Rutland Herald // KSR 2012

On Sunday, May 27th an article, "Riding to finish, and beyond" was published in the Rutland Herald. Tom Haley interviewed me about my racing and future plans with college while I competed in this year's 2012 Killington Stage Race. You can find the article on the Rutland Herald website here. More on KSR to come...

Prom

Five hours, four gaps, 7,000+ft of vertical and 70 miles later...and I still made it to prom on Saturday with my teammate, Brendan, in tow. Prom or no prom, nothing beats a little rendezvous with the team through Vermont's Care Bear Valley... 

We started out on Saturday morning from the Locust Creek Diner on the junction of Rt.12 and 107 and headed over through Bethel and Randolph to the first climb of the day, Rochester Gap. After successfully making it over the top, we had a fast descent before heading to the second climb of the day, Middlebury Gap. We had more anaerobic fun ascending Middlebury Gap. then we took a sharp left turn on the descent and hit up some dirt roads with even more climbing before coming out nearly 20 miles later near the bottom of Brandon Gap. We climbed that too before coming back into the town of Rochester where we rode up the other (more brutal) side of Rochester Gap. All the while, Coach Vollers drove our team van yelling at us to push ourselves harder on the climbs – message from yo' mamma! 

Needless to say, this ride put the hurt to everyone. We hit up the diner for some grub and maple creamies...and then Brendan and I had to rush home for prom. 

My friend, Lucy, was having pictures at her house at 6:15, but I was supposed to get there around 5:30 to get ready with all of the girls – you know the drill. Well, Brendan and I left the diner at 5:15 and we made it to my house at 5:40. I ran inside to shower while my dad drove Brendan to his house in town. I spent about five minutes in the shower, 3 minutes getting dressed, 10 minutes doing my hair and makeup and then I was out the door to meet Brendan in town before scooting over to Lucy's. If bike racing has taught me anything, it's how to get ready real fast and stay real calm under pressure. 

Our sponsor, Smith Optics, made it to prom too!  

Brendan, me, mom and dad. 

Heels are bad shoes for recovery. Remember that ladies!! 

We were extremely tired from the day's ride, but we both had a great time at prom. The next morning we got up and it was back on the saddle with the team, this time doing a recon of the KSR rr course (more climbing, more miles!), which is coming up this weekend! 

More on that to come...

Smith Optics

Many thanks to Smith Optics for my new gear that just arrived today!! Yeeeeeehaaaaw.

Tour of the Dragons // Bennington Race Weekend

Headed to Bennington, VT for the Tour of the Dragons this weekend for three days of suffering in the Shires of Vermont. Luckily the rain clouds from the week cleared up and we had two back-to-back bluebird days on the bike. Saturday was the crit and itt, then Sunday was the epic rr. Leading up to the weekend, I spent a good portion of the week studying up on Sunday’s course map. My goal was to go for the KOM (king of the mountain) jersey...  

Anyways, I brought the goods on Saturday morning’s 1k downtown crit. The four corner crit is super fast, especially on the backside of the course where you come sweeping down a roller and hook a sharp right turn before turning once more to come up the homestretch towards the finish.

8:15am rolled around and I started the 27 lap race very near the front, hiding myself (hard to do when you are sitting in 4th or 5th wheel!) and going with any attacks that went off the front. I rode pretty aggressively to keep the stronger people’s wheels, which ultimately helped me in the end when it came down to the finishing sprint. Throughout the race Emma White and Ellen Noble (two other junior riders!) duked it out on the sprint laps vying for the sprint leader points. Emma’s teammate was doing a lot of work up front pulling the field and leading her out, but with two laps to go thing started to really heat up. Going into the last lap I moved up to 4th wheel, took the inside line on the last turn leading into the homestretch, and laid down a sprint to snag 2nd. After the race my teammates and coach came up to me screaming and yelling, scaring the granola outta' me because they were so psyched with my finish. So I guess I’m becoming a field sprinter now?! Oh oh oh...

Coming down the homestretch towards the beginning of the race.

A perspective of the sprint finish.
Emma White (Farm Team Elite – she's in the pink!) would go on to take the
Sprint Leaders jersey at the end of the weekend. 

The finish caught on tape. 1st was soo close, yet so far away...

My teammate Ansel has this personal stereo he always brings to the races with the most excellent speakers, so we were bumpin' music all morning and late afternoon after the crit, resting up and lounging in the lawn chairs...

And just when you think it's safe to lie down in bed, you have to do a 10.7 mile TT up down around and about, and pray that you don't get caught and look like a lame-o. I didn't get caught...but I caught several other women along the way. Ouch! – my legs felt lame the first couple of miles but eventually I settled in and went as hard as I could – good enough for a 6th place finish. I definitely lost a lot of time on the transitions between the rollers, flats and steeps which is something I'm eager to improve upon before KSR (Killington Stage Race) roles around later this month.

  

Stephanie Wetzel (Paradise Sports) and I get ready to go for the second suffer fest of the day.
Steph won the TT and was the eventual winner of the whole race!

Sunday morning arrived way too soon: I was up at 4am, in Woodstock by 5am and by 6:45am I was sitting at Bob's Diner in Manchester, VT trying my best to stuff my face with a good breakfast in anticipation of the day's 62 mile rr. I was as nervous as a balloon in a pin factory – my legs felt pretty good but you just never know what's going to happen. 

We rolled out at 8:35am and all was well. The night before I had "tattooed" my arm with the KOM stats so I was set. The first KOM was on a dirt climb which started at mile 15 – but our lead motorcycle official took us on the wrong turn, so we had to back track a couple miles up another climb to make the correct turn. It was an unfortunate mistake of course, but I wasn't complaining too much because when we turned around I was able to get right up front and avoid the slower traffic towards the rear. Interestingly enough, at the summit of KOM#3 when I was off the front, the same official tipped his motorcycle onto himself – pinning his leg underneath the darn thing! All I could do was ride by and wonder...

Anyways, the pack shattered towards the top but I easily made the 8 man break and was 2nd going over KOM #1 before we descended down and really started the race. KOM#2 hit at mile 20 and I was 3rd crossing the line there, KOM#3 hit at mile 36 and I took 2nd. Unfortunelty, I didn't accumulate enough points at the end of the day to take the KOM jersey – instead I got 3rd overall but I was extremely pleased with how I rode. There was always this huge slamfest at the bottom of each KOM during the race, which I observed as I sat off the back playing poker face, pretending to have lame legs (when they actually felt amazing!) waiting to attack. Each time with with about 600m to go, I'd increase the pressure and let my legs do the talking. 

The 62 miles went by fast, and with 5k left in the race things started to heat up for the finish. You have to hook a left turn and then it's a 600m stretch of uphill sprinting to the finish banner. Unfortunately, an older woman driving her car pulled out in front of us and nearly took us all out. I had to brake pretty hard and swerve, but instead of getting all caught up in the moment with what had just happened like most of the other women, I focused on making it through the turn and sprinting to the finish line. I had no idea who was behind me but I was scared I was going to get caught – so I sprinted like a madman, and crossed the line in 2nd. Ain't bikin' grand?

Podium for Sunday's rr: Steph took 1st, I got 2nd and Ellen Noble was 3rd. 

No big deal – just giving Steph a well deserved kiss after
 she rode her way into the KOM and Leaders jersey on Sunday!! 

Video of the podium ceremony. 

Overall, I finished off 5th in the G.C. – which I am very excited about. I remember last year when I started to become more serious about my road racing I had absolutely no concept of what a stage race was – last year's Tour of the Dragons was actually my first ever stage race! Needless to say, I've come a long ways.

Next stop is the Sterling Classic Road Race on Saturday.