Monday, March 10, 2008

(wo)Men's B

Aspen and I both raced (wo)Men's B this weekend.  It was fun to have a teammate in the race and fun for me to race in a bigger field.  Saturday's course was a long (11.5) and hilly loop... hills way bigger than the 47th street overpass!  And we had winds similar to the ones that will blow you over on the lake front path.  

Aspen started off in a good position (front 10 people) and I found myself a bit further back in the pack.  As we began to hit the hills, the field thinned a bit and I worked my way up in the pack... We hit hill after hill and after a several ups and downs, I was pretty close to the front where I saw a big, strong guy hammering in the lead with Aspen right on his wheel.  I worked my way up to Aspen's wheel and then pedaled hard to hang on.  Soon I looked back and saw that we had a break of 5 people!  Our break stuck and we opened up a gap so wide that we could no longer see the field behind us.  We were moving at a pretty good pace and it wasn't easy hanging on to the group.

We had gone about a lap when we hit the series of hills that caused the initial break.  Again, the big, strong guy started putting the hammer down and I was suffering to hang on to the back.  As we approached the last peak, I could no longer hang on and was shed off the back (so sad).  But Aspen kept going strong in the break (go Aspen!).  I was in no-man's land with a fast break ahead of me and a roaring pack somewhere behind me and I still had 24 miles to go...  I decided to keep pedaling hard and hope that I could stay away from the pack.  After half a lap, I had company with another guy that was shed from the breakaway.  We worked together for a while until he started to tire and I was on my own again.  By the last lap, I had lost all sense of the distance to the finish line, I started to fear I might topple over with each successive hill, and I kept peering over my shoulder, fearing that I would see a large pack ready to swallow me up at any moment... but then I saw the joyous orange cones in the distance marking the finish line and still no sight of the pack - i just had to make it up o-n-e... m-o-r-e... HILL!  I finished 4th and Aspen was standing there looking as tired as I felt - he ended up staying with the break and finishing 3rd.  A good day for both of us!

The next morning we awoke super early for the Lindenwood Crit.  The course that promised to be "mostly flat" on the flyer also had climbs that dwarfed the 47th street overpass (they obviously haven't been to Chicago to see what flat is).  I'm afraid that our race wasn't nearly as exciting and eventful as the Men's D and Women's B races.  The pack stayed together as a big group for most of the race with some people shedding off the back.  Aspen and I both stayed with the main group and Aspen was in a good position for most of the race, feeling ready for a strong finish.  Unfortunately, he lost his place in the pack right before the final descent into the finish and ended up 10th (still not too shabby).  I also did not have a stellar position for the finish, but finished with the main field, somewhere around 15th.  

After the men's race, I took a cool down lap and then decided to double my fun for the day and got right back on the start line for the Women's A race.  I was starting to feel a little tired at this point... I tried to push the pace a few times and could feel the build up of hill climbing in my legs.  We did manage to widdle the pack down to about 6 riders but the finish was going to come down to a sprint.  As we rounded the last corner, I found a little bit of juice left in my legs and sprinted for the win.  A double women's victory for the day!

2 comments:

Aspen said...

We survived a 35+ mile break! And rumor has it that the break turned in the fastest lap time of the day (including the men's As race).

J/tati said...

I wish the mwccc website were updated more regularly!

But what a wonderful weekend for the team. This bodes very well for the squads future.