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...
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| Coming down the homestretch towards the beginning of the race. |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| Podium for Sunday's rr: Steph took 1st, I got 2nd and Ellen Noble was 3rd. |
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| 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.
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