Getting ready for the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont

This weekend, I will head to Vermont for the Green Mountain Stage Race. This will be my first race as a Cat 3 and I will race in the Women 3/4. So far, 34 racers have signed up. The Stage race is a four day event with the following stages (Women, Cat 3/4):

Day 1, Friday Sept 3
5.7 mi - Time Trial

Day 2, Saturday Sept 4
34 mi - Circuit Race

Day 3, Sunday Sept 5
70 mi - Road Race

Day 4, Monday, Sept 6
15.5 mi - Criterium

The elevation change of the road race looks like this:















y-axis range: 400 - 1500 feet, x-axis range: 0 - 70 mi

For more info on the race: http://www.gmsr.info/index.php

Race Report Tour of Millersburg Aug 14th-15th, 2010

Being entirely addicted to road racing now, I was looking forward to another Tour, after having just raced Tour of Page County a week prior. 24 women signed up for my category 4, which is unusually high. The Tour started with a time trial on Saturday morning followed by the criterium in the afternoon and a Road Race on Sunday.

The time trial was 10mi and flat. I raced the time trial with a moderate effort and hoped to place somewhere in the Top 5. That didn’t quite happen when I realized that I almost got passed by the girl behind me and saw the results: 11th place. Not a good start into a Stage race.

I hoped that the crit would work better and it definitely did. After a few laps, the front group including me dropped everyone but six riders. We had a good pace and it all came down to a downhill sprint after a corner. Corner is good but downhill not so much. Approaching the finish line, I stuck to the second wheel and we started sprinting on the downhill. I tried to stand up to sprint but couldn’t get my cadence right so I sat down and got closer to the front person but unfortunately not enough to pass her. In addition, another girl came around and passed both of us so I ended up third.

The road race the next day started in the rain. The streets were wet, which caused a lot of crashes in the races before our race. Our race course was rolling, not a course for me because there were no major hills involved. Our pace was very easy. I felt more like in a group ride than in a race and I zoned out several times. Although I wished we would go faster, I knew it wouldn’t be me who can change the pace. After placing second and third in all prior road races (but never first) I decided to do something different this time. There was a corner before the 200m sprint and I attacked before so I was first going through the corner. (Usually I would wait for other racers to attack). I started sprinting the 200m and I did not see anyone coming around. I kept the pace as high as I could and I saw the another girl approaching but we were too close to the finish line so she was not able to pass me and I finished first.

Despite my awful result in the time trial, I got third overall. I received all needed upgrade points and have submitted my upgrade request for Cat 3.

Tour of Page County Race report 2010

Road Race

I had high hopes going into the Tour of Page County. I knew the courses would suit me well as they had some challenging climbs. On Saturday, the Women Cat 4 race started at 8:05am and it involved 2.5 laps, about 30miles. 20 women started in a moderate pace, nothing crazy. The first half of the course was pretty much flat. The second half would be the challenge as it was all hills and pretty steep ones too. Patty from my team set a good pace at the beginning of the hills, and I thought I would get dropped already.

The first lap ended with me sprinting by myself up to the finish line to get the king of mountain points. No one else went for it, which I was surprised about. Despite a good pace on the hills on the second hill, we did not drop that many riders and our group still involved about 10 riders. I also got the second king of mountain and I was not really challenged by anyone. Since we still had a lot of riders in the group, I knew that once again it all would come down to a sprint uphill finish and it did.

The two Bike Pro shop girls whom I haven’t seen the entire race suddenly moved up and started the sprint to the finish. I followed and had to take the longer way to the finish because there was no other way around them. This was a mistake because I could not close the gap anymore to the girls. I finished third, an inch away from second place and maybe a foot from the first place. Because the Bike Pro shop is not part of MABRA, I won the MABRA Championship despite the third place.

Criterium

The criterium for the Women Cat 4 started at 8:45am and we only were nine girls starting. The first 100m were an uphill sprint and I think we lost five girls at that time already. It was now a race between the four of us: the two Bike Pro Shop girls, a Coppi, and I. I knew that I was four points ahead of the first placed Bro Shop girl and I wanted to get at least one preme to ensure I stay first overall.

The first preme was announced and Alex, the winner of the RR, sprinted for it. I reacted too late and gave up half way up the hill. I was more prepared for the second preme when the other Bike shop girl started sprinting. I followed and I got her by maybe an inch. Having won nine extra points (twice King of Mountain and one preme) on top of the results, I did not have to sprint for the third preme anymore so the Alex sprinted again for the last preme with no one following.
The last four laps of the crit were very boring because no one of us wanted to pull so we drastically slowed down and we were waiting for the uphill sprint. A déjà-vu from the road race, the bike shop girls and I sprinted up the hill. Alex won again but this time I took second, ahead by an inch from Michele. I was very happy with my result; and even happier because this also meant the overall win.

With a third place in the road race, second place in the crit, overall win and win of the MABRA Championship, I cant complain about my results.