I couldn’t let this amazing week of racing go by without sharing this experience. I don’t really know where to begin, because this year’s master’s nationals did not just take place in 2 days. (I did the TT and the Road Race, but not the crit). This race was the culmination of a year’s worth of training, both physical and mental…Of riding around during the winter with a 7 to 8 pound water bottle filled with bb’s…of twice weekly visits to the gym (I HATE the gym) to develop and strengthen my legs for TT efforts. It was a lot of “No, I can’t go on a group ride…no I can’t do just 2 hours, my training program calls for 3.5 hours…no I can’t ride “tempo”, I have intervals to do”…you get the picture.
I got a TT bike this Christmas (thank you Trudi Schindler for having a tiny TT bike that you wanted to sell, and thank you Mom and Dad for the great Christmas present) and started riding it in January, knowing I wanted to attempt the TT at Master’s. I also knew I wanted to do the Road Race. My 7th place finish last year was disappointing to me, and I was not in the best form, having crashed into a parked car and rearranging my cervical vertebrae one week before last year’s race. I got some practice for the TT at this year’s Cascade Classic. However, I was not happy with my results and felt like the course got the best of me, rather than vice versa. When we arrived in Oregon the Sunday before the TT I did an easy spin and had a little discussion with the TT course…I let it know it was NOT going to beat me this time. I was so lucky to have Dotsie here to help me. Dotsie took me out on to the course and gave so much technical advice that I never would have thought of myself. I have to thank Kirk, who also raced the TT and RR, and raced brilliantly, for sharing Dotsie with me.
The TT is a 30K rolling course with some short power rollers, that don’t feel so short when you are on them. I had the most perfect warm up…I was relaxed, ready to go right on time. Dotsie, and James, on the other hand, were not so relaxed I found out later. But they did a good job of hiding how nervous they were before my race. I also am pretty sure the reason I won is because Dotsie let me use her super fast white booties…and she made me tuck my braids into my TT helmet.
During the course I alternated between feeling like I had my rhythm, and feeling like I was pedaling through quicksand. Even though I passed about 7 people I had this sinking feeling over the last 5K that I was not going to win. I had to push those negative thoughts out of my head. For one, Dotsie was on the course screaming “Let’s do this”…and James was out there yelling for me too. I actually started yelling at myself “go, go go”…and slid so far forward on my saddle I almost fell off…As I passed the finish line I just kept pedaling…around and around. My warm up spot was right near the USA cycling trailer and I did not want to be there when everyone was looking at their results and find out that I had not done what I came here to do. I had myself pretty convinced that I did not win when I saw Dotsie riding towards me. She was having a hard time containing herself, and I didn’t know if she was crying because I won, or because I lost…but of course as we now know…I won…And I almost crashed into Dotsie as she came riding over yelling “you won, you won…oh my god you won by 2 minutes”. She hugged me so hard she cracked my back, which felt great, by the way, so thanks for that Dotsie. After celebrating I said “you are sure right…you are positive I won?” She said she pulled rank and went up the CEO of USA cycling just to confirm…it’s nice to have a coach who just won an Olympic Silver Medal and can do that.
Dotsie was not scheduled to hand out medals that day. I told her I didn’t want anyone but her presenting that medal to me. Dotsie asked, and USA cycling was more than happy to have her present the 45-49 medals. I cannot explain with silly words how mind blowing, amazing and special that medal ceremony was to me. It was the best celebration I could have asked for to have Dotsie put that jersey on my back and that medal around my neck.
However, I had to come on down from the cloud I was currently sitting on (I’d say it was way above cloud 9, at least cloud 10 or 11) and prepare for the road race the next day. There were many more women signed up to race that were not in my TT. At events like this, where people come from all over the US, you never know what kind of field there will be. I happened to know that one of the women in my category was an Oregon local and a climber…and she had just placed second in the road race at the master’s world championships in Austria. Winning the TT was my first goal, winning the road race would be icing on the proverbial cake. (Although I prefer French fries as my guilty pleasure of choice).
I had a mellow night, hanging out with James and the doggies (and Mr. Bilbo, our cat). A glass of Oregon wine was all the splurge I’d allow myself. No fries until after the road race, and only if I won! The road race wasn’t until 3:15 the next day. This is good, in that it allows for a leisurely morning and time to sleep in. This is also bad because it allows for nonstop obsessing about 1) what to eat, 2) how much to eat and 3) when to eat it. A morning spin calmed my nerves. Also helpful was the text I received half way into my ride from Dotsie saying “we just passed you, go home and get your feet up”. Talk about personal service.
And so I did what I was told. I relaxed back at the house with the doggies while James my forever faithful domestique and biggest fan cleaned and prepped my bike. The road race is the same course we do at the Cascade Classic, just a bit shorter, 84K total. So I knew it was about 25 miles of downhill, mainly flat, with some rollers leading into the big climb back up the mountain. A warm up wasn’t going to be necessary for this race since we rolled with gravity for the first 20 miles. So, there was nothing left to do but show up at Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort and get last minute instructions from Dotsie. Which, consisted of “It is NOT your job to pull these women around for 40 miles to the base of the hill. It’s going to be boring for 40 miles but then it’s go on the hill. And if a break goes, is not going to stick on that course. It all comes down to the hill at the end. All of the races have gone the same way, anyone who breaks away before the climb is caught, and the field is shattered on the hill”.
The weather was perfect, and on the start line I felt relaxed, more relaxed than I normally am. I knew I had done everything I could to prepare for this moment. I knew that I had the best coach and mentor in Dotsie, the best support system in James and my parents (mom and dad were cheering for me from across the miles in so cal), and the best team in the world who were behind me and always there to boost me up when I needed some pep talk. As we rolled out of that ski resort I only let positive thoughts loose in my head. As usual, Dotsie was right. Forty painfully slow miles. I mean, butt numbing, and mind numbing. I had to literally close my breaks slightly throughout some of the race in order to keep my legs moving. To keep calm and focused I thought about my hard training rides. I told myself I was going to win, and I was not going to bring anyone to the line with me. I had visualized the way I wanted this finish to go down so many times, and I kept that picture in my head as we continued our stroll to the base of the climb. You could hear some muttered, nervous chatter as we neared the 40 mile mark, things like “where is the damn climb already”, and “are we going to ever race”…you could feel some tension and the pace picked up a bit…but no one wanted to do too much work. As soon as we hit the big rollers, about ten miles before the finish, right after the 20K to go sign I moved to the front and pushed the pace, not an attack, just started riding right at threshold. I told myself I had just started my uphill TT and there was no stopping now. It was time to get this damn party started.
I was happy to be in charge and leading the pace, and the sun was just starting to come down behind the mountains, so I could look to my right and see the shadows of the women behind me. I could see that they were standing. I was sitting. I could hear them breathing, hard. I had been watching and listening to the peloton all race. There were some small efforts on some rollers during the last 40 miles and I noted who was in what gear, how hard they had to push, and how fast they seemed to recover. I kept my pace up and didn’t look back til I heard the word “gap”. I turned to take a quick peek and saw that I had 4 women with me, and a small gap, maybe 15 seconds. There were 3 women chasing us. I looked ahead of me and to my dismay…flat! I totally forgot that there was a valley in between the rollers and the final climb. For a split second I thought I had gone too soon and blown my chances, but I quickly erased that thought from my head. We had a pack of 5 with a gap and if we held it to the base of the climb I knew we could keep it.
I was empowered by this thought and started encouraging my group to work together in a pace line. It was apparent that this was not possible just yet. Everyone was breathing really hard and I thought that if I pulled for a bit, gave them a chance to recover, that maybe it would help us build our lead. I did just that, not too hard, but I felt strong and knew I could stay out in front for a little bit without pushing myself over the edge. I needed my group to recover because I needed them to work through that valley and launch me from the base of the final climb. My plan worked. Or I should say, the painful VO2 intervals that Dotsie had me doing for the last month worked. After about 45 seconds to a minute of me doing the work the women started rotating. We worked together well. A few women had to sit out their turn now and again, as did I, but I could feel them getting stronger and more excited as we saw our chase group was not gaining on us. I have to say that this group of 4 women was awesome. They raced their bikes! I just kept saying “come on, we can do it, let’s keep this gap”. And thankfully, the road started to curve up, suddenly, and my last words to my group were “come on, we can continue to work together on the hill”…and I put my head down and away I went. Again, telling myself this was an uphill TT. After about 500meters I looked back and now I had a chase group. They were way too close for comfort. I did not want anyone coming across the line with me. I remembered all the rides I had done to prepare for this scenario and I kept my head down. After a kilometer I heard the Moto guy next to me, I kept looking at him, too oxygen deprived to say “what’s my gap”. He must have seen the look of desperation on my face because he said “your lead is 30 seconds and it’s widening” This was with about 5k to go. Those words pushed me to dig even deeper. I started to see some of the women from the 35-39 group that started ahead of us. I focused on catching and then passing them. I got in my drops and maxed out my heart rate, the road leveled out a bit and I picked up the pace…the Moto guy never left my side. I hoped that the fact that he wasn’t saying anything meant my gap was growing. As I made the right hand turn with 1K to go I snuck a final look back and didn’t see my chase group. I pushed one last time, and just about cried I was so happy when I saw that right turn into the ski resort. I knew that it was my race now and I got to FINALLY live out the finish I had been visualizing for so long. I was smiling, screaming “yes!!!!” as I rolled into the final 100M. I zipped up that darn jersey, threw both hands in the air and yelled and clapped and kept on going through the finish line, into the parking lot. I kept riding circles around the parking lot. I couldn’t stop, I was so excited. I heard Dave Towle say “and Lisa Campbell is still riding around the parking lot”. Dotsie and James were stuck behind the caravan and didn’t see me come in. After a few minutes of me riding around like a lunatic I saw Dotsie and then James and I think I screamed “I won, I soloed in, I threw my hands up in the air”…then the man from USADA came towards me and I’m sure he was thinking “what a nut” when I said “oh my god, I’m so happy to see you because when I see you it means I won!”…I practically skipped all the way to the USADA tent and peed away for them!
I am happy to say that I got to have Dotsie place another jersey on my back and another medal around my neck. I am also happy to say that my group of 4 women shared the podium with me. All five of us got to stand on those steps. I hope they are happy with their race, because I had a great time working with them through that valley. Bike races are hard to win…really hard, and I never would have done this without the help of my coach, my friends, my family, my first team Fast Friday, and my current and most amazing team, SC Velo presented by Empower Coaching Systems.
