Claires Race Reports

I wrote part of this report after finishing stage 2 of the Murrietta Stage Race, so I�ll begin with a debrief of yesterday�s time trial.

Since I�d only ever raced 2 time trials, I figured I�d need to do some research and come up with a plan for how to handle this one. First I broke down and bought some goofy time trial bars, and spent last week riding around with them. I then read that I should try to race a 7 mile time trial at 110% of my LT, so I made that my goal for the day. I managed to stay within a beat or 2 of that goal for the entire 19 minutes and 27 seconds (ouch! Especially considering the fact that there were many women with times in the 17�s and 18�s, and Dotsie Cowden won with a time of 16:53! Good grief!).

Today�s stage was a 40 mile road race, with three 13+ mile laps and a hill at the beginning of each lap that was oh, maybe 3 miles long but very gradual. I felt pretty good on the first lap, comfortable, and confident, and the group was for the most part �compacto�. But as soon as we came through the start/finish to hit the climb, I started to loose my position toward the front, and about halfway up I had been tailed off the back, along with several others. I absolutely buried myself to stay within range of bridging back, but came over the last bit alone. Then I threw up! Lovely! Just GU and energy drink, but iew! That�s when scenarios started running through my head, like �wouldn�t it be nice to go back to the car and lick my wounds?� or �I wonder what it�s like in Kauai right now?� Eventually, however, I managed to get back to the lead group and I really have no explanation for how that happened. They must have slowed way down. We came into the start/finish to begin the third lap, and the climb annihilated me again. This time I was able to stick with Krista over the top, and we pretty much worked together with two other girls for the rest of the last lap. I was pretty worked up at this point, breathing a mile a minute and just sort of frantic. Krista had her head on straight and encouraged me to calm down and ride smart. I was definintely on the rivet and felt like I could crack any second. Coming into the finish, though, Krista and I outsprinted them for 15th and 16th place.

This is our new friend Luzio Bello, "The Brazilian". Shes here in the U.S. to race, so watch out!

Tomorrows race is a criterium with a little hill in it...race report coming soon.

And so here it is: I was grossly misinformed about todays criterium course! Krista said she just about cried when she drove by the course this morning; the start/finish was located in the middle of a big fat hill, about 0.2 miles long. The rest of the course was flat-ish or downhill. Since we both felt like our legs had turned to mush overnight, we were scared. Plus, Dotsie Cowden had another Colavita teamate, (Kim Anderson?), who hadnt raced yesterdays road race. I knew I was about to be bludgeoned.

I hung in with the leaders for the first half of the 45 minute race, and during that time the Colavita rider got off the front. I did absolutely nothing about it, as I was hanging on for dear life. Some of the other girls tried to chase a bit (there was a good turnout for Paramount, they had 3 or four girls in the lead group). She was soon out of reach, and would end up lapping the field towards the end of the race.

After about 25 minutes, they started offering primes, and that sealed my fate. Since the start/finish was on the hill, I got popped off the back on every prime lap. Then Id spend the next two laps catching on. Twice I caught back on, only to have a prime lap called again. I was still dangling off the back with one lap to go, the lead group of 8 or 9 girls right up the road. I just held my position and came through for what I think was 10th place.

Im pretty sure that I came in before some of the girls who were ahead of me on the G.C., so I may have cracked the top 10 on the General Classification. (Ive subsequently discovered that I placed 12th on the G.C.)

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004