Holy crap. That’s all I have to say.

Just kidding…Â This is going in the books as one of my best races ever. It’s crazy to think that in April of 2007, this was only the second real race I’d ever been to (first stage race, second TT, and first criterium). Some of the same powerhouse women were there, along with several new faces. Also, this year I had a teammate with me (Lee Farabaugh). The rundown:

Road RaceÂ
The women’s field was larger this year (26 starters). By the end of the first of two laps (53 miles total), a collection of painful attacks from Debbie Milne of Probike (AKA “Tupelo Debbie”) had whittled the field down to seven riders. During the second lap, I tried several times to get away, only to be reeled back in. Lee and I discussed a little strategy and decided that she’d lead me out as far up the finishing climb as she could. She did a SUPERB job, and I ended up pulling off a 3rd place finish behind Debbie and Shannon Koch of Metro Volkswagon. This put the three of us within seconds of each other in the overall standings.

Time Trial
The TT course was 4 barely rolling miles with a tiny bit of a tail wind. I borrowed Ryan’s disk wheel so that I could try to squeeze every last second out of my self and my bike. Even though I felt like I was riding through molasses for the first mile or so, I managed to turn a 9:00 flat. Shannon (former U.S. U23 TT champ) pulled off an 8:37, and Debbie finished in 9:05. Once the GC times were computed, Shannon had a 25 second lead on me while Debbie was behind me by one second. The next finishers were 50+ seconds behind- setting us up for a knock-down, drag-out, take-the-gloves-off crit the next day.

Criterium
Ok, so it was billed as a circuit race, but the course was a loop that was just under 2 miles, and rode like a crit course, so I call it a crit! Our race was 40 minutes long. When we lined up, one of the race volunteers approached the start line in front of us with an Orbea Frame over his shoulder, and announced that it would be awarded to the first person over the line on the first lap! Needless to say, when the whistle blew, we took off “like spotted apes” (according to a bystander’s recount of our race). Since most of us in contention had frame sponsors, during the first part of the lap, we all decided who we’d give the frame to if we won it. I had watched one of the juniors struggling earlier in the day with an old steel, downtube shifter bike, and I had him in mind. However, Shannon ended up getting to the line first (she wanted the bike for her sister, who wanted to ride, but didn’t have one).
From there, the race never slowed down. Literally. We never let off of that pace. One of us was almost always attacking or up front pushing the pace. Using a sudden, all-out attack, I managed to edge Debbie out for a time bonus midway through the race. At one point, Shannon was off the front by about 5-10 seconds (dangerous when you’re dealing with such an awesome TT-er). Debbie and I were trying to get away from her as well as get away from each other. When the bell lap came, Debbie’s teammate Lauren, took a flyer about 1/4 of the way into the lap. Since she was a good distance back in the GC following the TT, noone made an immediate move to chase her down. However, one of the women from the Jeep team came to the front & tried to bridge. Shannon, Debbie, and I took her wheel. Going into the final chicane to the finish, Shannon went first and managed to get a few bike lengths ahead. Debbie somehow got boxed in, and I think possibly unclipped a pedal, and I was able to pull off another 3rd place behind Lauren and Shannon.

Between the intermediate time bonus and the 3rd place finish bonus, I was able to hold Debbie off in the GC and get 2nd behind Shannon. Lee was still feeling a bit off from being sick in the past few weeks and finished a little behind our group. She buried herself trying to get up & help me out, though. I am looking forward to returning the favor for her at some races that are more her flavor (a la Chattanooga- River Gorge).

As a side note, I have to say, in the past year, Debbie Milne has been more of an inspiration to me than anyone else I’ve raced against. She has made me race harder and faster than I ever would have thought I was capable of racing. And, though it was frustrating to have her drop me during a healthy portion of my 2007 races, it motivated me to get on my bike and push through a lot of cold, miserable training rides over the winter. Whether you ever read this or not, Thank you, Debbie.