Patterson Pass Road Race

By Stacy Marple
Date: August 12, 2006
Team: Stacy Marple (2nd), Victoria Vallstrom (5th), Brooke, Brianne, Jamie, Eryn, Linda and Sarah (racing 4s)
Category: Women 1/2/3
Winner: Amber Rais (Webcor)

Highs and Lows (ie the short version):

I heard this was a tough course, and it's true! It was Hot, Hilly & Windy, but at least it did not rain. The course was 4 sections in my mind: the killer double climb which you hit immediately, the windy little climb on the back side, the straight-up windy section, and then the finishing section which had a little climb that crested into a bike-stopping headwind which leads you down into the two right corners before the finishing straight of about 500m or so. We got to do it three times, how lucky!

The course starts out climbing pretty much immediately, and even in the very first little pitch I heard some heavy breathing around me. Actually I was worried I'd hear it from myself soon! I did not feel so great on that first pitch at all, and was happy for the pretty chill pace. Brooke moved to the front on the little descent before the second climb which was considerably steeper. At first I thought, what is she doing up there? Then I realized (as she confirmed later) that she was just trying to set a pace that was reasonable for her. In the middle of the hill Carola Berger (Alto Velo) had some sort of problem, and I heard a lot of exclamations. This basically separated the field and at the bottom of the descent there were about 8-10 riders, including 4 Webcor, a Touchstone, a Velo Bella and 4 PABW/TIBCO! Brooke, Brianne, Victoria and I had all made the initial selection. A few other women bridged up before the second climb. In the straight-up windy section Brianne launched an attack and was off the front for a good length of time. It was nice, and forced Webcor to eventually get to the front and pull her back.

Lap 2
The second lap saw Kathryn Curi (Webcor) at the front just drilling it. I sat on Amber's wheel and got a nice pull up the hills. Now the lead group had thinned to just Amber, Kathryn & Betina of Webcor, me & Victoria for PABW/TIBCO, Maria Monica (McGuire) and Kelly McDonald (Touchstone). Kathryn continued to drill it, pulling us up to and through the beginning of lap 3. I took a bottle in the feed zone from Linda. I knew something was up when she said "this is YOUR bottle! Drink it all NOW!" It was, of course filled with tweak juice (aka Red Bull). I guess somehow (maybe from her OOOOODLES of experience) she knew what was coming, and that I would need all the help I could get.

Lap 3
Back in my head, I really did not like the ratio of green to pink in the group. I could see Kathryn and even Amber were starting to hurt, whereas, buoyed by tweak juice, I was feeling preeeetttty good. So in the final pitch of the first climb I surged. It was not really an attack, I just upped the pace a bit, hoping I would get rid of some green, never believing I could, let alone WOULD drop Victoria. By the time I realized I had dropped her we were almost at the crest. I put on the brakes and Kathryn retook the lead on the descent (she told me later that the surge really hurt, and that she had to weave up the hill behind me!) Now the ratio of green to pink was worse! 3 webcor and ME! AKKK how did I do this?? When will I learn? I looked back and just WILLED Victoria to catch us. I gapped off a bit and thought about pacing her back on like in Leesville, but one Touchstone is not the same as 3 Webcor, and I knew I needed to maintain contact. I could see I was climbing better than they were, and again as we reached the last pitch, I surged-not to get away, just to dish out hurt when I could. And then the fun began. Kathryn led out the descent. She gapped us for a bit, I closed it and Amber made a move. I jumped on her wheel, then Betina went and I jumped again. Finally Kathryn went again and I let her go, but not too far. I kept her just far enough to keep the attacks at bay. I would start counting as she passed some marking feature on the road and stop when I got there, in doing this I was able to concretely gauge whether she was gaining on me or not. My plan was to let her stay until the pitch steepened on the backside climb, and then attack again with the hopes of dropping one of them. This worked like a charm, except for the dropping one of them part. As the road flattened out Betina started attacking. I think I said, "Well, here we go, it's Torture Stacy hour," and Amber, so sweet, and stuck like GLUE to my wheel says "well that wasn't the plan, honest." At some point Kathryn and Betina gave up attacking me because they were nervous about the chase that contained Victoria. For my part I had completely forgotten anyone else was even in the race, as I fought off visions of coming across the line by myself in 4th crying for my mother hen. At this point Kathryn and Betina just began drilling it, so for a good 10 or so minutes I sat 3rd wheel resting, making myself as small as possible and running scenarios through my head-the problem is that I did not have many scenarios to run through! I never even watched cycling before this year!! All I could think was that if I went into the finish with all 3 of these women It would be BAD. There were two more little pitches left. I attacked up the first little one, without shaking anyone, but getting a lot of gasps and a teeny weenie gap. This led me to believe it would not be worth attacking up the last hill. I would just have to try and find a good sprint in the end. But then, just as we got the final little rise I saw a window open up between Betina's wheel and Kathryn's, and that window said opportunity! I sprinted up that hill like it was the finish line, spitting up tweak juice the whole way, because I knew for me it was the last chance. Amber and Betina stayed with me but Kathryn was gone! Finally! I did not want to slow up too much and have Kathryn catch us so I decided to just go hard down the hill and into those last corners, hoping to get a little gap and then jump for the line. As I rounded the corner I heard Linda and Brooke just screaming my name and I GUNNNED it, my back wheel popping all over the place. As Amber came by me I tried to get on her wheel, but it was too quick. I'd probably spent too much time in the wind before the sprint, but it paid off, and I managed 2nd place and even better, got big excited hugs from Linda and Brooke. Just as awesome, Victoria reported that she finally figured out how to suck wheel when wheel sucking was called for. Yeah Little One! In all, it was a great (if painful) race and I learned a ton. I'd been feeling really spent since Altoona, and this was a good confidence booster for me. I think now that I may actually be stronger than I was before Altoona! Cal Cup, here we come!