Tour de Warsaw Road Race

The Tour de Warsaw is a two-race weekend, with a 56 mile road race on Saturday and a 13.6 mile time trial on Sunday. As I drove over the bridge into Warsaw on Friday night, the full moon was rising over the water, and the sunset was casting a pink hue upon the scene – it was beautiful and eerie at the same time. I spent a peaceful night at the Best Western, which, being full of cyclists, was utterly silent all night long (for once, a good night’s rest at a race hotel!!!).

Saturday morning dawned bright and cool, with a stiff breeze coming from the west. Registration was quick and painless, and since the race was long, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to warm up. I had that darn Pink song stuck in my head (I’m coming up so you better get that party started…) which was really irritating, so I decided to sing it at as many people as possible to inflict them with the same pain. It worked.

The women were combined with the men’s 50+ field again, which I guess in the past made sense since both fields had historically low numbers, but today was different. There must have been at least 40 in each field, so the roll-out was really huge. I didn’t stage well, but the roll-out was on a two lane highway, so I eased up through the pack so I could be near the front before we turned onto the twisty country roads.

Basically, that was the whole race – fighting constantly to maintain my position near the front while staying out of the wind. There were a couple climbs, but since the pack sat up after each one, they weren’t much of a factor. The race came down to a big, ugly field sprint. Team Snow Valley started their lead-out train before the turn into town, and I helped myself to their wheel. My thoughts went from survival mode to “I might be able to win this!”. I so wanted to give the Coppis a victory against these teams with their fancy pants matching bikes. I wanted to show them that they’re not so great! They were starting their lead-out way too soon – with about 2.5 miles to go, so 5tth wheel was a good place to be. They realized their mistake when we turned onto the main highway and the finish was nowhere in sight. In their moment of indecision, they eased slightly and I searched around for a forward-moving train, hoping that some men would get organized, and I could ride their wheels past all the women. It didn’t quite turn out that way. No one ever got organized, the surges happened too soon and then riders were sitting up left and right, so sprinting was like going through an obstacle course. It wasn’t until four hours later that the judges figured out the results and I found out that I was the 9th woman (4th cat 3)– one out of the money again… The race was a fantastic learning experience, however, so it wasn’t too disappointing. I had lots of time to practice moving through the pack, to pay attention to the wind direction and get on the right side to draft, and pick a good place for the run-in to the finish.

Tour de Warsaw Time Trial

The short story on the time trial – “I fall down go boom”. The start of the TT was delayed about 2 hours while mother nature decided to try and reverse the drought all at once with torrential downpours. Cyclists were lined up on trainers across the big covered porch at the registration building. I had the pleasure to be next to a sweet 10-year old girl who was warming up for her race. She didn’t seem nervous at all, happily spinning away on her tiny Trek bike. When our start times rolled around, the rain had stopped, but the wind was picking up and the roads were still very wet. I started out feeling kind of dead, but after I turned out of the headwind, I got into the zone and was really moving. I was on target for a sub-35 minute 13.6 miles. I was secretly hoping for a sub-34 minute race, but the conditions were not ideal for super fast times all around. I took a right turn into the tailwind and felt a little slip in the rear wheel, but nothing too bad – I didn’t really give it a second thought. I motored down the slight descent, spinning out in my 53-12, giving it all I had. I came upon the sharp left turn a lot sooner than I thought, and didn’t have a whole lot of time to brake. I bled off as much speed before the turn as I could, but let off the brakes as I entered the turn so I wouldn’t skid. I hadn’t bled off enough speed, and the wet roads provided no traction, so I low-sided and slid on my left hip across the road about 8 feet. I jumped up, and hopped back on the bike. I hadn’t even dropped the chain. The course marshall gave me a stellar push to get going, and I tried to find my rhythm again and NOT look at the blood running down my leg. Getting in the aero bars was no problem, but once I hit the hill a short distance later, I discovered that putting my hands on the hoods to climb really hurt because there was very little skin on my left palm (I will wear gloves in time trials from now on…).

I passed my 10-year old friend on the hill, and it gave me strength to give her a little cheer and see her stand up out of the saddle and crank it up. I took the final right-hand turn much more gingerly and pushed myself to the max for the last two miles. I came in at 35:27, which was good enough for 5th place (2nd cat 3). Of course, one out of the money again. It was a really fun weekend, despite the injuries, and I had a ton of fun hanging with my teammates.