Giro di Coppi Omnium

Wolfsville Time Trial

This race has been my goal for the season ever since it was announced. It’s my team’s race, and the GC leaders each day receive lovely pink leader’s jerseys to wear on the following day’s stage. I really really wanted to get that pink jersey and wear it in the road race! In order to be relaxed and ready to race on Friday evening, Emory and I drove up to DC on Thursday night and stayed at his Aunt’s house. We slept in and then watched the stage of the Tour de France on OLN before heading up to the race. Lance and Roberto crushed the opposition in the mountain stage, and I was psyched to do the same.

I was a little nervous about the course because I hadn’t pre-ridden the last few miles which were all down hill, so we got there extra early so we could do a full lap on the course. As we were dressing, the skies started to darken and we could hear rumbles of thunder in the distance. I had one of the very first start times because I had volunteered to course marshall for the later times, and I was hoping that I would beat the storm. I made it throught he pre-race lap of the course, and saw that the down hill section was twisty enough so that you couldn’t see ahead, but straight enough to go full speed and pedal through every corner. I knew this tiny bit of knowledge would be an advantage. However, just as I pulled into the staging area, the rain started. The race promoter decided to start on time even though there was occasional lightning, so at 5:02:30PM, I started off in the pouring rain, praying that I wouldn’t crash or get electrocuted and hoping that the rest of the women would be racing in the same crap.

The first few hundred meters were flat, but then the next 4 miles were all uphill. The climbing started with a steep small ring pitch, and then leveled off into a grueling false flat to rolling climb. The course then turned onto Garfield, a road that would also be included in the road race, which had an extremely steep wall of a climb after a scary fast descent with a sharp left bend in it. I took the turn fairly gingerly, loving the braking surface on my Zipp carbon rims, and then hammered as hard as I could to the wall to try and carry some speed into it, but the grade was so steep that I was shifting from my 53x12 to my 39x25 in about 100 meters. As I stood to climb, my rear wheel started spinning out on the wet pavement, and I had to shift my weight way back into a fairly uncomfortable position to keep it properly weighted.

Once over the crest, I immediately shifted into bigger gears for the descent and got into my aero bars. At the bottom was a right turn, which again I took really slow, remembering my crash in Warsaw. The last few miles were all a long slight downhill grind in my 53x12 through the dense, dripping trees. My glasses were really fogged up, and I completely missed seeing the 1k and 200m to go signs. I sped past some spectators and saw a tent: “Hmm, some people in blue shirts… with stop watches… well, I guess that was the finish line!”. I finished with way too much left, and was sure that my time of 21 minutes and change would certainly not be fast enough to win.

I moped around after cooling down, and then went to my station at the 1K to go point to marshall. I started calling “1K to go!!” to riders, but then some of them seemed confused, so I quit doing that. The rain let up for the rest of the women racers, and this further dampened my spirits. I cheered myself up by encouraging all the racers as they came by, and once the last rider was through, I went back to the school to wait for the results. When they came and I saw the fastest time in the later block of women racers was over 22 minutes, I was absolutely ecstatic! I couldn’t believe I had won, and by 36 seconds! I was going to wear the maglia rosa!!!

Of course, every GC leader has to attract controversy, and I was no different. There were whispers and clucks of discontent – some of the racers couldn’t believe that my time was accurate. I didn’t find this out until the next day when a man from another team came up to me and said “when I passed you in the time trial…” – well, no one had passed me in the time trial! I hadn’t seen a single other racer on that road! I assumed he was trying to straighten out his own time, not question mine. I told him he must have passed one of my two other female teammates that started later. Harumph. I was determined to show them that it was real – that I was actually strong enough to do that time! Fortunately, I’d have 5000 ft. of climbing and 50 miles to do so….

NEXT: The road race