Tuolumne Crit 4/2 & Sea Otter RR 4/8
A couple races to report on....I'll try not to make this too long.
Tuolumne Township Crit:
On Sunday 4/2 I did this race in Tuolumne, a quiet little town near Sonora, CA up in the Sierra Mountains (Tuolumne Township). The course was over a basic 0.7mi slightly flat set of about three city blocks, all left-hand turns for 30 laps. As not much in the Sierra's is flat, there was a small uphill portion to start, then left and over a small hump, left and back down the hill, then left, and then another quick left back to the start/finish.
The day before (Saturday), I did a hard ride with our Saturday am group for 57 miles total (18.4 avg so my 'puter said), so my legs were pretty much toast going into the race. I was doing this just for fun, however, with absolutely no pressure, so I didn't care. A fellow gal racer had entered and needed a ride, so I went ahead and did it too. She ended up doing AWESOME -- she's a Cat 4 and hung with the 1/2/3 gals the whole race (there were only 10 of us that started -- HUGE field! :p ). I lasted maybe eight laps with them, which I was rather proud of, considering how fast the race was from the start and that I rode hard the day before. After I dropped off the pack, after a bit I got lapped and I was sure the ref's were going to pull me. Well, they didn't -- they let me keep going, sore legs and all. So I basically just turned it into a training ride at high intensity for myself -- 30 laps (21 miles) of pure torture. I ended up being lapped three times, the last time on their last lap. All in all, it was fun and reeeeally painful. Oh, and I got a t-shirt out of it, so I was happy. :p
Sea Otter Classic Amateur RR 4/8:
Yesterday, I did the Sea Otter road race and it was awesome -- painfully awesome, but fun too!! Here's a link to the course description (be patient, it takes a minute to download): Sea Otter RR course map. Check out the profile! I hit my race max speed of 43mph on that first long downhill. Overall, my race stats were: Dist/38.21mi (includes ride back to the parking area), ttime/2:37.03, Avspd/14.6mph (uggh...the hills), mxspd/43mph, calories/1433, avghr/167bpm, mxhr/188bpm. The results page is up already: Sea Otter results. I placed 38th out of 44 finishers. I know that at least one gal cut out early.
I got caught in a little mishap on the neutral lead-out part of the race. The road turned left and narrowed severely. With fifty-odd cyclists at close quarters going around a narrowing corner, you can almost bet something will happen, and it did. I was holding my position and moving up alongside me on the right came another cyclist too close. She hooked my bars and I braced with my weight to the left to avoid her pulling me over. I managed to stay upright but almost touched wheels with the bike to my left as the other gal got unhooked and fell, taking another gal out with her. I started to pause to help, but realized "dummy! this is a race -- you're not her teammate -- GO!". With a chuckle at myself, I took off to catch up to the group. It was around that area, once we got over the initial little hills, that I hit the 43mph. I took it pretty agressively, getting in my tuck & all, and caught everyone else halfway down. Looking back, I saw the other two gals were ok and coming back up too.
At the bottom of that FUN hill (that we had to go back up at the end - OWW!), was the start of the loop that we had to do three times (on the profile link above, the loop is the yellow part). The first hill of the loop we nicknamed "the wall", and it was. I completely out of gears and crawling along at about 5/6mph by the time I got to the top (I don't have a triple, unfortunately). As I haven't been doing much hill training lately, my legs sure felt it and I ended up dropping off soon after this. I couldn't help thinking "I have to climb this monster TWO more times". Uggh.
The rest of the race, I kept trading places with a few gals, and at various times, we worked together. It seemed though, that I was more agressive in the downhill sections and around the corners (more particularly, a FUN s-curve, crit style) and got ahead in these sections, only to be caught again on the hills and eventually dropped near the end of the last lap. I took a long pull in the hills and paid for it. A few times I tried to get them to take over but to no avail. Oh well, that's racing. I'm sure they knew the downhill section was coming up, so they played it smart and made me work. My legs eventually couldn't take anymore. Also, something in the air must not have agreed with my sinuses and lungs, because a few times I was wheezing for air, my lungs and air passages felt like they were closing shut. Not fun. But, I'd recover on the downhills, so it was all good.
The last hill to the finish, was - uh - very hard. It started off fairly mild and then worked up to a monster grade near the top (% unknown - I can check later). My speed was fluctuating around 5mph and I was giving it my all. After racing in mostly hills for the last 35 miles, my legs were pretty much sapped for strength, but I made it up in one piece. The fans were great, very encouraging "good job's" abounded, but one guy very near the top almost got his jaw punched with an earful of expletives when he just wouldn't shut up, running alongside me saying "come on, you can go faster, come on dig, dig, dig, go harder, give it all you've got", and by gawd I WAS, and even told him so. I've never come that close to backhanding a total stranger. Ha! In retrospect, it's funny as h$ll.
Although the hill portions, most of them, were pretty horrendous, I had a total blast, and the downhill sections made the whole thing worth it. I even surprised myself in catching some of the guys from their respective races on a couple downhill sections. Waaay fun. I'm already talking and thinking of next year's race and how I can better prepare (duh -- more hill training, more work on building my thresholds, etc.). Plus, I'll have another whole year of riding and getting stronger under my wheels, so that will help right there.
Oh!! And I saw Adventure Girl, accompanied by her trusty sidekick Adventure Boy -- or rather they saw me. I heard my name said from right behind me on the bridge to the expo area, looked behind, and there she was! Way cool -- and good to see ya, AG. Hope you had fun looking around.
If anyone else can get to the Sea Otter in future years, I'd recommend going. It's cyclist heaven. Hopefully, though, they can bring more pro road events back. One of the locals I ride with during the winter months races with the pro's and he was extremely disappointed that all they offered was a slightly boring circuit race around the track. All-in-all though -- an excellent day.
Take care everyone & thanks for reading....:)
Downhills rule!! :p
~BikeMomma
