I usually do a lot of research for races when I'm not familiar with the course. I typically plot them on mapmyride.com and make myself post-it notes of what to expect and study it for a week prior to the race. I'm pretty happy I didn't on this one. Because, if I had, I probably wouldn't have raced today. Now, I knew I was getting into a hilly time trial. I knew this was the course the pros had used twice in the Tour of Missouri. And I knew there was at least one climb where I would probably need to come out of my aerobars. I had no idea how long and big thes climbs would be though.
It was a long drive down to the course and that gave me plenty of time to hydrate. I have to disclose that I did have a slight detour on one of my nature breaks. I thought I was turning on the road that led to the gas station, instead I was turning onto 44, heading back to StL. Oops! Other than that, my trip was calm.
I turned off of 65 and realized that I was actually driving in on the second half of the course. I was immediately intimidated. The hills were incredibly long. I got down to the end of the highway and parked. I was still trying to decide which bike I would ride. I was worried about riding the 11/23 on the TT bike and I had my road bike with the 12/27 on it. I decided to warm up on the course on my TT bike and see if I could handle the hills on it. On my way back from registration, I met the promoter and he advised the TT bike. He also told me to ride about the first four miles of the course and then come back. He said I would hit the biggest hill that way. He neglected to say the one immediate prior to that was only a slight bit shorter. Again, in this case ignorance was better.
The warm up went well, but I realized the second half was going to hurt. There was a diagnol wind, that coupled with the hills, had me crawling in some places and feeling unstable in my aeros on some of the downhills. I got back and continued to spin around to keep my legs warm. I put ice in my bra and and ice pack at my lower back and headed up to the start/finish. Larry called me up (I was the first on the course) and gave me a countdown. Just as I was taking off, the starting tent started to collapse! I ducked and pedalled and took off. The first down hill was less than a hundred yards. This is the first time I ever have been able to get this bike into the 54/12 and maintain a +90 cadence. I think I hit 44-46 on that first descent. The first climb was small. I was on the second longer climb when I was passed for the first time. It wasn't long after that I got passed again. This climb went on forever. It never got really steep, maybe 4-7% at the most, but it was long. There was a steep long descent and then another long climb to the turn around.
I made the turn and had a great descent. I was passed the third time there. The climbs on the way back were much harder. I found myself struggling to maintain a 50 cadence. I was able to stay in the aerobars on the descents, but had to sit up for the climbs. The last two climbs I had to alternate sitting and standing to climb to keep forward momentum. The final climb was about a mile long. I was glad I had pre-ridden it because it gave me a great psychological advantage when I was tired. I knew how much longer I had to go and could gauge how much I had left to give.
I did some light spinning for a little bit after the race and continued to hydrate. There were only three women racing today; no one in the Open race (yes, I tried to race it but they told me only 1/2/3). I finished about 4-5 minutes ahead of the woman in second and about 22 minutes in front of third place. It was a physically hard win, but a race I really enjoyed in spite of it. I'm glad I made the trip and hope tomorrow's crit goes as well.
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