Verge 1 & 2 - Green Mountain - Women's Reports
Green Mountain Cyclo-Cross
Williston, VT
9/26-27/2009
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Conditions:
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Day 1: Blue skies, sunny, windy, chilly start (60’s) with temps warming through the day
Day 2: Cold,wet and miserable with temps in the low 50’s
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The Courses:
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Day 1: In Vermont, there are bound to be hills. This venue has awesome views of the surrounding mountains, but has enough climbing on each lap to make the race hurt. The start of the course was a long, grassy, uphill slog. The good thing was that with the dry conditions, traction was never an issue either up or down. Some of the standard features reappeared for the race – the downhill-180 corner-uphill chicane, the log run-up (ok, for the men it was a ride-up), a screaming fast descent into a gravelly 90 degree left turn, another downhill-180-uphill chicane (that was faster to run than to ride), long grassy power sections, and barriers that appeared just after a hard left turn. I heard there was about 500 feet of climbing per lap, and in between the climbs, you needed a lot of power.
Day 2: The good traction of the previous day was gone with the rain and cooler temps. Instead, the corners were slick and muddy. And if at all possible, there seemed to be MORE climbing in the course on Sunday; the laps were also a full 2.5 miles long! Features like the BMX pump track, a set of stairs, a rock drop and the barriers kept us all on our toes. Getting caught in the single-track ruts claimed more than one rider on the day – riding in the grass seemed to be the safer alternative.
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Day 1 Results:
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Junior 10-14 (11 starters)
Victoria Gates – 7th
Women’s 3/4 (21 starters)
Cathy Rowell – 6th
Julie Lockhart – 20th
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Day 2 Results:
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Junior 10-14 (11 starters)
Victoria Gates – 6th
Women’s 3/4 (17 starters)
Cathy Rowell – 9th
Julie Lockhart – 16th
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Reports:
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[Victoria Gates]
Day 1: The race started and I had a good position. We went up the hill and down it. On the second lap I felt tired and my back was hurting. Another racer and I kept going back and fourth for our places. When he went ahead I tried my best to maintain my place. On the third lap I tripped on the barriers but I caught myself. I sprinted to the finish and placed 7th. I wasn’t to fond of the amount of hills but I just kept going. The reason my back hurt was because my stem was to long. We went to a shop and got a shorter stem.
Day 2: I was called up to the line in 7th and had a good starting spot. The race was off and I was behind every one with two other racers. We made our own pack and worked together until the second lap. One of the racers and I rode away from the other rider. Half way through the second lap the other racer fell and I sprinted ahead. I held him off and I finished. I crossed the line in 6th.
[Cathy Rowell]
Day1: This was my first ‘cross race of the season, having missed out on the Suckerbrook season opener. In pre-riding the course, I felt good, but knew that the climbing would give me some trouble. My start was ok, and I quickly moved into having to pass riders ahead. In the first down-180-up, several riders had issues, and one crashed remounting her bike directly in front of me! This put me back behind a place or two, and I knew I needed to move back up. I passed Christine Fort (Quad), and for most of a lap couldn’t get her off of my wheel. I finally buried myself in one of the uphill power sections to create a gap that stuck. After the race, Christine told me that one of her goals for the season had been to chase me, and now she could cross that off her list ;). I had a decent race, and practiced ensuring that I was smooth in the corners, and took long strides into, over, and after the barriers before getting back on my bike. Haven’t had that hard of an effort for the entire year! Finished up with 13 mins of anaerobic effort. Man – I forgot how much ‘cross hurts!
Day 2: I heard the rain start in the night, and with the forecast, knew that the conditions on Sunday weren’t going to be stellar. Quite frankly, after all of the MTB racing I have done in the rain this year, my motivation for another rainy, cold, muddy race was pretty low. It was tough to even get warmed up on the trainer, and by the time we went to staging and waited to start, I was cold again anyway.
I’ll admit that I approached this race with a bit too much caution. I was nervous about the corners and the slippery conditions, and that nervousness cost me. In a 2-3 hour mountain bike race, time can be made up – not in a 39 minute ‘cross race! In hindsight, I should have done two things: 1. Pitted and used my other bike – the tires would have provided better traction; 2. Planned to run the pump track each time instead of getting bogged down TRYING to ride it. So why didn’t I do either of those things? Everytime I went by the pit, I was either just ahead of or just behind other racers, and I didn’t want to take the time necessary for a bike change. I also didn’t know that I COULD legally do that since my bike was working (shifting) fine, I hadn’t crashed, and nothing was broken. And approaching the pump track each time, I THOUGHT that I could ride it – I really did! Good lessons to learn early in the season ;)
[Julie Lockhart]
Day 1: Having seen the venue only in my first year of Cross, I was thoroughly intimidated by the potential hilly-ness. Riding the course on Friday convinced me that it would be tough but doable. At line up I received some instructions from our intrepid leader, so knew what to do for the start. My goals were simple, good start and steady riding, picking up the pace toward the end. It was a lovely day, great cheering sections, and some passing and being passed … all in all better than I expected.
Day 2: Drizzling lightly during warmup (did I say warm? ... well, course preview) the course was reversed, and featured stairs and a part of a BMX course. There was not much mud, but I did figure out how to fall anyway (so relieved that I had ‘cleaned’ the mud). Decided to do as much of the BMX as I could and run the rest. It was strange that people fell where lease expected (I could hear the fall behind me). Goals for this day were to keep the rubber down and enjoy the course. Better start, wet grass saps strength. Still trying to figure out the right tire pressure for different conditions.