Day 1: Time Trials
TTT: The women’s B triple t had many very good moments before its overarching bad one. Andrea Love and I made up the team, since we had the “problem” of having too many women in A’s to form a complete B team (great problem to have!) We started out on the gently rolling course behind the Army 4-person team, not expecting to beat them because of their shear numbers but figured we were guaranteed at least 4th place overall because there were only 4 B teams. Well, we passed Army pretty early on, and with Andrea giving me very nice rests by leading up the hills we made very good time for the first 9 miles of the 12-mile race. Actually, we passed quite a few of the A teams, and the 2 other B teams were several _minutes_ behind us by the time Andrea crashed. It was her first race, and unfortunately turned out to be a terrible start to the season; she hit my rear wheel and went down, breaking her collarbone So sad :( At least all of the other MIT teams did well, and hopefully she recovers quickly!
ITT:
My goal was to win the ITT now that Christina isn’t in my category anymore ;)
This week was slightly less intense on the training than last week, so my legs felt quite fresh in the morning, and I was really hoping I could do it. However, after I finished marshaling I ended up without any time for a warmup (well, rode for 5 minutes on the trainer) and stupidly didn’t eat enough or bring any water with me. So, not ideal, but after the first mile of excruciating pain I settled in and rode as hard as I could. Passed SEVEN women, which made me think that it must have been a great race for me, but a new Dartmouth girl took 1st place instead (she deserved it – super strong nordic skier). Good competition for the future!
Anyway, today turned out pretty well (and extremely well for a number of MIT riders!), but hopefully the rest of the season is crash-free.
Tufts Crit:
This crit was crazy, because it was short and hilly, and they didn't pull very many riders (which was nice, but also made it strange). I didn't write this report at the time so don't have it all fresh in my memory, but I do remember that I was doing very well for a long time in relation to the B women. Then, 3 MIT A women lapped me, and I essentially TT-ed with them for a lap before they dropped me again. It was a physically demanding, painful race, but pretty fun, and I ended up in 3rd place!
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