Why do Krystal, Molly, and I look pissed off? No idea. If you’re quick-witted & whatnot, comment with a caption for this photo.

AKA- You mean to tell me I’m good at climbing?

It was off to McMinnville, TN this weekend for the Highland Rim Omnium.

RR
It was a tough one. About 15 miles into the 55 mile race, there was a ~3 mile long climb. The first 15 miles sucked because noone wanted to take a decent pull, so we ended up slinky-ing all the way up to base of the climb. Once we hit the climb, Debbie Milne (of course) got away from most of the pack, which was stringing out along the grade. One rider, a tiny Trek 19 rider named Flavia, stayed on her wheel until the last pitch, when Debbie looked over her shoulder and took off as if she were leaving flat ground. I passed a lot of people going up the hill and ended up in a chase group of 5. We immediately organized a rotating paceline and took off. It was to no avail, though. After chasing hard for most of the course, we descended back off of the plateau and headed towards the finish line to sprint for 2nd place. Luckily, I’d tried to help Kirsten Sass at GC Chattanooga, so when it came time for the sprint, she gave me an exceptional leadout, and I was able to pull off a (2nd place) win.

TT
The TT started on the base of the decent we’d navigated earlier in the day at the end of the RR. Notice I say ON the base. Not AT, not JUST BEFORE, but ON the actual climb itself. No fun! It was 2.3 miles of 7-8% grade. Much to my surprise, for the first mile, I actually felt pretty good. I was keeping my speed around 10-12 mph (my usual sustained-climb speeds are around 7-8mph). The next mile was tough. I tried my best to stay over 9mph, but saw 8 and 8.5 more than a couple of times. When I hit 2 miles, I emptied what was left in the tank. I shifted off of the 26, stood up, and gave it what for until the course leveled off near the finish, when I continued to accelerate. I ended up with a time of 14 minutes flat. It was good enough for 2nd place behind Flavia, who finished 13:49. It was also good enough to finish ahead of all of my former (male) teammates from Memphis Velo :)

Ok, so I can climb? Sheesh, I never knew!

Crit
Let’s just say the crit was no fun. I got to the course early and rode for a while. Partially because I wanted to stretch my legs, but also because it was a pretty technical course. To make matters worse, the wind was blowing between 15-20mph. I felt OK until the officials announced that our race would be re-scheduled for an hour later so that the women’s fields could be combined. This gave the wind time to pick up even more as the day grew warmer. By the time we started the race, it was sustained over ~20mph, but with added gusts to around 30mph. It was enough to blow straw bales, barrels, and port-o-potties over.
I was slightly unnerved before the race when I hit a gust of wind in a turn that nearly knocked me over. I ended up having issues with that turn several times during the race as I tried to take it as fast as possible while avoiding other riders that were being thrown around. There was also a turn on course that followed a long, downhill, tailwind stretch. The turn on its own would have been tricky, but throw in a gust of crosswind as you exit, and you get two wrecks (one wreck was actually the result of a pedal strike, but still…) Later in the race, Jamie, at MTB gal from Vantaggio (who is turning out to be a great roadie), got off of the front. In a repeat of the GC Chatt crit, I was unable to stay on her wheel (hmm… maybe her ponytail generates headwind…) Debbie Milne, however, made the jump, and the two left a small group of us to chase. During the chase, someone rubbed my rear wheel as I tried to power up through the disorganized pack on the start/finish stretch. I’m not sure who all was in the wreck, but I know I didn’t see Kirsten Sass on the finishers’ list :(
It was down to a group of 3 of us (me, Flavia, and Lauren- Debbie’s teammate) with only a couple of laps to go. On the last lap, Lauren rode around Flavia and I with the intention of helping me out (she already had the cat 4 1st place finish in the bag, so she didn’t mind getting in the wind). As I went for her wheel, Flavia rode up next to me & put a handlebar in my thigh. Intentional or not, it worked, and I backed off. In my surprise/nerves, I managed to NOT get on her wheel, and started to fall back from the couple. I finished just behind them in a “stunning” 17 mph sprint into what I think was the hardest gust of headwind that hit the course during the 25 minute race. Though I was a bit disappointed with 4th place, my finish kept me in 1st place for the omnium points, which made things a bit better.

I was glad just to make it through. I hope all of the people involved in my rear-wheel pileup are OK. Especially if Kirsten was involved… I hope it didn’t remove any more of her freckles like the wreck we were in last year did.

Next stop, more climbing @ Tour of Arkansas!

Photos for the crits can be found (as usual) at Ryan’s blog

Here’s one of my favorites from after the crit:

I came across some extra MSGP photos on the internets. Here are a few (mixed in with some that Ryan took):

Hopefully, first of many :)

The Sunny King crit on Saturday didn’t go so well. After a rushed warmup…

I lined up with the likes of Tina Pic and Laura Van Gilder (as well as a host of other very talented, very experienced teams).

The start was hectic. I was in the middle of the pack, and the girl in the front/right of me couldn’t get clipped in, and I ended up shoving her out of the way with my elbow. This got me stuck on the back of the pack from the beginning.

From there, it didn’t get much better. In the back, I kept getting behind women that were falling off and letting gaps form. To make matters worse, there were big primes given out on the first few laps, so the field would surge up the slight hill to the finish line on every lap. After about 20 minutes, I ended up not being able to move up further into the pack and, by that time, was not able to cover the next gap that opened up in front of me.

SO, I got pulled. Probably not the first time that someone’s been pulled in their first NRC crit, but very disappointing, nonetheless. I felt like I’d let my team and team manager down.

For more photos of the women’s pro 1/2 race and the men’s 2/3 race, check out Ryan’s Blog

Thankfully, Sunday was better. The Roswell course was a bit more technical. I got a much better start, and I was actually able to move up in the field and hold better position for a about half the race. After the slower riders were pulled, I actually dropped to the back and stayed there for the remainder of the race , ending up 41st place. Sorry, no photos of Roswell yet, but hopefully I can post some of the ones that the team manager took.

I need a lot more practice, and I need to just be more fit in general so that moving up isn’t quite as physically taxing, and I’m able to hold my position more aggressively once I’m up. I plan to ride in a few local men’s cat 3 races to try and be more accustomed to the length/intensity of the NRC races.

For Sunny King. Looks like the weather will generally suck until later in the afternoon- the weather channel is predicting thunderstorms for the earlier part of the day. Hopefully the streets will be dry by the time my race rolls around. I need to go wash my bike now.

Look over to the right (only if you’re reading this on my main page)… I finally linked to a race schedule. Now all the internet stalkers will know where to find me!

So, barely over a year ago, I competed in my first criterium race (and that’s only if you consider the last stage of the MS Gran Prix to be a crit and not a circuit). Otherwise, the Joe Martin 3/4 crit of 2007 was my first. However you slice it, though, I’m one week and a day away from my first NRC crit. I’ll be racing against some of the women I’ve looked up to and followed since I started racing. I’m both excited and a little nervous at the same time.

I’ve said in the past that I’m just hoping to go and hang on and whatnot, but, honestly, I was lying. I am going to compete. I want to be in the mix. I want to attack off the front & have Tina Pic wondering who the heck I am :) Even if I end up out of the money, I want the other racers to remember me (in a good way). Wish me luck!

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.

Brick House for life!