The Dirt Field

The Race: Blue Ribbon Alpine Challenge Criterium in Aspen, CO
The Course: 60 minutes, four corners
The Field: 1/2 women
The Finish: 5th

Short backstory on this event: the men-only US Pro Cycling Challenge is rolling through Colorado and stopped in Aspen on August 22/23. Last year, a three-day women’s stage race was hosted in Aspen concurrently with the stage of the men’s race. That same event was scheduled for this year, but had to be shortened to a one-day criterium in downtown Aspen. Let’s see how many times I can say Aspen in this paragraph. Aspen!

USA Cycling was kind enough to invite me to join five other women to race on a composite team for this event, the Aspen Valley Hospital Composite Team. We got cool pink and black jerseys from Primal that helped us blend in seamlessly with the riders from the actual Primal pro team. I was thrilled to finally have a third jersey pocket again and was taught that it’s called the ‘banana pocket’. I always thought referred to a different piece of apparel.

For posts detailing my love affair with Aspen, you can go here and here. It was almost a shame that I spent a great deal of my trip being slightly nervous about the upcoming race, because it’s the closest thing to a vacation I’ve had all year. Days filled with nothing but gorgeous rides, coffeeshop visits, and plumbing the depths of the Internet. It was bliss. But as the race drew nearer, my anxiety excitement started to get the best of me, culminating in a jittery 5:54am wake-up for a race that didn’t start until 1pm.

Let’s fast-forward through the part where I spent the morning huddled in bed watching Drop Dead Diva.

Following a mediocre warm-up, I rode around the course and made it to the start line fifteen minutes early to claim a coveted spot in the fourth row. That sucked, but I chose a place on the side that corresponded with the outside of the upcoming corner, which also happened to be behind riders I trusted to get into a good position quickly. It worked out well. As soon as we rolled, I followed rock star Jade Wilcoxson’s wheel and cruised up near the front without much effort.

After a few fast laps as everybody settled in, I attacked. Not with the intention of staying away for the whole race (HAHA! no effing way), but because it was early and I wanted to feel things out, both with the field and my legs. It was short-lived, but what followed was a series of other attacks that led to the formation of a 13-rider break. It was a strong mix, with riders from Optum, Exergy, and NOW, as well as Katie Compton, but I suspected it was too big for anybody to want it to stick.

It stayed for a while, though, long enough to make the legs burn. We weren’t so much working together as attacking, regrouping, attacking, separating, regrouping, and so on. When smaller splits would form, I’d haul ass to not miss potentially dangerous combinations, but the cumulative effort started to hurt. It was kind of awesome – nobody was sitting in and coasting around. Instead, the second one rider let off the gas, another would seize the moment and throw down. While I wanted to barf up a lung, I also was thrilled to be riding in the red, railing the corners, and sitting in very good company. Crit racing at its finest!

Once the field caught the break, the attacks kept coming. There were three interim sprint points as well as primes that added to the intensity and kept the field going hard. Jade cleaned up on the sprint competition, while riders from all of the teams worked aggressively to launch or shut down escape attempts. I sat near the front, bridging when I could to promising moves while also trying to not burn out before the end. Somewhere around 40 minutes in, I remembered to drink. It might have been the leg cramps that reminded me.

Nothing stuck and then it was the down to the final laps. I was expecting a clear leadout train to form from one of the teams, but it was an even mix at the front driving the pace. On the back stretch of the final lap, Alison Powers (NOW) and Jade jumped hard and got a gap from the field. I rounded the final corner sitting behind the diesel engine that is KFC and sprinted down the home stretch to land 5th place. Jade won, Alison grabbed 2nd, Leah Kirchmann (Optum) came in 3rd, and Carmen Small (Optum) finished 4th. Full results can be found here.

It was a great race. The weather cooperated, the crowds were enthusiastic, the pace was high, and there was only one crash of a single rider that overcooked a turn but walked away unscathed from a brush with a parked car. While I was worried about the impact of racing at altitude, it didn’t seem to matter – the race hurt, but in a good way, and I came away more than satisfied.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. There’s always a part of me that wants more (podium finish! sprint points! a puppy!), but I think that’s a good thing. Wanting more means training harder, riding faster, and being willing to hurt more. When I think about this race compared to where I was a year ago, it’s like night and day. I’m not nearly as timid, being in close quarters with other riders and flying through corners isn’t scary anymore, and instead of worrying about positioning constantly, I just ride harder and make it happen. While there’s always room to improve, now I’m more excited than ever about the process of getting there.