Subaru French Broad Cycling Classic Omnium Asheville, North Carolina

Canton Criterium

I was freakin' the morning of the crit. At 11am it was already a billion degrees, and when I got on the bike and did a pre-race lap of the course, I found that the hill was longer than I had thought. The downhill following it was fast, and had a right turn at the bottom. I could tell exactly what was going to happen, and I felt powerless to stop it. Sure enough, Candice attacked on the downhill on the second lap, Iona went with her and I was too chicken to follow on the descent. I tried to bridge up to them with Christina Meyer of Outspokin', but we weren't making very much progress and I just didn't have it to keep pushing. Mental breakdown. Christina pushed on and eventually reached the two, but the next lap she was blown off the back of the break and very quickly came back to the field. Again, I decided to let the break go and concentrate on holding my omnium position.

I tried attacking on the hill a couple times, but I just didn't have the strength to get away. I attacked on the downhill a couple times as I got more and more comfortable with the descent and the turn, but there was a strong headwind through the start/finish that discouraged solo breakaways. I really wanted to get in a break with Jody Kosinski since she had worked so hard in the previous day's break, but it never happened. When the announcer called 6 laps to go, I was dying, and honestly didn't think I could make 6 more miles of the course. It was brutally hot, windy and hilly. My legs felt like worthless sacks of lead.

At 2 laps to go, the announcer called a $25 prime, and I moved up into a good position. As we were starting the climb, the referee came up on the moto and told us the break was coming up from behind. This was tricky - if they caught us and sprinted at the end of the lap, that was a finish for us. I didn't want to take any chances of getting washed out in the sprint if that happened, so I moved up to second wheel on the descent and prepared to sprint. At the 200m point the girl on the front began to fade, and I caught a glimpse of a red jersey coming up on my left and I started to sprint. When I saw that it was Adrienne Brown of Earthfare, I sat back down and let her take the prime. I guess Candice and Iona decided not to interfere with our race, and the bell was rung for our last lap.

After the prime, I got shuffled to the back before the hill, and had to do some weaving and bobbing up the hill to get back into a good position. I was second wheel again coming into the final turn. We were really moving, and as we hit the bridge before 200m to go, I felt my bike jumping from side to side when I hit the metal seams on the bridge, my rear wheel making a hideous clacking. Fearing my rear skewer had come loose, I didn't get out of the saddle to sprint, and pushed hard to hold off all the sprinters coming from behind. I watched as a Genesis Scuba jersey flew by, followed by a few others, and then I threw my bike across the line, 5th in the sprint. Phew! Was I glad THAT was over! I held onto third in the omnium and could finally relax.

My season is drawing to a close, and I only have a couple more races to do. I have achieved my one goal that I had at the start of the season: to be able to hang in the Open races. I managed to do what I had thought was impossible at the beginning of the year and had managed to get just enough points to upgrade to category 2. I can't wait to have a few weekends to relax and work on my house (cut my waist-high grass!) and then start training for next year!