Plymouth North and South - Women's Reports
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Conditions:
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Mild, overcast, slightly humid and windy with temps in the high 50’s to low 60’s on Saturday. Slightly cooler, drier and windier with partial sun on Sunday.
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The Course:
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The Plymouth North course was pretty much unchanged from the previous year. Uphill pavement start onto an uphill grass grind, downhill into some sweeping corners, a tight up/down chicane, more grass, a single barrier, into some [mucky] woods, back over a single barrier, down a singletrack section of woods, onto an uphill sidewalk, more uphill and then a run-up and back again.
The Plymouth South course was a favorite from last year, but had to be changed due to high school football. The course was tough and there was a lot of climbing – four power climbs that took almost everything you had to get up and over. Add the wind on the upper fields, and this was going to be a very tough race. There was a significant amount of singletrack as well, that was muddy to start the day, and tacked up for the later races. It was a good course, except for the barriers – it seemed they were in an awkward place (a slightly uphill approach into a vicious headwind left no ability to coast into them), and disrupted the flow of the course.
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Results:
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Saturday Women’s Cat 4
- Shannon Madison – 2nd
- Jean Cunningham – 6th
- Michele Archambault – 9th
- Kathy Graves – 13th
- Juliane Oberle – 14th
- Julie Lockhart – 15th
Saturday Women’s 1/2/3
- Clara Kelly – 5th
- Cathy Rowell – 9th
- Libby White – 10th
- Teri Carilli – 13th
Sunday Women’s Cat 4
- Shannon Madison – 5th
- Janet Lorang – 9th
- Kathy Martin – 10th
- Jean Cunningham – 11th
- Katherine Snell – 13th
- Karin Turer – 15th
- Julie Lockhart – 16th
Sunday Women’s 1/2/3
- Cathy Rowell – 8th
- Teri Carilli – 12th
[Clara Kelly – North]
It’s about time to accept that I am a bad starter. We all lined up in a nice big row fair as could be and I got off the line last or 2nd to last. Also at the the back was Anna M, who had finished the men’s 3/4 race with a crash in the woods about an hour before. I understand that there were two very skilled and speedy ladies in our race, and I never saw them being so far back. As is the familar theme to my cross race reports, I set about passing as many ladies as possible once I got going.
I was doing ok until I yielded to Libby in the woods and then had to stop my bike to avoid hitting a tree. Sorry, Libby, no favors next time. I worked on keeping up with Anna M and holding her wheel when possible. On the 2nd or 3rd lap, we caught up to Anna B and started a race with her for 3rd. I thought it would be interestng to see how it played out. One girl has better skills, the other is stronger, but tired. I thought I had a chance to win out on strength if I could keep skills together.
I was very timid in the singletrack. By timid I mean, full brakes. I had crashed on the road two days before the race and had mild whiplash. I had seen my husband and Anna M crash in there in the previous races, so I was not going to take any chances. That had me pushing hard to catch up on the paved section after the woods.
The short story is that I didn’t keep skills together and lost the race for 3rd. I hit my bike on the barrier and dropped the chain. Caught back up. Next lap, caught bike on the barrier and fell. As they were right behind me, we had some contact and a few words. I had a nice red mark down the entire length of my forearm from Anna from B ’s front wheel. I came out of the singletrack way behind but had a hope of catching up, until I screwed up a dismount to the run-up. Good-bye, Annas.
Overall, it was a fun race. I have to laugh about the troubles I had with the barrier. It was very short and had a flat straight approach. Pretty obvious that I haven’t been practicing.
[Cathy Rowell – North and South]
Plymouth North
My goal for the race was to stick to Kathy S and Sue M from Gearworks – something I haven’t been able to do in past races. I had another great start (I think this is 3 or 4 in a row!), and landed on Kathy’s wheel going into the grass. As we headed uphill, most of the women chose to ride the pavement, but I made up time and places by riding the grass just to the left. I continued to move up in the first lap, and eventually saw that I had a gap behind me and Sue and Kathy were just ahead. I made a move to catch them at the run-up and called out that we had a gap and if we worked together, we could keep it. I moved to the front to take my pull, looked back, and none had moved with me! I later found out that it was too much of a move – I hadn’t meant to drop them, but did.
Kathy bridged up to me, and we rode together for the next part of the lap. It was music to my ears when Kathy said to me, “We’ll work together, ok?”. Over the barriers we went, and in an effort to stay on Kathy’s wheel (we had a growing gap behind us), I got too close going up a short uphill, and slipped. Not only did I slip, but I also lost my footing completely, and went down. Sh*t! Kathy made the right move and went ahead, and now I was chasing. And I chased, and I chased. I just couldn’t close the gap.
With one lap to go, Kathy was still ahead, but Sue and Ilana B from MIT were working together to close the gap behind me. As they passed, I jumped to get on their wheels, but couldn’t pull it off. I had burned too many matches on my own in the wind. Once again, I ended up finishing with Sue in sight just ahead, but as disappointed as I was with losing Kathy’s wheel, I was pleased with how I raced overall – strong and determined, and this time (unlike in races past), I didn’t mentally quit.
Plymouth South
My start wasn’t as good on Sunday, but I did quickly end up on Kathy’s wheel – right where I wanted to be! Sue was ahead of us, but we chased her down as well, and now we were together (we had agreed before the race to work together). After the climb behind the stadium, we went through the mud and into the next tight section with a short uphill. Today, it was Kathy’s turn to slip – she dismounted, I rode and ended up ahead of her. I worked to try to bridge to two riders just ahead, and built a gap between myself and Kathy, with Sue behind as well. I did manage to eventually connect with Hannah, and the two of us worked together through the windy fields on one lap, which was awesome. I lost Hannah, however, when I slid off the course behind the stadium.
With two laps to go, I could see that Kathy and Sue were now working together, and that I had to work to stay ahead of them. I tried to focus on the race ahead of me instead of the race behind. With one to go I still had a gap. I wanted this BAD. The whole lap, I talked to myself, “Ride it like you mean it”, “You need to clean this”, “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!”, “Fast, fast, fast”, “Not today!”, and the best one of all, “If you finish ahead of them you can retire!”. With my HR pegged, and my back screaming from all of the climbing, I put my head down and drilled the last lap. It was full on TT mode – sprinting out of corners and off of the climbs, pedaling through all of the corners. I could see them behind me, but managed to stay ahead through the finish!
I literally had to stop as quickly as possible after the race for fear of falling over and/or throwing up. I couldn’t breathe, and everything hurt. Signs of a good race, right? I ended up finishing 7th, but felt like I had just won. I was really excited about my weekend of racing – maybe some time off the bike is a good thing?
[Juliane Oberle – North]
Plymouth North was my first bike race of the year, and since I hadn’t been riding at all and hadn’t practiced dismounting and remounting since last November, I was going with just the intention of pre-riding the course and most likely to be a cheerleader for my teammates. But then I thought maybe I’d register, and was thinking about it. So I was standing near the registration area when Cathy Rowell found me 15 minutes before the race and helped me along in case I forgot how to register :) So there I was on the starting line. I had a good start and first lap around. I thought the course felt long, but manageable. The only place I had any real difficulty was in the woods when the Cat 4 men were passing me on what I would assume was supposed to be the single track. My fitness level was pretty poor so I was there to have fun, stay upright, and finish. I slowed down on the third lap, but I finished and had a great time! Thank you Cathy for helping me register :)
[Karin Turer – South]
So the big drama of the race all happened at the starting line – but not for typical bike racing reasons. No – instead, it was because one of my fellow racers happened to be one of my YMCA summer campers from the mid-90s! Yipes! I had not seen her since she was about 14, so it was pretty unreal!
I was excited to try this challenging course again this year – but they had changed it! I wasn’t loving the new version – some of the short uphill parts were just a teensy bit steep for my gearing or my legs, and I couldn’t get into the right rhythm to clear them (especially the “tire turn” – I kept bumping into something). Still, the course improved a bit while riding it at race pace. I wimped out and power-walked the long hill near the football stadium rather than really running.
In this race, I rediscovered my brakes, and they do work – the downside is that I used them more than I needed. Because they were there? Not sure! There was some excellent cheering on the final hill to the start/finish, and I got in the full 40 minutes advertised (at the start they said 30, even though the flyer said 40!). So I got a workout :)
[Julie Lockhart – North and South]
Plymouth North
Wanting mud (and dreading the consequences), I was disappointed to find that there was not much. But, while I was warming up, I discovered I felt weak (cold still affecting me) ... decided to just ride for skills … On the start, tho, I found myself in the mix, and thought … but faded. Practiced bike exchange speed and accuracy (as did Libby) Had fun, felt better.
Plymouth South
Again thinking mud, felt intimidated by the start chicanes, but in the race, all was cool. The plan was to ‘chill’: drills & x-changes … but again had great start, passed fallen riders, and found myself defending … racing (not in the plan) ... Well, lots of things learned – especially the fact that what scares the bejeezus out of you in pre ride, can, in fact be ‘no big deal’ during the race. Fun.