Taste of Upper Arlington GP

I was a nervous wreck at the start of this race because I: a)strongly dislike crits b)arrived later than planned c)forgot my water bottles and d)absolutely feared mixing with the men's field of 50+ riders. I was in a bad position in the back right from the start. My teammates were up front pushing the pace and I wanted to be there, but just couldn’t get up there. Finally, I was able to get up front when the pace slowed a bit, but then the men’s field joined us. I did my typical, pathetic, ‘hang on the back and keep my distance’ maneuver. As racers were getting popped, I was getting gapped from the field, so I would just surge back up….good way to waste a lot of valuable energy. By the end of the race, all but 2 of the women had gotten popped, so my conservative, fearful strategy sort of worked for once and got me 3rd. Good job to all the SHC ladies and men! It was great to see so many team members out there racing and cheering!

The race was fun, 13 or 14 women at the line, and 6 of them from our team. Silly us, we never talked strategy. I took charge from the gun, clipping in fast, and sneaking around Amy to attack before everyone else knew what was up. I knew Katherine would be right with me. I wanted the field split, fast. Going into turn 2, the one I liked least, I realized I was going way too fast for how I had practiced, so I did the no-no of tagging my brakes. Fortunately, I didn't cause a problem. After that Katherine and I took turns, probably for 4 laps, before we sat up, knowing we weren’t going to drop anyone else. We were about 7, still containing 4 SHCs.

No one else was going to work hard, and then the attack came from Luanne. It took me by surprise. I was the one at the front, so I led the chase, still bringing everyone with me. With about 9 laps to go, the inevitable happened--the men's field lapped us. We had checked with officials pre race to see if this would be one where he'd let us mix with them, or if we'd have to drastically slow, let the field get past, and then resume racing. With the size of the men's field, 50 (on a course about .6 miles long), he allowed us to mix. A few of the guys got by, and each of us found a place to fit ourselves in. Brooke and Luanne did the best, sitting about 4th or 5th wheel, while I was usually about 10-12 back. A number of times I heard my name from the riders telling me they were coming on the inside in a corner, so I knew they were teammates (our junior Chris was even in the hunt!), and to play nice. That didn’t stop me from trying to move higher in the field whenever I had a chance, and especially as guys popped, but I was not aggressive enough.

By the last lap, there were only 4 of us women left in the lead men's pack. I was coughing up 1st and 2nd from where I was sitting, as Brooke and Luanne were still near the front, and I was separated by half a dozen riders. I was going to be content with 3rd. Nope, due to my caution, not wanting to overcook turn 2 on the last lap (I had almost overcooked it by the odd outside line I took the previous lap, going 3 abreast and fighting to move up), I got stuck behind a slow guy on corner 2, with only 2 corners to go, and Kelly passed me right by! I couldn’t pass that guy on the straights because he had more acceleration than I did. Crud! Turn 3 was the one with bad pavement, and everyone slowed; on the straight I again couldn't get by. I thought he’d hammer through 4, but again he started coasting. I was stuck until too late because I couldn’t change my line. I had so much wanted to nip Kelly at the line, but I was still 2 bike lengths back. Live and learn.

Props to Brooke and Kelly for their finishes. Hopefully, this will convince Kelly to ride more crits! Katherine, it was great working with you. Too bad we couldn’t get at least one other person, and split the pack the rest of the way so it was just the three of us when the men came by! It was also great to have Amy and Wendy out there, giving such a strong team presence. Thanks again to all those folks on the sidelines cheering, especially my sister.

Well, SH had a strong race - until the finish - which I guess means we didn't capitalize on our strong performance throughout. We either initiated or bridged someone to every significant break, and I was sure that Craig's one-man break was going to hold until I saw him drift by me going back just a few hundred yards from the finish.

Although this is my best finish of the year, I'm disappointed that I wasn't aware of Craig's being caught so I could have launched a counter attack just as he was being caught. I've never felt stronger in a race, and I know I could have been more aggressive - that's not a good feeling.

On the plus side, I feel I raced a good tactical race, making my way to the front to block several times when we had someone off the front, and I was able to position myself well enough on the last lap to finish in the top 10, when typically, I'd be getting swamped by half the field.

This was my first cat 5 race- and was a bit nervous at the start with all of those riders around me. Once the race got started and we had done a few laps things began to cool down. The pack was slowing down alot for each corner - wich was good because I am still a long way off from perfect cornering, but on the other hand it made me sprint out of every corner to stay with the main pack. I was able to stay mid field throughout the whole race, and was able to move up at the end for a top ten finish. It was a very good experience.

This was a short course with 4 fast turns. We only did 16 laps but it was a lot of fun. I tried to break away early on but couldn't find anyone to work with me so settled back into the pack. The womens race started a few seconds back from us and we ended up catching them near the end of the race. This made things a little tricky as our field got split up a number of times and I spent a little to much energy trying to weave through the crowd to stay with main field in our race. In hindsight I was probably a little too far back from the front and needed to be a few more positions up in the pack. As a result my legs were a little tired at the end and I just didn't have enough left to move up through the field like I had hoped to.

I am done trying to convince myself that I like crits. Thank goodness it was the last one of the year. I keep trying them, and weird, stupid things keep happening. I am throwing in the towel on crits. I start off with the women, corner two, lap one, a woman comes out from behind the barrier. She cuts me off, I have to brake and clip out not to take us both out. She looks back and goes, "Oops, sorry, I'm late for my race." Amazing enough someone from the same team does the same move on lap two. At that point I give up. It's another time trial around the corners.

Kudos to the SH girls and guys that did great at this race. We are taking all the prime gift certificates and having a party, right????

I just have to finish by saying, "I HATE CRITS, I HATE CRITS, I REALLY DO HATE CRITS."

I got punked at the line for the seocnd prime of the day during an early off the front adventure. Went back in line and sat in for a while. Part of the way through Craig had been off the front for a couple laps with a decent gap and had one guy about to join him. The pack was slowing down so I decided to jump the gap. Shortly after I launched the field was on me so I sat up. As I sit up Craig and the other guy sit up, so I punch the accelerator and take off again. I held it out there (never gaining more then about 8 or 10 seconds) for a few laps. Unfortunately the help I wanted was right behind me and I never noticed. Pete from BreakAway was trying to bridge and had crossed about 3/4 of the gap but couldn't close that last little bit. He eventually went back and I was dangling out front until 5 to go. I slid back in the field and once again missed my opportunity with about 2 to go as I sensed a slowing which would have at least moved me to the front and put me in good position even if I couldn't have gotten away.

As a team we claimed 10 of 15 primes, myself taking 2, so it was a decent night in that respect. There was a lot of good team tactics out there with people blocking and counter attacking failed moves. It was nice to see so many friendly faces in race.

The SH boys came to lay it down today. Attack, counter, prime, prime, prime, and more primes. I wanted to be more aggressive in this race and not have to duke it out for a field sprint. With 5 laps to go I took a flier and was about 1 and ½ turns away from making it stick before the hounds came a knock’n.

Thanks to all the help from the guys in the race and the support from the sidelines.

I won't whine any more about the lack of a 1-2-3 race for this event, I think everybody heard me whine once already. So I took some pictures of the 3-4 race.

A really fun course, but the body can't keep up with what the mind wants to do at times. Attempted to cover a move while Jim was off the front and proceeded to blow up as Craig will probably attest. I felt I would be able to follow wheels for the duration of this race and perhaps contest the sprint. I need to finish a race, so understand if I don't actively work to block for a teammate. I'm obviously not capable at this point. I think I've demonstrated I'll do what it takes to help a teammate in the past.