Easterns – UNH
4/28-4/29/12
TTT: I
originally wasn’t going to race the TTT, since the women needed to practice
with their Nationals team of 4; however, Laura decided to rest in order to
recover from a knee injury, so I got to take her place! As the weakest rider, it
seemed I would sit in the entire time then be dropped on the final finishing hill,
thus contributing nothing to the team. Instead, we decided I could give some
hard pulls on the first half of the course (which had more of the downhill and
flat sections), then drop off if need be later on. This turned out to be a good
strategy; after a rough start to the race (someone dropped her chain at the
very beginning), we flew the first half of the course – I reached my new max
speed record of 49.0 mph! After some decent pulls and once I could tell everyone
would have to wait for me on the next hills, I dropped off, and the team won by
over 2 minutes.
Road Race:
This was
my best road race ever. I upgraded to A’s finally (after 14 complete weekends =
~42 races as a B!) but figured it would be pretty embarrassing, seeing as I
usually am dropped off the main group on one of the first climbs; that was OK
when I was still mid-pack in B’s, but would feel worse as back-of-the-group in
A’s. Last year at this race, I was dropped after 8 miles (20 mile loop, 3 laps,
fairly hilly) so hoped to at least do better than that.
Well, the first time up the hill, Katie and Yuri went hard
and broke away, really stringing out the rest of us. I slid toward the back but
then pushed very hard over the crest and through the next section and managed
to get back on (incidentally setting my new 3 minute through 8 minute power
record). After that initial surge, we continued to set a pretty good pace, but
I definitely had no problem staying with the group. I kept worrying that next
time up the hill they would drop me, but I guess everyone else was tired too,
since we never went quite that hard again.
We did let 3 strong girls get away, and we were very
disorganized and couldn’t manage to chase them back quickly; there was about 10
miles where a couple people tried to teach the rest of the pack how to form an
efficient paceline, and some frustrating moments when it seemed like only a
couple of us would do any work, and thus we failed to get them back even though
at least a couple of us could have probably stayed with them if we caught up.
Heading into the final lap, no one would do any work, so I
sat on the front and ate a gel and drank a bottle, which was really good; I
only consumed around 400 calories during the entire race (and expended 2100kJ),
so without that little boost then I definitely would have bonked. There were
around 12 of us left at the final lap, and I decided to attack after a very
sharp left-hand corner with 3 miles to go; the finish rose after an uphill, and
in such an uphill sprint I would probably lose.
I made my attack and time-trialed into a very strong headwind
on a false flat. It felt excruciating, my legs were pretty dead after 57 miles,
and I was certain everyone would catch back on. (The time-trial position did
feel pretty good, though, since my double-wrapped yellow handlebar tape felt
pretty plush). Coming past the 1k to go sign at 60.0 miles (ahh! I thought it
was only 60.0 total!!), Leslie and another girl rode past me, and I reached a
sort of physical/mental breaking point. I pushed as hard as I could into the
finish and ended up 6th/37 A+B finishers, exhausted and totally
elated to have done my best.
Crit:
My legs felt less tired than expected for the crit, possibly
because of the tapering/peaking. It was mostly a test of how close I could get
with other sketchy riders without crashing around corners – more fear than
fitness. Our plan was to organize leadouts for the primes and finish, with me
pulling hard on the back and side stretch, then Katie coming around, then Yuri
and Chris sprinting it through. The course consisted of 4 left-hand corners
with a strong headwind into the finish and a bit of an uphill after the first
turn. I didn’t position myself correctly for all of the primes, but luckily our
women succeeded in capturing most of the prime points without me; the leadout
did work for #2 and #4, which was really fun – I’ve never really been part of a
strategy that I successfully managed to execute! A big crash on the turn right
before the finish slowed me down (almost crashed into the hay bale, but didn’t
fall, thank goodness), so I didn’t place well, but overall it was ok.
 |
| Prime Leadout Train |
This has been a fantastic season. Now that I’m not getting
dropped in every single race, cycling races are so much more fun! I think I’m
going to take a bit of a break from triathlon training (though will probably
still do some running and open-water swimming, since I like to) and hopefully
do even more riding.
