Little City Stage Race is absolutely beautiful. And, I definitely plan on doing this race next year. The Criterium takes place in the charming little town of Minden, NV -population 3,000. The crit is not very technical with a long stretch along the start line, and on the back side of the course, with one small chicane just before the final spring across the finish line. The time trial is not bad either (approximately 5 miles of downhill rollers followed by a turn around and 5 miles of uphill rollers). The TT is located about 25 minutes from the crit; so, driving to the TT is a must.
Criterium
The race organizers decided on the line, by show of hands, whether the cat 3/4 women would be racing with the handful of Cat 1/2s that showed up. We voted to race together! And, off we went. The race was a nice medium pace. Stayed around 25-28 mph most of the time. Definitely not hard to sit in. And, I sat in with a vengeance. I didn't know what to expect since this was my first race in the category 3s, and I had never done this course before. So, I conserved my energy and stayed in good placement (top 15 wheels most of the time). The race was straight forward. No breaks since all the attempts were half-hearted at best. Final lap I realize that I had let my position slip a little. I happened to be fourth wheel on the left side of the peloton, which was not the best placement. The pack had swelled across the whole road, since the pace had slowed. And, I should have been sitting on the right side to be on the inside of the corners. Through the next 3 corners I slipped farther and farther back. Coming out of the final corner I realize that I am somewhere between 15th and 20th wheel from the front. By the time I even came out of the corner the leaders are at least a hundred yards in front of me. So, I stand up and sprint like there's no tomorrow. I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Placing 16th gives me zero advantage going into the time trial. I sprinted for the whole straight away coming out of the last turn (at least 400 meters). And, to my surprise I was gaining on the leaders in a huge way. With this encouragement I lit my fire and pulled with all my strength on the pedals. Result: 2nd in category 3/4. And, third or fourth overall in category 1,2,3,4s. I think I have the legs of Greipel. Well, maybe not quite.
Time Trial
A couple hours later I prepared for the Time Trial. I added some flimsy aero bars to my road bike, knowing that I hadn't ridden my TT position in 3 months. The timing of the race was tricky because it was hard to eat anything of substance between my races. So I shoveled some potato chips and blueberries down my throat, and left my sammich for later. It was also tricky planning how to warm up since I didn't want to waste too much energy before the T.T. And, it was also deadly hot. I decided to do my normal warm-up of 50 minutes. The heat made me drowsy, so I stopped in between warming up to take 5 minute cat naps on my bars. After cinching on my aero helmet and lending me his disc cover Chris dowses me in cold water to beat the heat.
Two minutes before taking my place at the start line I discover I'm hungry. Great. If I eat something I'm gonna feel like I'm going to hurl. And, if I don't eat anything I will feel hungry the entire race and not be able to put down the power. Hunger wins. I grab a gu and force it down my parched throat just in time to take my place at the start. I take off with a good steady pace, and look down to realize my power data is nonexistent. "Oh well," I think and shrug it off. I'll just have to pace myself by feel. I see my minute wo-man off in the distance after about 3 miles. "Good, I'm gaining on her," I think internally with devious joy. From then on I tried to pace off of my minute woman, while trying to slowly gain on her. I did well for the first 7 miles, and then my pace started backing off as my quads started hurting during the hillier portion of the race. I push on. One mile to go, a torrential down pour starts, with huge winds making my disc cover into a sail propelling me sideways across the road. Thank goodness I'm almost done. The finish line catches me by surprise since I thought there was another mile of road left before the finish. Silly me. I push to the finish line and jump into the car drenched. Result: 9th.
Two minutes before taking my place at the start line I discover I'm hungry. Great. If I eat something I'm gonna feel like I'm going to hurl. And, if I don't eat anything I will feel hungry the entire race and not be able to put down the power. Hunger wins. I grab a gu and force it down my parched throat just in time to take my place at the start. I take off with a good steady pace, and look down to realize my power data is nonexistent. "Oh well," I think and shrug it off. I'll just have to pace myself by feel. I see my minute wo-man off in the distance after about 3 miles. "Good, I'm gaining on her," I think internally with devious joy. From then on I tried to pace off of my minute woman, while trying to slowly gain on her. I did well for the first 7 miles, and then my pace started backing off as my quads started hurting during the hillier portion of the race. I push on. One mile to go, a torrential down pour starts, with huge winds making my disc cover into a sail propelling me sideways across the road. Thank goodness I'm almost done. The finish line catches me by surprise since I thought there was another mile of road left before the finish. Silly me. I push to the finish line and jump into the car drenched. Result: 9th.
Road Race
That night I researched the riders I was riding against all day. I felt good. And, I knew that I could take home some points at the road race. When the results came out for the day I was sitting in a comfy third place overall. I schemed of how to win the Road Race so that I could take second overall in the GC. This was not to happen.
My team mate and boyfriend got a massive tooth infection, swelling up the whole left side of his face so that when we awoke in the morning he squinted out of his right eye at me and asked, "Can we go to the hospital, please?" I almost sarcastically said, "Take a cab to the ER." I was super excited about the possibility of podiuming for my first stage race as a cat 3. But, when thought out, I knew he would need someone to make all the important medical decisions (such as calling every dentist in town for advice), or at the very least drive him to the pharmacy.
On the up side, small town Emergency Rooms are very quiet and hardly anything happens of interest. So, when we showed up with Chris's face blown up to the size of a melon, the nurses gleefully smiled and showed him to a doctor's room immediately.
My team mate and boyfriend got a massive tooth infection, swelling up the whole left side of his face so that when we awoke in the morning he squinted out of his right eye at me and asked, "Can we go to the hospital, please?" I almost sarcastically said, "Take a cab to the ER." I was super excited about the possibility of podiuming for my first stage race as a cat 3. But, when thought out, I knew he would need someone to make all the important medical decisions (such as calling every dentist in town for advice), or at the very least drive him to the pharmacy.
On the up side, small town Emergency Rooms are very quiet and hardly anything happens of interest. So, when we showed up with Chris's face blown up to the size of a melon, the nurses gleefully smiled and showed him to a doctor's room immediately.