Race Report: Vacaville Grand Prix 8/29

Race Report - Vacaville Grand Prix

Dates: 8/29
Events: Vacaville Grand Prix
Category: W3/4
Result: 2nd

After a really nice afternoon and evening at Anne-Marie and Joanne's friends house in Napa, I woke up again at 5:45 am to race my bike. I let the alarm go for a solid 15 minutes, and then drug my self out of bed to make the coffee and oatmeal for the rest of the team. It's nice to have some quite time in the morning. I packed my bag, packed some food and we were all out the door to the next race, Vacaville by 7. We arrived, threw the trainers up, registered and I walked the course watching the beginning groups run through all the twists and turns. I went back to the car and began to warm up nice and slow. Boy did I feel the lactic acid from the day before! I spun super easy for a good 20 minutes, did some quick efforts and then returned to my easy spinning. This crit was my kind of race - really technical weaving in and out of the small, old fashion town of Vacaville. Which, I might add is very cool!



I made it to the start line on time (always feels like a rush), and went to the front so I didn't get stuck in the back. Maybe i'm a nervous ninny but i like to stay on the front in crits. I feel like it puts me in position to go if there's an attack and I also feel like I stay out of trouble that way. So, round and round we went - 14 times! The course had a big long hill in the middle with a fast shorter decent and a hard hard right - so that's where all the action happened...14 times! My only saving grace was Anne-Marie jumping up and down waving her arms yelling - go, go, go! What could be more motivating than that!? Every time we came around someone would attack, and we'd have to bridge up. It made for a really fun race and by the end the group of 35 or so had dwindled down to about 15 of which 5 of us sprinted out at the end. Again, it was Michelle and I battling it out for 1/2 at the end. I knew if i was going to have a chance at winning - she was the wheel to follow. So, i made sure I stayed right behind her, ready to attack when she launched. Sure enough she went for it. I ended up second again, but learned a few things i'm not going to give away in a race report. ;) Fun times again! Thanks for reading.





C

Race Report: Winters RR 8/28

Race Report - Winters RR

Dates: 8/28
Events: Winters RR
Category: W3
Result: 2nd

Summary:

The week leading up to Winters and Vacaville can be summed up with one little word - fatigue. It felt like my entire road season had come to a head last week, especially after throwing down some effort at University RR (yeah, i didn't write a race report for that one, but to sum it up we road in circles and climbed a really really big hill 13 times - end result 3rd.) I pretty much spent Monday and Tuesday in a tired haze, and did my best to make it though the day helping people at the shop and getting through computer work. Wednesday I decided to take completely off of everything, and Thursday night I kept it super light on the shop ride (which i haven't seen most of you on!) which was nice. Friday was a coffee ride to Verve lounge, and cruise down East Cliff. Basically, i road a total of 4.5 hours during the week and to be honest - it was exactly what my body needed.

Anne-Marie, Joanne and I left early (4:30 am) for Winters which is between Sacramento and Davis. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which has its perks. 1. There aren't many people on the road, and two....well I can't really think of a second...it's pretty desolate...

I slept almost the entire way, and woke up wondering where they heck we were! I slowly rolled myself up, ate some oatmeal and began to re-start my morning this time with the race on my mind. We parked the car, registered, and went through the ritual number pinning, wheel swap, trainer warm up, leg rub down, suit em up, bathroom stop, rock and roll ritual and headed to the start line - mind you this was my first race as a 3. I didn't really know what to expect, and didn't put a whole lot of pressure on myself since I achieved my primary goal this year - upgrading to Cat3 on the road. I told Anne-Marie that these next few races are just icing on the cake - the good stuff that you just enjoy. But, that didn't stop me from getting all fidgety on the start line. These girls looked way bad ass! They were bigger, stronger, had cooler sunglasses, and matching kits... I was a little intimidated..just for a second or two. We rolled out of town, and the race was on!

The course was freakin' sweet. Nice pavement, super good rollers and a solid climb half way through the course. We did two laps so almost 50 miles of racing. Right out of the gate there was an attack. We let her go solo for awhile, and then brought her back in. As soon as that happened another attack was launched, and another, and another - I was like WTF?!?!?! I helped bridge some/most and quickly decided I was doing way to much work and tried to find a wheel to suck for awhile. Let someone else chase these ladies down. We got to the climbs, and that's where the hurt began. Slow, steady and then BAM attack. I was able to stay with the leader, and we made a dash on the longish/technical decent. We formed a gap from the group, and all tried to assemble to keep and grow the gap with no success. The main group sucked us back. But, we all secretly kept our strengths and what we learned from that climb in mind - cause we got to do it again.

The second time around was similar, except we hit that climb and decent even harder - i dug deep! And guess what - we stayed away the rest of the race. It came down to a group of 7 gals, and Me and a Dulce Vita girl (Michelle) sprinted it out to the finish. I got second by a few wheel lengths. It was awesome, and a great learning experience.

Bike Station Aptos Takes 2nd and 3rd at University RR - August 22

For full results - click here