What a weekend! This time we stuck close to home and raced in Dartmouth's ECCC weekend, dubbed L'Enfur du Nord. After years of training on the roads throughout Hanover, NH and up in the hills in Norwich, VT (my hometown) it was neat to finally race on them. Not to mention I was able to sleep in my own bed...I had easy access to food I liked...and I spent less than $10 on gas all weekend!
Saturday started out with the 3.75 mile itt from the Ledyard Boathouse lot. We climbed up the access road to the backside of the Dartmouth Green, then headed out on Rt.10, finishing at the elementary school shortly after the round-about. My teammate Brendan (aka Drago) lent me his tt helmet. I'd never worn one before and I looked pretty ridiculous – but it made a difference in the end when we looked at results. I went as hard as I could, and no one caught me – but I didn't catch anyone either! I had super smooth transitions between the flats and rather steep rollers and managed to pull off a 3rd place finish. Hasta la vista, bambina! I guess I should consider investing in one of those tt helmets...
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| 30 seconds after the start of the itt and I finally got my foot clipped in . . . |
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| "With zis helmet, I vill control ze world!" |
The afternoon crit was located on Frat Row right on campus – the sun was out, the frat houses were bumpin' and the racing was fast! The four corner crit is not too technical, except for one turn – if your not checking your speed before it, you will stack it hard. Anyways, things started out pretty mellow, then the MIT gang started to wreak havoc on the field. The ECCC points leader Katie Quin from MIT broke away off the front and ended up lapping the field (!) while I did my best to mark any other moves from the MIT crew. We formed a breakaway, but no dice – no one was willing to work together, especially the 2 MIT riders when their teammate was ahead up the road. I wasn't going to pull the break around all day, so once we got caught I tucked myself in the front and waited. The bell lap came and I positioned myself right up front for the sprint but my timing was a bit off. I still managed to pull off a 5th place finish in the crit.
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| Turn #1 (this is not the sketchy one). Photo by Christine Feehan. |
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| Turn #1 (different perspective, different lap). Photo by Barb Wood. |
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| Sprinting – that's right. Lacking in style points...but not in speed! I've been working on my sprint for a long time now and things are starting to come together. It may look bad, but progress is progress! Photo by Christine Feehan. |
Sunday's course was challenging to say the least. Nothing but hills at full tilt all afternoon. Women's A set out for 6 laps, totaling 49 miles with 1,066.27 feet of elevation gain per lap. I did a recon ride with my team on the rr course last Wednesday and I'd been stoked about it all week leading up the Sunday.
It was pretty chilly, but I decided to ditch the tights for some of my favorite Mad Alchemy embro and headed to the line zipped up all nice and warm in my down coat. It felt like 'cross season all over again!
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| Ascent #4 of 6 on Jericho. This hill gets steep. Unfortunately I wasn't able to appreciate the view from the top – maybe in a few weeks I'll return to Jericho... |
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| My two MIT buddies – these are the girls you want to be with in a breakaway! |
The start was mellow, and I just sat mid pack conserving energy while others tried to edge their way up to the front of the pack. On the first ascent of the day on Jericho, we overtook the Men's B field and they were forced to neutralize on the climb! My field had become pretty strung out, but I made the lead pack of five (2 of which were MIT girls!) which eventually formed into a breakaway. We stayed together for 3 more laps, then the two MIT girls slipped away from me on Jericho – I fought like crazy to bridge back up to them, but I lost contact with them and rode the remaining 3 laps alone. What a death march, but I still ended up 3rd in the rr. Just as I finished, it started to pour. Got lucky on that one!
Next weekend I'm headed to Durham NH to UNH with the team for the ECCC Championships.
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