After dabbling a few years in mountain bike racing, I decided I wanted to try a few road races this summer. My goal was to do a crit, circuit and road race and see what I think. In May, I placed 3rd in Cat 4 Women's at the O'Fallon Gold Cup Criterium. It was a tough decision not to do St. Joe's mountain bike race, but the opportunity to race almost in my backyard on June 21st at the Tour de Winghaven was too good to pass up. This was to be a 27 mile circuit race with a Women's Open field. That means that all categories would be racing together, so I would not have the luxury of racing women only in the cat 4 field, but pro, cat 1, 2 and 3 racers as well. I looked at this as an opportunity to see how I stacked up against women who race on the national and local circuit, as Tour de Winghaven is the only race in Missouri that is on the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar. The NRC consists of 30 races across the country that qualify for national points. Going to the line that day was a far cry from the Gold Cup race. The race official explained that the 27 miles race would be reduced to 24 miles due to time constraints and that if a racer is lapped on the course or could impede the final sprint, they may be pulled from the race. With over 30-35 racers in the field, it was a bit larger than the 7 or so in the Gold Cup Cat 4. Luckily, my customary pre-race jitters that start the night before subsided before the gun went off. The race began and the first lap went well - the cornering and round-abouts that I was warned could give me trouble weren't bad at all. Holding your line in a larger group is easier than it looks. You race tighter because you must. On the second lap, the field began to spread out. I saw several cat 4 racers, including one that placed second ahead of me in the Gold Cup race, start to drop off the pack. The pack would surge and sprint at times, and I began to struggle to stay with the pack. After the second lap, I fell off the back with another girl. We took turns pulling for several laps until we caught up to another girl who had fallen off the pack. I asked to pull the uphills while I let them take turns pulling the downhills and flatter sections. We maintained a steady pace, with the lead pack too far ahead to catch and the rest of the pack way too far behind to catch us. As we crossed the line to begin our final lap, the race official pulled us from the race, citing time constraints. They had been behind all morning and wanted to play catch-up. I was disappointed, in that we were never lapped and were not impeding the pack at all. After taking a cool-down spin around the block, I road back to see the women's pack cross the line - 24 miles in an hour, while I completed 21 miles in about 57 minutes for a 22.1 mph pace. I was happy with my performance and didn't feel so bad about the "forced" dnf when I discovered that the field behind us had been pulled long before. Only 19 racers finished in the lead pack and were scored. I think I was 20th...I have mixed feelings about the day. I do know how I stack up, and considering my lack of training and age compared to the other racers, I was thrilled with my result. I just wish I wasn't listed as a dnf. On a day when racers were dropping out due to the heat & being pulled because they were lapped, I personally know what my performance level was. And sometimes that just has to be good enough.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tour de Winghaven
After dabbling a few years in mountain bike racing, I decided I wanted to try a few road races this summer. My goal was to do a crit, circuit and road race and see what I think. In May, I placed 3rd in Cat 4 Women's at the O'Fallon Gold Cup Criterium. It was a tough decision not to do St. Joe's mountain bike race, but the opportunity to race almost in my backyard on June 21st at the Tour de Winghaven was too good to pass up. This was to be a 27 mile circuit race with a Women's Open field. That means that all categories would be racing together, so I would not have the luxury of racing women only in the cat 4 field, but pro, cat 1, 2 and 3 racers as well. I looked at this as an opportunity to see how I stacked up against women who race on the national and local circuit, as Tour de Winghaven is the only race in Missouri that is on the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar. The NRC consists of 30 races across the country that qualify for national points. Going to the line that day was a far cry from the Gold Cup race. The race official explained that the 27 miles race would be reduced to 24 miles due to time constraints and that if a racer is lapped on the course or could impede the final sprint, they may be pulled from the race. With over 30-35 racers in the field, it was a bit larger than the 7 or so in the Gold Cup Cat 4. Luckily, my customary pre-race jitters that start the night before subsided before the gun went off. The race began and the first lap went well - the cornering and round-abouts that I was warned could give me trouble weren't bad at all. Holding your line in a larger group is easier than it looks. You race tighter because you must. On the second lap, the field began to spread out. I saw several cat 4 racers, including one that placed second ahead of me in the Gold Cup race, start to drop off the pack. The pack would surge and sprint at times, and I began to struggle to stay with the pack. After the second lap, I fell off the back with another girl. We took turns pulling for several laps until we caught up to another girl who had fallen off the pack. I asked to pull the uphills while I let them take turns pulling the downhills and flatter sections. We maintained a steady pace, with the lead pack too far ahead to catch and the rest of the pack way too far behind to catch us. As we crossed the line to begin our final lap, the race official pulled us from the race, citing time constraints. They had been behind all morning and wanted to play catch-up. I was disappointed, in that we were never lapped and were not impeding the pack at all. After taking a cool-down spin around the block, I road back to see the women's pack cross the line - 24 miles in an hour, while I completed 21 miles in about 57 minutes for a 22.1 mph pace. I was happy with my performance and didn't feel so bad about the "forced" dnf when I discovered that the field behind us had been pulled long before. Only 19 racers finished in the lead pack and were scored. I think I was 20th...I have mixed feelings about the day. I do know how I stack up, and considering my lack of training and age compared to the other racers, I was thrilled with my result. I just wish I wasn't listed as a dnf. On a day when racers were dropping out due to the heat & being pulled because they were lapped, I personally know what my performance level was. And sometimes that just has to be good enough.
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