racing in Packer country
So I was in WI yesterday for the Neenah crit. Turns out Jana and Matt live on the crit course, so Pete and I went there to hang out for the weekend and race yesterday...it was so nice to get a shower and food from the grill right after my race! And I hadn't seen Jana and Matt in a long time, so it was great to hang out with them for the weekend and spend some time with Anna, and also get to meet their new baby Ellie.
I was nervous for this race because the crit was a Women's Open race (i.e. no separate Cat 4 race) and it was long...50 minutes plus two laps - that's about twice as long as the crits here in MN. The really nice thing was that I had a teammate there too...Barb was there. Barb's been trying to get the Bellas to race in WI for a long time because she says it's just "different", and now I know what she means.
It was a 4-corner residential crit with just a tiny slight uphill section...for all practical purporses, it was flat. But two of the corners were rather sketchy - they were tight and the road was bumpy and patched up. In the inside of the 4th turn, the race promoters covered some telephone poles and trees with bed mattresses, and I was fairly certain that someone would be very thankful for that.
About 20 women lined up for the race. Being an out-of-towner, I had no idea who these people were. How many Cat 2/3's? How many 4's? Who's going to attack right away? Who should I NOT follow? All I knew was that the "cow chicks" (the America's Dairyland team that wears the pink, black and white cow print jersesy) are good.
As usual, the race started out fast and I struggled to keep up, but found myself still in the main field when the fast chicks sat up a little. At some point early in the race, someone attacked and a group of 5 or 6 riders got off the front. The main field had also dropped some riders, but I'm not sure how many. About halfway through the race, Barb decided to attack. At the time, I was towards the front of the pack, so when Barb took off I just sort of soft-pedaled and made everyone try to go around me then jumped on their wheel...it was fun to let others do the chasing. In general, I was amazed at all of the organized attacks and counter-attacks. Towards the end of the race, the leaders had caught up to us, and it was confusing for me since I didn't know who was part of that lead pack and who was part of the main field. I guess that's one of the benefits of racing with the same people in MN all of the time.
With about 3 laps to go, one of the cow chicks attacked again. I was at the front of the field, so I chased after her and was able to keep up. So with one lap to go, there was still a main field of at least 10 women. I was nervous about the final sprint because the last corner was sketchy, and it was best to go through the corner single file...and I knew that wouldn't happen on the last lap. Halfway through the bell lap, another chick decided to attack which was good because it strung out the field. The bad part was that I couldn't keep up with the attacker and a few others, but luckily I had dropped some others in the process of trying to keep up.
I ended up placing 11th, so I was pretty happy with that. I have no idea how many Cat 4's were ahead of me...I'm hoping they post that info when the results get up on the web.
This race was cool because it was long enough to have a lot of things happen and I really learned a lot. For maybe the first time, I really felt like a racer because I had to do so much - try to help out a teammate, take some pulls at the front, chase down attacks, do some high-speed cornering, try to sit in, work on my positioning, and sprint at the end. And two things about WI racing really stuck out - (1) these teams really know how to work together...there were about 3 well-represented teams, and they were organized with their attacks and counter-attacks and were "secretly" chatting during the race; and (2) the race felt more safe than I'm used to which makes it a lot more fun, especially when you're flying through tight corners (which I'm not used to since Opus is just a big circle).
On a side note, it was also fun to watch Pete take a bunch of primes and win the Master's 30+ 1/2/3 race. And it was fun to watch Pete and Paul (with his sweet new bike) race in the Pro/1/2 race...they did awesome considering it was just the two of them, and a few of the other good local teams appeared to have about 10 guys each.
I'll try to post some pictures later.
Big thanks to Jana and Matt for a great weekend!!
SS
I was nervous for this race because the crit was a Women's Open race (i.e. no separate Cat 4 race) and it was long...50 minutes plus two laps - that's about twice as long as the crits here in MN. The really nice thing was that I had a teammate there too...Barb was there. Barb's been trying to get the Bellas to race in WI for a long time because she says it's just "different", and now I know what she means.
It was a 4-corner residential crit with just a tiny slight uphill section...for all practical purporses, it was flat. But two of the corners were rather sketchy - they were tight and the road was bumpy and patched up. In the inside of the 4th turn, the race promoters covered some telephone poles and trees with bed mattresses, and I was fairly certain that someone would be very thankful for that.
About 20 women lined up for the race. Being an out-of-towner, I had no idea who these people were. How many Cat 2/3's? How many 4's? Who's going to attack right away? Who should I NOT follow? All I knew was that the "cow chicks" (the America's Dairyland team that wears the pink, black and white cow print jersesy) are good.
As usual, the race started out fast and I struggled to keep up, but found myself still in the main field when the fast chicks sat up a little. At some point early in the race, someone attacked and a group of 5 or 6 riders got off the front. The main field had also dropped some riders, but I'm not sure how many. About halfway through the race, Barb decided to attack. At the time, I was towards the front of the pack, so when Barb took off I just sort of soft-pedaled and made everyone try to go around me then jumped on their wheel...it was fun to let others do the chasing. In general, I was amazed at all of the organized attacks and counter-attacks. Towards the end of the race, the leaders had caught up to us, and it was confusing for me since I didn't know who was part of that lead pack and who was part of the main field. I guess that's one of the benefits of racing with the same people in MN all of the time.
With about 3 laps to go, one of the cow chicks attacked again. I was at the front of the field, so I chased after her and was able to keep up. So with one lap to go, there was still a main field of at least 10 women. I was nervous about the final sprint because the last corner was sketchy, and it was best to go through the corner single file...and I knew that wouldn't happen on the last lap. Halfway through the bell lap, another chick decided to attack which was good because it strung out the field. The bad part was that I couldn't keep up with the attacker and a few others, but luckily I had dropped some others in the process of trying to keep up.
I ended up placing 11th, so I was pretty happy with that. I have no idea how many Cat 4's were ahead of me...I'm hoping they post that info when the results get up on the web.
This race was cool because it was long enough to have a lot of things happen and I really learned a lot. For maybe the first time, I really felt like a racer because I had to do so much - try to help out a teammate, take some pulls at the front, chase down attacks, do some high-speed cornering, try to sit in, work on my positioning, and sprint at the end. And two things about WI racing really stuck out - (1) these teams really know how to work together...there were about 3 well-represented teams, and they were organized with their attacks and counter-attacks and were "secretly" chatting during the race; and (2) the race felt more safe than I'm used to which makes it a lot more fun, especially when you're flying through tight corners (which I'm not used to since Opus is just a big circle).
On a side note, it was also fun to watch Pete take a bunch of primes and win the Master's 30+ 1/2/3 race. And it was fun to watch Pete and Paul (with his sweet new bike) race in the Pro/1/2 race...they did awesome considering it was just the two of them, and a few of the other good local teams appeared to have about 10 guys each.
I'll try to post some pictures later.
Big thanks to Jana and Matt for a great weekend!!
SS
posted by Strats at 10:24 AM
3 Comments:
Nice work--sounds exciting!!
Perhaps I'll have to try to make it to WI if they still have some races coming up...I'm having more fun with this road racing thing than I want to admit. Grrr.
Gilby, the Wisconsin schedule is here. Lots o' races coming up. Road races that don't conflict with the calendar here, not so much, but if you don't care about the Hutchinson crit June 10 there's a road race in Spring Prairie (wherever the heck that is). We could hit that one, I suppose.
And lots in Iowa too, but I guess that doesn't count if you're looking for that special Wisconsin experience....
Way to go, Sarah! Cow chicks - snort! So, should we be saving up old mattresses to be used in lieu of hay bales??
On second thought . . . mebbe not.
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