I tried not to have too high of expectations going into the weekend because it was my first race with such a big field and such high caliber athletes. When we rode parts of the road race course on Friday, I was a little nervous because my asthma seemed significantly worse due to the altitude. I didn't have a form on file with USADA, so technically my asthma medication was a violation, but I asked the officials before the race and they said it was ok. Phew! I think I would have died without it.
Anyway, on race day my asthma was much better. The Horsetooth Reservoir was beautiful, which I tried to remember as I was suffering up it. The course started out with a fairly steep, 1.5 mile climb and then 2 more fairly significant climbs. The pack split up on the first climb which pretty much decided the race. A breakaway of 7 got away and stayed out for the rest of the day. I was in one of the chase packs that eventually grew into a pretty large group. We were organized for a little while, but then no one wanted to pull and the breakaway got a bigger gap. We had it down to about a minute for awhile, but the gap got bigger on our way back into Fort Collins. The wind was pretty killer on the course since it was blowing at about 25 mph. By the end of the race, I didn't have much of a kick left for the final sprint into the headwind. I ended up finishing 22nd for the day. I did hit 54.6 mph for a max speed, which is the fastest I've ever gone.
Sunday was an 8 corner crit in downtown Fort Collins. I was pretty nervous about this because I've never done a crit with more than 30 people in it - the field was about 60 for the crit (80 for the RR). Anyway, my main goals for the race were to finish and to stay upright. I was only able to accomplish one of those goals. I started out in the back of the pack because I got called up late, and I couldn't really move up in the field.
At one point, a bunch of girls crashed in front of me, and I was faced with 2 options: I could hit them or I could hit the curb. I opted for the curb, endoed over it, and landed on the grass. Amazingly, I didn't get a flat and my wheel was not at all out of true or round. I did break one of my shifters -- it still works, but when I downshift with the rear shifter, it stays clicked in unless I push it back out. Luckily, this happened with about 7 laps to go, so I was still able to get a free lap. I hopped back into the race and just focused on surviving the rest of it. 2 girls crashed separately on the last lap, and somehow, while I was going around them, I got dropped a little bit from the main field. I finished a few seconds off the back in a disappointing 48th place. Oh well.
The good news is that Julie got in a 2 person breakaway and was able to pull off the win to become the collegiate national crit champion! It was pretty cool watching her put on the stars and bars jersey, especially because she is Canadian. ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment