Category: W1/2+3
Field Size: 29+21
Length: 50 minutes
Teammates: Josie, JVM, ME, Annie, Rikke, Kim
Places: 7th (ME), 2nd Cat 3 (me)
The course was a flat clockwise 1.2 mile loop. The corners were all fairly wide and not particularly sharp. There were three chicanes, so even though all the real corners were to the right, we still had to deal with finding a good line through the chicanes. One neat thing about the course was that the land inside the loop contained very little except some tall grass, and the announcer was up high enough that he could see the racers on the far side of the course and pretty much the whole way around, so there was always a great commentary going. There was an abundance of Botts dots, but that's pretty standard for office park crits. We did have to cross them more than usual on the chicanes, but still they should have been a minor annoyance. It should have been a nice clean race, but unfortunately, it wasn't.
The race started off at pretty fast pace, and there were a number of attacks. I started near the back as usual, and I wanted to get a feel for how the pack took the turns and really the whole course. Only a few laps in (I wasn't counting), there was a crash. It happened on the first corner, which was really a long sweeping turn, not really a corner, but I saw it before it happened because I noticed that there were a couple of people bumping each other in an attempt to take a line on the inside of the Botts dots on the outer part of the turn. Having suspected that a crash was about to happen, I had time to move a bit to the right and when they went down, I still had to practically slam my brakes but was able to go around the downed riders and catch up the pack fairly easily. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning. Only moments after we were all back together, another crash happened on the first chicane. I didn't see exactly what caused it, but I think someone just moved sideways into someone else and hit too hard and people started going down. I was far enough behind that crash that I was able to brake hard and swerve left around the pile of riders, but it was a little scary to see. I definitely saw one rider trying to swerve left just as it was happening in an attempt to escape and keep going, but then she went down and made the crash take up twice as much room on the road. The pack regrouped again, with somewhat diminished numbers, and the race went on. A couple of people who had gone down without injury took their free lap and got back in, including Annie.
After those back to back crashes, I was hoping the field would settle down a bit and ride a little safer, but it still seemed pretty hectic. I was getting a bit nervy after the crashes, so I wasn't making any moves and was still in the back, so JVM came back and helped me move up through the field by coming around the outside. That lap ME went for a prime, so I just got to sit up front for a bit before people started coming around me. When I started drifting back in the pack, I got almost claustrophobic because people were coming around me at alarmingly tight clearances, and having already seen two crashes happen I was a little nervous. Luckily, I didn't freak out and just held a good line and everything was okay. Unfortunately, it didn't last, because around 25 minutes in there was a third crash, this time just around the second chicane (I think). I was behind this one too, and braked to a near stop in order to miss hitting people on the ground. After that, we all got back together, but they soon neutralized us and we did a couple of laps neutral before they just stopped us. There were two girls that got seen to by ambulances, I think, one in each of the second and third crashes. We were delayed by probably 15 minutes, waiting for the ambulances to clear the course. My team got together and had a little chat, but we tried not to talk about the crashes, just a bit of strategy. We didn't want to think about the crashes because it might make us too nervy.
After the delay, we started back up with only 5 laps to go, due to time constraints. I think people were riding a little more conservatively, due to all of the crashes. Unfortunately, there was one more crash. A girl hit a Botts dot while standing up to accelerate and her front wheel turned more than 90 degrees and she toppled headfirst into the ground. It happened right after the final corner, so after that we couldn't take it very wide because she was still in the road being seen to by medical. I think due to her location on the course, they chopped off another lap from our race, because I'm fairly certain that one lap the cards said 3 to go, and the next it was the bell lap. On the last lap, I moved up through the field a fair amount, mostly by moving up the left side in the wind. I gave the pack a wide berth when I was coming up because there were a lot of other people looking for opportunities to move up and sometimes they'd move left without looking to see if there was someone already moving into that space. Anyway, in the final stretch, which was very long, I basically just stayed by myself on the left, and I was even keeping pace with the front of the pack on the right, but I had burned too much energy getting there. I lost some ground and finished maybe 12th or so. However, I did pretty well anyway, because there was only one Cat 3 ahead of me, and the 3's were being picked separately, so I got 2nd place. When it was over, I was mostly just happy that I hadn't crashed, and that no one on my team had crashed.
Since the race was sponsored by Wente Vineyards, of course the prizes were partially wine. I won $15, a $13 bottle of Wente Vineyards wine (2008 Morning Fog Chardonnay), and a T-shirt (size large). I suppose I should be glad that I didn't win any of the primes that consisted of gift cards for Wente Vineyards, since then I wouldn't even have been able to redeem them. As it is, I think it's hilarious that I won something that I can't legally buy, and that I have no interest in drinking. Maybe I'll just keep it around as a trophy.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Slug Cycling Criterium 4/24/2010
Category: Open Women
Field Size: 5
Length: 45 minutes
Teammates: Kira
Place: 3rd
The course was a fairly short, only 0.5 mile per lap. It had four left corners, with the start/finish line on an uphill. The second and third corners were really fun because it was a fast downhill going into them, and they were wide enough that you could take them at full speed. Then there was a slight uphill before the last turn into a 6% uphill to the finish line.
My race was very small, but it was still a fun race. We set off at a decent pace, but not too fast since obviously no one wanted to pull the other four around and waste energy. Kira and I worked together with Mary and made a couple of moves, sending Kira off the front for a bit, but other than that we mostly just kept together. There were 6 primes, so those made for a bit of excitement (I even won one), and the pace started to get a little faster about 20 minutes in. Around 30 minutes in, I think, Mary and another girl took off and the three of us left behind didn't have the energy to catch them. Kira got dropped during the chase after having put up a good fight. Shortly before the leaders took off, I nearly got a cramp in my right calf muscle, but it settled for just tightening up enough to warn me that if I wasn't careful I'd get a really bad cramp. After that, I knew that I couldn't even try to climb out of the saddle or even accelerate sharply because it would be too much for it and I'd get a full-on cramp. The other girl who was left (I later introduced myself and found her name was Trish) and I kept the pace up enough that we were both hurting, but we didn't have it in us to catch the leaders. My heartrate was going into the high 180s every time we took that hill, so I was pushing pretty hard, and my heartrate never got a chance to drop down lower than 170. With around 7 laps to go, they called a prime for me and Trish, since we were half the field. I went for it and managed to win it. After that, I think we let up on the pace a bit since we knew we weren't going to catch the leaders and the we were racing for 3rd, so neither of us wanted to waste our energy. I managed to let her take the hill faster with one lap to go so that I forced her to take the lead for the last lap. She tried to attack on the slight uphill, but I just followed her wheel and beat her on the uphill finish.
So I had fun, I won $15, a chocolate bar, and a box of tea (my two primes). Technically, I even got one upgrade point. Anyway, I think it was a good race experience for me. I was really glad to get the practice taking that downhill corner, since cornering is still one of my weakest skills. I messed it up pretty badly once, but the rest of the time I did pretty well and worked on finding the best line through it. It was also a great workout, since it was effectively doing a bunch of 10-15 second efforts on the uphill.
Field Size: 5
Length: 45 minutes
Teammates: Kira
Place: 3rd
The course was a fairly short, only 0.5 mile per lap. It had four left corners, with the start/finish line on an uphill. The second and third corners were really fun because it was a fast downhill going into them, and they were wide enough that you could take them at full speed. Then there was a slight uphill before the last turn into a 6% uphill to the finish line.
My race was very small, but it was still a fun race. We set off at a decent pace, but not too fast since obviously no one wanted to pull the other four around and waste energy. Kira and I worked together with Mary and made a couple of moves, sending Kira off the front for a bit, but other than that we mostly just kept together. There were 6 primes, so those made for a bit of excitement (I even won one), and the pace started to get a little faster about 20 minutes in. Around 30 minutes in, I think, Mary and another girl took off and the three of us left behind didn't have the energy to catch them. Kira got dropped during the chase after having put up a good fight. Shortly before the leaders took off, I nearly got a cramp in my right calf muscle, but it settled for just tightening up enough to warn me that if I wasn't careful I'd get a really bad cramp. After that, I knew that I couldn't even try to climb out of the saddle or even accelerate sharply because it would be too much for it and I'd get a full-on cramp. The other girl who was left (I later introduced myself and found her name was Trish) and I kept the pace up enough that we were both hurting, but we didn't have it in us to catch the leaders. My heartrate was going into the high 180s every time we took that hill, so I was pushing pretty hard, and my heartrate never got a chance to drop down lower than 170. With around 7 laps to go, they called a prime for me and Trish, since we were half the field. I went for it and managed to win it. After that, I think we let up on the pace a bit since we knew we weren't going to catch the leaders and the we were racing for 3rd, so neither of us wanted to waste our energy. I managed to let her take the hill faster with one lap to go so that I forced her to take the lead for the last lap. She tried to attack on the slight uphill, but I just followed her wheel and beat her on the uphill finish.
So I had fun, I won $15, a chocolate bar, and a box of tea (my two primes). Technically, I even got one upgrade point. Anyway, I think it was a good race experience for me. I was really glad to get the practice taking that downhill corner, since cornering is still one of my weakest skills. I messed it up pretty badly once, but the rest of the time I did pretty well and worked on finding the best line through it. It was also a great workout, since it was effectively doing a bunch of 10-15 second efforts on the uphill.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
At the Velodrome 4/17/2010
So this past Saturday I again got the chance to take a trip to the track. I went for the morning beginner session again, which was fun. We did a nice 40-lap warmup, then we did some bumping drills for a while. After that, Mark (who was running the session) decided that it was time to get our heartrates up, so we practiced lapping the field. The group rode around slowly and he'd send people around the lap them. At first we did it solo, then in pairs, in threes, then back to pairs, and finally one last time solo. So that was kind of a workout, since all told we each lapped the field quite a few times. After that, Mark decided to torture us a little more and decreed that it was time to time us doing flying 200s. Everyone rode around at a nice slow pace while waiting to go and watching whoever was currently going. When you were up next, you'd get to take a preparation lap, which would be ridden at the top of the track, and build up speed to the start line of the 200 which was right after turn 2. By the time you crossed the start line, the idea was to be up to full speed, then go all out for the 200. Mark timed us and yelled us our times as we went by right after the finish. I did 3 flying 200s, and my times were 14.3, 14.4, and 14.7 seconds, which seemed to be pretty respectable from what I could tell. I'll be curious to try again sometime though, because I was definitely using too low of a gear and was spinning as fast as I possibly could, which seemed to me to be pretty fast. I've certainly never had that high of a cadence on the road, but I wasn't exactly counting so I can't say just how fast I was spinning. Since after the 200s, we still had a little time left, we did a couple of practice Keirins again. I actually managed to win the first one, because I made my move at the right time. It was really close though, and I'm pretty sure Doug wasn't really trying because I know I couldn't have beaten him otherwise. The men demanded a rematch just to torture me, and Doug tried to help me win again by giving me a leadout, but it backfired because I hesitated. He came by me and told me to follow him, but it took me a little too long to realize what I was supposed to do, and other Mark was too fast for me and moved up on me before I had a chance to make my move so I ended up being boxed in.
After the beginners session, I decided to stick around for some races in the afternoon. There was a Get Ready for Summer race, which had four events that made up an Omnium, and there were 3 categories of racing. Category A corresponded to Cat 1/2, Cat B to Cat 3, and Cat C to Cat 4/5 on the track. This week there weren't any women's categories, so I raced in the C races with the men, as well as about 4-5 other women who showed up. Before the racing started, I decided it was time to switch to a bigger gear. I had had a 48 tooth chainring with a 16 tooth cog, but that just wasn't big enough for going fast. I decided that I didn't want to make too big of a change, since I figured it was better to be spinning out than unable to spin fast enough. Anyway, I swapped the 48 for a 50.
The first event was the Keirin. There were a couple of heats, so 1st and 2nd in each heat went to the final, while 3rd and 4th went to the Repechage (aka rep(s)) for a chance to get into the final. In my heat, two people made a move in the last lap and I missed my chance to go with them. I chased them down, but still ended up in 3rd, losing 2nd by maybe half a bike length. So, I went to the reps, and I actually won my rep fairly easily, but I perhaps burned too much energy, because I didn't do so well in the final, as I think I got 6th out of 8 in the final.
The second race was the scratch race, which was 15 laps (5k) long. A couple of people made some attacks, but I waited until close to the end to make my move. I don't remember how long before the finish I went, but I came around the top and actually got behind another guy's move and went with him. He and the girl with him were too fast for me, so I ended up holding onto 3rd at the finish.
Third, it was the Miss and Out, a race where every lap the last rider to cross the finish line is pulled from the race. Unfortunately, this meant that the was more than the usual movement for position within the pack. Each lap there was a surge over the top of the pack in an attempt by a lot of people to not be last and leave people on the bottom inside stuck behind. Apparently this can make for a dangerous race, since there was actually a really bad crash in my race, about 3 or 4 laps in. I'm not sure what caused it, because it was behind me (I was about 3rd wheel on the inside). I heard that horribly familiar awful sound of bikes sliding on concrete, preceded by some yelling, and followed by the sound of a tire blowing out. We immediately neutralized and exited the track. When I came around, I saw that there were still three people lying on the track not moving. It was really scary. Ambulances were called and all three of them were taken away. One of them was even fully immobilized. I don't know the extent of their injuries, or actually even who was injured (since I barely knew anyone). Eventually out event was restarted, with 11 people left, but my head wasn't in the race after the crash so I got pulled a few laps later.
The last race was the Points Race, which was supposed to be 15 laps, but because of the delay from the crash, it was shortened to 10 laps. Since sprints were every five laps, that meant that we only got 2 sprints. I managed to get 3rd in both sprints, but I don't know what place I actually got, since I wasn't keeping track of who beat me in the sprints. I think I got 3rd or 4th.
Anyway, I ended up getting 4th out of about 20 in the Omnium, which I guess is not to shabby for my first day of racing on the track. I also figured out that I probably still need a slightly bigger gear, since I was pretty much hitting my top spinning speed in the sprints, but I don't think I was quite going all out. Hopefully I'll be racing on the track some more so I can learn more about track racing.
After the beginners session, I decided to stick around for some races in the afternoon. There was a Get Ready for Summer race, which had four events that made up an Omnium, and there were 3 categories of racing. Category A corresponded to Cat 1/2, Cat B to Cat 3, and Cat C to Cat 4/5 on the track. This week there weren't any women's categories, so I raced in the C races with the men, as well as about 4-5 other women who showed up. Before the racing started, I decided it was time to switch to a bigger gear. I had had a 48 tooth chainring with a 16 tooth cog, but that just wasn't big enough for going fast. I decided that I didn't want to make too big of a change, since I figured it was better to be spinning out than unable to spin fast enough. Anyway, I swapped the 48 for a 50.
The first event was the Keirin. There were a couple of heats, so 1st and 2nd in each heat went to the final, while 3rd and 4th went to the Repechage (aka rep(s)) for a chance to get into the final. In my heat, two people made a move in the last lap and I missed my chance to go with them. I chased them down, but still ended up in 3rd, losing 2nd by maybe half a bike length. So, I went to the reps, and I actually won my rep fairly easily, but I perhaps burned too much energy, because I didn't do so well in the final, as I think I got 6th out of 8 in the final.
The second race was the scratch race, which was 15 laps (5k) long. A couple of people made some attacks, but I waited until close to the end to make my move. I don't remember how long before the finish I went, but I came around the top and actually got behind another guy's move and went with him. He and the girl with him were too fast for me, so I ended up holding onto 3rd at the finish.
Third, it was the Miss and Out, a race where every lap the last rider to cross the finish line is pulled from the race. Unfortunately, this meant that the was more than the usual movement for position within the pack. Each lap there was a surge over the top of the pack in an attempt by a lot of people to not be last and leave people on the bottom inside stuck behind. Apparently this can make for a dangerous race, since there was actually a really bad crash in my race, about 3 or 4 laps in. I'm not sure what caused it, because it was behind me (I was about 3rd wheel on the inside). I heard that horribly familiar awful sound of bikes sliding on concrete, preceded by some yelling, and followed by the sound of a tire blowing out. We immediately neutralized and exited the track. When I came around, I saw that there were still three people lying on the track not moving. It was really scary. Ambulances were called and all three of them were taken away. One of them was even fully immobilized. I don't know the extent of their injuries, or actually even who was injured (since I barely knew anyone). Eventually out event was restarted, with 11 people left, but my head wasn't in the race after the crash so I got pulled a few laps later.
The last race was the Points Race, which was supposed to be 15 laps, but because of the delay from the crash, it was shortened to 10 laps. Since sprints were every five laps, that meant that we only got 2 sprints. I managed to get 3rd in both sprints, but I don't know what place I actually got, since I wasn't keeping track of who beat me in the sprints. I think I got 3rd or 4th.
Anyway, I ended up getting 4th out of about 20 in the Omnium, which I guess is not to shabby for my first day of racing on the track. I also figured out that I probably still need a slightly bigger gear, since I was pretty much hitting my top spinning speed in the sprints, but I don't think I was quite going all out. Hopefully I'll be racing on the track some more so I can learn more about track racing.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Menlo Park Grand Prix 4/11/2010
I raced twice at the Hippstar Menlo Park Grand Prix yesterday, and it was hard. The course was about 1.4 miles long, in the shape of a tall L. There were two lefts fairly close together, then a very long back straightaway, then another left, a sweeping left, then something of a straightaway followed by one last left with an immediate right into the finishing stretch. The final straightaway was pretty long, probably 500 or 600 meters.
Category: W3
Field Size: 23
Length: 40 minutes
Teammates: Josie
Place: 4th
I wasn't racing smart, and I also thought I didn't have much energy left in me. I felt tired to due slight lack of sleep, but apparently my legs had a lot left. I hung in the very back the whole race, though in retrospect I realized that I should have tried to be more in the middle to get a better draft. I tried to move up during the last lap, but with a bit of a crosswind on the back straightaway I found myself out in the wind just wasting energy, so I dropped back to a more sheltered position. Josie attacked halfway down the back stretch, but she didn't achieve separation so she got stuck pulling the pack for a bit. I moved up a bit then but the last three corners felt a little unsafe so I dropped back again, since I'd rather not crash, especially on the last lap. I was the very last rider to come around the last corner, but since the finishing stretch was so long it was perfect for me. People spread out so I had to wait a moment for an opening, but I was able to use a bit of someone else's move to spring forward and then really let loose. I was too late to catch the leaders, but I did pass almost everyone to get 4th.
My PowerTap tells me that over 24 seconds of that sprint, I averaged 728W, which is a new record for me. I hadn't previously had a chance to have a nice long sprint like that. A couple of people told me afterward that I need to race on the track, because my sprint is ideal for it. As I've previously mentioned, that is indeed one of my goals this season, to do a bit of track racing and see how it goes. I was kicking myself for being in a bad position at the end though, because if I had done that same effort from the front of the pack, I might have won. Ah well, I guess I need more practice.
Category: W1/2/3
Field Size: 39
Length: 60 minutes
Teammates: ME, Sam, Kelly
Places: 7th (ME), 16th (Sam), 24th (me), 31st (Kelly)
This race was actually super exciting, all because of an unfortunate crash. It had been raining for almost an hour when we started, and we were warned by Brian Heneghan (from LGBRC, he had just finished his race) that the inside of the second turn was very slippery. Unfortunately, that warning didn't prevent disaster. After a very fast start and first turn, two riders went down on the second turn, completely shattering the field, since they were in the first 1/3 of the pack, and one was on the very inside and another was a little further out. I was caught at the very back of the pack and was one of the ones who had to nearly stop to avoid bodies and bikes (and bottles!) on the road before starting to chase. I chased hard and made my way towards the larger group I could see up the road, staying with a couple of stragglers for a few moments to catch my breath before continuing to chase hard. Soon I ended up chasing with one other rider (I looked her up later, her name is Julie Bellerose, winner of the 2008 Collegiate National Crit) and we took turns pulling for about 2 laps, before we finally caught the group. Well, that wasn't the end of it because the group that we'd caught was apparently the 2nd chase group. There were maybe 10 of us together trying to catch of to the 1st chase group, which probably had 10-15 riders, and which I found out later was chasing the winning 5-person breakaway. My group had Sam in it, and I had passed Kelly when I was chasing, but I knew that Mary-Ellen was somewhere up the road. Given that, I figured that helping catch the group in front of us wasn't a great idea for the team, since it would bring 10 more strong ladies to compete against Mary-Ellen. So we sort of held our position at 30 seconds back from the first chase group for a couple of laps (they kept announcing it as we went by). But then Mary-Ellen got dropped from the 1st chase group, and I knew it was time to hammer, since with all 3 remaining LGBRC people in the second chase group we had no chance at anything unless we could get ME to the main pack. ME had to recover a bit before trying to lead the chase, and then I got up front and took some hard pulls, which I think helped motivate the group to work together better because then we stopped losing time on the group ahead of us. With 5 laps to go, they called a prime for our group (since we were like half the pack), and I don't if that was what did it, or the fact that we now only had 5 laps to go (which to be fair was still about 10-15 minutes because they were long laps), but in one lap we somehow managed to go from 27 seconds back to catching the rest of the pack. After that, the chase was really on, and people from my group went and led the chase to try to chase down the lead breakaway. They weren't successful though, and the pack ended up sprinting for 6th place and lower. By the time we caught the pack, I was really suffering, having had to chase for a long time and then chase again. I was pretty much hanging on for dear life and hoping I could hang on until the end as I watched the lap cards count down, but I finally got dropped on the second corner of the last lap. I was completely bonking and feeling awful, and the person in front of me let a gap open up and got dropped herself so I just had no chance of getting up enough energy to bridge even two bikelengths to stay with the group. I still finished, but I was probably 30-60 seconds behind the pack by that time.
Anyway, I was pretty pleased that I had finished, because it was a really hard race AND it was my 4th of the weekend. I rolled back to the car and laid down in the back because my head was starting to spin, I was so exhausted. I was also freezing once I stopped moving, having been soaked through for an hour. When I was racing, I didn't notice the chill or even the fact that I was constantly being sprayed in the face with dirty water from other peoples' wheels. When I stopped, I suddenly realized just how miserable I felt and just how thoroughly I had exhausted myself. I actually recovered surprisingly fast, though it took me a while to get warm (I did change into dry clothes immediately).
I was a little disappointed that I hadn't managed to finish with the pack, but I still feel like I did pretty well. I was happy that my contributions helped the team, because ME got 2nd in the field sprint (7th overall), so even though I burned up all of my energy helping my chase group catch the pack, I helped a teammate do well, and that's what teamwork is all about! Also it was a really strong field, including a number of TIBCO ladies, a few other fast ladies I'm less familiar with, and even Shelley Evans (formerly Olds), whose most famous recent victory was at the Tour of New Zealand this year, as well as winning this race. So I guess I feel pretty okay about being dropped by such fast women.
Category: W3
Field Size: 23
Length: 40 minutes
Teammates: Josie
Place: 4th
I wasn't racing smart, and I also thought I didn't have much energy left in me. I felt tired to due slight lack of sleep, but apparently my legs had a lot left. I hung in the very back the whole race, though in retrospect I realized that I should have tried to be more in the middle to get a better draft. I tried to move up during the last lap, but with a bit of a crosswind on the back straightaway I found myself out in the wind just wasting energy, so I dropped back to a more sheltered position. Josie attacked halfway down the back stretch, but she didn't achieve separation so she got stuck pulling the pack for a bit. I moved up a bit then but the last three corners felt a little unsafe so I dropped back again, since I'd rather not crash, especially on the last lap. I was the very last rider to come around the last corner, but since the finishing stretch was so long it was perfect for me. People spread out so I had to wait a moment for an opening, but I was able to use a bit of someone else's move to spring forward and then really let loose. I was too late to catch the leaders, but I did pass almost everyone to get 4th.
My PowerTap tells me that over 24 seconds of that sprint, I averaged 728W, which is a new record for me. I hadn't previously had a chance to have a nice long sprint like that. A couple of people told me afterward that I need to race on the track, because my sprint is ideal for it. As I've previously mentioned, that is indeed one of my goals this season, to do a bit of track racing and see how it goes. I was kicking myself for being in a bad position at the end though, because if I had done that same effort from the front of the pack, I might have won. Ah well, I guess I need more practice.
Category: W1/2/3
Field Size: 39
Length: 60 minutes
Teammates: ME, Sam, Kelly
Places: 7th (ME), 16th (Sam), 24th (me), 31st (Kelly)
This race was actually super exciting, all because of an unfortunate crash. It had been raining for almost an hour when we started, and we were warned by Brian Heneghan (from LGBRC, he had just finished his race) that the inside of the second turn was very slippery. Unfortunately, that warning didn't prevent disaster. After a very fast start and first turn, two riders went down on the second turn, completely shattering the field, since they were in the first 1/3 of the pack, and one was on the very inside and another was a little further out. I was caught at the very back of the pack and was one of the ones who had to nearly stop to avoid bodies and bikes (and bottles!) on the road before starting to chase. I chased hard and made my way towards the larger group I could see up the road, staying with a couple of stragglers for a few moments to catch my breath before continuing to chase hard. Soon I ended up chasing with one other rider (I looked her up later, her name is Julie Bellerose, winner of the 2008 Collegiate National Crit) and we took turns pulling for about 2 laps, before we finally caught the group. Well, that wasn't the end of it because the group that we'd caught was apparently the 2nd chase group. There were maybe 10 of us together trying to catch of to the 1st chase group, which probably had 10-15 riders, and which I found out later was chasing the winning 5-person breakaway. My group had Sam in it, and I had passed Kelly when I was chasing, but I knew that Mary-Ellen was somewhere up the road. Given that, I figured that helping catch the group in front of us wasn't a great idea for the team, since it would bring 10 more strong ladies to compete against Mary-Ellen. So we sort of held our position at 30 seconds back from the first chase group for a couple of laps (they kept announcing it as we went by). But then Mary-Ellen got dropped from the 1st chase group, and I knew it was time to hammer, since with all 3 remaining LGBRC people in the second chase group we had no chance at anything unless we could get ME to the main pack. ME had to recover a bit before trying to lead the chase, and then I got up front and took some hard pulls, which I think helped motivate the group to work together better because then we stopped losing time on the group ahead of us. With 5 laps to go, they called a prime for our group (since we were like half the pack), and I don't if that was what did it, or the fact that we now only had 5 laps to go (which to be fair was still about 10-15 minutes because they were long laps), but in one lap we somehow managed to go from 27 seconds back to catching the rest of the pack. After that, the chase was really on, and people from my group went and led the chase to try to chase down the lead breakaway. They weren't successful though, and the pack ended up sprinting for 6th place and lower. By the time we caught the pack, I was really suffering, having had to chase for a long time and then chase again. I was pretty much hanging on for dear life and hoping I could hang on until the end as I watched the lap cards count down, but I finally got dropped on the second corner of the last lap. I was completely bonking and feeling awful, and the person in front of me let a gap open up and got dropped herself so I just had no chance of getting up enough energy to bridge even two bikelengths to stay with the group. I still finished, but I was probably 30-60 seconds behind the pack by that time.
Anyway, I was pretty pleased that I had finished, because it was a really hard race AND it was my 4th of the weekend. I rolled back to the car and laid down in the back because my head was starting to spin, I was so exhausted. I was also freezing once I stopped moving, having been soaked through for an hour. When I was racing, I didn't notice the chill or even the fact that I was constantly being sprayed in the face with dirty water from other peoples' wheels. When I stopped, I suddenly realized just how miserable I felt and just how thoroughly I had exhausted myself. I actually recovered surprisingly fast, though it took me a while to get warm (I did change into dry clothes immediately).
I was a little disappointed that I hadn't managed to finish with the pack, but I still feel like I did pretty well. I was happy that my contributions helped the team, because ME got 2nd in the field sprint (7th overall), so even though I burned up all of my energy helping my chase group catch the pack, I helped a teammate do well, and that's what teamwork is all about! Also it was a really strong field, including a number of TIBCO ladies, a few other fast ladies I'm less familiar with, and even Shelley Evans (formerly Olds), whose most famous recent victory was at the Tour of New Zealand this year, as well as winning this race. So I guess I feel pretty okay about being dropped by such fast women.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Apple Pie Criterium 4/10/2010
I did two races yesterday, first the W3/4 and then the W1/2/3 in the afternoon. The weather was cloudy and about 50 degrees, with a bit of wind, though it rained during Jose's Cat 2 race.
Category: W3/4
Field Size: 44
Length: 40 minutes
Teammates: Josie
Place: 2nd
The course was a 0.7 mile loop in an office park, with a bunch of turns. There were two right turns, then a left turn followed by a gentle right curve, then a right, a longer straight section with a slight shift to the left, then a final right into the finishing stretch. The race was scheduled at 45 minutes, but because they were running a bit late because of some crashes earlier, they shortened it to 40 minutes. It was a very large field, the largest by far that I'd been part of, so it made the race a little harder for me because positioning became more important. Unfortunately, at the start line, the person in front of me didn't start well, I think she had trouble clipping in or something, I just know that she was stopped two feet past the start line and I had to go around her and ended up in the back of the pack. Because of the abundance of corners, it was hard to move up in the pack because in order to move up you usually had to be on the right of the pack, but then on the corners, if you were on the inside then you're most likely have to give way and slow down in order to not get crunched by the pack taking the corner too tight. People weren't holding their lines very well, so it seemed pretty dangerous to be on the inside of the turns, and I didn't want to crash. As a result, I pretty much stayed in the middle and the back the whole race. With the huge field and some sketchy riding, being aggressive didn't seem to be worth the risk of crashing. I moved up to about halfway through the pack with 2 laps to go, and I made my move on the straight right before the last corner. I attacked on the right and then joined with the group that was attacking on the left. We came around the corner and I was probably about in 5th or 6th. The sprint was a decent length, and I had enough time to get up to speed and pass almost everyone for 2nd place. The finish was much closer than most of the races I've done, with me a half bike behind Beth in 1st and Juliette in 3rd a half bike behind me.
I was a little disappointed at my failure to move up through the pack during the race, but I guess that just means I need a little more practice and some more confidence. I was very pleased to get 2nd, especially considering that it's a miracle I was able to move up in the pack at the last minute. I wasn't feeling great during the race, I think mostly because I've been slightly short on sleep for the past week. I kept going to bed a little later than I should, as well as waking up ridiculously early for no reason.
Category: W1/2/3
Field Size: 30
Length: 45 minutes
Teammates: JVM, ME, Annie, Sam, Josie
Place(s): ?, back of the pack finish for me
I was feeling reasonably well recovered for the second race, since I had enough time to eat and rest some. I went into the race with no expectations, since not only was it a 1/2/3 race but my second race of the day. The pace of the race was very fast, much faster than the 3/4 race, and faster than any other race I'd been in. It made me happy though, because that was how I had thought racing was supposed to be like - working the whole time, keeping the pace up, people attacking all the time, that sort of thing. You know, like a race. Unfortunately, I was feeling a little tired, and I still wary of the corners, because it seemed to me that there was still a fair amount of sketchy riding going on, with a lot of bumping and tight corners. As a result, I stayed all the way in the back the whole time, though this time more on the outsides of the turns instead of the insides. Josie dropped out after a couple of laps, since she was also tired from the previous race. I saw Jen attacking a couple of times, so it was interesting watching how she would move up through the pack in order to come around and attack. There was also a lot more movement within the pack then there usually is in 3/4 races, so seeing that was kind of cool. By the end of the race, it was pretty much all I could do to hang onto the back and finish at the end of the pack. I didn't even see who was sprinting at the front.
There were a lot of crashes over the course of the day, and it seemed like there was a lot of sketchy riding going on in every field. I don't think there was a crash in my W3/4 race, but one person did go down (I didn't see what caused it) in the W1/2/3 race. I saw two crashes happen in the P/1/2 race, and I heard that there had been a number of crashes in the earlier races. I've also heard of many crashes in various races in the past few months, like some big crashes at Snelling, and more recently at Bariani (I saw pictures of huge pile-ups with half the field going down in two different fields), and even at Merco earlier. It's a little scary, and it makes me wonder if bike racing is always like this. It seems like this year has had an unusually high number of crashes, and I'm really hoping that this trend is going to change and people will stop crashing so much.
Category: W3/4
Field Size: 44
Length: 40 minutes
Teammates: Josie
Place: 2nd
The course was a 0.7 mile loop in an office park, with a bunch of turns. There were two right turns, then a left turn followed by a gentle right curve, then a right, a longer straight section with a slight shift to the left, then a final right into the finishing stretch. The race was scheduled at 45 minutes, but because they were running a bit late because of some crashes earlier, they shortened it to 40 minutes. It was a very large field, the largest by far that I'd been part of, so it made the race a little harder for me because positioning became more important. Unfortunately, at the start line, the person in front of me didn't start well, I think she had trouble clipping in or something, I just know that she was stopped two feet past the start line and I had to go around her and ended up in the back of the pack. Because of the abundance of corners, it was hard to move up in the pack because in order to move up you usually had to be on the right of the pack, but then on the corners, if you were on the inside then you're most likely have to give way and slow down in order to not get crunched by the pack taking the corner too tight. People weren't holding their lines very well, so it seemed pretty dangerous to be on the inside of the turns, and I didn't want to crash. As a result, I pretty much stayed in the middle and the back the whole race. With the huge field and some sketchy riding, being aggressive didn't seem to be worth the risk of crashing. I moved up to about halfway through the pack with 2 laps to go, and I made my move on the straight right before the last corner. I attacked on the right and then joined with the group that was attacking on the left. We came around the corner and I was probably about in 5th or 6th. The sprint was a decent length, and I had enough time to get up to speed and pass almost everyone for 2nd place. The finish was much closer than most of the races I've done, with me a half bike behind Beth in 1st and Juliette in 3rd a half bike behind me.
I was a little disappointed at my failure to move up through the pack during the race, but I guess that just means I need a little more practice and some more confidence. I was very pleased to get 2nd, especially considering that it's a miracle I was able to move up in the pack at the last minute. I wasn't feeling great during the race, I think mostly because I've been slightly short on sleep for the past week. I kept going to bed a little later than I should, as well as waking up ridiculously early for no reason.
Category: W1/2/3
Field Size: 30
Length: 45 minutes
Teammates: JVM, ME, Annie, Sam, Josie
Place(s): ?, back of the pack finish for me
I was feeling reasonably well recovered for the second race, since I had enough time to eat and rest some. I went into the race with no expectations, since not only was it a 1/2/3 race but my second race of the day. The pace of the race was very fast, much faster than the 3/4 race, and faster than any other race I'd been in. It made me happy though, because that was how I had thought racing was supposed to be like - working the whole time, keeping the pace up, people attacking all the time, that sort of thing. You know, like a race. Unfortunately, I was feeling a little tired, and I still wary of the corners, because it seemed to me that there was still a fair amount of sketchy riding going on, with a lot of bumping and tight corners. As a result, I stayed all the way in the back the whole time, though this time more on the outsides of the turns instead of the insides. Josie dropped out after a couple of laps, since she was also tired from the previous race. I saw Jen attacking a couple of times, so it was interesting watching how she would move up through the pack in order to come around and attack. There was also a lot more movement within the pack then there usually is in 3/4 races, so seeing that was kind of cool. By the end of the race, it was pretty much all I could do to hang onto the back and finish at the end of the pack. I didn't even see who was sprinting at the front.
There were a lot of crashes over the course of the day, and it seemed like there was a lot of sketchy riding going on in every field. I don't think there was a crash in my W3/4 race, but one person did go down (I didn't see what caused it) in the W1/2/3 race. I saw two crashes happen in the P/1/2 race, and I heard that there had been a number of crashes in the earlier races. I've also heard of many crashes in various races in the past few months, like some big crashes at Snelling, and more recently at Bariani (I saw pictures of huge pile-ups with half the field going down in two different fields), and even at Merco earlier. It's a little scary, and it makes me wonder if bike racing is always like this. It seems like this year has had an unusually high number of crashes, and I'm really hoping that this trend is going to change and people will stop crashing so much.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
At the Velodrome 4/3/2010
For the first time in a while, I didn't race this past weekend. It was nice to have a break. But even though I didn't race, I still spent some time on my bike. Since I had a free Saturday, I finally got to go to another Saturday morning Beginner session at the Hellyer Velodrome. I drove down by myself, which is actually another rare occurrence, since I've still done relatively little driving pretty much ever (since I got my license 4.5 years ago), but I've been practicing by driving to races with Jose to keep an eye on me.
Once at the track, I got ready to ride and realized that it was still quite cold outside, maybe 40 degrees, so warm clothing was required. We started out with a 30-lap single-file warmup at a nice, easy pace, then we did a ribbon ride. The ribbon ride consisted of having someone lead a line of us up and down the velodrome, so we went around a bunch of times and got used to the way our speed changed with the height we were at on the velodrome. For instance, you could be going pretty fast on the inside, but the head to the outer bit on a corner and drop a lot of speed, but then when you came back down to the inside, you'd speed back up with no effort. The ribbon ride was meant to make us all comfortable with this by forcing us up and down every part of the track. After that, we did the bumping drill, so we paired up with a person of similar size and started riding around and bumping shoulders, first on the flat warmup circle and then on the track itself. It's funny because the bumping drill sounds really scary at first, because you're thinking that bumping can lead to crashing, but in a controlled environment it's pretty safe and it's very good practice to see what it feels like to be leaning on someone else and come out of it safely. Since these kind of things can happen unexpectedly in races (both on the track and the road), it's good to practice.
Next, we did some Team Time Trial practice. We split up into groups of four and took turns doing a 6-lap TTT. We weren't doing them at an all-out speed but to practice doing the exchanges. We did an exchange every half lap, on the 1st and 3rd turns. The way an exchange works is that the person in front simply rides straight up the track at the corner instead of following the curve, so that they slow down, and then when the other riders have passed they can use the short drop to re-accelerate into place at the end of the paceline. It turns out that for a 4-person paceline, the timing works out almost exactly right if the person doing the exchange goes all the way to the rail and immediately drops back down, since there are only 3 people passing. For a smaller team, you wouldn't go as far up and drop back down faster, but for a longer group you'd want to stay up for a few moments.
After the TTT practice runs (we did a few), we finished up the session with a couple of practice Keirin races. The Keirin is a very short race that starts with a number of laps (in this case just over 4) that are led by a pace vehicle (traditionally a motorcycle, but in this case just another cyclist). The pacer slowly brings up the speed to something rather fast (this time around 25-26mph), and everyone drafts and maybe tries to change position. The field size is usually small, maybe 6-8 riders, since any more would be too many for this type of race. After 2 laps to go, the pacer pulls of the track into the apron and the race is on. For this reason, it's generally not the best idea to be directly behind the pacer, since when they pull off, you're stuck pulling the pack by yourself, and 1 2/3 laps is a long way to go. Anyway, they asked us to self-select into groups by speed, and since 7 people tried to claim they were one of the 6 fastest, I went for the second group. In my practice race, I was 2nd in line behind the pace vehicle, and took off with 1.5 laps to go and went for a solo victory. I won a little too easily, so when they did one last practice run for the fast group, I joined in for a little challenge. I lined up 3rd in line, but on the first lap the two people in front of me pulled off to the right and I was forced to move up. I'm fairly certain that when they were going over the few rules that there are in the race, that one of the big ones was that if you're leading the pack and in the sprinters lane, you're stuck there and you're not allowed to move right. So that was a little annoying, since then when the pacer pulled off, I was stuck out front. I still managed to sprint for 4th out of 9, but it was more of a challenge, especially since I was a little undergeared and was pretty much spinning out.
Anyway, it was a fun morning. And, I now only need one more Saturday session before I'll be allowed to participate in races at the velodrome, so hopefully I'll be able to get out the track some more and try some real races.
Once at the track, I got ready to ride and realized that it was still quite cold outside, maybe 40 degrees, so warm clothing was required. We started out with a 30-lap single-file warmup at a nice, easy pace, then we did a ribbon ride. The ribbon ride consisted of having someone lead a line of us up and down the velodrome, so we went around a bunch of times and got used to the way our speed changed with the height we were at on the velodrome. For instance, you could be going pretty fast on the inside, but the head to the outer bit on a corner and drop a lot of speed, but then when you came back down to the inside, you'd speed back up with no effort. The ribbon ride was meant to make us all comfortable with this by forcing us up and down every part of the track. After that, we did the bumping drill, so we paired up with a person of similar size and started riding around and bumping shoulders, first on the flat warmup circle and then on the track itself. It's funny because the bumping drill sounds really scary at first, because you're thinking that bumping can lead to crashing, but in a controlled environment it's pretty safe and it's very good practice to see what it feels like to be leaning on someone else and come out of it safely. Since these kind of things can happen unexpectedly in races (both on the track and the road), it's good to practice.
Next, we did some Team Time Trial practice. We split up into groups of four and took turns doing a 6-lap TTT. We weren't doing them at an all-out speed but to practice doing the exchanges. We did an exchange every half lap, on the 1st and 3rd turns. The way an exchange works is that the person in front simply rides straight up the track at the corner instead of following the curve, so that they slow down, and then when the other riders have passed they can use the short drop to re-accelerate into place at the end of the paceline. It turns out that for a 4-person paceline, the timing works out almost exactly right if the person doing the exchange goes all the way to the rail and immediately drops back down, since there are only 3 people passing. For a smaller team, you wouldn't go as far up and drop back down faster, but for a longer group you'd want to stay up for a few moments.
After the TTT practice runs (we did a few), we finished up the session with a couple of practice Keirin races. The Keirin is a very short race that starts with a number of laps (in this case just over 4) that are led by a pace vehicle (traditionally a motorcycle, but in this case just another cyclist). The pacer slowly brings up the speed to something rather fast (this time around 25-26mph), and everyone drafts and maybe tries to change position. The field size is usually small, maybe 6-8 riders, since any more would be too many for this type of race. After 2 laps to go, the pacer pulls of the track into the apron and the race is on. For this reason, it's generally not the best idea to be directly behind the pacer, since when they pull off, you're stuck pulling the pack by yourself, and 1 2/3 laps is a long way to go. Anyway, they asked us to self-select into groups by speed, and since 7 people tried to claim they were one of the 6 fastest, I went for the second group. In my practice race, I was 2nd in line behind the pace vehicle, and took off with 1.5 laps to go and went for a solo victory. I won a little too easily, so when they did one last practice run for the fast group, I joined in for a little challenge. I lined up 3rd in line, but on the first lap the two people in front of me pulled off to the right and I was forced to move up. I'm fairly certain that when they were going over the few rules that there are in the race, that one of the big ones was that if you're leading the pack and in the sprinters lane, you're stuck there and you're not allowed to move right. So that was a little annoying, since then when the pacer pulled off, I was stuck out front. I still managed to sprint for 4th out of 9, but it was more of a challenge, especially since I was a little undergeared and was pretty much spinning out.
Anyway, it was a fun morning. And, I now only need one more Saturday session before I'll be allowed to participate in races at the velodrome, so hopefully I'll be able to get out the track some more and try some real races.
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