This is Colorado, right? So where are all the big mountains?
Oh, there they are.
My sweet, gas guzzling ride. Doubles as transport and lodging.
D2 Women's Crit in downtown Fort Collins.
Home.
The lovely and talented Marian Hunting of Women's Cycling Magazine! My lifesaver.
Pre Road Race self portrait. Hiding from the wind. 
Post Road Race self portrait. Happy, exhausted, and still hiding from the wind.
Sooo . . . here's the road race report I typed up on Friday night:
Got in to Denver last night around 10, got my rental car (my fancy Jeep Laredo), drove to Fort Collins. Road construction, the drive took forever. Got to bed around 12, bed being my sleeping bag in the back of aforementioned Jeep in the Hilton parking lot. Slept for, oh, 4 hours? Got up at the crack of dawn, loaded up on granola and 7-11 coffee (ick). Went into the Hilton to use the bathroom and saw the amazing breakfast buffet that I totally could have poached and I'm totally going to tomorrow. Yum.
Okay, so, down to business! It's windy as f*&k here! We had a group of about 60, racing for 50 miles, some rollers, no super huge climbs, lots of f'in wind. As we hit one of the larger climbs (about 10 miles into the race) things started to come apart. A group of 9 got off the front, and I found myself climbing well and passing lots of people. After all the major climbs had passed (18 miles into the race) I found myself in a group of 9 chasing the lead group of 9. The WCCC was very well represented! There were 3 davis girls, 2 santa barbara girls, and myself, as well as a couple of CU girls. We worked together, got about a 3 minute gap on the field behind us, and kept trying to chase down the leaders, but no go. As we neared the end (around mile 44) there were a couple of climbs before the big decent to the finish. I was starting to feel pretty cooked, so as we started to go up the first one I decided to just stick to my own pace rather than try to follow a wheel and blow up. That was definitely a good call, because the last climb we went up was sooo freaking steep! And then it leveled out a little bit but you were riding into a gnarly headwind, so it was almost worse! I was riding with a girl from CU, and, well, long story short, she outsprinted me into a gnarly ass headwind. So I got 17th! I'm very happy with my result, especially considering that I don't think any of the other girls had done it on so little sleep or such questionable accomodations (or lousy coffee, for that matter).
So! I think I'm going to go take a nap in my car now. Try to get a good dinner, stretch, and recover for tomorrow. I'm trying to convince Jenna from CPSLO to let me give her a leadout, because I think she could win the field sprint if properly set up, and she's awesome, so she deserves it. Oh yeah! I got a call up! Thanks to our boys killing it at mtb nationals last year, UNR was on the call up list, like, 9th!!!
Okay, so, down to business! It's windy as f*&k here! We had a group of about 60, racing for 50 miles, some rollers, no super huge climbs, lots of f'in wind. As we hit one of the larger climbs (about 10 miles into the race) things started to come apart. A group of 9 got off the front, and I found myself climbing well and passing lots of people. After all the major climbs had passed (18 miles into the race) I found myself in a group of 9 chasing the lead group of 9. The WCCC was very well represented! There were 3 davis girls, 2 santa barbara girls, and myself, as well as a couple of CU girls. We worked together, got about a 3 minute gap on the field behind us, and kept trying to chase down the leaders, but no go. As we neared the end (around mile 44) there were a couple of climbs before the big decent to the finish. I was starting to feel pretty cooked, so as we started to go up the first one I decided to just stick to my own pace rather than try to follow a wheel and blow up. That was definitely a good call, because the last climb we went up was sooo freaking steep! And then it leveled out a little bit but you were riding into a gnarly headwind, so it was almost worse! I was riding with a girl from CU, and, well, long story short, she outsprinted me into a gnarly ass headwind. So I got 17th! I'm very happy with my result, especially considering that I don't think any of the other girls had done it on so little sleep or such questionable accomodations (or lousy coffee, for that matter).
So! I think I'm going to go take a nap in my car now. Try to get a good dinner, stretch, and recover for tomorrow. I'm trying to convince Jenna from CPSLO to let me give her a leadout, because I think she could win the field sprint if properly set up, and she's awesome, so she deserves it. Oh yeah! I got a call up! Thanks to our boys killing it at mtb nationals last year, UNR was on the call up list, like, 9th!!!
The crit the next day was fun! 60 minutes of pain, no doubt, but enjoyable, at least until the crashes started. Then it was just scary and hard, yet fun in that sick, twisted way. Not a whole lot to say about it, except that I managed to avoid the yucky crash on the 2nd to last lap, had lousy positioning going into the sprint, and finished 29th. I got spooked by the crash and wasn't aggressive enough about positioning myself at the end. Bummer. But I'll be back next year (probably) and I'll be ready! Oh yes, and I ended up 22nd in overall omnium (stoked about that) and based on my results alone UNR was ranked 24th out of 36! Haha.
Today calls for some dirt therapy, I do believe. Just one more final to take on Wednesday, then I'm free! Or, at least until summer classes start in June.
1 comment:
good job toeing the line all by your lonesome. Pulling for the big N. I always thought it would be great to make it to a National Championship. Congratulations!
Mel.
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