The Dirt Field

The Race: BikeJam/Kelly Cup
The Course: 20 miles
The Field: Pro 1/2 women
The Finish: 1st

After a great day at Wilmington, I felt uncharacteristically relaxed about Kelly Cup. It was a beautiful day, I’d already had one good race for the weekend, and although the odds were against me with three Optum Pro Cycling riders in the otherwise small field, it looked to be a good opportunity to practice tactics.

Things didn’t start off well. I was late to staging and started at the back of the field. The race took off fast, which meant I was trying to move up the side when people were already strung out. While I’d raced the course last year, I didn’t remember the details of the curves and chicanes, so my hard effort to improve positioning was coupled with a few close calls and surprises as I thudded over pavement ruts and nearly missed course features (hello, sharp left turn). It wasn’t a comforting start on a course known for serious crashes.

Once I’d settled into a good spot and caught my breath, it was time to start thinking strategy. The three Optum riders attacked repeatedly and I spent too much time on the front, half-chasing, half-waiting, and 100% burning matches. There were a few attacks that looked dangerous – anything involving a combination of Optum and Debbie Milne got me going immediately – and a number of other moves that required chasing.  Just over halfway through the race, an Optum rider, Debbie, and my teammate Ky made it up the road, so I sat up to play defense. That was, until Ky went down in a brutal crash that took her out of the race. Then it was a 2-woman break up the road that I needed to be in and fast.

It took a lap and change to pull off, but I got away from the field with another Optum rider and bridged to the break. The four of us rotated through to increase the gap to 40+ seconds and then started playing the “Who Wants To Pull? NOT ME!” game with two laps to go. At one to go, we were crawling around the course, fighting to avoid being the sucker on the front while looking anxiously back to make sure the field wasn’t closing in. I couldn’t figure out how to set up for a decent finish when nobody was going around me. As we rolled to the bottom of the finish hill, I played my only hand: exploded into a sprint off the front and hoped that the sudden jump left the other three too far behind to ride my wheel to the line.

It was a huge gamble and a long way to sprint and I kept expecting somebody to come around me, but then there was the finish line and clean air. It worked! I couldn’t believe it.
The victory, however sweet, was tempered by the number of friends I had involved in nasty crashes throughout the day. To everybody injured, I wish you the best for a quick recovery. One other thing I’d like to note is the number of people who have come to me recently at races and said they read this blog. It feels really good to know that I can tell these stories about the good and bad parts of trying to make it as a pro racer and actually amuse or inspire people. It’s a wild trip and I feel really lucky to share it with you.