Saturday was damp and windy, definitely not the pick day for a bike race. I got a good warm up in on the course and felt pretty good. The course combined the Tuesday night crit course with the warm up loop we use, so I was very familiar with it. We had a nice field of women at the line, about 12. The whistle blew and we were off, or rather they were off because I slid right over the top of my pedal and my woman biz got intimate with the top bar. Ouch! I looked down and lined it up and finally got in. Time to make up some ground.
In the few seconds that took, the field was off. Tara was already off the front and there was no pack. I passed three of the MICDS girls, Nicole, and then the other MICDS girl. I saw Kate and Cat up ahead and bombed down the back hill to make up ground. I went after them on the next two hills and caught them on the hill towards the start line. I told Kate I was on and that we should go after the two other women that were in front of us. After a bit of a rest, I jumped in front and pulled. By the time we the first climb, I was on their wheel. I heard a sigh of relief from the Swedish girl. I told the group that if we worked together, we could nab Tara, the girl on the break. The Swedish girl was tired and looked to me to pull; I told her to give me 30 seconds and I’d take my turn. Bethany jumped up and took a rotation and I jumped in front. Most of our group tried to work together to go after Tara. There was no reason a good effort from five of us couldn’t chase her down. Ah, but sometimes you ride in a group with lazy racers. Now I really don’t get that…why race if you’re lazy? But here’s how it worked, we would take turns pulling the group and it would come to a particular rider’s turn. She would actually sit up. I would tell her to pull through and she would slow down until someone decided to go around her. She managed to hang third or fourth wheel the entire race, never a pull. I got frustrated with the group at one point and sat up and told them if they wouldn’t work, neither would I. I knew I with the wind, I couldn’t go after Tara on my own. We got down to two laps to go and the Swedish girl pulled the lap. Back around and the bell, one to go. I knew Kate had rested for a while and would be ready. She pulled off to the left on the straightaway and I was ready to go with her. I held onto her wheel through the entire lap. We came up on the last hill and I saw Cat in my periphery. I was up and out of the saddle and adding gear. Bethany pulled around on my left and the sprint was on. Cat had gotten the jump on me, but I wasn’t going to give this race to her because she hadn’t worked for it. The Women’s Open field had watched the race and taken notice of her lack of effort so I had a cheering section. Bethany took second and I pulled third out at the line.
I will have to say I sometimes need to keep my mouth shut. As we rode a cool down lap, our lazy racer made a comment about how strong Tara was. I agreed she was strong but that we should have caught her if the five of us had worked together. I followed that up by saying it would have been nice if she worked a little. Her response was that she did. I didn’t say a word to that and she realized my annoyance and said, “I worked as hard as I could.” Hmmmm, maybe some base building miles are in order for her.
After a few hours rest, the TT was up next. By this time, the weather had gotten a bit ominous. The head wind on the way out was going to be horrible, but that meant a great tailwind. I set the trainer under hatch of the truck and warmed up. At this point it was raining, varying between drizzle and downpour. I headed up to the line and got ready to head out. I rolled up, got my countdown and was off. The first three hundred yards had a nasty crosswind—so glad not to have a full disc wheel. After a slight bend in the course I was facing the headwind. I concentrated on cadence and form and rode as solid as race as I could. About seven minutes in I saw the girl who had started two minutes in front of me. She was a good goal for me, I passed her quickly and started to look for the turnaround. It was there in no time. I slowed down and came through it carefully and got back into the aerobars. My cadence was around 112 and I added a gear, another two minutes and I was up at 112 again—time for more gear. I ended up being able to add two more gears as I went. At 17 minutes, the guy behind me passed me. It wasn’t long and I made the bend back into the crosswind. I concentrated on keeping my speed up and staying upright. I zoomed across the mat and rode a couple of minutes to get my HR down. I finished and changed just in time. The tornado sirens sounded and you could see the wall of rain and hail move in. I helped the Big Shark guys pack up and we went out to get the riders left on the course. Everyone was accounted for—even the guy hiding in the concrete potty!
I got up this morning and saw that the TT results were posted. I took first! The best part of that is that I would have placed 4th in the open field, so I was happy with the results. That put me in a good mood for the miserable conditions for this morning’s race. Temps in the 50s, rain, 20mph winds with gusts in the upper 30s. What was I thinking????
Kate and I were chatting as we delayed our misery and Nicole rolled up. It looked like it would be just the three of us. Eventually we headed out to warm up. I will say that the $30 rain slicker I bought last month was well worth every penny. We did a couple of laps—it was a basic four corner, city crit with a long straight on the north and south side of the course and a block straight on the east and west ends. The southside would be nasty with a head wind and the north would be fabulous. Soli and Bethany showed up, so there would be five of us.
We rolled up to the line about 30 minutes late and got our pre race instructions and were off. I didn’t slip off the pedals today, but I did hesitate. I jumped in with the girls and around we went.
This race was pretty straightforward. Kate, Bethany and I had an unspoken understanding that we would work together to survive the elements. One of us would pull the lap and on the west block, the next girl in line would say “pulling through.” Nicole dropped off our train pretty quickly, but Soli was able to stay with us until we had three to go. We lapped Nicole at that point and tried to get her to jump back in with us, but she couldn’t hold. Two laps to go and I took my pull. As we rounded the corner to the bell lap, Bethany moved up to take her turn. I moved onto her wheel and held on to her until turn three. We rounded that corner and I made a move. I pulled next to her as we rounded turn four. It was another all out sprint. I was up and out of the saddle and added gear as we went. She got me by a full wheel with Kate somewhere behind.
No omnium competition for women’s cat 4 this weekend, but I felt good with how I placed in each race.
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