Of course I procrastinated working on my bike till the morning of the race and was changing tires and dialing in my shifting (by hanging my bike off of the clothesline in my backyard at 10:45 the morning of the race.) I then raced into San Rafael, registered and found Niki... in the back of an ambulance getting her arms shot full of benadryl for the bee sting she sustained on her TONGUE while warming up. What a bummer, I was looking forward to racing with her and an almost complete team (this was only possible, because I didn't end up racing much this summer, in fact my last crit was Cat's Hill crit, back in...May? This fact didn't boost my confidence in my ability to race well, but I suppose nobody will believe me when I say that anymore. I found myself surprisingly nervous before the start, and tried to ease the apprehension by reminding myself that I would be racing for the team and that It didn't matter how I did, nor was I expected to win.
Our team plan was to race aggressively, attack repeatedly and force McGuire to chase down everything. This turned out to be (apparently) their strategy as well. Helene attacked from the line and for the first 15 minutes it was basically attack after attack out of the (small) field countering every break that was brought back. Around 15 minutes in, a break of Helene, a Laura Charameda, and a third girl, Lisa Hunt got up the road and we blocked and sat up a bit. The gap was growing and the field seemed content to let it grow. At this time the announcers called out a field prime ($40) and me and Shelley were set up to go for it, she said "do you want to go for it?" I said sure and attacked into the two right hand slightly descending turns before the finishing straight. I instantly gapped the field (with Shelley blocking for me) and had a good little gap at the line to win the prime. I then just decided to bridge to the break, since I felt it would be silly to sit up and let the field catch me, it seemed like I was halfway between the field and the break anyways. I also thought maybe with two PROMAN in the break we might be able to stay away. But I soon realized the field wasn't having any of that. Well it took me three laps to bridge up and when I looked down at my clock and saw that we were only 20 minutes into the race, I realized I might have made a mistake. That was quite an effort to get up there and we ended up getting caught a couple of laps later anyways. So I sat in for a few laps, and then Kristin was up the road in a break of three who we let stay up the road for a while. It seemed like we slowed quite a bit, but it allowed me to recover, so I didn't mind. By now we were maybe 40 minutes in and I was hoping to see lap cards soon. Kristin's break got caught and Lori and Shelley started going on the attack, then with around 10 laps to go I got back into the action and it seemed like I was covering everything, more than once me and Shelley were chasing a McGuire girl and then she would sit up (block) and yell "go Rachel" so I would go and then get caught only to have someone counter and find myself chasing that one as well. Now I realize that it is not wise to chase from the front, even though I am not a seasoned roadie, I have had these tactics used against me in cyclocross races (a few years back Carmen D'alusio and Gina Hall would incessantly tag team me.) But I was racing for the team and I figured that Shelley or Helene would take the win in this race, so when Holly Borowski, McGuire/US Army attacked, I found I was the only PROMAN up there to respond and so I chased her. What I didn't know was that Shelley and Helene (the awesome and smart teammates that they are) effectively blocked the field so that we got a gap and I sat on McGuire's wheel for a lap till she motioned me to pull through (with 2 laps to go) I said to myself : "sure I'll pull through... right.... here.... through these two turns that I will.... rip through.... and... oh! what's that? ..... have I gapped you through the turns? ...... oh! ..... I guess I'll just...... drill it and now through the finish with bell lap... and up the last little hill legs burning.... ouch..... and windy back stretch... oh my golly gee!.... what's this...... no it can't be..... this is just too funny...... but it really looks like..... it's happening..... I am winning this crit! Oh, yeah put the arms in the air for the victory salute."
And that's pretty much how it happened! At least from my perspective, I had no intention of winning the race, I felt like I had rode way too hard to be able to have it for the finish. But with the awesome work of my teammates, it happened! My first criterium win! Shelley won the field sprint followed by Laura Charameda with Helene Drumm a close 4th, Kristin took 7th and Lori 15th. Any one of the PROMAN gals could have won the race that day and it just happened that I was at the right spot when the move went and my teammates knew what to do! Thanks everyone for being out there cheering and supporting us! Thanks to the PROMAN/Paradigm team for being such a great group of girls to ride with. And thanks to Niki, our team manager, for doing all the work of putting the team together and securing such supportive sponsors... and allowing me to occasionally race with you guys!
thanks for reading. -Rachel
Our team plan was to race aggressively, attack repeatedly and force McGuire to chase down everything. This turned out to be (apparently) their strategy as well. Helene attacked from the line and for the first 15 minutes it was basically attack after attack out of the (small) field countering every break that was brought back. Around 15 minutes in, a break of Helene, a Laura Charameda, and a third girl, Lisa Hunt got up the road and we blocked and sat up a bit. The gap was growing and the field seemed content to let it grow. At this time the announcers called out a field prime ($40) and me and Shelley were set up to go for it, she said "do you want to go for it?" I said sure and attacked into the two right hand slightly descending turns before the finishing straight. I instantly gapped the field (with Shelley blocking for me) and had a good little gap at the line to win the prime. I then just decided to bridge to the break, since I felt it would be silly to sit up and let the field catch me, it seemed like I was halfway between the field and the break anyways. I also thought maybe with two PROMAN in the break we might be able to stay away. But I soon realized the field wasn't having any of that. Well it took me three laps to bridge up and when I looked down at my clock and saw that we were only 20 minutes into the race, I realized I might have made a mistake. That was quite an effort to get up there and we ended up getting caught a couple of laps later anyways. So I sat in for a few laps, and then Kristin was up the road in a break of three who we let stay up the road for a while. It seemed like we slowed quite a bit, but it allowed me to recover, so I didn't mind. By now we were maybe 40 minutes in and I was hoping to see lap cards soon. Kristin's break got caught and Lori and Shelley started going on the attack, then with around 10 laps to go I got back into the action and it seemed like I was covering everything, more than once me and Shelley were chasing a McGuire girl and then she would sit up (block) and yell "go Rachel" so I would go and then get caught only to have someone counter and find myself chasing that one as well. Now I realize that it is not wise to chase from the front, even though I am not a seasoned roadie, I have had these tactics used against me in cyclocross races (a few years back Carmen D'alusio and Gina Hall would incessantly tag team me.) But I was racing for the team and I figured that Shelley or Helene would take the win in this race, so when Holly Borowski, McGuire/US Army attacked, I found I was the only PROMAN up there to respond and so I chased her. What I didn't know was that Shelley and Helene (the awesome and smart teammates that they are) effectively blocked the field so that we got a gap and I sat on McGuire's wheel for a lap till she motioned me to pull through (with 2 laps to go) I said to myself : "sure I'll pull through... right.... here.... through these two turns that I will.... rip through.... and... oh! what's that? ..... have I gapped you through the turns? ...... oh! ..... I guess I'll just...... drill it and now through the finish with bell lap... and up the last little hill legs burning.... ouch..... and windy back stretch... oh my golly gee!.... what's this...... no it can't be..... this is just too funny...... but it really looks like..... it's happening..... I am winning this crit! Oh, yeah put the arms in the air for the victory salute."
And that's pretty much how it happened! At least from my perspective, I had no intention of winning the race, I felt like I had rode way too hard to be able to have it for the finish. But with the awesome work of my teammates, it happened! My first criterium win! Shelley won the field sprint followed by Laura Charameda with Helene Drumm a close 4th, Kristin took 7th and Lori 15th. Any one of the PROMAN gals could have won the race that day and it just happened that I was at the right spot when the move went and my teammates knew what to do! Thanks everyone for being out there cheering and supporting us! Thanks to the PROMAN/Paradigm team for being such a great group of girls to ride with. And thanks to Niki, our team manager, for doing all the work of putting the team together and securing such supportive sponsors... and allowing me to occasionally race with you guys!
thanks for reading. -Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment