and Deb Whitmore from BMW Bianchi. I don’t think that my legs were a limiting factor as much was my inability to quickly negotiate 180 degree downhill turns. Seriously… there were 3 of them on course, and I never made it through any of them with any speed! Lately (actually never), my focus hasn’t been the CX bike, so I wasn’t expecting to pull off anything spectacular. It was still a nice 50 minutes of riding near my limits, through which I suffered gladly.

Ryan took a lot of photos of the B and C races (I got a few of the A race as well), and posted the link in his race report. Here are a few of my favorties:

It’s really weird how sometimes 2nd place can feel like losing and 3rd place can feel like winning. That wraps up another edition of “As the Gears Turn”

It was a race of triumph and tragedy…

Ryan and I arrived at Mulberry Gap a little after 8:00 Saturday morning. First off, Mulberry Gap is a really sweet little mountain bike getaway place. They’ve got cabins, hot tubs, showers, and access to a lot of trails. If I actually HAD a mountain bike, I’d be going back to visit more often! However, I digress…

I almost forgot to mention… the temps were in the 40’s and there was a steady rain falling. Luckily, by the time the race started, it was around 50 and cloudy. The race itself started and finished something like a “normal” CX race, with a 1/2 mile or so loop around the Mulberry gap property (included were things like a creek crossing, a couple of run-ups, and a really tall barrier). Following the CX loop was the meat of the race- the 38 mile forest road loop that, after 12 miles of gravel/paved/decent/small rollers would pitch up to just over 3000 ft of elevation over the span of 12 miles.

As soon as I got the initial CX loop out of the way, I implemented the strategy that I’d devised pre-race: KILL IT!!!!
Let’s face it- I’m not exactly Kristen Armstrong when it comes to climbing (the 23 pound bike doesn’t help, either). So my plan was to nail the initial decent and flat portions of the race and make the other (3) women chase me to the climb. This worked fabulously. After dropping the hammer on the initial decent, I ended up getting a draft through the headwind up to the climb (the others were not so lucky).

For the first 7 miles of climbing, I continued to feel very strong. The grades were long, and (as I estimate) ranged anywhere from 3-7%. This initial portion of climb was a bit of a stair-step (good for me!), with a steep-ish grade followed by a flat-ish portion of road. However, once I passed the course “sag” stop, it started to get ugly… the grades were steeper- somewhere in the 10% range (some sections getting closer to 15%), and the longer reprieves of the initial climb gave way to ~10yard “teaser” flat spots that were just long enough to coast for a couple of seconds before the next onslaught of hill was in your face.

I’m not ashamed to say that I walked twice. Even with 39×27 as my lowest gear, the added resistance of the mud (which was a little bit like wet peanut butter), was too much for my legs to take in a couple of spots. I wasn’t the only one… as I slogged on foot, I was looking down at the ground and noticed muddy imprints left by the shoes of those that had passed through ahead of me. The last few miles, fog encased the woods and road so that the road ahead was not visible. During the last few miles, the mud was mixed with snow and slush, making the steepest section of course also the sloppiest. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that conditions bordered on epic…

Finally, somewhere near the top, the sun broke through, and I heard the voice of a course marshal telling me to turn right and have a nice trip back down. The decent was about 7 miles, and, though I was exhausted (both physically and mentally), I shook the proverbial cobwebs out and concentrated on descending as quickly as possible through the rocks and muck. Following the decent, the course rolled back to Mulberry Gap. When I finally got there, a course marshal directed me to turn left and go up the hill…
A wet, leaf and mud covered hill that, according to Ryan’s Garmin 705, was 175 feet at a 56% grade. After pausing to curse, I started trying to push my bike up the wall. At times, I was using trees to hoist myself up a step or two. There was a woman taking photos about 1/2way up who yelled at me that some people were dragging their bikes… excellent idea! I let the bike tip, grabbed it by the front wheel, and drug it up like the dead animal that it was while cursing the steel frame with some pretty “creative” language. At the top, the hill continued up another 65 feet of elevation gain at 16% (400 more feet of rolling my bike before reaching the top). I thought that the worst was over.
From the top, the course went screaming downhill and onto the pavement, passing the finish line, and re-entering the CX loop that we’d followed at the start of the race. My legs were on the brink of collapse, so I was having a difficult time negotiating the barrier, the remount, and the first (realllly long) runup.
It was there that the stuff of nightmares occured… Carey Lowery, who I found out later was a locally well-known MTB endurance racer, caught me. She ran by me about 3/4 of the way up, and I started after her. We were close when we both re-mounted at the top, and jockeyed for position going down a steep hill to a narrow bridge. She got the inside turn and was just ahead of me on the bridge. Coming off, I attacked up the steep pitch of gravel hill that followed. This launched me ahead of her, and the course swept back down a steep hill and made a sharp right, which I took at “make it or break it” speed, praying that the finish line was around the corner.

I’d forgotten something.
There was one more run-up between me and the finish line.

I bobbled the turn into the run-up and stalled out, making for an awkward and slow dismount. Carey jumped on the opportunity and dashed past me. Her remount at the top was flawless. I cursed and fumbled my way up the hill and over the log at the top. As I rounded the short corner, she was crossing the line. I crossed a few second later, covered in mud and immersed in defeat.

I think this sums it up:

After I banged my head on a dirt wall near the finish line a few times, I had some vegetarian chili, an oatmeal cookie, and a hot shower. Once Ryan and I were warm, clean, and fed, we hung out for a while talking and laughing with some of the other racers & volunteers. He ended up in 12th place for the men (I was 16th overall out of around 50 racers- mostly men). I have to say, though I’ve never had a problem with “roadie” people, I loved the MTB people that I met while I was there. I even got a good cookie recipe or two…

I found a couple of photos- taken by Namrita O’Dea of 55nine performance…