When I said I wanted to be ‘on Colavita’, I didn’t mean it so literally.

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: TD Bank Mayor's Cup Pro Criterium The Course: 0.7 mile lap, sprint line on the back of the course The Field: Pro 1/2 woman The Finish: On the ground The race started and I felt good. Not great, but solid, and while the constant sprints for primes on the front and back of the course were tiring, I wasn't coming apart. My positioning in the pack wasn't always the best; I kept sliding back and having to work my way up again. But I was reasonably confident in my ability to get where I needed to be when the time came, so I tried to sit in and play it cool. At one point I put in a hard effort just to move up, but then realized the field was slowing at the same time and decided to attack. Off the front and up the road, but with lots of ...continue reading.

The Beginning of The End

Posted on by lindsay
It is 11:06am and in one hour, I will leave my hotel in Boston to ride my bike downtown for my final race of the season. My hands are shaking as I write this, partially from pre-race nerves and partially because I cannot believe I am here, at the end of this incredible season. When I began racing back in March, I was riding my Seven cross bike with slick tires and planning to do a few road races as training for my first season as a pro cross country mountain bike racer. Now I am a road racer. I have the bike, the team, the clothes, the scars, and most of all, the heart of a road racer. A more thorough recap of this year will have to wait until after this race, since I'm in no state of mind to remember details clearly. Right now, it's all a ...continue reading.

In which I visit the concept of sanity.

Posted on by lindsay
So yesterday sucked. It was just a race and shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'd had a lot of hopes pinned on the outcome of Green Mountain. The crit was supposed to be where I would end the stage race on a high, try to get that sprinter's jersey, and get back on the podium. I wanted to spend the 10+ hours driving home reflecting happily on the satisfaction of wrapping up the whole event with some great results. Instead, I left Vermont wet, miserable, unsatisfied, and with an unrelenting headache. To be so derailed by the cancellation is a bit silly. I mean, I sat on a park ledge in Burlington in the pouring rain and cried. And then I cried on route 22A and route 4 and 87 south and all through Albany. That's ridiculous. Strictly from a hydration perspective, one should not hemorrhage water so ...continue reading.

GMSR: The end’s not near, it’s here.

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: Green Mountain Stage Race, Stage 3, Road Race w/ Mountaintop Finish on App Gap The Course: 60.7 miles, roughly 5,000 feet of climbing, 1 sprint point The Field: Pro 1/2 woman The Finish: 11th The Internet access at my B&B was problematic last night, so this race report had to wait a day. That day made a lot of difference, but I'm going to try to keep this post focused only on Stage 3 and not include any of the other [SHITTY, UNPLEASANT, NEGATIVE] details about Stage 4. I knew my field had some very strong climbers, so the objective for the mountaintop finish race was to get the sprint points and then conserve my legs up the mountain and make it through to today's crit [THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN, WHICH MEANS THIS CONSERVATION WAS UNNECESSARY]. Right after neutral rollout ended, a rider attacked and went up the road. She wasn't in ...continue reading.

GMSR: Unfortunately not all downhill from here.

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: Green Mountain Stage Race, Stage 2, Circuit Race The Course: 2 laps, 64.2 miles, moderate climbing with 1 KOM/QOM point and a sprint point at the end of each lap The Field: Pro 1/2 woman The Finish: 2nd When I left my bed & breakfast this morning, one of my housemates said, "Good luck today! Do well, but don't beat my friend Fabienne!" He was kidding of course, but in the interest of being a kind person, I decided to respect his wishes and finish second to Fabienne's first place. Because I'm just that nice. Nobody is buying this story. Also, I'm thrilled to have come in second. It was a good course - the climbs weren't too bad and only the sprint up the QOM climb on each lap made me want to crawl into a hole and die. The lengthy downhill was fast and fun and I think I ...continue reading.

GMSR: Bacon Redux

Posted on by lindsay
The Race: Green Mountain Stage Race, Stage 1, Time Trial The Course: 5.7 miles (2.3 miles of climbing) The Field: Pro 1/2 woman The Finish: 9th I'm a cat 1 now, so clearly I expected to win this stage. I'm surprised they haven't preemptively given me the yellow jersey for winning the GC. Wait, what? It doesn't work that way? Right. With that upgrade did not come a new pair of legs or lungs. Thus, I was suddenly not a wildly gifted time trial master, and today was challenging. I rode hard and it hurt, blah blah, good story. The most interesting thing that happened during the 16 minutes and 23 seconds that I was on the course was that I threw up four times. As you can tell from the title of this post, breakfast included bacon. I've realized, upon seeing the impact of Hurricane Irene on the residents of ...continue reading.