Back On The Blog!
So, it has been awhile since my last post. Lots of racing to report on...including two top ten finishes!!! :)
Redlands Crit: A one day course run in conjunction with the famous Redlands Bicycle Classic Stage Race. It was a challenging course with a long straight away, slightly uphill to an off camber 120 degree turn (a few girls crashed on that turn by trying to pedal through it) followed by a right turn, quick left, downhill to another right and than right back up the hill to the start/finish. It was fun course but my legs were flat. Not even ten minutes into the race I was tired, we had to chase a girl down and that definitely took it out of me. I sat in top ten, constantly moving up on the hill as girls would really charge up the first half and I would ride steady back up to the front. My legs had no charging power. Going into the final lap, I knew position was everything for the sprint. I tried to move up on the corners and gained a few positions that way. Coming into the final turn I was too far back but I gave it all I had. My goal for the day was to finish top ten and ride top ten all day, which I did. Now it is time to rest so that I have some umph back in my legs!
San Dimas Stage Race: After a 2:45 to drive 90 miles (gotta love LA traffic) and a 4 mile mountain time trial to start the race, I was wondering why I had signed up! Actually it was a great weekend of racing, very challenging for me personally as there was a lot of climbing the first two days, but the crit made up for it! Again, I raced in a 3/4 field, though we had 55 women, more than the pro women’s field! I would say the only difference between us is the length of the races, the speed and intensity is definitely equivalent! Friday as I mentioned was a 4 mile time trial, all uphill on local Glendora Mountain. I could tell during my warm-up that the air quality was low, lots of smog as we were right outside of LA and very humid with rain clouds itching to let loose. After a solid warm-up, I set out of my four mile climb. I started out great, a very steady pace, HR just where I wanted it, solid (steady) breathing. A mistake I made was not to check the course out before racing it and not having any sort of odometer on my bike. After I had passed a few tents (they had positioned neutral support tents every mile) I thought I was getting close to the finish. So I pushed the pace…and was moving along quite well. Unfortunately that was about a mile premature, a couple of minutes later I had realized my mistake and could tell! My lungs were not happy and my legs were empty. The first two miles were solid, the last two miles were slow, I lost a lot of time there trying to recover from going to early. The final kilo was painfully slow, I tried to push but had nothing, it was all I could do to get to the finish. It was a bummer to loose all that time, but I also know TT only get better with experience, I look forward to future (FLAT) time trials to improve on!
Saturday was a 7 mile road race circuit. Two years ago when I did this race, it was a rolling course, a few medium hills though nothing to be concerned about. This year they changed the course a bit, shortened it up and added a .9 mile (200 ft elevation) climb in the final mile. I rode up the hill during my warm-up to check it out…at an EM pace it did not seem so bad, though I knew it would be painful at race pace. The first lap started out fast. It was cold, we had sat in staging for a good half hour and were freezing. To warm-up, I went to the front to work a bit. Than another girl (who happened to be a pro mountain biker) went to the front and set the took it up a notch. Within 2-3 minutes of the start we were flying, I am sure we dropped a ton of girls at that point. I sat on in the front, staying out of the wind and hoping my legs and lungs would open up quickly! The first time up the hill was not bad, a fast pace but not enough to get dropped from. Lap 2 was a KOM climb (king of the mountain) so girls raced to the top to gain a time bonus and fight for the polka dot jersey. I started out up front and slid back to the back…and then off the bike. I did not make that selection. A bunch of us regrouped and began to chase. With 15 in our chase group you would think it would not be too hard to catch back onto another 10-15 girls; however, nobody wanted to work or seemed to care that they had been dropped. So it was up to a few of us to chase and work to get back on. Two laps later, and right at the base of another KOM climb, we got on…and off again. This time we got back on quickly, within a few miles of the climb. I hit a huge pothole on a descent and saw something go flying off my bike…and than something hitting my rear spokes…I had no clue what it was and kept racing hoping my bike was safe. The final lap was tough, I got gapped off again and finished on my own. Overall in GC I moved up 15 places from the time trial. And after inspecting my bike, realized my brake had been rubbing a bit after hitting the pothole…no wonder my legs were hurting that final climb!
Sunday was the crit…my favorite! It was a six corner course with a slight rise (40ft gain) and long finishing straight. Our race was delayed 45 minutes so my warm-up did not do much good. From the gun, the race started out fast and never let up! My goal was to stay in top ten all day. I did a pretty good job of that though slid back a few times and would move up in the turns. Before I knew it we were on the bell lap (final lap) and it was time to set up for the sprint. I unfortunately was a few wheels to far back in the final corner and could not make them up, this sprint was all about positioning. I did finish 9th though, first top 10 of the season which I will take!
This is a picture of me and Kelli Emmet. Kelli was racing San Dimas but she is actually a MTB pro and coaches at CTS with me. She grew up in Plymouth, MI!
So, it has been awhile since my last post. Lots of racing to report on...including two top ten finishes!!! :)
Redlands Crit: A one day course run in conjunction with the famous Redlands Bicycle Classic Stage Race. It was a challenging course with a long straight away, slightly uphill to an off camber 120 degree turn (a few girls crashed on that turn by trying to pedal through it) followed by a right turn, quick left, downhill to another right and than right back up the hill to the start/finish. It was fun course but my legs were flat. Not even ten minutes into the race I was tired, we had to chase a girl down and that definitely took it out of me. I sat in top ten, constantly moving up on the hill as girls would really charge up the first half and I would ride steady back up to the front. My legs had no charging power. Going into the final lap, I knew position was everything for the sprint. I tried to move up on the corners and gained a few positions that way. Coming into the final turn I was too far back but I gave it all I had. My goal for the day was to finish top ten and ride top ten all day, which I did. Now it is time to rest so that I have some umph back in my legs!
San Dimas Stage Race: After a 2:45 to drive 90 miles (gotta love LA traffic) and a 4 mile mountain time trial to start the race, I was wondering why I had signed up! Actually it was a great weekend of racing, very challenging for me personally as there was a lot of climbing the first two days, but the crit made up for it! Again, I raced in a 3/4 field, though we had 55 women, more than the pro women’s field! I would say the only difference between us is the length of the races, the speed and intensity is definitely equivalent! Friday as I mentioned was a 4 mile time trial, all uphill on local Glendora Mountain. I could tell during my warm-up that the air quality was low, lots of smog as we were right outside of LA and very humid with rain clouds itching to let loose. After a solid warm-up, I set out of my four mile climb. I started out great, a very steady pace, HR just where I wanted it, solid (steady) breathing. A mistake I made was not to check the course out before racing it and not having any sort of odometer on my bike. After I had passed a few tents (they had positioned neutral support tents every mile) I thought I was getting close to the finish. So I pushed the pace…and was moving along quite well. Unfortunately that was about a mile premature, a couple of minutes later I had realized my mistake and could tell! My lungs were not happy and my legs were empty. The first two miles were solid, the last two miles were slow, I lost a lot of time there trying to recover from going to early. The final kilo was painfully slow, I tried to push but had nothing, it was all I could do to get to the finish. It was a bummer to loose all that time, but I also know TT only get better with experience, I look forward to future (FLAT) time trials to improve on!
Saturday was a 7 mile road race circuit. Two years ago when I did this race, it was a rolling course, a few medium hills though nothing to be concerned about. This year they changed the course a bit, shortened it up and added a .9 mile (200 ft elevation) climb in the final mile. I rode up the hill during my warm-up to check it out…at an EM pace it did not seem so bad, though I knew it would be painful at race pace. The first lap started out fast. It was cold, we had sat in staging for a good half hour and were freezing. To warm-up, I went to the front to work a bit. Than another girl (who happened to be a pro mountain biker) went to the front and set the took it up a notch. Within 2-3 minutes of the start we were flying, I am sure we dropped a ton of girls at that point. I sat on in the front, staying out of the wind and hoping my legs and lungs would open up quickly! The first time up the hill was not bad, a fast pace but not enough to get dropped from. Lap 2 was a KOM climb (king of the mountain) so girls raced to the top to gain a time bonus and fight for the polka dot jersey. I started out up front and slid back to the back…and then off the bike. I did not make that selection. A bunch of us regrouped and began to chase. With 15 in our chase group you would think it would not be too hard to catch back onto another 10-15 girls; however, nobody wanted to work or seemed to care that they had been dropped. So it was up to a few of us to chase and work to get back on. Two laps later, and right at the base of another KOM climb, we got on…and off again. This time we got back on quickly, within a few miles of the climb. I hit a huge pothole on a descent and saw something go flying off my bike…and than something hitting my rear spokes…I had no clue what it was and kept racing hoping my bike was safe. The final lap was tough, I got gapped off again and finished on my own. Overall in GC I moved up 15 places from the time trial. And after inspecting my bike, realized my brake had been rubbing a bit after hitting the pothole…no wonder my legs were hurting that final climb!
Sunday was the crit…my favorite! It was a six corner course with a slight rise (40ft gain) and long finishing straight. Our race was delayed 45 minutes so my warm-up did not do much good. From the gun, the race started out fast and never let up! My goal was to stay in top ten all day. I did a pretty good job of that though slid back a few times and would move up in the turns. Before I knew it we were on the bell lap (final lap) and it was time to set up for the sprint. I unfortunately was a few wheels to far back in the final corner and could not make them up, this sprint was all about positioning. I did finish 9th though, first top 10 of the season which I will take!
This is a picture of me and Kelli Emmet. Kelli was racing San Dimas but she is actually a MTB pro and coaches at CTS with me. She grew up in Plymouth, MI!
posted by Kate Gracheck @ 4:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home