Cougar Mt Classic Criterium

By Stacy Marple
Date: July 14, 2006
Team: Just me!
Category: Women Open and of course the Men P/1/2

Short version:

The narrative:
Whenever I go a weekend without racing, especially if I have other things pulling at my attention, I wonder, should I really, do I truly want to go race? This feeling was exacerbated on Friday afternoon with the knowledge that a) I had no teammates and b) it was going to be hotter than Hades at the inferno raceway. Traffic was what Bay Area traffic is -- messy and erratic -- and as a result I arrived at registration mere moments before it closed. As I was signing my check the woman explained to me that there were only 5 women and we would be starting with the men's Pro/1/2 field. HUH? This was a pretty expensive race and I hesitated, thinking that maybe I should just drive over the mountains and do a long coastal ride. But that is just what I should NOT do; I already ride long all the time and I need intensity. So I signed my check and found myself with 2.5 hrs to warm up, should be sufficient!

I rolled around the course a few (hundred) times. It began next to the booth area, about 10 feet above the raceway. After about 100m there was a little chicane and drop into the raceway wheel pit, an approximately 400m section with a nice tailwind, then a 180 degree turn into a powerful headwind for about 1000m. This led into the final turn onto the flat straight 150m run to the start/finish to complete the loop. I noticed that the turn to the finish was sheltered, and you could pick up some good speed for the straight-away -- knowledge I planned to use to my advantage. Even as we lined up none of the women seemed to know what was going on. Proman was the only significant team in attendance with 5 riders, but Shelly Olds, an up and coming crossover from cyclocross was the only one I recognized.

There were also two Webcor AltoVelo women, a Vella Bella, some random teams I don't recall and Brenda Lyons from Victory Brewing who I less recognized and more knew of. The ref informed us that we would be starting and racing with the men, and a collective groan seemed to emit from the women. I was in the back, and there were about 30 men plus the 12 or so women, and I was not thrilled to be back there. The pace started hard, almost NRC-race-hard and after the 180 I found myself fighting in the wind to move up. Despite the utter lack of technical challenge to this course, it was quite hard to move up because of the wind and the way the guys ride, close together, aggressive and hard-I think we averaged over 25mph until the group split 3/4 of the way through the race. After about 5 laps I was in the top 10 and attacks started going off. I kinda forgot I was only racing the women, and I found myself working to stay on the attacks, bridge gaps and jump up to breaks. At some point I was in the about 3rd wheel in the middle of the group as we collectively surged around the corner into the finishing straight. A dude's handlebars were overlapping mine, from above! I felt my shoulders tighten thinking about the little chicane that was coming as we gained speed down the straightaway. I heard Julie's voice in my head and shook my elbows a bit to loosen up, and suddenly I noticed that I was using my eyes differently. I don't know how else to explain what happened, it was as if my eyes were no longer simply relaying the visual picture of what was occurring around my front wheel. Instead I had developed bug eyes, with lenses to the side and above creating a sphere of visual information, to which I assiduously attended, without creating a focus, or focal point per se. It only lasted a few laps, but it was probably one of the most significant learning moments in my cycling thus far.

After a few laps of mesmerizing bug vision I realized that many women had been shelled and I noticed only Shelly, Carola from AltoVelo, and Brenda in the mix. In addition I was getting those thoughts of why do I subject myself to this?? can I just bail out of this race now? which let me know I probably needed to eat, and take a turn in the back. As I pulled off to the side, a break formed up the road, which I might have been in if I'd held on for a moment more. Fortunately none of the other women where in it, and I realized I should just focus on the women I was actually racing against. We were lapping lots of little groups, so it was a bit confusing but it seemed like Shelly and Brenda were the only ones to worry about, maybe Carola. I moved myself back up towards the front, aiming to get on Brenda's wheel.

Unfortunately she had chosen my wheel to sit on and out-maneuvered me in that game. I don't think I could have gotten her off my wheel for love or money, even if I'd had some lying around to spare. The last 5 laps some big, I mean 6'5" 200lb draft for 2-3 bike lengths big, dude began just drilling it at the front. Shelly sat on his wheel and I varied between her wheel and this dude who would muscle his way in front of me, then gap off, then muscle etc. On the last lap just on the other side of the 180 was a string of Proman women being lapped. Shelly attacked trying to put them between her and the rest of us. They did their best to block and it took some effort to get on her wheel but I did. I felt like I was too far towards the front to get a winning sprint so I purposefully began to gap Shelly hoping Brenda would leap frog me-but as she told me after the race, I had already showed too much strength for her to believe I was going to give up.

After what seemed like forever Carola filled in the gap, dragging big dude and the other guy with her. I got on her wheel and big dude got in front of Shelly as we went into the sling shot. There was quite a bunch of us jockeying for position. Shelly came around big dude, Brenda jumped on her wheel pulling some guys behind her, and I found myself a day late and a dollar short of the take-off moment for the sprint for first, but I pinned it to the line for 3rd, passing a few of the guys. In all it was super SUPER fun, and some of the best interval training I've ever had. My favorite moment was chatting with Brenda about Altoona & having her say "Oh, you should really go to Bermuda, it's a real power racer's course, perfect for you." In response, I produced a blank stare. Power racer? Huh?