10 posts tagged “roaring mouse”
Merco Crit
Cat’s 3 and 4 women
Teammates: Cathy, Ashley, Mo, Bergen, Bev, Jamie,
Weather – overcast but dry
25 lap race.
Going in we had the idea that we would drill the first 3 laps – trying to make it safe for everyone. Then perhaps go for the second prime, or perhaps counter attack the second prime. There were lots of strong girls, Hopkins Honda, Sugar/CRM, Dolce, so we didn’t need to do all the work at the front. I split the race into 3 parts in my head – the beginning where I wanted to practice skills of only moving up through the pack, learning to do this safely and comfortably. Then I wanted to maintain around 15th wheel in the middle to observe who was up front. And the last 5, I wanted to make sure the mouse train got rolling and delivered me or another mouse to victory!
Just after finishing the first lap, I heard someone in front of me flat. I said “someone has a flat” – and saw it was me! I didn’t quite know how to get back to the pit – but you can get off and run back to the pit with a flat. Changed into a neutral (zipp) wheel and off again I went!
I feel that I did GREAT with my skills in the pack – my skills are so much better than before, thanks to working in the Early Birds, riding with the Cat 4 boys, and also I think the track fights helped! I fought and won most of the wheels I wanted, took GREAT corners and was complimented by others in the pack for getting the other ladies to take the corners wide and fast.
What I know we need to work on is finding each other in the pack and practice riding near each other in a sustained way… our communication broke down and with 5 to go, we all found our way to the front, thanks to Mo and Ashley for moving me up there! Somehow not everyone was there when we needed to be. A few more races and we’ll perfect that train, I believe it!
With 5 to go, we had two dolces, Bev, the winner, and one or two others up there. I sat on Bev’s wheel with 4 to go and we were being uncontested so far. 3 to go and I felt the pack was inching up on us. 2 to go and I asked the girls to step on the gas if they wanted to win. I was 3rd wheel feeling the pack breathing down my neck, expecting a surge at any minute. But with the technicality of the course, the first 5 of us would escape the chicane with speed and everyone else had to slow, which prevented an all out assault on us.. with the last lap I said “turn it on” and turn it on they did. As we rounded the last corner I kept thinking “wait for it…” and I waited too long. Bev led me out and narrowly missed first – I never came around her. A newbie mistake – obviously I’ve practiced sprint fitness, but not the actual ‘when to go’. Always more to learn!
Place 3 in the ¾, 2nd in the 3s.
First Race back - post arm surgery. Very happy with the fitness and tactics.
This is one of the most 'classic' criteriums in the Bay Area. It was started nearly 40 years ago (?) - and it is an epic crit. Why? The namesake - a 23% grade hill smack in the middle of the race. Yes, that's right, I said 23%.
The entire week before the race was a week full of smack talk. Why? Apparently last year, the promoters received many many many unhappy concerns from women because they only offered Womens 1-2-3 race. So this year they offered a 3/4 race and only 10 women pre-reg'd until the week before. So the discussion groups started the emails a flying and we basically cowed women into signing up... either throw down or shut up, right?
So, race day - 26 women in the cat 3/4 race... 10 laps of the race course. And we're off. um, cant clip in. For the first time, I couldnt clip in and had a horrible start. It didnt really matter... I rounded the first R turn about 15th back. Then the second R turn, same place - then the sharp left hand turn UP and UP and UP. I kept my wits about me, making dang sure to shift all the way down in the rear and into the small ring up front - so I didnt spin out before the hill, but would have no problem shifting up when the going got tough. I got into the groove, spinning halfway up the hill, and standing the second half of the hill, stomp stomp stomp past most of the girls - wow, I'm doing pretty well! After the crest, there's a dip, false flat into a sharp R turn and then downhill back to the start/finish.
After the lame start, I would move up into the top 10 and didnt fall out of the top 10 for the rest of the race. I felt amazingly strong and kept dropping girls behind me on every time up that hill. I managed to keep track of how many times we hit the hill, and silently counted them down in my head as we passed it. With 2 to go, I started to ramp up the pressure and crested the hill in the top 3 - but I burned my match too early - on the last lap, a couple of the girls poured it on, and I maintained about 5th up the hill, but couldnt recover enough to bomb very fast down the downhill. I gave a good sprint but did not go into the sprint with a good placing. So, next time, go through the 'finish' in my head before I actually do it. My placing was 7th overall and 3rd in Cat 4... but I really felt that I had a better race than my finish showed.
All in all, we had 3 girly mice in the top 10 - and all our girls that started indeed finished the race. 23% people!
Here are some photos - i tried to pick photos that 'capture the hill' :)
This was the first time up the "Cat's hill" - I'm in the lower left corner - this was after I couldnt clip in.
Thanks to Steve Woo for the photos!!! -
Hooray! GTTGM!
April 26, 2008 - Category 4 Women's race - Field 42 -
Girly Mice: Daniela, Bev, Meredith, Marja, Jessica, Kate, and Me.
Prerace ideas: This was Bev's A race, and my legs were feeling pretty good too, so we were going into it just seeing what we could do. Daniela wanted to try see how the legs were feeling, and 'ride for me'.
Course:~15-mile
loop. Greenville, Altamont Pass, Carroll, Flynn, Patterson Pass, Cross,
Tesla, Greenville. Finish on Carroll Road (~4 miles past start).Feed
zone on Carroll.
Yes, this is a *hilly* race. We go up and over the Altamont pass, and for those that aren't "in the know", the Altamont Pass is a particularly dependably windy spot in the Bay area, as evidenced by the zillions of windmills up there.
The race started off flat - and neutral. All was well, we were chit chatting back and forth taking note of whom to mark for the hills. The same 1-2-3 from Sea Otter the week before were in the race, as were several other strong climbers of note. Up Altamont and up to Carroll, I looked back and we had a break of about 10 girls within the first 10 minutes - the entire pack was strung out. Dewars girl (1st from SO) took off on a solo break up and then down the first two hills, heading back to the flats we caught her. Bev dropped both her water bottles, and I gave her one of mine, leaving me with just 1/2 bottle until the feed zone. Did I mention it was climbing into the 80s! I asked aloud if anyone had any water to spare, and Cody from Wells Fargo gave me some, as I had given to her at Copperopolis. Thanks Cody!
With the pack of about 10 of us gals, we headed back up the first hill again (it's probably 2 mile slog uphill?) and I'm feeling good - I look around and see we've splintered the pack again. As I'm hitting the top of the feedzone, out of water, I'm screaming for my coke (i remembered later that I had chosen 'diet' b/c i hate corn syrup, doh! that was dumb! but the caffeine did the trick) and an extra water bottle because I was OUT! As soon as I get my bottles in the cages and look up, the top 4 gals were taking off. DAMN how did that happen again. It's like i lose focus for 1 or 2 seconds and my competition took advantage. So, I gave chase for a few minutes - not catching back on. I look back and realize I have some STRONG climbers behind me. "that's okay" i think to myself "i can organize these gals and we can catch the break". Well, I tried to organize a paceline. "hey gals, let's work together to catch them". I got this answer, "great, how do we work together? what's a paceline?" i should've known. Where are Bev and Daniela? I had no idea then but I had also ramped it up quite a bit when trying to chase the break and had completely dropped B and D and wouldnt see them again.
I attempted to get the girls to paceline - but they fell apart, and I rode them off my wheel - bombed the downhill solo, and had junior's passing me here and there. Finally I get to the flats and saw this hilarious kit "team unattached" - and thought for a split second "wow Michiko would love that kit" and then observe the girl's number and note it's not in my group (so we cant work together) and say to the girl as I pass "hey, i wish we could work together" as I turn my head to look at her IT"S MICHIKO! I havent seen M in ages! Good to see you out there... the flats were not so fun solo.I cruised about solo, and got to the right hand turn again to head back up toward the finishline. I kept looking back to make sure none of the girls I passed were catching back on again. Suddenly I see black and yellow leading a charge behind me. DAMN, I thought to myself, WHY IS A TEAMMATE CHASING ME DOWN? Well they caught me, and it was DP who said "what are you doing out here by yourself again?" whew, it's just the guys (we're not in teh same race, so i was safe). Wait. Why is that green jersey long blonde hair GIRL in drafting off the GUYS? Long story short, I pulled Green Jersey girl out of the Cat 4 men race. Yes, she drafted them and caught up to me. That is called CHEATING. I told her as much. I asked her to do some work up the hill - she complied, and then I said, since you cheated your way up here, you will let me cross the line first if it comes down to it.... she was worried, apparently it was her first (?) race and claimed she didnt know she couldnt draft with the men. bullshit I say. No matter, I dropped her about 1/3 way up the last hill...
I raced to a 5th place finish - a free bottle of wine, a t-shirt, $10 and some points!
Things to learn -
1) do NOT doubt yourself and dont let yourself GET DROPPED. I am working on this in practice from now on. I am every bit confident that I would've given a huge run for the money for 3rd or 4th in that race, if only I hadnt doubted myself that I couldnt get back into the break.
I am only 1 or 2 points away from upgrading to a 3. Pretty exciting!
Santa Cruz Criterium - race report -
Category: W4. Field 20(if that),
Girly mice: Me, Daniela (our A lady), Kate, Bergen and Cathy (we were all domestiques today). Our goal - to get the win and maybe podium another girly mice.
The race course: 14 laps - flat start into downhill hairpin 180 turn (i still suck at it and will be much faster in that turn next year!) downhill - flat, right turn, small rise, right turn, larger rise to start finish again.
Competition: Lucia and Kimmy from Testerossa
we were off (like a prom dress) at the whistle, everyone chilling and taking the first hairpin cautiously - I was playing lieutenant today - making sure Kate, Daniela, Bergen and I were in the top 10 or so. Daniela of course went right out front - but after two words, she had a goal of sitting 4th or 5th the whole race.. and she did well staying there (which you could tell was killing her, it was like watching a racehorse fight for the bit..) anyway - around 8 laps to go, kate ramps up the pace for a lap, then bergen goes, then i go, so we were leading laps trading off - keeping d protected. We dropped 1/2 the pack in 4 or 5 laps - we started lapping people at 5 laps. wow.
anyway - there was one near crash of mine with the velobella girl - she went into the hairpin turn and got scared and came to a near complete stop in front of me - fortunately i rolled right past her. what i didnt know until much later is shortly after that encounter, she nearly t-boned me on that turn, when i was first or second wheel. yikes! after 3 laps - kimmy and lucia at the front - i slid past them on the outside yelling "girls - this is the straightest line to take" (it was left of yellow but we had the whole road - by not following the bend in the road we saved like 4 meters, and could pedal thru the R turn - we did that from then on... but always be thinking of smart tricks like this from now on - it just makes sense)
so 6 and 7 laps to go, we all sit back and keep cool - and try to keep daniela on a wheel - not in the wind, and not at the front (again hard to do but to D's credit, she did a very good job of trying to stay 4th wheel the entire race).
5 laps to go, kate ramps up pressure, then bergen, then me, then kate and on we go attack after attack. Lucia and Kimmy from Testarossa were getting antsy too - and a minty and velobella were in there too... we let lucia and kimmy work for about 3 laps - with 1 lap to go, I stomped up the hill past the girls - and started putting on the hurt, then eased up a bit - and kimmy and lucia took over.. we were strung out but i could see the girly meece were with me - suddenly last lap: kate is there, we're thru the turn heading down hill and i just said "KATE GO FOR IT GO GO GO GO GO" and hopped her wheel, she burst speed for another 200 meters or so - we hit the rise and lucia and bergen were there - we hit the last hill and i clicked down, stood up and sprinted up that power climb - and I could feel lucia 'give up' amd i'm in first - I crested and started pressuring to the finish line - hoping that d was still on mywheel and i was giving her a good lead out - finally she swung around me - as she did i looked back and didnt see anyone close to us - so i stood and sprinted as much as I could behind D - and the crowd was roaring for the GIRLY MEECE 1 2 3 FINISH. D was screaming, I was too, and the crowd was wild!
Ren - amazing - the words of tactics an encouragement were perfect this morning - D - way to go, you learned so much today! Bergen and Kate - we'll do it again - you were the hero's today! WOOHOOHOO
GTTGM!
There is a memorial planned for Thursday night and a memorial ride planned for Saturday. Details found at the memorial websites for Matt and Kristy.
In trying to make sense of my teammate's death, please consider making a difference in our world by making a donation or volunteering for bicycling advocacy in your area. Together, we can change the world, one baby-step at a time.
Stay safe out there everyone - get out and ride.
A memorial service for Matt Peterson will be held at 7:00pm on Thursday, March 13 at Sports Basement, 1590 Bryant Street in San Francisco. Everyone is welcome to attend - please pass the word along!
Memorial Ride
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memorial ride this Saturday March 15th, to honor the lives of Kristy Gough and
Matt Peterson, our two teammates killed on Steven's Creek Canyon last Sunday
while on a training ride. We welcome friends, family, fellow cyclists and all those
whose lives have been touched by Matt and Kristy. Our ride will include a visit
to the site of the crash site for those to share their memories
When: Saturday, March 15th
Where: Leaving from Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road,
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Google map to location:http://tinyurl. com/2b6qvb
**We kindly request you do NOT drive out to the crash site during this time, as
we need to keep cars to a minimum in the area, given the road conditions.
Time: Meet at 2:30pm, ride by 3pm
Length: 30-45 minutes to the crash site. Base pace (ie, mellow). No drop.
Route:
Start @ Foothill College (Parking Lot #1, near the football stadium; see link
above for map)
– Left on El Monte
– Right on Foothill Expressway
– Continue on Steven's Creek Canyon
– Return
Route directions via Google: http://tinyurl. com/2pc8pf
*Press are welcome to attend, however we request respect during our ride. It
would mean the most to us if press were to accompany us on their bikes, as we
are all cyclists this week.
Read what happened
Matt - you are our ROCK -
An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Matt Peterson - 1978 - 2008
Shamelessly stolen from my favorite local news sources.....Is it time to start planning the TGIO party? (Thank God It's Over?)
and my last update: I finally crossed over into facebook... yes i am a sucka'
see you all soon.. .M
yes, that's right, in San Mateo. Coyote Point State Park. Gorgeous course. Cold morning - frosty even, but not a wisp of wind (hooray!). I drove Larry and myself down in Nathan's 'rusty bucket of bolts" (name for his trusty red truck)...we arrived around 7am to finish setting up with the Pilarcitos folks (such nice guys - really!). Anyway - after freezing and helping for a bit - I rested in the relative warmth of the truck (with no working heater fan) and dozed for 10 minutes or so before deciding "i'm too cold, I might as well ride, dammit". So onto my bike I got... 3 or 4 laps in before the men's C race started.
This race has several barrier sections (which I'm much better at today compared to 2 months ago) - and two short but steep and LOOSE climbs. Nothing too technical - but if you spin out and lose your momentum... you're done!
Finally my race comes around - and I'm standing on the start line chatting with the ladies having a great old time. So fun to see Ren at our last race (Hope you're doing well Ren!). Dana, me, Courtney, Megan, Jenny and other's get in the call up line behind the juniors. We are all so excited to be racing this race... when I realized "hm, i'm not exactly sure which concrete hill I"m supposed to take, is it this first right or the second?" and of course I over think it... so I hopped on someone else's wheel - it was Courtney and Megan. Thanks ladies for showing me the start of the course (for you readers - they change the start to make it faster and less of a clusterfuck at the beginning - we charged up a concrete ramp rather than starting with a barrier). Once we reached the top of the hill, everyone seemed to be recovering on the easy pavement, except for Megan and me. We both charged down the hill together - Megan outperfomed me in every way with her stellar downhill mountain bike skillz. But as soon as we hit the sand, I charged down the beach - got back on, chased Megan and over took her on the pavement... and that was it. Every pavement section (there was lots of flat pavement in this course) I made sure to power down, put the hurt on, and not look back too long. There were several sections of course that doubled back on itself - so I saw Dana a few times... Miss D came in second and Miss Courtney was 3rd I believe! (after her engagement party the night before - no less!)
Some quick stats:
3 = number of laps we did in 30 minutes - the course was nearly 2 miles / lap! (that's pretty long)
2 = number of times i bobbled or tripped while dismounting in the race including one actual trip off my bike in the sand.
4 = number of bruises I now have from tripping over my bike
1 = number of sore shoulders from banging my bike on it while running that long sandy section
0 = number of times i bled and number of times I tripped over a barrier (yay - new personal best)
2 = times I heard Dana yell "go Marissa"
2 = number of times I yelled "go Dana!"
musings on the series - a very well run, well spectated, really fun race series. The prizes were a fun added bonus - Thanks sponsors! The comraderie at these events is unparalleled with any other sporting event I've been to (and I've been to tons - believe me!). There were RMC folks out at 5am on Sunday setting up, and we were out there till 5:30 pm tearing down. No wonder some of us are exhausted on Mondays!
Overall for the series I chalked up 4 wins and 1 dnf. That was enough to give Dana (super stud rockstar) 5 point advantage over me in the overall to take the super sweet leaders jersey for the C women. I cant wait to move up to the B's - really start training for CX - and keep putting the hurt on - more to come in 2008!
Keep pedaling in the big chain ring!
