Pedal Packed Weekend--Racing Reports

This weekend marked my first “full” weekend of road racing ever. I went into it a bit nervous, excited, scared. And I survived it.

Saturday was a hard race for me mentally. I rodeup to Hillsboro with the Hub girls . . . my teammates on a different team. We got there in plenty of time, picked up our chips and headed out for our warm up. The course was very similar to the roads I ride here, country rodes with rollers, chip and seal pavement, corners filled with gravel. I felt very at home. The one piece that would be new and challenging were the 8-10 blocks before the finish, they were bricked. My plan for the race was to stay near the front of the lead group until that final hill and then attack. We finished up our warm up by riding the last hill and the bricks.

We pulled up to the line about ten minutes before the start and about two-thirds of the women were already on there. The field was full--50 cat 4 women. I politely edged my way forward into any gap I could see in the line up. I had heard from girls who had raced this course before that placement in the field from the start was important. We got our pre-race instructions and our whistle and were off. As we headed down to the first turn, I kept looking for gaps and moving forward. As we headed out by the feedzone, I was sitting around tenth and happy. Because this field was so big, there were a lot of unknown wheels. Several teams were well represented in our race and knew how to race as a team. There were also a good number of what I'm calling "professional cat 4 women racers." That's the nicest thing I can say about them. I have never heard so many "hold your line" or "watch your wheels" as this group was yelling at each other. You would have thought by the way they were yelling we were racing for a purse of $1,000 instead of a brick trophy.

The race began to settle down as much as it would about four miles in. We made our second of many turns and headed towards one of the four larger rollers we would encounter. At this point I had moved up to third or fourth in the pack, sitting where I would have liked to stay the whole race. We hit the hill and made the turn that came after and the first attack came. I briefly looked around to see if anyone was going to reel her back in and no one made a move. With this type of a course, a strong rider would be able to attack and stay away from a group as unorganized as ours so I went after her. Several riders jumped on my wheel and she was back in the group.

I'd say this is where I began to struggle mentally. Back in the pack, riding as a group, the poor sportsmanship of my fellow riders wore on me. Sure there were some weak wheels, but from my vantage, no one was purposely trying to cut anyone off. Women who were skiddish were apologetic. Most of the next 13 miles were a blur with a few exceptions. Somewhere in there I was sitting around 13th or 14th and there was a gap about three deep in front of me. Carrie has always told us if your handlebars can fit, so can your bike...move up quickly and make sure the girls on either side see you so they don't squeeze you out. I began to pull forward and a girl on my left yelled at me, "you need to get over and grab her wheel." I didn't even look at her, I just quietly told her she needed to race her race and I would race mine. Her retort was, "why don't you just go all the way up the middle and crash us all." I told her she better hold tight to her bars because that was my exact plan. I then moved up. A few miles later, a girl on my right laid over me and yelled to someone to watch their line or something, as I moved away from her, I heard her go down. I saw another girl flat...I knew better than to ride on the inside of these roads, there were still cinders from the winter there. We hit some nasty pavement with hunks of road missing. And I saw a stupid attack. I was sitting pretty far back in what was the lead group at the time...I don't know when or where the back half of the field fell off. I'm assuming the leaders were tired and wanted off the front so they slowed down. It was a nice recovery for my heart rate, but there were a good number of women who felt they needed to surge and brake, surge and brake to deal with the easier pace. I watch a girl next to me...around 12th-14th, cross the yellow line and attack from there. She didn't last long, but we were back at it.

Around mile 20 I began to really feel fatigued. We turned onto a better paved road and the group surged. I couldn't hold on. In my mind I told myself that I had raced a good race, and would finish strong but was prepared that I would ride the last ten alone. The wheel truck went around me and I took a deep breath. I grabbed the Gu I had stashed in my shorts and took a few drinks. I then thought about something Steph had told me--after the Forest Park crit, she said that she could tell I was going to struggle holding Kate off because my cadence had dropped. Her exact words were, "when you're turning your high cadence, no one can hold on to you." I could still see the field in front of me and saw two girls had dropped off and the wheel truck had gone around one of them. I dropped a gear and sped up my cadence using that girl as my rabbit. If I could catch her, I'd have someone to work with on the way in. I watched the other girl get back on with the pack. We went past a couple of volunteers at an intersection in lawn chairs and I had a momentary want to stop and join them, but I saw the Metro East girl catch the wheel truck. It had to move for her. Damnit, that truck was gonna move for me too. I wasn't done. I pushed my cadence and watched that truck move for me. I heard "go get ‘em Big Shark as I went around." I was back on with the group. I was tired from my bridge, and tried to move a little farther into the pack. I sat there until an attack went off with about six miles to go. The front of the group let her go for a bit. She got about 500 yards on the field before they started to pull her back. I was at the back, fighting to hold on when a girl hit my back tire. Thank God for cyclocross and learning how to hold my bike. I fell off the the pack, but stayed up right. The girl went in the ditch, but somehow stayed upright as well and was back on the road. She yelled "I'm sorry" and I told her no worries.

By this time we were at the beginning of the last hill. I was about 50 yards off the pack. I sat up and slid back to climb. I was gaining ground. The hill flattens out in the middle and went through and intersection before it's final pitch. A truck was in front of me and stopped dead in the intersection. He started to move forward and stopped again. I was almost to the point of need to clip out. I saw a course marshal and asked if we could go around and he waved us through. I saw the pack turn the corner to the bricks at the top of the hill. I knew I didn't have it left in me to catch them. I made it up the hill and turned the corner. I held tight on my bars through the brick, losing my favorite water bottle in the process. The girl who rubbed my wheel had my wheel. She held tight to me into the finishing straight. We hit 200 meters and I stood to sprint. My legs had a different idea. I still pushed it, but she got me by a bike length. I finished 17th, 1:31 back of the winner with an overall pace of upper 20mph.

I say it was mentally tough because I couldn't shut out the complainers. I let them drain me of my energy and take the fun out of racing for me. I got off my bike, fully ready to not go to the line next Sunday at the Hermann road race. I vented to Kate, Ashley and anyone else who would listen and by the time we all regrouped at the feed zone to support our Women’s Open friends, I was in a much better place mentally.

Hanging in the feedzone was fun. We watched the racers zoom by, patiently waiting for our women. Finally we saw the single breakaway rider come through. The pack hit about 35 seconds later. We didn’t feed our girls well. I’d say only two or three of the seven in the pack got hand ups. After they passed, we talked about who we didn’t see and kept an eye for them. Within a few minutes, Steph and Alice came rolling by in a group of four. We were able to give both of them hand ups.

Our feeding duties done, we walked to find a new spectating spot. Since we had at least 90 minutes till the women’s finish, Ashley and I walked to course, talking racing, training and looking for the missing Big Shark bottle…it wasn’t to be found. We headed back towards the finish line and hooked up with Kate and Katie. We talked to Larry about the race and hung out. Finally the women’s leaders were in site. It was a break of three and none of them my friends.

The mass of the pack was next, we Carrie giving a brief sprint effort and taking 5th. Eventually the others came in. The pack was pretty splintered. We were down to waiting for Steph and Alice. Alice rolled through but no Steph. We talked to the girls who had raced and they were spent. Time passed and I got worried. Finally, in the distance, I saw Steph’s familiar outline—she looked labored. As she crossed the line she stopped and I really got scared. She couldn’t talk to us. She was done. Thankfully Larry was on her left because I think she would have fallen without him. We got her off her bike, off the road and sat her down. Those next 10-15 minutes reinforced to me why I hated the group I raced with earlier. Our group of women love racing and do it with class—on and off the road. We take care of each other and that’s what we did. Steph eventually started moving and making sense with the help of Gatorade and love.
I woke up Sunday not entirely sure I was up to racing. I was still feeling the after effects of the sun and the mean girls from Saturday. I began to pack my bag and something about slipping into those bibs made me want to go racing. I heard the race director’s voice from the day before in my head, “boogity, boogity, boogity, Let’s go racing!”

We got to Tilles and I registered, pinned on and clicked in. I found the Hub girls and we hit the course between the Masters and Juniors races for a few laps. Once we got kicked off course, Ashley and I met up with Jamie and headed out to warm up on the road. We got a great warm up in and did two more laps after the juniors finished. For the first time in my short racing career, I willing and knowingly rolled up to the line in the Women's Open field. My goal for the day was to stay rubber side down and hold on as long as I could.

There were 15 women in the Open field. Nine of us were local and the rest had stayed over from Saturday's road race. We got our pre-race instructions and a whistle. These girls started fast. I tried to position myself well in the pack so that I could minimize my work load and hold on longer. I had started in my big ring, but was having trouble keeping my cadence high so I dropped to the small. The first two attacks came and I held on. Lap three and attack three saw me fall off the back. I thought about soft pedaling but also wanted to be ready in case anyone else fell off. After two laps by myself, Teresa saw that I was still in my small ring. She got on to me and I made some adjustments to get in the big ring and hold my cadence. I had forgotten my HR strap, so was riding by feel in that area. The next lap I got passed by the leaders. Chris and a Tulsa girl had made a break. I kept waiting for the rest of the pack so I could jump in, but they were at least half a lap back still. I concentrated on finding a good zone for myself--high cadence without exhausting myself. I also reminded myself at some point that I was having fun and actually was able to smile through the rest of the race.

We were on the course with Women's 4 and some of the juniors had fallen off. I tried to encourage them and help them out as I went by--this was their first race. Finally I saw another W-O rider had fallen off. She was my carrot and I went after her. I had her wheel and within a half lap, the pack had us. I jumped back in and sat on. I made sure I wasn't on the back of the pack so that I didn't get dropped when we they surged. Chris and the Tulsa girl eventually lapped the pack and sat back in with us.

We got to four laps to go and I knew it was going to heat up again. Amy and I talked about strategy for the sprint--I knew I couldn't contest it as a lapped rider, but I could try to give her a lead out. The next three laps were a blur. The typical sprint point for Tilles in right after the last turn, about 250M. On Sunday, the sprint started way earlier than that. They went off like a shot and I had no chance to give Amy any help. I hung on to the group as we rolled through and stayed out of the leaders’ way.

I ended up 14/15, although I think it was actually a scoring error that the woman in 15 didn't protest. I felt good through the race and was able to see attacks develop. I think the pace of this race may have been a bit slower than some because the Tulsa and Mesa girls both a rider in the break and kept anyone else from trying to get a catch organized.

I learned a lot this weekend. I pushed my physical and mental limits and survived them. Both days I was able to race my race, my way. The results may not have been what I would have ideally liked, but in the end, I feel I was successful.