Race Report #3 – Tyson’s Corner criterium 04/07/02

Since this race was in DC, I was able to stay at the most luxurious of accomodations… a HOME. My husband’s aunt and uncle live in a suburb, and they graciously let us stay in their home even though they were out of town. We were able to cook a nice pasta dinner the night before the race, and that night we snuggled under the comforter on their antique guest bed with two purring cats at our feet.

The comfort ended there. Daylight savings time came while we slept, and we awoke to our travel alarm at a ridiculously early hour, even if the clock did say it was 6:30am. We had a nice breakfast of cereal and toast before packing up the gear into the freezing cold car. It was below freezing when we left for the race, and only barely made it above freezing by warm-up time.

I dressed in wool socks, shoe covers, tights, thermal undershirt, jersey, armwarmers and vest for the warmup, thinking I’d strip down for the race. During the warm-up, it was so cold I got a brain-freeze while descending on the back side of the course, so I added a cotton headband and glove liners. There would be no stripping down for this race, I couldn’t work hard enough to get too hot! I would have welcomed a sweat instead. I don’t think I ever really warmed up, even though I rode the trainer for 30 minutes and the course for 10.

My legs felt like blocks of lead for most of the race. The attacks started on the first lap of the race, with a Snow Valley rider going clear on lap 2. She was reeled in only to have her teammate launch a counter and go on a solo break for half the race. Nobody wanted to chase. Teams like Evolution that had 6 riders in the race just sat at the back. A Freddy Fu rider and I led the chase, with some other riders pulling through only occasionally. We pulled the lone rider back with about 6 or 7 laps to go, and with 4 laps to go a prime was called. A Snow Valley and a Fu rider went clear for the prime and I thought briefly about jumping up to them, but my legs convinced me to let someone else do the work. I should not have done all that chasing earlier! (Lesson #3 for the year. I’m still learning!) The woman in front made the mistake of listening to some loud- mouth on the sidelines who told her not to chase - that the two women were going to sit up after the prime. Ha. They didn't even, and the field let them ride away for the first two places. On the last lap, I fought for the Snow Valley lead-out train, elbowing a NCVC rider from taking my wheel on the fast descent. I was third wheel coming into the final turn with two Snow Valley riders in front of me. Instead of getting a lead-out, the second wheel rider sat up slightly and let her teammate sprint away, forcing me to go try to go wide to get around. By that time I got swamped by the rest of the field and struggled with legs of granite up the hill to the finish in 9th place.

So, what does a girl do when she's just suffered through her first crit of the year? She turns around and races with the 40+ men, just for training. The race was a blast - lots of my Coppi teammates in a huge field. I tried to help out, but spent most of the time near the back, unable to move up. I saw a break forming at the front about halfway through the race, and forced my way up to the front to block. It worked for a moment, but when we hit the hill I couldn’t help but go backwards. The hill had taken its toll on my legs, and I dropped out to do some easy laps and then watch the finish.