The Race: Speed Week Sandy Springs Criterium
The Course: 40 laps, 6 corners, uphill finish
The Field: Pro 1/2/3 women
The Finish: 14th
Since I haven’t talked enough on the Internet over the past ten days, I’m going to do a separate closing post on Speed Week to keep this one focused on this race and not all WAH-WAH over the end of a great experience.
Here Are The Things I Want To Blurt Out: (1) It was very hot. (2) My legs were feeling the effects of the long week even before I started warming up, and I kept saying, “I’m so tired,” because I hear it’s good to remind yourself of negative things over and over. (3) Chad sounded as if he’d reached the end of his announcer rope after a long week of talking, and was blurting out whatever came to mind, including made-up words like ‘mounging’. UrbanDictionary.com tells me this is a real word, but they also think ‘w00tpies‘ is a word, and I assure you it is not. (4) I didn’t follow the Tibco rider that launched a late-race attack with a few laps to go, didn’t follow Kristin LaSasso’s bridge, and didn’t go with Debbie Milne when she went after them with two laps to go. I will spend May kicking myself over this. (5) In the last corner, I was in a decent position behind a few strong riders, until one of them clipped the barrier. We all lost momentum on the uphill sprint, and I scrambled to finish 14th. (6) CRAP.
Here Is What I Will Actually Say, Given My Aspirations To Do This Professionally And My Assumption That Professionals Do Not Whine: (1) The heat was invigorating! This is a lie. (2) While exhausted from the beginning, I was pleased with how my body responded to the repeated requests for hard efforts. Riding the finish hill 40 times grew tiring, but I was able to make up spots or hold my position on almost every lap. Score one for my awesome coach. (3) Chad’s commentary livened up the event and I really only wanted to bludgeon him with a cowbell when he’d enthusiastically holler, “Back to back primes!!!” (4) I didn’t follow any of those late-race moves because I wasn’t confident I had the reserves left to go hard and sustain the effort successfully through the finish. Do I wish I’d tried it anyway? Hell yes! But that’s part of learning how to do this better. (5) Shit happens. While I see ’14th’ on my results list from Speed Week and feel like it might as well say ‘SYPHILIS’, sane people understand that sometimes a good race ends badly in the last moments, but that doesn’t mean the end of the world or that the race was a lost effort. (6) I was hoping to end Speed Week on a high note, and in a way, I did. The race went well – I stayed strong despite being tired, my positioning was better and more consistent than in earlier races, and I tactically considered each effort/chase/move so as to not waste energy instead of acting impulsively. It was all good practice and isn’t negated by a less-than-awesome final placing.
A huge congrats to Erica Allar, Laura Van Gilder, and Sarah Fader for going 1-2-3 in the Speed Week overall. Those women are all amazingly strong, smart riders and I was lucky enough to receive valuable advice from all three throughout the week. They may have worn me out over the past seven races, but I’m a better rider for the experience and am very glad for it all.