Wente Road Race
https://www.sportsbaseonline.com/Item.aspx?item_id=2420Wente Road Race
Event: Wente Road Race
By: Anny Henry
Category: Women’s Elite 1/2
Field size: 35
Teammate: Claire
Place: RR - 22nd
Wente. I’m not sure what to say here…I left this race in an ambulance last year so I suspect I had a demon or two to exercise today.
This is a really difficult course with several selection points, the main hill is about 6 minutes or so, the decent can be tricky and the rollers on the back can also cause a separation. Of course there is always the wind here so being alone is a bad option and splits are pretty common. My goals for this race were not really specific – I wanted to stay close to the front and see if I could make the main split or follow a break with the major teams represented.
It was a beautiful day and thankfully the wind was quiet at 7am when we arrived. I pre-rode the course last Sunday afternoon with Rita and the winds were brutal. I decided to warm up on the road and do the hill once which was about 40 minutes. Note to self: this was not a long enough warm-up so I probably needed another 30 minutes on the trainer. Why because the course hits you hard and fast and this new group races from the gun. I knew from my warm-up that today wasn’t going to be a great day, perhaps a little fatigue from the week but no excuses, I came to race. Metromint, ProMan, Tibco, LosGatos & Touchstone all had 3 or more registered with the usual suspects of strong riders in our area present with a total of about 30 or so.
The key to this kind of race is pro-active positioning. I suppose you could say that about any race but I learned a lot today about what it takes to be successful from a performance I was a little disappointed with. We roll out on the first lap and I’m hanging in the back half, this isn’t a good way to race in this group and I need to be always moving up. The first hill hurt and the pace was hard and I felt like I was just hanging on in a spot on the course that is made for me and I’m gapped already. Damn. I worked with Laurel from Dolce Vita and we caught back on but I’m already cooked and it was only the end of the first lap.
I then received a great lesson in pack positioning from one of the Drumm sisters on ProMan. We were near the back of the main pack which was now 25 and I got on her wheel and started to recover on the second lap. She starts to move up, not on the outside but through the pack and I’m following at first. I’m thinking “this is a great wheel and I can stay here all day.” I noted today that the 1/2s ride a more compact peleton than the 3s and I need to get used to this because as she started to move up again, through the smallest of gaps, I didn’t have the confidence to follow through those same gaps. It really was a thing of beauty to watch her move up; smooth, confident and safe with only millimeters between her and other riders. I need to learn how to do this.
So the beginning of the third lap I feel better but the winds had picked up and I let myself drift back too far and again I get gapped on the decent and would do the last lap trying to work with a few other riders that had also dropped off. Another real lesson here, I need to be on or near the front as we’re beginning descents and I need to push the last 20 meters on the climbs and carry some momentum into the decent because the heavier girls will descend faster and I need every trick possible.
I’ll file this race under still learning. I’m not a big fan of crits but I’m thinking I need to work on pack positioning and these would be a good way to do that so I’m going to add a few more to my race schedule including tomorrow.
This past weekend was the Wente Road Race and Crit in the town of Livermore. It was hot, hot, hot! I drove down Friday evening and stayed the night at fabulous Rita's home. Our race was at 12 ish so we were fortunate enough to get plenty of sleep the night before. The race starts out on a hill. I made a bad move of going over the yellow line in the first five minutes. Rather than getting pulled from the race the referee made me go to the back of the 30 women pack. It actually turned out to be okay as soon as I went back a huge gap happened and weaved my way right back up to the front of the race :) The girls from CRC were motoring, keeping the pace high and thinning the field. The pace eased up heading into the second lap and the chasers caught back on. No sooner did they get back on did our tempo pick up again and it stayed there for rest of the race. I stayed in the lead group which had about 7 of us. Starting up the final climb, one main contender for the finish dropped her chain which took her out. Then came the attacks at the 1km marker. Wells Fargo went first followed by Dolce Vita. I caught back up with the 4 remaining up the road. Again another attack from Well Fargo and it stuck. I huffed and puffed the last few hundred meters and took fifth for the Wente Road Race. I'm sooo happy my fitness is there and my confidence in the field is building. I played it smart took very few pulls and wheel sucked as much as possible :) Rita came in 8th place, so two top 10 finishes for the day, woo hoo! We dedicated this race to Winter, Rita's dog, who is the sweetest guy ever, thats why we did so good :) haha. I took home a bottle of wine, t-shirt, and upgrade points! thanks for reading!
-Lindsay
Race: Wente Vinyards Road Race
Racers from NCVWCT: Cat 4 - Kate Burgess, Mariko Fischer, June Nugyen (masters)
Cat 3 - Lindsay Segbers, Rita Szeto
Cat 2 - Claire House, Anny Henry
Top 10 Results: Lindsay 5th in cat 3, Rita 9th? cat 3
Lessons learned: A) there's nothing like a fanatic coach that's willing to cheer until she loses her voice, to make you want to work until you puke, or at least get really close. B) If you're killing yourself on a climb and you know that you're going to be shelled at the top, LAG CLIMB (climb at a slower pace to conserve energy and drift back in the pack) so that you're still in the pack when you get over the crest and you don't have to try and catch back on when you've just killed yourself. C)If it's that hot when you start a race, put ice in your bottle and take extra electrolytes before and after or you'll feel that you have a good case that you have been unknowingly hit by a bus. D) (and I keep needing to be reminded of this one) If I start a race, and my body is able to without considerable damage, I need to finish it.
Ah yes, another notch on the road race belt for this lil' cat 4 rider. Wente was a hot race, the first one for me this season, and I was amazed at the parallels I could draw between the way my body felt after a late night out on the town, and completing two hours on that course! I was drinking so many fluids I felt like I was going to slosh myself off the road, and I was still uber dehydrated for the rest of the day. Had I prepared a little better I would have had some Essential Electrolyte tablets from Nutribiotic, but alas for all the fluids I put down I was still feeling like I got hit by a bus for the rest of the day. The course itself was a demanding one, with the climb that held the finish line, and the windy rollers on the backside. I promptly overexerted myself on the first climb, got to the top first, then found myself chatting with the other girls that got dropped. Upon finding myself in no-mans land, I got really out of it mentally and practically stopped turning the pedals because, in my head I was pondering if there was a legitimate reason that I should continue to make myself that uncomfortable for such an extended period of time, if there was no desirable placing as a reward. Having found no solid argument anywhere within the recesses of my hot and tired brain, I made the decision to pull out of the race at the finish line (which was inconveniently placed 6 miles away from the start - at the top of THE climb). I made this announcement the the girls that I had been noodling along with, and having made this decision I was feeling generous with my fluids, and gave away my remaining full bottle to a girl next to me since she was so courageously continuing on. As I was about to crest THE climb, I was preparing to ease up and unclip when I hear, "MARIKO, WHOO HOO, what do you need?! I've got water, electrolytes, COME ON, give me your empty bottle, okay here's water, go go GO, GO!!!" There she was, Mrs. House, strategically placed at my exit point, cheering me on like our lives depended on it, there was no way I was going to even suggest that I was thinking about bailing out. So I went, I pedaled my little heart out, and when I got around the corner I kept pedaling, I passed some other cat 4 girls but they didn't seem to have had a Mrs. House that had just revived them so they didn't want to work any harder than they already were. I finished the race alone, and crossed the line with an exhausted smile on my face, thanks Claire, I couldn't have done it without you! :)
-Mariko
Yup, this was a hard race. It really hit home when I was hanging out in the feed zone after my own race, watching the Death March. The lead groups would come motoring up the climb, and then the broken ones would arrive. All categories intermingled; men, women, juniors....one lonely soldier after another, suffering. They each held out a limp hand, begging "Water? Is there neutral water? Can anyone spare water?" I felt pretty bad, but I just could not give up the precious life-force I knew my girls would be banking on. I horded all the team's water. All of it.
This was a hard race. But none of our girls DNF'd. Anny had a super strong race in the Elite 1/2s, both Lindsay and Rita were top 10 in the 3's, and Mariko and Kate put in a true effort. I was super proud of our team today!
-Claire
Why do I continue to do this race when, year after year, that climb towards the finish — which we do 4 times — seems to be my downfall? Glutton for punishment perhaps, but this was to be my 6th consecutive time doing the Wente RR, so I couldn’t very well back out. Besides, I had a strong teammate in Lindsay joining me in the 3s for both the road race and the crit (and staying with me and Winter for the weekend), so it looked to be a fun weekend of racing.
There are about 30 women at the start. First time up the climb, I’m fine. Stay near the front and about a dozen of us actually form a gap over the rest of the field. However as we approach the end of the first lap the pace slows a bit and everything, with the exception of a few stragglers, comes back together. Second time up the climb, I’m dropped! Not by much, but now there are about 8 girls in the lead group and then me, approx. 10 seconds back. I look behind me to see if there’s anyone close… if so, I’d wait up and then we could work together to chase back on. Drat! No one. I end up riding nearly the entire second lap alone, always around 10-15 seconds but never able to bridge. One of the girls in the pack ahead did fall off the pace and came back to me, and I tried to encourage her to work together, but she was cooked and continued to go backwards. Eventually, a few girls do end up catching up to me and the four of us are able to connect with the leaders towards the end of the second lap. But as we head into the third lap, and the third time up that hill, I had expended so much effort riding by myself during lap 2 that I — along with several others — am again gapped. In the last lap I had a good rider to rotate with and in the final uphill climb to the finish, I took off and gave it my all, resulting in an 8th place finish.
Always wishing to have done better, but happy to have finally broken the 11th-place curse. (The previous two years I had finished 11th.) And Lindsay did so well today, staying with the leaders the entire race and finishing a well-deserved 5th. Way to go, Lindsay! Many thanks also to Claire, who was so helpful in the feed zone providing us with much-needed water in the heat.
-rita
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
| - CCCX @ Fort Ord | 2004-10-03 |
| - Documentum Crit | 2004-09-26 |
| - Giro di San Fransisco | 2004-09-06 |
| - Return of the Jedi | 2004-09-04 |
| - Winters RR | 2004-08-28 |
| - 12 Hours of Humboldt | 2004-08-28 |
| - US Pro Criterium Championships | 2004-08-22 |
| - Corral Hollow RR | 2004-08-21 |
| - TransAlp Challenge | 2004-07-17 - 2004-07-27 |
| - Superweek | 2004-07-09 - 2004-07-25 |
| - Wine Country Criterium | 2004-06-13 |
| - Fremont Criterium | 2004-06-12 |
| - ICCC Dash for Cash | 2004-06-05 |
| - California Outdoor Sports Championships | 2004-05-14 - 2004-05-16 |
| - Sea Otter | 2004-04-14 - 2004-04-17 |
| - Pilarcitos Stage Race | 2004-03-27 - 2004-03-28 |
| - McLane Pacific Foothills Road Race | 2004-03-14 |
| - McLane Pacific Downtown Grand Prix | 2004-03-13 |
| - Land Park Criterium | 2004-03-06 |
| - Apple Pie Criterium | 2004-02-07 |