Mt. Hamilton Road Race

By Victoria Vallstrom
Date: May 28, 2006
Distance: 63.5 miles
Category: Women 1/2/3
Filed Size: About 30
Teammates: Holly, Bri, Julie, (and moral support by Jenni)
Placing: Karen 1st, Stacy 2nd, Gabriela 3rd, Victoria 4th

At the start line were about 30 ladies, the teams standing out were McGuire with 3 strong ladies, Webcor with Karen and Amber, and PABW Powered by TIBCO (we had 4).

Our strategy for today was to

First sit in and watch the other ladies
Make sure I sit in the front 6 ppl since the center line is strictly enforced
Attack on the hills to prune the field
Make sure the pace is high on the climb but don't blow yourself, always keep a bit in reserve
If there is a select group of people at the top, in the rest of the race make sure you all work equally

So, step 1: sitting and watching did not last for very long, Melodie from McGuire attacked very early on. I had taken Linda's advice to sit in the front pack so we were able to respond.

Melodie got a bit of a lead, and Gabriela was on her wheel. The rest of us did not really respond. The Webcors (Karen, Amber), the McGuires (Maria, and Stacy), and the Belarus Lady were all there in the front.

Melodie and Gabriela pushed the speed and their gap got wider, so I determined that now was the time to attack and make sure we did not let them go. I did, but not hard enough so I took the front pack with me.

After we caught on to Melodie and Gabriela there were a couple of other attacks. I followed each attack, but I did not lead any of them since I figured there were plenty of others attacking and I could save a bit.

By the time we reached the 3rd section of the climb Stacy attacked, I was behind Melodie and Gabriela and got stuck - could not follow. Stacy got smaller and smaller, and Melodie did just what she should have - slowed down the pace from the front of the pack. Gabriela was on the other side (I don't know why she blocked) so none of us behind could get through. I was on the outer side just behind Gabriela, and waited, and waited, and waited for getting a small enough gap between the yellow line and her to attack and make sure Stacy did not disappear forever. Finally it came; I attacked and got away for a bit. I made sure we had a good pace, but also held back to save something at all times for the rest of the race. Stacy was still out of sight, but the pace was pretty good and some people fell off of the tail end.

At the top there was a group of about 8-10 ladies and the downhill started, I was 8th in the downhill train, and it was slowing me down, and seeing Karen getting smaller far ahead I started to aggressively pass people on the downhill. Finally I passed everyone except Karen, who was just in front of me, and then we caught Stacy. By the end of the descent it was Karen, Stacy, Gabriela, and me. We all worked together to make sure we kept the gap. The pace was really high on the backside, and I was definitely the weakest link mid-race on the rolling hills. At one point I was so blown I could not take pulls and the other ladies let me hang in the back (probably for 2 main reasons: 1) I would have slowed them down too much attempting to pull, and 2) I might be useful for them later).

Later came: in the final 20 miles of the race I was able to start pulling again, especially on the descents. Karen was by far the strongest, when she pulled the speed picked up and she took fairly long pulls, and then came Gabriela (unless there was a downhill), Stacy also pulled strongly but she usually took fairly short pulls.

With about 5K to go Karen dropped her chain; we had a bit of confusion between the 3 of us and slowed down a bit, but then picked up again. Not surprisingly Karen TT'ed back to us without any problem.

With 1K to go everyone slowed down in anticipation of the sprint. I was so blown, so when Karen, Stacy, and Gabriela sprinted I followed but did not have the extra kick I needed.

I was happy though; it was the toughest race I had done to date. I love hard work, and I was stoked to be able to hang on the whole time.