Last race of the week. On the roads in the infield of Churchill Downs. Interesting location...sort of cool, but at the same time not. You can't even see the roads we were racing on from the "real" race course. But a nice closed course, wide roads and easy turns made for a tactical course rather than a technical one. Of course, with 9 of us and only 1 team with 2 members in the field, tactics weren't quite the order of the day either.
When we arrived at the parking area, things were a bit confusing but we sorted it all out. The bad part was getting there just as they were taking someone from the 35-39 field out by ambulance....never the sort of thing you want to see at a race. Rode to the infield to check out the situation and found Robin, Leslie J & Wendy. Leslie J had gotten taken down at the finish by the women sent off to hospital. Leslie was banged up with ice on hip, hand, elbow and a bloody nose. Bike not so good - busted zipp 404, busted front brake (caliper was no longer attached to the head tube), busted saddle, and given the situation with the brake, a suspect fork.... Hard to enjoy the silver medal after that.
We had nine signed up for ours. Small fields can be problematic. Generally you don't have to sweat safety as much, but they can be hard. We did 40 laps, even though the original info said we were to do 39. What's one more lap?
Michelle Scharf, Peachtree Bikes out of Atlanta, went practically from the whistle, getting a gap right away. After a couple of laps, I decided I'd try for the solo bridge. No trouble getting a gap on the field but I just couldn't get enough out of my legs to get up to her, so I sat up. I knew I'd pay for that early effort, even with a warm up, my body tends to prefer such efforts much later in the race. I was racing with some fools though, they responded when Tracy Tolson looked around and said "who's going to chase that down?" by chasing after Michelle. My answer would have been: "You want to keep the stars-and-stripes jersey, you go get it."
Michelle got reeled in and the race went on relatively quietly for a bit. Then Tracy, who'd spent no energy thus far, made her move with Tamara Bessette joining in. I was still recovering at the back of the field and the responding surge left me behind the chase. I didn't panic. I rode hard and waited to see what developed.
Ended up with a mostly useless rider on my wheel, she tried to help but every time she went to the front the pace dropped off a good bit. I only did it when I was really feeling the need to catch a little recovery. I could hear the commentary and knew that soon Tracy and Tamara would be coming up on us...it definitely sounded like they would eventually lap the entire field so I made my plan to get back to where I belonged....with the primary field.
The moto came around us and I got ready. T & T came along, warning which side they were passing on and I jumped on quickly. No problem sticking with them. I told them that I would work if they wanted me to, otherwise, I'd just stay out of their way. No response. I think that they couldn't believe that I was able to stay with them. Guess they've never had their race legs arrive a few laps into the race before....
My plan worked and we arrived at the primary field. Now I at least had a fair chance at a bronze medal. The catch was made coming into the finishing stretch and we hadn't even made it to turn one when suddenly disaster struck. I saw a bike a couple in front of me waver...no reason why that I could see. That bike caught Tamara's front wheel...down she went. I was on her wheel, but moved right, swerving around her while the rider who'd been to my left (Webcor) slammed into her and went down.
Tracy had been ahead of the crash so she took advantage of the situation, gapping the rest of us again. I tried to get to her, but just didn't have enough, neither did Michelle. The two of us worked hard anyway, trying to close the gap. The officials botched it when they returned the crashed riders to the field, returning them to Tracy's wheel instead of the back of the main group.
Personally no issue with Tamara being put in up with Tracy, she had the silver medal at least but deserved a shot at the gold. But no one else should have gotten that. And to be precise about it, neither should have Tamara, but like I said, I got no issue with that.
By the time it all shook out, some Wells Fargo woman ended up between T & T and me & Michelle. Don't know how that happened as so far as I know she was in the group T, T & I caught before the crash and she certainly didn't bridge up to Tracy, she'd have had to come around me & Michelle and I know we wouldn't have missed that happening. Maybe she got tangled up in the crash and got put back in with Tamara and the woman from Webcor.
So in the end Michelle and I were working hard for the other two medals. I botched the finish, responding a hair too late when Michelle jumped going into the final pair of turns (almost a single 180 but not quite). I came damn close to closing the gap but couldn't quite catch her before we got to the line. Close enough to be assigned the same time. :-)
The officials said that our race was the fastest of the day. We had a dry course, which was not true for the earlier races (some of whom raced in the rain) but got a lot of Kentucky wind in our race. Somehow I didn't expect it to be windy here, but it sure is.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Nationals RR
After the TT, we ate at the buffet at the host casino, Ceasar's Horseshoe. Decent buffet for a decent price. By the time we're done, Kay & Jeff are just packing up the tandem. They've managed to repeat their bronze medal...beating those who beat them last year but new competition snuck in ahead of them. Still a good job!
After chilling for a bit, we drive over to check out the road race course. It doesn't look good for me at all. The car is down-shifting on the hills....bad sign for a non-climber whose just buried herself in a TT. Oh well, do it anyway. The park is beautiful and the course is in decent condition for the most part.
Get there with lots of time but can't get focused. Don't want to get on the trainer. Walk over to Wendy who should be on the course but isn't. She decided to be a DNF instead of DFL. The opposite mentality of mine. I can't bring myself to quit, no matter how badly I'm doing. She can't stay in if she's not in contention. So we know ourselves and act accordingly.
Eventually I roll around some, but not a lot. I ride to the start line when there aren't any racers coming through and wait around to see how it goes. Leslie Jennings finishes 2nd in her race. They send the 40-44s off and call us to the line. Then have us stand around for 7 minutes while they get confused about whether or not we're all on the line. Tracy (Huber) Tolson shows up with fresh legs. We look at each other and know who is going to win the race.
I make it through the first lap without getting totally kicked, but that's about it. The climbs are for climbers, not for sprinters...and my legs are too damn tired to push the big ring up them to keep up. Oh well. Maybe fresh legged I would have done better. Still I finish, riding with two other women who both ride away from me on the climbs on the final lap. Such is life. No surprise Tracy did indeed win it.
Hopefully the crit will be good.... but I'm finishing this up on crit morning and it's raining. Rained a lot overnight but the radar picture looks to be clearing so should be done raining and well into drying up by my 12:15 race.
After chilling for a bit, we drive over to check out the road race course. It doesn't look good for me at all. The car is down-shifting on the hills....bad sign for a non-climber whose just buried herself in a TT. Oh well, do it anyway. The park is beautiful and the course is in decent condition for the most part.
Get there with lots of time but can't get focused. Don't want to get on the trainer. Walk over to Wendy who should be on the course but isn't. She decided to be a DNF instead of DFL. The opposite mentality of mine. I can't bring myself to quit, no matter how badly I'm doing. She can't stay in if she's not in contention. So we know ourselves and act accordingly.
Eventually I roll around some, but not a lot. I ride to the start line when there aren't any racers coming through and wait around to see how it goes. Leslie Jennings finishes 2nd in her race. They send the 40-44s off and call us to the line. Then have us stand around for 7 minutes while they get confused about whether or not we're all on the line. Tracy (Huber) Tolson shows up with fresh legs. We look at each other and know who is going to win the race.
I make it through the first lap without getting totally kicked, but that's about it. The climbs are for climbers, not for sprinters...and my legs are too damn tired to push the big ring up them to keep up. Oh well. Maybe fresh legged I would have done better. Still I finish, riding with two other women who both ride away from me on the climbs on the final lap. Such is life. No surprise Tracy did indeed win it.
Hopefully the crit will be good.... but I'm finishing this up on crit morning and it's raining. Rained a lot overnight but the radar picture looks to be clearing so should be done raining and well into drying up by my 12:15 race.
Nationals TT
Ok, so this is a few days late, but hey, it's been a busy week already. The drive out to Louisville was nice. A peaceful umpteen hours mostly on cruise control through the hills of Western Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to get to River City (aka Louisville). Only downcheck for the drive was dinner. Visited a regional chain called O'Charley's cause it's something we don't have back home and it was handy off the Interstate and it was getting late. Probably would have been good except the food arrived at the table room temperature. I ordered a baked pasta dish and got a plate of tossed pasta that was room temperature with a handful (literally) of still warm shrimp. No baked pasta at all... and I had ordered it in part because I thought that a baked pasta would have to arrive hot by the nature of its preparation. Someone needs to learn how to cook what's on the menu there....which reminds me, I think I should visit their website and log a complaint. The manager didn't charge us for anything but the appetizer, which had been served hot and was quite tasty.
On Sunday, we took at easy, no rush to get out the door. I checked in with Jeff and Kay. They were headed over at about 9am. I was looking at more like an 11 am time frame. Ended up pre-riding the course with Wendy and Robin. Nice course. Windy out there though. In fact it's been windy every day here. After the pre-ride, we head in to town to do the packet pick up thing. Need to eat sends us to a restaurant in the hotel for a late lunch. Good food and it turns out that Tom Vinson (USAC) and the Chief Ref are sitting at the next table. After we're done eating I stop to introduce myself and we chat for a bit.
Packet pickup goes without a hitch. I notice that USAC has decided not to enforce the rule about the height of the turned up ends of TT bars as I see plenty of folks with those tips sitting above their saddles being told their bikes are fine. Bad news, they want frame numbers on the TT bikes. But they won't fine us if they're on the seat tube.
Race morning goes just fine. Up and out to the course reasonably on time. Daniel and Rhonda arrived just before us. We set up the canopy for both of us to use and leave it for Jeff and Kay to use for their warm up as well. The warm up does its usually job of getting the crappy feeling of the first few shots into Z4 out of the way. I debate about the disc wheel because it's so windy, but decide to go for it anyway. Maybe I should have used the deep rim.... I'll never know.
In the chute, bike check no problem up course. I chat with the official briefly. These folks all know Jim Patton. Into the start house and wait for my hold. Hold started out seeming ok, but by 10 seconds to go, it was feeling unstable and leaning to my right and the short steep ramp is making me very nervous. I almost bail out of the hold but suck it up. We hit zero and I start to pedal but something doesn't feel right and I just hang there for a second and then I'm on this steep ramp with no momentum, no real motion at all, and thus no balance. Off center from the lean of the hold, I go down the ramp at an angle, come off it before the end into large loose gravel. I go down...cursing as it happens. Instinctively, I roll so that I take the fall on the back of my left hip. I feel the gravel as it scrapes my left calf. I get up in a rage, cursing and knowing that this error has cost me a medal. I'm off and flying as fast as possible.
Not surprisingly, Lorraine passes me fairly quickly, as most of the 30 seconds between her and me was used up in the mishap. She shouts encouragement as she goes by. Later she would tell me that from her perspective in the start house, my mishap was "horrific." I struggle to shut out the pain in my calf, which is bleeding, and my hip and find my rhythm. Gotta settle in. Gotta calm down, focus and settle in.
The road has lots of bends in it and little rises here and there but for the most part I keep Lorraine in sight. And then the positive stuff starts happening. There are other riders in sight, riders to catch and pass. I botch the turn around, too narrow, should have spent a lot of time practicing the U-turn, but mostly I think I was hesitant because of the mishap at the start. But Lorraine is not that far ahead. I keep going hard. Sometimes the wind gusts from the side, pushing me toward the center line. Maybe the disc was a mistake...too late now. Finally I don't feel the pain in my calf any more. I continue to drive the pedals. Good rhythm, good steady effort.
By the time I reach the finish line, I've managed to close the gap on Lorraine some, but of course I can't get back the time lost at the start. I roll around for a bit then return to the tent. I talk myself into spinning out for a bit but the pain has now returned so that doesn't last too long. I wash off my calf. Time to change and pack up. 6th... f'ing 6th. Ok, not bad given the situation, but I definitely would have been on the podium had the start gone smoothly.
I don't get why they had such a sucky ramp. Last year's ramp was awesome. The year before's was horrible. You'd think they could get some consistency going. To be honest, why do they bother with a ramp? Most of us don't see a ramp for a TT outside of Nationals...why not skip the ramp? This will certainly be my recommendation. Go ahead, use a ramp for the Elites...they probably see a lot of ramps in stage races and stuff. Let us poor old masters just start on the pavement like we do the rest of the time.
The woman who won my age group is a TTer...doesn't do anything else to speak of. So that's cool...sort of. I accept that there are those who simply don't want to do pack racing, but really, you aren't a true road racer if you don't pack race. I could probably do better at TTs if that was all I did, but I'll stick with the whole package. I'll keep suffering through Road Races and enjoying Crits as well as doing TTs.
The big question now is can I have a higher training peak for Church Creek in August?
On Sunday, we took at easy, no rush to get out the door. I checked in with Jeff and Kay. They were headed over at about 9am. I was looking at more like an 11 am time frame. Ended up pre-riding the course with Wendy and Robin. Nice course. Windy out there though. In fact it's been windy every day here. After the pre-ride, we head in to town to do the packet pick up thing. Need to eat sends us to a restaurant in the hotel for a late lunch. Good food and it turns out that Tom Vinson (USAC) and the Chief Ref are sitting at the next table. After we're done eating I stop to introduce myself and we chat for a bit.
Packet pickup goes without a hitch. I notice that USAC has decided not to enforce the rule about the height of the turned up ends of TT bars as I see plenty of folks with those tips sitting above their saddles being told their bikes are fine. Bad news, they want frame numbers on the TT bikes. But they won't fine us if they're on the seat tube.
Race morning goes just fine. Up and out to the course reasonably on time. Daniel and Rhonda arrived just before us. We set up the canopy for both of us to use and leave it for Jeff and Kay to use for their warm up as well. The warm up does its usually job of getting the crappy feeling of the first few shots into Z4 out of the way. I debate about the disc wheel because it's so windy, but decide to go for it anyway. Maybe I should have used the deep rim.... I'll never know.
In the chute, bike check no problem up course. I chat with the official briefly. These folks all know Jim Patton. Into the start house and wait for my hold. Hold started out seeming ok, but by 10 seconds to go, it was feeling unstable and leaning to my right and the short steep ramp is making me very nervous. I almost bail out of the hold but suck it up. We hit zero and I start to pedal but something doesn't feel right and I just hang there for a second and then I'm on this steep ramp with no momentum, no real motion at all, and thus no balance. Off center from the lean of the hold, I go down the ramp at an angle, come off it before the end into large loose gravel. I go down...cursing as it happens. Instinctively, I roll so that I take the fall on the back of my left hip. I feel the gravel as it scrapes my left calf. I get up in a rage, cursing and knowing that this error has cost me a medal. I'm off and flying as fast as possible.
Not surprisingly, Lorraine passes me fairly quickly, as most of the 30 seconds between her and me was used up in the mishap. She shouts encouragement as she goes by. Later she would tell me that from her perspective in the start house, my mishap was "horrific." I struggle to shut out the pain in my calf, which is bleeding, and my hip and find my rhythm. Gotta settle in. Gotta calm down, focus and settle in.
The road has lots of bends in it and little rises here and there but for the most part I keep Lorraine in sight. And then the positive stuff starts happening. There are other riders in sight, riders to catch and pass. I botch the turn around, too narrow, should have spent a lot of time practicing the U-turn, but mostly I think I was hesitant because of the mishap at the start. But Lorraine is not that far ahead. I keep going hard. Sometimes the wind gusts from the side, pushing me toward the center line. Maybe the disc was a mistake...too late now. Finally I don't feel the pain in my calf any more. I continue to drive the pedals. Good rhythm, good steady effort.
By the time I reach the finish line, I've managed to close the gap on Lorraine some, but of course I can't get back the time lost at the start. I roll around for a bit then return to the tent. I talk myself into spinning out for a bit but the pain has now returned so that doesn't last too long. I wash off my calf. Time to change and pack up. 6th... f'ing 6th. Ok, not bad given the situation, but I definitely would have been on the podium had the start gone smoothly.
I don't get why they had such a sucky ramp. Last year's ramp was awesome. The year before's was horrible. You'd think they could get some consistency going. To be honest, why do they bother with a ramp? Most of us don't see a ramp for a TT outside of Nationals...why not skip the ramp? This will certainly be my recommendation. Go ahead, use a ramp for the Elites...they probably see a lot of ramps in stage races and stuff. Let us poor old masters just start on the pavement like we do the rest of the time.
The woman who won my age group is a TTer...doesn't do anything else to speak of. So that's cool...sort of. I accept that there are those who simply don't want to do pack racing, but really, you aren't a true road racer if you don't pack race. I could probably do better at TTs if that was all I did, but I'll stick with the whole package. I'll keep suffering through Road Races and enjoying Crits as well as doing TTs.
The big question now is can I have a higher training peak for Church Creek in August?
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