Maine Race Weekend - Women - 6-6-09
Lake Auburn Road Race (6/6/09)
Women’s 1/2/3 – 12 Starters
Cathy Rowell – 7th
Julie Lockhart – 11th
Women’s Cat 4 – 16 Starters
Katherine Snell – 4th
[Cathy Rowell]
Despite all of the racing experience over the past few years, it appears that tactically, I still have a LOT to learn (or at least remember). Here are the lessons learned from this race:
1.If you are in a group being overtaken by another group on the road, you need to neutralize and move over (and if you are the pace car driver, you need to overtake BEFORE the decisive climbs instead of hitting the brakes and making us all almost fall over…). This happened as the women’s field came upon the Men’s 55+ field…
2.Cramping while climbing a 12% grade sucks
3.When you can still see the group in front of you, and you are TT’ing like a crazy person, the chances are pretty good you’re not going to catch them on your own – especially on a flat to downhill section of road.
4.When you are caught by a group from behind who are actually riding slower than you, it is SMARTER to sit in with them than to work your a$$ off trying to maintain the speed you were going, ‘cause you’re still not gonna catch the group in front!
5.Sometimes, being a stronger climber is a blessing…
[Julie Lockhart]
Good start, but not fast enough down the hill, because everyone seemed to be braking, so was too slow up ‘the wall’ gathered a group and tried to chase back on, but the pack disappeared over the horizon. So I worked with a PVC rider and a Mt Holyoke rider for the first lap then finished just behind the PVC rider. My goal was to be with the pack for the first ascent … I guess I would have had to be the first down the hill – not gonna happen. I stuck with my PVC friend and worked together until the last half mile where she gapped me, and I could not close.
[Katherine Snell]
It was a beautiful day so I was a least feeling better than I did last year when it was gray and cloudy though my legs felt a bit dull during the warm-up. Given the small sizes of the fields I knew that there was a good chance that the fields would be combined for the start and scored separately as they had last year. Hence my strategy was to try and stay with the 1/2/3s for as long as I could and hope not too many of the other Cat 4s could do the same. Sure enough the fields were combined and we started together. Equally predictably, the field shattered when we hit “The Wall” which was a short but fairly steep climb followed by a hard right turn about a mile or so from the start. I was nearly shed as well as I paced myself up the hill as best I could and then caught back on again. However, only four Cat 4 riders survived into the lead group. The pace continued to be very high as we sped down Hotel Rd. until we caught up with the Men’s 55+ field. Our pace car was reluctant to go by them, resulting in several very sketchy slow downs and accelerations. Not only was this annoying and dangerous but it was allowing the majority of the Cat 4 field which I had worked very hard to shed to catch up. Eventually after much shouting, the pace car got the idea and after a little more shouting the men neutralized themselves and allowed us to pass. After passing, we immediately hit the next climb and I dropped back and paced myself up the climb back to the start along with my friend Ivy Luhrs, a Cat 3 rider. On the second lap, Ivy and I then worked together and caught three other riders including two other Cat 4s (Natalia Gardiol and Allison Snooks) who had been also dropped from the lead group. This was really good as I was now sure that there weren’t too many 4s with the lead group. I then concentrated on making sure I didn’t work too hard in the group but it was tough as Natalia, Allison and another Cat 3 gal that was with us seemed to pull shorter and slower. This time up the hill back to the start, I managed to stay with the group even leading them up the false flat back to the start and I could see Cathy Rowell not far ahead. However, after the wall, I was barely hanging on and struggled to catch back up to the group. I think I was more tired than I thought or not focused enough and managed to let a gap open that I was then unable to recover from. I struggled to close the gap but then the group joined up with Cathy and the gap widened. I then TT’d the rest of the third lap, deciding not to kill myself as I needed my legs for the crit on Sunday and crossed the line solo to finish fourth. A good result but I am still kicking myself from losing my focus and a potential podium spot.
Great Falls Criterium (6/7/09)
Women’s Open – 17 starters
Cathy Rowell – 5th
Katherine Snell – 9th
Julie Lockhart – 12th
Loraine Warner
[Cathy Rowell]
Even more tactical learnings on Day 2 of racing. Guess you can “teach an old dog new tricks” :).
1.Starts are still key.
2.Stay IN the draft through the corners, not out in the wind just ‘cause you’re afraid of everyone else.
3.Being the strongest rider in a chase group stinks – you’re still chasing (and in my case, burning matches doing the work).
4.Once you are in a Sunapee sandwich, with one of their teammates up the road, you should SIT IN instead of working your butt off and getting dropped with two laps left to go… (see #3 above).
5.Even if you may have a small common goal, racers with teammates up the road will NOT work with you for ANY reason.
6.Know the rules! I ended up getting lapped right as the leaders were finishing their race. I still technically had 1 to go, but wasn’t sure if I was finished or not. I went around one last time, just to be sure, but also didn’t want to cross the line again if I wasn’t supposed to (the rule is that you finish on the same lap as the leaders, BTW).
7.Now I know what people feel like racing against the NEBC women ;).
[Katherine Snell]
After the Lake Auburn race, I met Loraine and was glad to hear she was racing the crit so I knew I wouldn’t be the only Cat 4 there. I began to get a little worried though when I went to go prep my bike and my friend Ivy asked me why I was changing out my road cassette. To which I asked “why was I going to need a 12-27 for a crit?” That was answered the next day when I saw the first corner after the start which rises rather steeply up a short hill. It looked like it was going to hurt after 20 laps. I took advantage of the kids race to do some warm up on the course and found that I could climb “the wall” in my 50/21 but was more comfortable in the 50/24 which still left me a bail out gear. We started and sure enough the field quickly spread out as we went around the corner and up the hill. The pace was very high driven by the elite Sunapee women (Kathryn Carr and Debhony Dheil) as well as a couple of other strong riders. I caught back on with the group and stayed with them the next time into the corner and up the hill again but by the third lap, self-preservation kicked in and I set my own pace up the hill. I was amazed and happy to see that Loraine stuck with the group but then dismayed as I came around on the fifth lap to see her off to one side. Several times during the first couple of laps, I had also thought about bowing out but managed to hang in staying slightly behind Ivy for the rest of the race as we passed a couple of other dropped riders. I would close the gap on Ivy uphill which she would then open up again on the downhill. I did manage to get some good cornering practice and ramped my speed out of the second corner from 26 mph to over 30 mph as the raced progressed. My perseverance eventually paid off and I crossed the finish down at lap in 9th place for one of my better finishes in an Open Women’s race.
[Julie Lockhart]
Plan to stick with the pack up the hill the first time … well, almost, and then I just got opportunistic help, and tried to stay out of the way. Still need more work on that particular Crit. Also, there is a number of times which one should practice the start before it becomes too much.