This past week I was lucky enough to race the Cascade Cycling Classic as a guest rider for SC Velo. The week was full of pain, suffering, and a lot of learning. This report is pretty lengthy, so read when you have time :) I think it's worth it....
The prologue was a 2-mile, technical, fast course. I wanted to not completely wreck myself knowing that I had five more big days coming and I wasn't looking for a GC placing, but it's hard to hold back when there's hundreds of people screaming at you. I made some mistakes on the technical turns and rolled in at 100th place. The cough I inherited that day would stay with me the rest of the week.
Stage 1, the Mackenzie Pass RR seemed really ominous from the race bible. After 30 miles of descending/rolling hills there would be a 20 mile climb w a KOM, followed by a rolling section w a Sprint point followed by another 10 mile climb. This is where I coined my mental talk for the week, "Live w/in your means, dont get complacent, follow wheels." I faught to stay in the front of the washing machine and made sure not to burn matches chasing attacks. It paid off. Once we hit the climbs I was with a good sized group coming into the finish. I felt strong this day and it was definitely my favorite stage.
-Disappointment of the day, I lost an arm warmer on the course, so if anyone has an extra right arm-warmer size S or XS they want to donate, let me know.
The next day was the time trial and it was clear very early on that I would be at a huge equipment disadvantage. I had a skin suit and clip on bars vs. full TT bikes, discs, aero helmets etc. I did my best during the TT, but my clip-ons slipped early in the race and I couldn't really put any weight on them. I finished most of the TT in the drops thankful to make the time cut and fight another day.
The Mt Bachelor Road Race was another brutal day of suffering. The profile showed a start around 4000' a low point around 2000' with the final ascent toping out around 6500'. Not being a climber and living at 100' definitely had me apprehensive for the day. Did I mention it started on a 2-mile climb? I almost got popped the first 20 minutes but was able to force myself to make it back in. I've never been so convinced that my legs wouldn't pedal anymore but I focused on position during the descent and told myself it would get better. Thankfully it did, and my positioning paid off as I didn't notice many of the rollers we climbed towards Mt Bachelor. Once we hit the final climb the peleton completely shattered as we were all struggling to get up the mountain. I was on a solo mission for the time cut and managed to catch five girls along the way. It was amazing scenery as we finished atop a snow capped mountain with clear lakes and forests all around-I felt like I was in the TdF. We finished the 71 miles and all that climbing in just over 3 hours..no wonder I was so wrecked after.
-Disappointment of the day: PC had a golden weiner from Weinerschnitzel attached to her bike to make us laugh the whole week and it passed on to weiner heaven somewhere on the road to Mt Bachelor.
I had figured going into the race that the Criterium would be the easiest stage for me to make it through, and boy was I wrong. The race was fast from the gun and even once a break rolled off the front no one seemed really happy to let it stick. I hung out as best as I could in the draft just to make it through. The average speed was about 27 mph on the short, four-corner course.
The final day would be the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race with the dreaded KOM up Archie Briggs Rd. We lined up to start our four laps and it was clear that everyone was as little tired. The climb into the feed zone was hard and I sagged the whole thing barely making it back on before the KOM. I was dreading the KOM and the steep pitch through the neighborhood. The climb to the KOM pitched up to 18% followed by a 6% section with the last 500 m to the KOM around 10%. I wanted to die, and I did. Thankfully some other girls died too and we worked together to catch back on through the rollers-there is really no respite on that circuit. Unfortunately the same thing happened on lap two, but we weren't so lucky this time. I rode the last 2 laps with a group of girls constantly in flux as we would catch, drop, or merge with other stragglers on the road. This was by far one of the worst days I've ever experienced on my bike, but I was determined to finish since this was my first NRC finish. I finished up the six-days 56th in GC out of an original 105 girls that started the prologue. All in all I am very happy with my performance. In the future I hope we can send our own team to this race to test our limits!
Random things learned during the week:
-During a 6-day stage-race I average 10.5 hrs sleep/night
-While with the SC Velo girls, do not leave your computer or phone ANYWHERE, they will hack your facebook
-A slab of meat can substitute as a fork when said fork is forgotten.
-Foreigners do not appreciate mooning as much as Americans(contact me off group for this story)
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