Madera Stage Race: Road Race 3/14/2010

Category: W3
Field Size: 22
Length: 68 miles
Teammates: Emily and Josie
Places: 4th (Emily), 5th (Josie) and 13th (me)

The course consisted of 4 laps on a 17 mile four-sided loop. The first two sides of the loop were relatively flat, with a couple of small rises, with smooth roads and slight-to-moderate headwind. The third side of the loop was bumpy. Very bumpy. Luckily, for that stretch, the road was closed, so we could use the whole width of the road. It was definitely the worst pavement that I've ever ridden on, just completely riddled with cracks. It was patched in a number of places with asphalt, but in some places that made it worse, because the asphalt had deteriorated so much that it just left it bumpier than ever. On that whole stretch, nothing exciting happened, because we were all just trying to deal with the road and get through it. After that was the finishing stretch, which they called the "roller coaster", and it was. It started with a medium-sized hill that got steeper near the top, followed by a downhill right into another uphill (but you couldn't quite get enough speed to take you up even half of the hill), then another down and up that was much easier if you kept your speed up, and then another longish hill up to the finish line. The hills continued a little ways after that, before the course turned back onto the first leg of the loop again.

My strategy for this race was just to sit in, unless I saw a likely break go off the front, in which case I would probably bridge to it, especially if it didn't contain Tyler, since that's the only way that I could beat her in the GC. I was 46 seconds back, so I'd have had to gotten first place (for the 20 second bonus) and been in a break that was at least 26 seconds in front of the pack. I also knew that I couldn't let the woman in 3rd place who was 31 seconds behind me in the GC go on a break without me. As it turned out, all of my scheming was for nothing. The only interesting thing to happen in the first 3 laps was that we took a pee break halfway through the first lap. I was completely confused by this, but was told that this was common in long women's races, at least for Cat 3's. We all stopped while half of the women squatted. Then we continued on our way. Other than that, there were a couple of attacks that didn't amount to anything and just served to speed up the pack for a bit. It was actually kind of refreshing when that happened, as it was turning out to be a very slow race. In the fourth lap, things started to get a bit more interesting. I was still hanging out near the back for a while, but some people up front decided to remind us that we were racing, so the pace for the first half of the lap increased considerably. Then, on the 3rd leg of the loop, disaster struck. I had been nearer to the front of the pack, but had recently gotten forced back because the person in front of me decided to drop back, and I had nowhere else to go. Then, (and this is all a little blurry, so I could be wrong on the details), the person two bikes in front of me hit a pothole wrong and I think hit the person on her left, causing them both to go down, as well as the person in front of me, me, and the person behind me. Since I was near the back of the crash, I had time to brake a little bit, so I didn't go down too hard, but I do know that we landed in a bit of a tangle. Right away, I got my bike out, only to discover that not only was my right shifter pushed all the way inwards, my bars were also twisted by about 30 degrees. I had to wrench them straight, then adjust and loosen my brakes before I could get going again. I lost about a minute getting straightened out, and immediately started chasing as soon as my bike would go. I could feel that I'd gotten a bit scraped up, but ignored it. This happened by my estimate about 5-6 miles before the finish, but I can't be sure since I didn't have a computer on my bike. I chased the pack the whole way to the finish, and I could see them up the road. I may have even gained on them on the bumpy section, since I was going all out but I suspect that they weren't, and it looked like I was getting closer. Unfortunately, I think I lost time on the rollercoaster finish, since I had to climb by myself into a slight headwind and could only go so fast on the downhills. I ended up finishing 1:10 behind the pack, which ended up being just good enough to hold onto 3rd place in the GC. Although I didn't see it, Emily and Josie did well enough on the uphill finish to get 4th and 5th, well done ladies!

I was really frustrated that the ladies in front of me crashed, and I'm guessing that they were just tired and had a lapse in concentration which caused the crash with the help of that pothole. Even if I hadn't done well in the uphill finish with the pack, I still would have easily held on to 2nd in the GC, so it was really frustrating to lose that. When I went down, that was all that was going through my mind, that I had to chase or else it would have all been for nothing. Also, this has been my third crash this season, and the second that wasn't my fault and could only have been avoided by being in a different place in the pack. I'll admit that the Merced Crit crash was my fault, since I did follow a bad line, but it's even more frustrating to have no control over crashing. I still haven't had time to fully examine my bike for damage, but I already know that my (Jose's) front 404 tubular that I was riding got damaged by someone's bike landing on it. It's got a crack on the inner part of the rim, but we're hoping that we can patch it. I'm also concerned that my steerer tube is cracked or damaged, since my handlebars were out of whack from the crash, and then I wrenched them back around so that I could chase. Anyway, I guess the lesson this time is that sometimes shit happens and you just have to deal with it. I'm very thankful that I wasn't more seriously injured in the crash (I have some scratches on my right knee and a small raw spot on my right elbow), and that no one else was too badly injured. I didn't hear all of the details, but I heard that Morgan (from Dolce Vita, who I'd met on Saturday) bit her lip pretty badly, so I hope she's ok and that she heals quickly. The other part of the lesson is that I need to get better about being in the front of the pack and staying there, since if I'd been nearer to the front, I wouldn't have been behind a crash.

Anyway, I was pleased that under the circumstances, I was still able to get 3rd place in my first stage race (and my first set of races as a Cat 3). Congratulations also to Emily for getting 4th in the GC! And once again, well done to Josie for keeping 8th place!