My goals for the season were: 1) Upgrade to Category 3 by the end of the racing season 2) Top 10 at the Mt. Evans Hill Climb and 3) Win the CO state criterium championship race at Longmont. Yeah, a little ambitious, but why not?
My training objectives were: 1) Improve power 2) Improve criterium racing skills 3) Learn how to stage race 4) Improve sprinting technique 5) Quick recovery during races/rides.
With a little help from Joe Friel's The Cyclist's Training Bible and some great mentoring by Twin Peaks teammates, especially Dave Botchek and Karl Pelletier, I was confident that this could be a breakthrough season for me.
I had come off of the 2009 season with my first podium finish in a Cat 3/4 race, the Primal/Hart criterium, my first race on my new Pinarello. I got 3rd and it felt great. I had fallen in love with crits from my very first one, Twin Peaks' own race, the Longmont Criterium. I had been fearful of them prior to this and only entered because it was free, well, I ended up 5th, and was hopelessly hooked from that moment on. Hence my goals for 2010 being primarily criterium-focused: I was determined to get better at this fast, exciting, adrenaline-filled, and strategy-focused style of racing. I wasn't good at sprinting, but between Karl's coaching on sprint form, Dave's constant guidance on power training and pushing bigger gears, and some great power training workouts at Peak to Peak Training Systems indoor training studio, by the time March came around, it was game on.
Every race has a story- many stories actually, different for everyone. In an effort to learn from each and every race I did this season and progress myself as an athlete and a competitor, I took notes after every race with the goal of consolidating them at the end of the season so I had something concrete to look at. This is my story of 2010.
Race #1: 4/17: Haystack Time Trial
This race was a junkshow and a half. I made the mistake of drinking too much before over a rabid game of bowling (don't ask) and showed up to the race 20 minutes before my start time. I wasn't too stoked about this race anyways as I really dislike time trials, and my team time trial pretty much fell apart as one of my teammates was wavering over whether or not to race, then my other teammate got sick and couldn't make it up so I was going to jump on to the other team, then last minute the wavering teammate decided to do it, so there were going to be two of us, the whole thing was just a catastrophe anyways, so I decided, hell, why not have some beer?
I rushed up to registration to collect my number and the guy at reg says "you might wanna try showing up a little earlier next time." Yeah, ya think?? Then I jump on my bike and head to the start. Totally forgot to pump my tyres, and spent the whole race wondering why I felt like I was going backwards? I blamed it on the hangover and kept pushing through. Then after the race was over I realised my tyres were at 60 psi. D'oh.
Fast forward to the TTT in the afternoon. It had started raining... no, raining was an understatement. It was pouring, coming down in sheets. Emily and I headed to the starting line quite possibly wearing everything we had. Being as it was Emily's first race ever I started out pulling while poor Emily took a beating from all the shit coming off my tyres. Then it was her turn to pull and I got sandblasted with gravel, water, mud, and everything else. Mag chloride does not taste extremely good, I wouldn't recommend it.
Despite the rain, the race was fun, and we kept rubber to the road which is always important.
Lessons learned: 1) don't go out drinking the night before a race, 2) show up early, 3) pump your tyres. Ah, early season.
Emily and I making the best of the weather.
Race #2: 4/29: Subaru Spring Criterium
My first crit of the year! I was sooooo excited! Not to mention it would be my first race with my teammate/bestie Jen Moehring, who had just moved back to CO after spending a year living in Kentucky. She was one of the people who first got me interested in bike racing, we trained well together over the early spring, and we couldn't wait to finally race together as teammates.
Well, I had driven the course the day before and it was a relatively safe, easy course. Four corners, one downhill stretch, one uphill stretch. Nothing too sketchy at all save two potholes that could be easily avoided by picking the right line. So when I contemplated racing with my arm and leg warmers just in case I go down, I shrugged it off. It's a safe course, I'm confident in my handling skills, no way am I going down. Famous last words.
About halfway into the race Jen and I got into a breakaway with two girls from other teams. We had Deb blocking for us back in the pack, and we were soon working together like an efficient machine, taking short pulls and gaining time on the pack. I was pretty sure with Jen and me in the break together that we could attack with 2 or 3 laps to go and get one of us across the line first.
Then it happened. I had just taken a pull and rotated to the back. We were on the downhill stretch and a gusty wind had come up, buffeting us around a bit. For some reason that will remain unknown, the girl in front of Jen slammed on her brakes. Yes, the cardinal no-no of riding in a paceline. Jen had to brake to avoid her, and me being third in line had nowhere to go. I slammed into the back of Jen's bike and started fishtailing out of control. I was in the drops so I tried to throw my weight back as I felt my rear wheel coming up off the ground. For a second I thought I could save it. Then as my wheel came up over my head I gave in. I thought, I'm going down, but it's going to be ok. I wasn't scared, and I was loose and relaxed as I flew off my bike, landed on my chest, and scorpioned down the road at 30 mph.
I immediately got up and ran over to my bike as I knew there was only about a minute between us and the rest of the pack, and I didn't want to make anyone else go down. I grabbed my bike and hauled it off the road as I heard my friend Becky Serratoni at the front of the pack call out to see if I was ok. I think I said yes, and next thing I knew Jen was at my side. She had seen me go down out of the corner of her eye, apparently it looked pretty bad so she pulled out of the race to get me to an ambulance. She said "ARE YOU OK??" and the first thing out of my mouth was "I think I ripped my tit off!" My right nipple took the brunt of the crash and it burned like hellfire and damnation. After we had a good laugh I looked inside my jersey and confirmed that yes, my breast was intact. Whew.
Next thing was my bike... miraculously it looked ok. I think my adrenaline was still flowing like wine as Jen and I got back on our bikes and kept racing. Since I crashed just inside the free lap cutoff they wouldn't give us a free lap and so we were essentially out of the race, but we finished anyways. I looked like raw hamburger and was starting to feel really sore, but I got out lucky. No major damage to me or the bike. We would heal, and live to race another day. First major road crash, check.
Lessons learned: 1) probably not a good idea to draft 2 inches off the tyre in front of you in case someone slams their breaks you have more than half a second to react 2) never EVER hit your brakes in a pack... no I wasn't the one that did it, but it was a painful reminder and I have been way more aware of this since this happened 3) pay attention to pre-race premonitions?
Jen and I leading the charge on the breakaway, pre-crash.
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