Fitchburg report - Women's 3/4 - 7-4-08
Clara Kelly
Katherine Snell
Erica Mains
Clara Kelly – 3rd
I feel like I have now officially graduated from the race clinic. This was my first time racing in a pack and my first crit. In my road races earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to be in breakaways and worry more about pedaling than handling my bike or thinking too much. This was my first race against the Cat 3 ladies and there was no shortage of competition. It was exciting to see how things played out over the 4 days – because each day was a different type of race.
I was very glad that I had rode the time trial course before. I didn’t get up the courage to use aero bars on the rough road, so I was doing the best I could on my road bike. I felt like I did well when I saw 19mph on one of the climbs, but then I was passed on the downhill to the finish by a woman that I had passed on the last climb. I was at the finish when Erica and Katherine came barreling down right together. What a photo op – but of course no camera. Overall, I felt good about the ride. I wasn’t thrilled with the 6th place but it was a good effort anyway. Little did I know, I’d be quite thankful for that 6th place shortly.
The morning of July 4th found our little contingent of 3 in the pouring rain at Wauchesett. The previous morning’s warm up in full sun had inspired Patrick to pick up a tent we ordered weeks ago from REI. We were lucky to have that tent, as we were able to warm up, have some fun, and be comfortable before starting out. I got a loan of fleecy arm warmers from Erica which were a BIG HELP since it did rain during our race and I saw several women suffering from hypothermia after the race. I got to spent a lot of time on the backstretch of the first two laps in a crash course of how to move about inside a pack. The hill on each lap pretty much solved that problem for me and I was in the first few ladies flying down the mountain each time. On the last lap, I was at the front of the pack on the backstretch when Kristen Gorr (ex NEBC) attacked and we were off! I was lucky to be in the front when she moved, as we then picked up the pace. The small group of climbers pedaled hard off the top of the hill by the feed zone and headed for Wauchesett. I was 5th into the turn behind the 18 year old Australian that won. The last I saw of her, she pitched her water bottle hard into the curb – it came flying back into the road- but did not take anyone out (by luck) . After some quick apologies, she was off flying up that hill never to be seen again. A happy moment came at the steepest part when either the two ladies ahead of me tired, or I finally got moving. I was able to pass them with a mammoth effort and sqeak into 3rd.
Saturday, I was beaten badly in the circuit race. I have a lot to learn in that kind of a race about getting into a good position. It was an interesting race – and quite a workout with the two step hill. The pack finished in one giant uphill rush – with the exception of the Australian who I heard was rocketed off the front with a smoothly executed lead-out. She was the only person with a teammate in the front and those girls really knew what they were doing.
Sunday, the ego was still sore from the previous day. I decided to ride my first crit in damage control mode. As long as I avoided a crash, I was secure in my 3rd place GC. Mission accomplished. Very exciting was that the winner of the race really came out of nowhere. I don’t think I saw her near the front on any of the 3 days.
I had a great time Sunday afternoon watching all of the crit races after mine. Way to go, NEBC riders! I watched the elite women taking the turns and compared it to my own experience in the middle of the ¾ field. Big difference! I encourage everyone to go to watch this race next year.
Katherine Snell – 54th
Stage 1 – Rindge Road Time Trial July 3
I was reasonably optimistic about the time trial despite that it was a steady 3% grade climb for 5 miles with bits at 7%. I had ridden the course a few times and had timed myself at race pace. I had set a goal for myself of beating 23 minutes which would put me in the middle of the field. I had also spent some time optimizing my TT bike setup by setting the bars a little higher up for a more comfortable climbing position in the aerobars and switching my cassette to a 12-25 so I had a bail out gear for the steeper sections. I ended up starting a second or two late as my holder and the starter seemed to be distracted by my trouble getting clipped in. I went off and immediately got the bike going to over 24 mph before hitting the climb and felt that initial burn as I went into the climb. I backed off a little to recover and then continued, climbing at a steady pace. Climbing down in the bars allowed me to immediately get up to speed in the flatter and slightly downhill sections between the climbs. I summitted the climb at with an average speed of over 15 mph so I was feeling pretty good as I hit the downhill section and got the bike well into the 30 mph range and passed two riders (1:30 and 1:00 ahead of me) before I hit the finish line at 22:46 and over 18 mph average. The GC had me at 22:53 so that time was changed for some reason but it didn’t change my position in the GC at 37. As I expected, Clara had done a nice job with the climb and managed 6th place to get into the GC contention. Erica had also done reasonably well not having a TT bike or a lot of TT experience and placed 61st.
Stage 2 – Mt. Wachusett Road Race July 4
My time trial result had me hoping that maybe I could place reasonably well in the road race (mid-field would be good for me). I looked at the radar map as I left home and was optimistic as there was no rain in Fitchburg. However as I drove out the rain got heavier and heavier and by the time I reached Mt. Wachusett, it was pouring. Luckily Clara had picked up her tent and set it up so we could warm-up and stay dry. As we warmed up the rain subsided so things were looking up. After the official gave us stern warnings about the descent, we started. I slowly worked my position up in the pack, not being one of the top 10 and lining up a little late. My coach had emphasized the need to be on the front when we hit the climb, so with a mile or so to go into Princeton I moved to the front and led the peleton for the first and last time up the rollers into Princeton. Much to my surprise no one else came to the front as we started to climb at my pace. Then we hit the wall and despite my determination to keep up with the peleton, my legs were not co-operating. I ended dropping back and getting seriously gapped by the time I hit the top of the climb in Princeton. I pushed on and then hit the descent as fast as I could, passing and dropping a rider or two on the way. On the stretch into Princeton I played cat and mouse with a couple riders, none of whom seemed to want to work with me to chase back. A mile or two before the turn onto Rt. 62, I caught the peleton who had slowed due to mechanicals. The climb in Princeton was a repeat of the first lap and I was gapped again.
This time I was unable to catch the field again and my hopes of finishing mid-field evaporated. On the climb to the base of Mt. Wachusett I was passed by one of the Men’s fields and was careful to move over to the right side to neutralize myself. At one point an obviously super aggressive guy came by and passed me on the right. We bumped a bit and exchanged words; thankfully uneventfully. After the Men passed, I caught a couple of other women just before we turned into the Mt. Wachusett auto road. As one of them passed me again, I remarked to her to save her energy as the big climb was yet to come. Then the other gal passed me. I bided my time knowing that it was going to get steeper and that if I conserved my energy by keeping pace I would eventually pass them. Sure enough I passed them at about 500 m to the finish and held on to finish 60th at 10:06 behind the leader and 59th in the GC. I was not happy about my finish but at least had the satisfaction of actually out-climbing a couple of competitors. Again Clara did well on this race finishing third which put her in third place for the GC.
Stage 3 – Fitchburg State College Circuit Race July 5
The morning of the CR, I was still bummed about my performance from the RR and knew that the steep, short, two step climb on Pearl Street was going to cause me trouble. It was tough to get in a good mental state and I was also starting to feel the fatigue from the previous two days of racing.
Nonetheless, I warmed up and got out to the line, almost forgetting to sign in and did so in the nick of time. I again tried to find a good position on the line but these women were super aggressive about getting position. I made up for it when we started and kept up with the fast pace and got into position about mid pack. I then tried to work again to get up front more as the peleton sped up to 28 mph+ as we climbed the false flat up Rindge Road. I had gravity helping and no problem holding my position down John Fitch Hwy but then we turned into the corner on Pearl and started climbing the hill. Unfortunately, I did not shift down to my small ring before starting the climb and attempted to do it as an out of the saddle big ring power climb. That lasted as far as the first step up where everyone passed as I shifted down and proceeded to be dropped as I finished climbing the hill. I then started chasing back on, caught a rider or two only to have them pass me on the hill the next lap and then chase them back. Again none of them seemed to be too interested in forming a chase group.
I was doing reasonably well keeping up my pace (good thing I like doing TTs cause I seem to be alone a lot) until around the end of lap 4 where I had my head down coming down John Fitch. When I looked up I was momentarily confused and didn’t see any corner marshal (there wasn’t one) and thought I was still on the straight section and ended up going straight through the Pearl St corner. !@#$!!! I had missed the corner. I quickly turned around but it was too late and the five or so women who I had worked so hard to keep behind me were now in front. I almost quit the race right there but stayed in to finish DFL. It was a complete disaster – I had lost almost as much time in the CR in 22 miles as I had on the RR in 35 miles. I still completed the race within the time cutoff so I could race the crit but had bottomed out on the GC at 60th. Clara had hung on to finish with the pack and hold on to her third place in the GC. I was surprised to learn that Erica, who had been doing better than me had ended up withdrawing from the race.
Stage 4 – Fitchburg Downtown Criterium July 6
My main goal for the crit was to finish and try and keep Clara out of trouble and in contention by working my way to the front and keeping her on my wheel – if I could. I was more careful to rest after the CR and was in somewhat better spirits Sunday morning as I warmed up. The crit started at a high pace as usual and stayed that way for a few laps. We were doing 25+ attacking up Main St and over 30 before hitting the third corner into Palmer St. The third corner was definitely scary as everyone hit the brakes. I could literally smell the burning rubber of the brake blocks each time we hit the corner. A couple of times I locked my rear wheel as a rider cut in front of me. My power was good as I accelerated up Palmer and felt my rear wheel jump. In fact I was feeling great and had survived past the 9 laps to go mid-race cutoff for the GC finish. I had momentarily thought of ending my pain by faking a mechanical (a la Greg Lemond) but I wanted to stay in and at least finish a race with the pack. Then they announced a $100 prime at 6 to go. I warned Clara that the pace was about to pick up and prepared myself. Sure enough everybody attacked hard up Main St. and I managed to stay with them until we started the slight climb. Then it was like somebody had pulled my plug – my gas tank was empty and I couldn’t keep the pace any more. I kept going but was pulled at 3 to go. I was so mad I felt like throwing my bike and started to understand how David Millar had felt during Paris-Roubaix when he flatted near the end of the race. Anyways I had survived, not crashed and successfully defended my place in the GC. I had actually done a little better than I thought as some of the other women had DNF’d leaving me at 51st place in the crit and 53rd in the GC.
Post-Mortem
I was done in by the climbing in this race. I was usually in decent position but then got dropped as we climbed. Somehow I need to improve my climbing if I am ever going to be successful. I also need to improve my endurance – I shouldn’t have faded during the crit, the one race where I stood a chance of winning. In fact, one of the women I had beat up Mt. Wachusett ended up winning the crit so I am optimistic that if I can improve my endurance I could do something similar.
On the good side, I had finished a very tough stage race. My drive and determination kept me going where other competitors dropped out. Hopefully I can maintain that determination for the rest of the year and not burnout. Attrition was a big factor – 77 Category ¾ Women were registered, 71 started the time trail and 54 finished the race. We started with 38 Cat 3s and 26 Cat 4s with 7 unranked. By the end of the race there were 29 Cat 3s and 18 Cat 4s with 6 unranked. Overall this race was fast – our average speeds were similar to the Pro Women, driven by some very good racers on the front so I might have done better in a slower year.