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| Shari Heinrich: 5th, Women 1-2-3-4 | ||||
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I was a twit and forgot women raced at 5. I told Jim and Wendy, who were spending the race-lull at my place, we'd leave at 4:30. Around 3:45, Jim looked over at me, and asked how women could race at 6 if the men were racing at 6. Hmm, good question. Jim got the flier from his car, confirmed 5 was women’s race time. We frantically tried to reach Brooke to let her know that when she asked me if the race was at 6, and I had said yes, I didn't have it right. Fortunately, we got hold of her. Cue the thunderstorm: We had heard thunder a number of times during our rest, and the skies opened as we tried to load the cars. Nice. At the race site by 5:00, the rain was still coming down, along with thunder. By 5:30 the storm had moved through. I started warming up, despite having said I wasn't racing in the rain. Well, I was pre-registered; the bike still needed a full cleaning from Friday’s rain race, I was already in my kit, so why wasn’t I going to race? I could always drop out if I got scared. It was again a small field, Summa with 3 women, SHC with 2, and 4 individuals. OK, it wouldn't be as bad, and the Men 4-5 with whom we'd share the course didn't have a huge field, either. Turn 2 was the downhill left; turn 3 was the uphill left on that pretty narrow road with curbing. The turns weren't as bad as I thought they'd be (I had scared myself by driving the course Friday night in the dark), and I settled in to race. A few attacks early, then the serious one where Sally took off. I still don't have my rapid acceleration back, and Brooke and I just let her go. Tame race after that, and a few attacks. I pulled a few times to represent our team, but mostly it was Summa at the front. The last lap I should have gotten myself into the front before the climb, but decided to sit tight. I was feeling good on the climb, actually enjoying it. My mistake was in not thinking something through: if I didn't have the acceleration when Sally attacked, and Jane has great acceleration, then what made me think I'd have the acceleration coming out of the last turn? They started the attack about halfway up the hill, no problem, but Brooke was in front of me, and opened a gap. Then, because I was going to take one line through that last corner, only to have one of the men end up being there, I had to change the line, and wasn't on Tiffany's wheel (that's why I wanted that line). I was fighting just to get Brooke's wheel when I corrected, but nope, she had more initial acceleration. I was coming on hard for the finish, but again, a finish line too close for how long it takes me to hit top end. Besides, the legs just didn't have the juice tonight. Once more, the asthma was not an issue; as little as that climb was, climbs were another thing regularly triggering it, and given that it was super humid out there, and we climbed the hill 15 times, I think the meds are working. Woo-hoo! Let the true training begin again! Thanks again to the cheering squad and the splits folks shouted. Wendy even had the pom-poms out for me, but I never looked up. I was always concentrating on the rider in front of me, so I didn't crash into them. Oh, yes, there was one crash in the men's field at the top of the hill. It was Wendy who had the sense to shout "rider down" so the women cut the corner tight enough not to hit him. |
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| Mark Kimmerle: 5th, Cat 4-5 | ||||
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Just couldn't handle another hour and a half crit, so I did some laps with the 4/5's, and went home. CONGRATS Randy, great job. |
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| Jim Matson: 8th, Cat 3-4 | ||||
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3rd race of 3n24 So let's re-cap some more. Marysville - break away, crash. Westerville - break away, scrub speed, get punked. Wendy and I are at Shari's in between races to avoid driving further to go home first. Shari and I go off in search of more of my new best friend Tagaderm, while Wendy sleeps. We start watching the repeat of the day's tour stage when I nearly jump up remembering the start time was an hour earlier then last night. Of course as we're running around a very large thunder, lightning, and rain storm hits. Now we're soaked getting into the car with damped spirits not looking forward to racing in the rain again. As we get to the race we find out there really isn't an omnium, oh great I killed myself for what?... The rain passed and the course was well on its way to drying before we started. We still had the inevitable puddles (right in the middle of the best line through turn 1). About a third of the way into the race I'm just beginning to move through the field when I see the break go off the front with Pete from BreakAway setting up the block. Through the start finish area I suprise him and get free with another of their teammates on my wheel. I drug him up to the break. Contrary to popular belief I only brought 1 person with me. The other 6 who joined later were another bridge. Andys made another attack a few laps later and popped 2 so we were down to 10. I never really go comfortable in the 2nd turn all evening but I had Pete running through my head like a Zen master "Just roll through it". We lapped the field with like 5 to go so things got kinda hairy. Most of us int he break moved right back to the front. The last lap, it got kinda crowded on the back and a lapped rider got in my way up the climb. I still managed 8th in the sprint. Thanks to Jeremy, Mr. Grimm, Shari, and Wendy for splits and cheers. We found a Vaqueros for dinner so that made everything better. |
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