Napa Grand Prix

I just spent this past week listening  to and learning from some of the most accomplished American cyclists in history. Two-time Olympian Mike McCarthy told us about his gold medal at Worlds, his many wins as a professional, and his 11 Commandments of Cycling. Some of these were on my mind all day.

For example: "Pain is Temporary, Losing is Forever".  This ran through my head each time the pace got super hard and the heat gave me goose pimples (97 degrees). I could have lost today by letting a gap go and giving up. I could have lost by dropping out when my throat was on fire and my legs were screaming. 

For example: "You Have to Be Willing to Lose in Order to Win". In other words, you have to take chances. I knew the girls I was racing against were good sprinters - almost down to the last one. Now I consider myself to be a sprinter as well, but I wanted to make the race hard and leave it all out on the road. So as soon as the race started, I went off the front. With an Easton'Specialized girl in tow, we stayed off the front for the first 2 laps, stringing the field out and making it a "forward-moving" race from the get-go. Then the primes commenced and the racing stayed *hot* and *heavy*.

Karla Kingsley was an animal today - she attacked and stayed away solo for a good long time. While away, she crashed in the p-turn and was caght by the field. She proceeded to work harder than anyone for the rest of the race, despite the crash.

Several primes (I took 2nd in a 2-place prime) and another crash occured, until...

in the end, with 2 laps to go, I had a great spot behind Karla, Melon, and Laurel Green. I knew I wanted to be on the north side of the course going into and out of the last hairball p-turn, and I knew I could take the technical corner well and not loose my position. In the final straight I still had fourth wheel - then I came around the left of Laurel, away from the wind, and sprinted my guts out. Melon and Karla had the perfect train and went 1-2. I came 3rd.

I won $50, a bottle of wine, a gift certificate for pizza, a huge canister of Muscle Milk, a t-shirt, and a medal. Nice!

Thank you Mike McCarthy!

-Claire
***

There were 4 of us in the 3/4 field (Alexis, Mariko, Chandra and me,) unsure of the total number of racers, but probably about 2 dozen?  By about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the race, I finally was up within the top 10.  It was a tough course to move up on, there was a really tight u-turn where I clipped my pedal once, so it took a few laps to get the technicals down smoother. 

Chandra won a prime and continued in a breakaway, and I heard Ernie (of 2 Wheel) and Mariko yelling for me to block, so I was working to move up toward the front, and on one of the 90 degree turns as I stood to power out of the turn, my
bike went out from under me.

Not the way I intended to block!!  I regrouped and started up again, working with some riders off the back, sprinted at the finish, and was happy to be in one piece and to not finish last.  And my bike needed a new derailleur, but no cracks, pretty minor stuff.

This course was interesting, I might want to do it again, and maybe next year another teammate will block for me in the correct way!!

-Denise

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004