A.K.A how to lose two races in the last 400 meters.

Saturday Criterium
Ok, so maybe my 7th place finish wasn’t all my fault in this one…
The lineup for this race was tough- Debbie Milne and a new Probike teammate who is really strong, Rebacca Larson from Aaron’s Pro Cycling, Leigh Valetti from Vanderkitten, Gina and Paula from Vantaggio, and a host of Medplan and Boo Koo riders. There was also a nice sized hill on the course, which, in the first lap and almost all subsequent laps, was attacked by Debbie Milne.

Her attacks got her off the front with her teammate, Leigh, and Rebecca- all of whom would eventually drop off and re-join the chasing pack that I was in. This was frustrating, because I wasn’t getting much help with the chase. Aside from Gina and a couple of others, whoever was up front would typically slow our pace (I wondered a couple of times if they’d made a deal with Debbie to hold the field back). Nonetheless, those of us that were burying ourselves to tow the rest of the field were closing the gap.
We finally got the sign that there were 3 laps to go. We were closing in on Debbie, and it looked like we could catch her. However, during our 2nd to last lap, a lone (cat 3) junior (who had started a minute back) lapped us and Debbie. The rules set by the official say that you finish on the same lap as the leader, SO, that meant that we were to finish on what had previously been our next to last lap.
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, Leigh and Rebecca jumped on the wheel of the passing junior. Debbie was trying to stay out of the way of the juniors, as was I. Even though we were allowed to work together during the race, I didn’t see the fun in that, given that we weren’t competing against each other . My tactics were obviously flawed, though, because he pulled the two of them up the hill and up to Debbie on the finishing stretch. The rest of us were close behind, but none of us realized that his passing was to end our race (we were too busy racing to pay much attention to how the juniors’ race was unfolding) . We crossed the finish line thinking that we had another lap- everyone neatly lined out into what would be our 4th place & after finishing order. Because of my place near the end of the line, I ended up 7th. We didn’t know to stop racing until the racers that had finished just ahead of us yelled as we flew past them on the back side of the course.
We were all shocked that we’d been placed in that order. Debbie, whom I have never seen lose her cool, was frustrated with the combined field, and was somewhat unimpressed (as we all were) with a pro’s reliance on junior wheel to get a win. But, it worked, and it was legal, so that makes it perfectly fine, right? Hopefully with large enough women’s fields, we can get away from the combining of women’s fields with others in the near future. Needless to say, I think it made all of us want to race harder the next day.

Sunday Road Race
The road race was 40 miles- four 10 mile laps of a rolling course with a couple of decent hills that made things “interesting.” As expected, Debbie attacked the hills at almost every chance. Through a combination of leg-searing climbing and chasing, a group of about 9 of us managed to stay together. I attacked a couple of times within range of a hill, only to get caught and counter attacked by Rebecca once we were on the hill. Her counters were brutal. She made me hurt, but luckily, her counter attacks ended at the top of the hills and I was able to get back on her wheel.

When it came time to sprint, I was caught off guard when Debbie went for it at the 500m to go sign. Rebecca, Leigh, and Debbie’s teammate were on her wheel when she jumped, so they got a stellar leadout to the finish. In the meantime, in the confusion of such an early jump, I ended up getting boxed out into the opposing lane of traffic (good thing it was open for the finish) and ran over several sets of rumble strips at approximately 30 mph. Even though the remainder of the field was breathing down my neck, I was able to hold them off for 5th place.

I’m a little disappointed with my tactical errors this weekend. My fitness is good (although losing a few pounds would be a good idea to make the hills a bit easier), but I lose it at the end of the races. I’ve got plenty of practicing to do before the NRC crits in May…

Photos of my race as well as some of the men’s races can be found on Ryan’s blog

The final addition to my Ride to Live album…

Here are the photos that Ryan took at the Ride to Live race. They’re sequential and have nice mouseover captions to tell you just where they were taken during teh race…

So after competing as a cat 3 in all of 4 races, I decided I’d apply for an upgrade to be a 2 so that I could race in NRC races. A few minutes ago, I got an email that I’ve been approved!

So, I finish my rookie season as a 4, upgrade over the winter, start my season on March 1st as a 3, and 24 days later, here I am…

Woohoo!

Not much of a race report to give here- The race course at Barber Motorsports Park was AWESOME. I had 1 other teammate (Molly Freeman), and we lined up against 2 other 1/2/3 women from BooKoo Racing (including Elizabeth Fox- probably their strongest rider as well as one of the strongest in the area). Three of the BooKoo cat 4s also lined up with us in order to make the race a little more interesting.

The first lap was pretty uneventful. At the beginning of lap 2, Molly made a couple of attacks that the other team managed to cover. Between the warmup and first two laps of the race, I’d picked out my favorite part of the course- the first three chicanes that led to the long rise of the backstretch. So, at the bottom of the first hill of the course, I made a road-crossing attack up the first hill and around the first right hand turn. One BooKoo rider stayed on my wheel, so I made another cut/attack up the next hill, around the next turn, and through a snaking downhill left/right turn that could get a little tricky if you weren’t paying attention.

The rest was a time trial. Molly stayed back and did her best to interrupt any attempts to bridge the gap (hard to do against 5 riders from the same team). I rode into the pain cave, and came out with a win by just over 50 seconds! Molly ended up 3rd behind Elizabeth.

I’m tired and sore. That was probably my hardest race yet for the season- both mentally and physically :) Next stop, a weekend in Tuscaloosa…

Ryan came along for the men’s 1/2/3 race and took some photos. I’ll get those (as well as a podium shot) up sometime tomorrow. I’m going to bed now so I can get up & ride 70 miles in the morning.

Once again, I’ll be making the trip to B-ham for a race. This time, it’s the Ride to Live race at Barber Motorsports Park. I’ve never ridden a bike on a track, but since I like car racing, I’m pretty stoked to have the chance. The weather looks ultra-nice, too. Should be somewhere around 70 degrees and sunny for my race.