My goal this year was simple. I needed to cat up from 4 to 3. I had started racing road in 2006 and got 12 points my first year. Not bad considering at the start of the season I was just learning how to draft, corner, ride in a pack, get comfortable using the drops, and hadn't even gotten the hang of sprinting out of the saddle, tactics, etc. etc. You get the idea. I was a mess at first and had no clue what I was doing. It's amazing I never crashed until late July this year.
My 2nd year I did only 4 races...feeling unmotivated and lazy I guess. I had decided to focus on cyclocross and thought sitting on my ass and not racing was somehow going to get me all rested and ready for CX in 2007. Well, not quite. Needless to say, I didn't do well in my races and, according to the USA Cycling rules, all my points expired after 1 year and I had to start all over again. Dammit! All that work for nothing. I figured it was going to be a long ass season.
My first race I got talked into doing my my Metro Minty friend Jes was Cat's Hill. My neighbor Sean thought I was insane to start my season with that race, talking about how it was going to be a humbling experience, I would be lucky to hang with the pack, yadayada. So, I figured, I would just go, try to hang in the pack and just get the first race over with and go for a ride down in Los Gatos afterwards to get back into my routine of accumulating base miles.
Mind you, this course is L-shaped with a 20+% grade hill in it, that you have to climb each lap. That's why Sean figured I would get pummeled. So, I started the race and was actually hanging in there. The hill was a bitch, but doable. I kept telling myself, "well, it's easier than a CX race." Before you know it, the last lap was upon me and from what I had been told, the best place to attack was on the hill. First person to the top generally wins even though you still have half a lap to go. So, I did just that...attacked that hill with everything I had. The surprising part was that I actually passed girls on the downhill part...too gassed from the climb I guess. I turned the final corner in 3rd place and sprinted with everything I had left and actually held it. I couldn't believe it. My first crit back and I got 3rd place! In a 3/4 race no less that wasn't picked separately. I was so stoked.
I followed this up with the EB Crit in Pleasanton, which considering it's a simple circular course, you'd think it would be safe as can be. Yet, I find those races to be the most dangerous. It's as if once you don't have to think about anything technical like turning, etc. in a race, people's brains shut off. A bunch of my racing friends did the same crit and all said it was the sketchiest race they had ever done. I was able to get 5th in my category, good for a few points at least. Unfortunately for one of my dear friends, Alice, it was her last race of the season. She got taken out right after lap 1 was done and had her arm broken so bad she had to get surgery. We all felt terrible. She is back to kicking ass form though now and I hope she has an awesome race season next year. ;-)The next race was the Golden State crit, up near Sac and it was raining on the way to the event. I had always vowed that I would never race in the rain, and as I was sitting on my trainer in the rain watching the juniors race around, I thought "Damn, I'm actually crazy enough to attempt this." So there we were, the Cat 3/4 crew lining up in the rain ready to race. There was a hairpin, and surprisingly only on the first lap was there any trouble in our group. I swear again that once you add a technical element to the race, everyone pays attention and no one gets hurt. I managed to get 2nd place at that race. I was pretty happy considering I had almost bagged that race.
Then I did the Memorial Day crit near San Jose. I took a wrong turn and got there with about 30 minutes to reg, warm up and race. Yet, I managed to get 5th place again. Not the greatest, but still some points. I also went out and did a really pretty loop near there afterward to get some miles in and then hung out the rest of the day with my fellow friends and racers and drank beer while we watched the other races. It was so nice to just kick back and enjoy the day.
I had a bit of bad luck after that. I got sick, so had to skip the ICCC Dash for Cash, then I signed up for the 2 Wheel Crit in Santa Rosa. We had a team BBQ the night before, which in hindsight I probably should not have attended...I ended up carpooling up to the race with another racer, and we ended up in major traffic at the 580/101 interchange due to a detour, that delayed us for an hour! During that time, I kept getting more and more hung over and not feeling to great after by the time we go to Santa Rosa. We got there with 15 minutes to spare to get me registered, suited up and ready to go. While I was getting my number pinned on I was looking at the port-a-potty in front of me and suddenly blurted out "Uh, stop pinning cuz I have to us the bathroom now!" I raced into the port-a-potty just in time to puke my guts out. Pretty damn disgusting I know! Then I did my business, cleaned myself up and went back out to finish getting pinned. I figured at this point what's the worst that can happen? I already puked for crying out loud. So, I headed to the start line with no warm-up and just went for it. I actually managed to eek out a prime and a 6th place. I would have finished better because I was feeling strong enough, but I got boxed in at the last turn. Oh well.
I still planned to do a big ride afterward...my favorite ride called King's Ridge. If you've never done it, it's amazing! Although, it's a LOT of climbing. Check out this link that shows elevation maps and one other person's adventure with this ride: http://www.nd.edu/~cvandenb/KingRidge.htm In hindsight, biking from Santa Rosa all the way to the coast and doing a bunch of climbing on an already hot day after racing and being hung over...not so bright. I guess I removed some brain cells the night before along with the guts I got rid of earlier that day. I ended up putting in 95 miles for the day altogether and suffering for most of it. The views were still amazing, the descents awesome, and the time alone to enjoy it all priceless, so I don't regret that at least. It's so secluded that for a majority of the ride (from 116 along the Russian River along the route all the way until you hit Hwy 1) I only saw about 20 cars. Nothing like have the roads all to yourself.
I then attempted to race Pescadero, thinking I could get points in that race since they run deeper for road races vs. crits and also because they were picking Cat 3 and 4 separately...or so I thought. Again, I went on an adventure of missed turns and again showed up at the race with about 15 minutes to spare. They ended up starting us about 30 min late, so it didn't matter, but as Laura can attest, I was pretty stressed out driving there. Cursing lots, saying lots of other bads things too and all around being a real pain in the ass to be around. Sorry Laura. The race overall was exciting and I worked my ass off. I knew there were mostly Cat 3 racers around me, so I figured I had to at least get in the top 6. The fun thing about this race is that after you finish on a climb, you have to ride another 8 miles back to the start. Really demoralizing if you've had a bad race, which I had the last time I did this. I got back to the start anxiously awaiting the results to find out that I ended up 18/70-ish girls (not bad, I guess) and that they were NOT picking separately. I was so mad. I felt like I had wasted all that energy and stressed out so much for nothing. I was really bummed to say the least, and exhausted. That's what happens when I put way too many expectations on one race.
After that was the Napa Downtown Gran Prix. Now, as many of the guys will tell you, this course was a crash-fest. It was q-shaped and had this crazy hairpin where you had to go around a fountain or something. For the women though, it was actually a pretty fun race because of the smaller field sizes. I managed to get 2nd in the Cat 4 group...1 point shy of upgrade. At this point I had changed my goal from wanting to upgrade by the end of the season to wanting to upgrade by the time Burlingame came around because they didn't have a Cat 4 field, so the only way I could race it was if I was a Cat 3.
Next was the Vacaville crit. I figured this course would suit me since it had a hill in it like Cat's Hill. It was another blistering hot day and I was not feeling the most fresh. I was getting goose bumps from being overheated and was counting down the laps because I felt so shitty. I tried to attack on the hill like at Cat's Hill, but this turned out to be a bad move since you still have to do quite a bit of work before you get to the finish. I blew myself up and finished mid-pack...yet, I was actually the first cat 4 somehow. Too bad they didn't pick separately. I was pretty woozy for at least an hour afterward. Thankfully, I went up there with Anthony and Marisa, so they drove back. Great travel companions, by the way. ;-)
My two favorite crits of the year are Lafayette and Albany. I do them every year because they are so fun and so close I can bike there from my house. This year I did the Lafayette crit hoping for the best. There tend to be crashes, so I was hoping to manage to stay upright and get the 1 point I needed. I managed to get 5th overall but was curious how I ended up in the 4's since they were supposed to pick separately. Then they told us that they weren't going to pick separately because they didn't have a camera to pick out the racers. We were pissed to say the least. Show up to a race that does false advertising. Why not borrow a camera, or get a photographer to take pics of the finish and view each shutter shot to determine the results? But then they changed their mind and picked the top 3 for each category...and I won! I couldn't believe it. And I got some sweet prizes and money to top it off.
I even got to go on a nice little ride afterward before heading home. Thankfully, Alice and Brian my neighbors where there and took all my winnings home for me since I rode there on my bike.Now I could finally upgrade and it was official before the start of my last race of the road season: Albany crit. This was to be my first P123 crit and I was excited. I knew people tended to crash in the first turn, but otherwise it was a fun course and again bikeable from my house. We all lined up and took off...for about 10 feet before some girls tangled bars and went down. We did a neutral lap and restarted at the line. Mary Maroon took off on a flyer and had some back luck taking herself out, stating later that she probably should have raced with different tires. Then, Michiko took turn 1 too hot and took down 3 riders, including myself, Hanan and another girl. It's funny because I had just asked Karla a few weeks earlier how you go about taking a free lap since I never had to do that...never flatted and never crashed in a crit...out of 30 races!!! I was actually excited to take my first free lap and get back in the race and managed to finish 4th in the 3's and 13th overall.
I felt a bit sore from whiplash, but was pretty lucky I only suffered a big bruise on my ass and a stiff neck. Not bad for my first crash. It was ironic though that everyone always tells you the advantage of catting up is that the races are safer in the upper categories...and yet we had 3, count em, 3 crashes in my first P123 race...more than any other race I had ever done, and I had my first crash in this 'safer' category. On that note, I ended my road season and took off for some sun and fun in Puerto Rico. Blog entry to follow on that...
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