Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Collegiate Nationals: Road Race and Wrap-up

Sunday morning rolled around, bringing with it 20 mph winds and wind advisories for 50 mph wind gusts. The course involved going around a small lake a couple times before heading out for a long pass through Ogden canyon and then the four mile climb at the end of the race. Fortunately in the valley area the wind was not too bad, lending to a flat, relatively easy 40 miles to start the race.

The road race was the even I had hoped to do well in coming into the weekend, but as I woke up the morning before I could tell it was going to be a rough day. My body was clearly still stressed from the day before and with the altitude my lungs seemed to be getting worse, not better. With Melissa injured I warmed up before taking my place in the callups, chatting with a few women from Lindenwood at the start.

Starting from the front of the pack was a major stress relief for me, and I instantly was able to find a group of MWCCC women as well as a few nice wheels. Within a mile or two I had found Kaitie (Marian) and settled onto her wheel for almost the entire first 20 miles or so. I knew she wasn't going to be doing any work but would be staying towards the front and so if I kept on her wheel I would be in generally good position. To my surprise, this worked rather well.

There were several minor attacks, but none that the pack deemed dangerous with mostly girls going solo off the front but never out of sight. Towards the middle of our second lap around there had been a rider from Florida off the pack for awhile. The pack had huddled to the right of the road and I saw an opportunity to stretch my legs a little, swinging left from the back of the pack and making a move up the far end. Once separated I looked back to find a rider from Lindenwood and one from Marian with me, no surprises there. I stayed with them a few minutes, working our way to the rider from Florida.

Decision time. I made the mistake of confusing the rider from Marian, and thinking it was someone else rather than Jackie Kurth, and the rider from Lindenwood was not someone I expected them to be working for. I had been in situations like this during the regular season where a rider from each of these teams would follow an attack just to bring it in and I suspected that Coryn and Kaitie would not let this go the entire race. This was not the winning move, and I knew that.

So I sat up.

In retrospect I probably should have stayed with that small group, especially given my mistake in who the riders were. It would have brought some attention to IU and I would have been stronger for it, but unfortunately the knowledge that there was still a lot of race to go weighed on me and I returned to the shelter of the pack, this may be my one regret from the weekend.

We came into the first feed zone and I missed my first bottle which had mix in it, I would have only water and some of the food in my back pocket the remainder of the race, something that may have factored into how dead I felt at the end. Ivy, from Marian, had picked up a neutral bottle and graciously gave that to me.

As the pack swung off the short loop it was a mad dash to be on the front going into the canyon which was going to be a tricky descent due to construction and sketchy roads. I found myself in the right place, surrounded by riders from Lindenwood, Wisconsin, Lindsey Wilson and Marian. Always nice to have familiar wheels in situations like that.

As we came into Ogden I started to notice the wind and we began to hit the rollers leading into the mountains. As we came into the final climb I began to fall off, unable to breath and my legs not willing to move any faster. The minute I was off the wind struck and I could tell that it was going to be a long climb.

Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe my experience going up the mountain. Having ridden it before I felt comfortable with it, perhaps even confident. However, I was not prepared for the 30mph headwind up the entire set and my lungs were giving out on me, the elevation and coughing proving a bit too much. I summited alone and rode the remaining 10k mostly by myself, rolling in for 55th in the field.

That evening saw me in the medical tent not just because one of our riders had gone down, but because my coughing was so bad I had trouble breathing after the race. A trip to the doctor's and the hospital confirmed that I had acute bronchitis and would be spending the next few days off the bike. Whoops.

Looking back at the race there were a few decisions I made that having hind sight I probably would have done differently. However, I have no regrets about my nationals experience. I have one more collegiate season ahead of me and I very much intend to make it count. Luke, Paul, John and I will all be returning for next year's season and this experience has taught us a lot in terms of communication, racing, and general team organization. As a team we finished 23rd out of 60 in the omnium, something that will help with call-ups for next year. I truly hope we can bring full, cohesive men's and women's squads out to Virginia.

This season I had the privilege of representing IU both in conference and at nationals, as well as at team leader's meetings on the conference and national levels. I really look forward to taking comments and advice from other team leaders and coaches and applying it to the IU team next year. With as amazing as the Bloomington bicycling scene is, there is no reason why we can't have a cohesive program that stands on its own year to year.

Next on deck for me is summer racing, as well as stepping into some racing on the velodrome. However, that being said this past weekend was a little taste of something amazing, and I have high expectations for myself next collegiate season.

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