A double race weekend once again. Saturday I headed north to Bethel, ME for Gould Academy's 'Grafton Notch Challenge' (part of the NE Prep School Race League series). Despite the blue skies and sunshine, the temperature lingered in the mid 40's –– and you know what that means: another race wearing EMBRO!
We stopped for sandwiches at a swanky little café on the way to the race to grab some grub. Alden, one of my teammates, loves anything with bacon, sausage and grease –– and if he can get all of those things in one meal, he's a happy man. Well, he went to order his usual bacon-egg-and-cheese bagel sandwich, and when the lady behind the counter told him that they were a vegetarian cafe after he ordered, he just stood there stunned while the rest of us hovered around the counter laughing at what he'd just gotten himself into. Of course, the other boys were bumming when they learned this too. Let's just say the team really broadened their palettes at this stop...
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| We had a great view of Mt.Washington on our drive up to Maine. She's still rockin' plenty of snow – ay what's new?! |
We arrived at Gould Academy to nothing but wind, wind, and more wind. I thought I was going to get blow off my darn bike as I rode to open my legs up a bit before the race. The race meanders along for 15 miles or so on some open rollers, then dumps you at the base of Grafton Notch, where you then spend the last 10 miles (or so) climbing to the summit.
My race finally began and I sat on the front for about 10 minutes pulling in the horrendous wind before I gave a flick of my elbow letting the others behind me know it was time for them to do some work. Nothing. A couple of more flicks. Still nothing. I looked back over my shoulder to see what the matter was, only to find the whole pack just sitting on my wheel refusing to pull. I couldn't believe it. I soft pedaled, steered the pack back and forth across the road to shake 'em off my wheel – really I was trying anything to get the message to them, but absolutely no response. Imagine that.
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| Our van happened to be the lead vehicle for my race. Just me and the KMS team van at this point after my slight increase in pressure on the pedals... Sure felt like another hard training with my head down hammering behind the van the whole time. |
Well, that really got me irritated, so when we hit the first wall at the beginning of the notch, I just stood up and drilled it. I opened up a 15 second gap and continued to drill it until I lost site of any other riders. The wind was relentless, my left hand was completely numb from the cold and as I continued up the notch I started seeing snow on the ground. That kinda scared me, so I decided to ride a bit faster. I crossed the finish line with over a 3 minute gap on the other girls and immediately made a b-line to the van to change and get warm.
The boys had finished up their racing before me, so once we were all changed and warm we rendezvoused back to NH to spend the night with our assistant coaches parents for the next day's ECCC Championship race at UNH in Durham NH.
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| Another typical van ride on the KMS team. It wouldn't be complete without lots of pillows and sleeping bags... |
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| Scored the comfy chair at the Hadley's house... |
Sunday was another early morning, but luckily our first race of the day was at 11 so things were a bit more relaxed. We finished the drive to UNH, and got to the race course with plenty of time. As I was warming up for my race, a reporter came over the team van and interviewed me – I thought I'd never end up seeing the article he wrote, but my friend who I race on the track with at Claremont shared the article with me this morning and it's a neat little coverage. I'm pretty sure I didn't sound so cheesy when he interviewed me and a few words were added in, but then again it was nice to get in a little shout out to LMC...
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| Women's A ECCC Championship crit at UNH. This was taken on the home stretch – supa windy and complete with a couple of deep man-hole covers. It's always fun when you hit those real hard in a race – you should get points for that! |
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| Women's A ECCC Championship crit at UNH. |
The course was a four corner crit – not too technical but the last turn coming into the home stretch could easily become skeeheeetchy if people didn't hold their lines. I was riding very well, matching all of the MIT rider's moves and sitting in after it became apparent that no breaks would be forming. Many laps passed... Finally on the last lap, I moved up to fifth wheel getting ready for my sprint and then was boxed out on the back stretch. I tried to fight my way back up to the front, but on the last turn every rider to my immediate right stacked it hard and they slid all over the place. After I thankfully avoided the crash, I just sprinted for fear that I wasn't even going to make top 15! Later in looking at results, I got 10th. I was frustrated but thankful, of course. I got to keep all of my flesh, so it was a good day!
We all piled back into the van after a long day of racing, only to find that it wouldn't start up. Coach sent us out on a scavenger hunt to harass the collegiate teams for some tools, but no dice. So, I sat out in the sun and absorbed so much radiation from the sun that I started to feel like a swamp thing as the men tried to fix things. The AAA eventually man came, but in the end we had to have our van and trailer (consisting of over $50,000 in bikes and wheels!) towed to Kittery ME to a shop so it could be repaired. Turns out it was a clog in the fuel system – go figure!
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| The van looks pretty good way up there – don't you think?! It spent the night in ME while the rest of us piled into two cars with all of our bags where we sat for three hours crunched together, tired beyond belief. |
That's a wrap for the ECCC racing this year. Next year I'll be racing in the SECCC series down south in North Carolina (which LMC just won, btw!) – but likely I'll be seeing a lot of familiar faces at collegiate road nationals which are in Utah next year. It was a great experience and I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to have ridden with such talented riders.
This coming weekend, it's Tour of the Dragons.
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