Women's Race Report--DePauw road race & crit

Some photos from the DePauw races are up--Bernard has a bunch more on his camera
Those from my camera are at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24311744@N03/sets/72157604032981376/detail/

We had a large team at the DePauw road race and criterium this weekend. Five new racers came out to test their legs on the hilly road course on Saturday and flat/windy crit course on Sunday--congratulations to Ben, Bernard, Chris, Jesse and Paige for a great performance at your your first races! Novices no longer!

The DePauw road race was held around an 8 mile loop circling Heritage Lake. The back side of the loop had a series of rolling hills that meant several short, hard climbs and steep descents. The hills, combined with a strictly-enforced yellow-line rule (can't cross over into oncoming car traffic), made it an interesting course for a road race.

Me (Carly) and Paige rode Women's B in a fast and deep field of 45 riders (huge compared to most women's races last year!). There were 10 Indiana University riders that were all training for the "Little 500" (for more on this race--see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_500 or the film "Breaking Away") and were incredibly strong cyclists, so it promised to be a hard and fast race. The IU girls drove the pace hard in the first miles of the race and managed to pull away from the field with a pack of about 15-20 cyclists. I found myself in a comfortable position towards the front of the lead group and managed to hang on as the attacks came in the hills. My UCVC kit looks enough like the IU kits, however, that I think I screwed up their rotation--they were very well organized and set a blistering pace by rotating through the 8 or so riders that were in command of the lead group...but every once in a while they would glance back and yell "Pull through IU!!!" at me, thinking that I was one of their teammates. Yay for the new red kits! Despite riding well for the 25 mile road race, however, I made a stupid decision in the last quarter mile that cost me a top-10 finish. Some of the riders out front got twitchy as we approached the finishing stretch and punched the sprint early. Worried that they would break away, I hoped onto the small group and headed for the finish. Sadly, the main peloton quickly picked up speed and blew around us to the sprint finish. Ah well--you live, you learn.

Paige rode an excellent race--yay first road race! She started towards the back of the field off the line and was in a bad position to move with the breakaway pack when it picked up speed. With the yellow-line rule and large field, it it really hard to weave up towards the front, especially with the IU girls driving the pace hard. She regrouped and picked up some other riders to work with as she chased down the main group, slowly moving up the field as riders dropped off in the hills (and couldn't hold her wheel!). She came solo for solid finish in the middle of a very competitive field.

Devon's Women's A field was much smaller than our B field. The other girls were clearly terrified of her, so nobody wanted to attack or push the pace for the first part of the race (Devon's reputation obviously precedes her). Devon decided to push the other riders a bit to test the group, making them work in the hill section. Shattering the field, she finished with a heroic 30min solo effort off the front that opened nearly a 3min gap ahead of the rest of the field. Brilliant effort!

On the second day, the Criterium was held around a long 1.2 (?) mile loop, with several curves and one hard turn. The most challenging part was an exposed section along the back of the course that left riders to face a crushing headwind. We were initially worried about riding a crit with such a large pack, only to find that every field (no matter how big) was almost immediately splintered in the windy section.

Paige and I rode Women's B in a large field dominated by IU girls once again. Like on Saturday, the IU team set a blistering pace in the first few laps. I managed to position myself well in the first group off the front but picked an unlucky wheel in the paceline as the IU girl in front of me faded in the windy section and allowed the breakaway group to gap us. We re-integrated into the chase group and rode several laps until the IU rotation along the backside forced me into a pothole and I nailed my front wheel (pinch flat--oh no!). Paige passed me moments later right on the heels of the chase group and told Devon to pull a wheel from the pit. The Men's D team was an excellent pit crew and got me back up and rolling in no time, although the chase group had already gone by. I picked up two more girls to work with and thought that we could settle in for the rest of the race. Unfortunately, two laps later the girl in front of me clipped her wheel on the front rider and went down right in front of me, pulling me down to. It was a soft landing since I mostly fell on top of her (she probably has some pretty ugly wheel marks on her butt), but with no more free laps and a series of misfortunes, I thought I would call it a day and cheer Paige on. Working hard in the windy sections, Paige once again pulled herself up through the pack, and ended the day with a top 20 finish. Great job!

Devon's Women's A race was pretty much a repeat of the day before. At one point the pack was going so slowly (because nobody wanted to attack) that a cross-wind nearly caused the whole peloton to go down. When the pace picked up for a prime lap, Devon broke off the front with two IU girls and a Wisconsin rider and once again shattered the field. After a lap, the IU team faded, leaving Devon and the Wisconsin rider to work together for the remainder of the race. With three laps to go, Devon pulled ahead of the WI girl and once again came in for a breakaway solo finish.

Sorry for the long-winded recap of the races. It would be great to get race experiences up on the blog (I feel like we have a lot to learn from one another)--and it would be especially good to hear from new riders!

Get excited for Mizzou!!!!
~carly