Mead Circuit Race Report

The Mead Circuit Race was a suffer-fest but I am so glad I did it. I raced the course last year and it is the only time I’ve had to run my bike in a road race! This year, I heard that while the course is different, there were still lots of areas with thick, sandy dirt and gravel. Very true, I came to find out.

Let me make a note to self here that volunteering to marshal for three hours in the hot sun at a crazy-stressful intersection where race parking meets race course is not a good idea, even with a comped reg fee. I did drink lots and try to eat, though I became more nervous as riders finished and offered daunting news about the course conditions. I just kept thinking if I did it last year I can do it again.

Our field was Pro 1/2/3 but there were six of us all together and I was the only 3. Cash and prizes went 5 deep and I sure as hell did not want to come in sixth place. In my warm-up, I made a contract with myself that I am agreeing to suffer for the next three hours. I heard Alison’s voice tell me (with confidence!) that there is no reason for me to get dropped. I knew if I did then the race was over right then and there.

We had fifty miles, or four laps, and our race start was mellow but still a decent tempo. The first lap we all got a feel for how much our bikes were going to be moving beneath us and it was scary but I did it – I even drafted quite close to the other riders in the dirt. There was a lot of contesting for position that seemed more about testing out each other than getting out of the wind. I really protected my box and stayed third wheel despite efforts to snatch my wheel and push me out of the draft.

The second lap definitely picked up in speed and Cat Johnson made some rather annoying (because they were effective and eventually stuck) attacks. I let the others close the gaps and I tagged on the back. We had dropped one rider, Andrea Koenig (Zilla) on the first lap. Julie Emmerman (Primal) and Rebecca Blatt (Kenda) were doing a lot of the work. I stayed behind either Cat or Melanie Wong (GS Boulder). I felt surprisingly brave in the dirt and was pushing it, and I even unclipped my right foot in the air on a sandy, sharp right turn so I could stay balanced. Somewhere mid-second lap Melanie and I got dropped and we worked our asses off to close the gap. I am so proud of us M! I worked really hard to keep up with those girls. I told myself “Go in the red!” and “They’re suffering too!” “You agreed to this!” and my favorite “Yes, it IS worth it!”

The third lap was the worst. By now I was out of water and I know I wasn’t alone. Rebecca had lost her whole bottle cage on the first lap on some rough washboard. I’d say about a third into the third lap she dropped off and I was trying to get her to stay in because I, too, was getting dropped by Melanie, who was getting dropped by Cat and Julie. I watched Melanie get farther and farther away and thought dammit, that’s the podium, go get her! I was tired and getting sloppy on the dirt, which suddenly had no depth and was like riding a bike in snow without sunglasses. I almost lost momentum in the sand but somehow stayed clipped in and upright. Melanie’s gap got bigger and then I was alone, just me and my brain and aching body. Then I was SURE I had a flat, but kept riding. My wheels spun in the loose dirt going uphill, as I wasn’t going up with the same speed as before. Where there were decent lines before, there was only thick sand everywhere. I had no water. Still, I insisted on hustling and sticking with it.

Starting the fourth and final lap I begged for water at the feed zone and some gracious woman gave me a bottle as I rode by. What an angel! It had to be 80 and there was no shade. I tried to keep at LT, then Tempo, then at least Endurance! pace, especially because I didn’t know where Rebecca or Julie were. I was really surprised when Julie passed me since she had not been with us the whole race. We contested the results because actually Melanie saw Julie go off course, however she somehow did pass me and passed Melanie and technically came across the finish in third. Even after she passed, I still committed to racing because I figured I was safe from Rebecca catching me, but you never know. I sprinted through the finish even though I was by myself ;-)

Everyone was a bit thrown off at the podium. I assumed Andrea was DQ’d and Melanie had third, I was fourth, and Rebecca fifth. In the end, the officials acknowledged that Andrea should have known the course well enough after riding three laps to not get lost, but they only decided to push her one spot instead of a full DQ. So that put her in fourth, me in fifth. I wasn’t last!

And you know I not only won $15 cash, I won a $50 gift card to Boulder Plastic Surgery! I’m serious.   

Boulder Roubaix

Boulder Roubaix was back this year and I wanted to have an entirely new experience than two years ago, when I was dropped at the start and rode alone in the heat and dirt the entire race…ugh. I was surprised at the start when we were asked to vote on whether we wanted to remain a separate 3’s race or join pro 1-2. That seems like a no-brainer to me, so I raised both hands to race separate 3’s but noticed about a third of the girls wanted to be with the pro 1-2, even though there were 12 of us.

We started off at a tempo pace, having the understanding that there were three laps/55ish miles to go. I stayed in the small pack and tried to protect myself from the wind as much as possible. There were some surges here and there as we climbed up the dirt hills, but always followed by recovery and a nice place to tuck into out of the wind. I found myself feeling confident and fairly comfortable on the dirt and in the pack. I noticed the Natural Grocers team doing a lot of work up front, but they stayed with it and one of them took the win so apparently they knew exactly what they were doing.

The pace started picking up as we approached the hill on Nelson and the last 1/4 of the lap where the course really becomes challenging. I am still ruminating on how the race would have been different had I made it to the left turn onto dirt on the top of the hill on Nelson. I really thought at the time that I was giving it my all to stay on a wheel, but I couldn’t hold on and watched the other riders move farther and farther ahead, knowing that dropping off now was the end of the race. Looking back, I know there were some underlying thoughts of discouragement that may have played a key role in me dropping off at that point. I remember thinking the pace was getting faster and that I couldn’t hold on, but I was also anticipating the pace remaining this fast for the duration of the race and predicting I’d surely be dropped on the dreaded hills coming up in the dirt section. Those are assumptions that led me to contest for second to last place instead of potentially 8th or 9th. I didn’t have the confidence I needed and somehow didn’t find the motivation to hold on just for that moment and not even think beyond that one single hill.

At the top of the Nelson hill the course turns left onto dirt and there is recovery before the daunting dirt hills. I found good company with one other rider who was also dropped and we could see the field had split on the hills as I had predicted…but if I had pushed just a bit more on Nelson I could have been with the group ahead. I did give it one more go up the hills because it looked like I might be able to catch the few that had fallen off the back. I really tried hard but I think by then the gap was too big and I had missed the opportunity to recover in the pack. I was surprisingly accepting of this at the time – it is only after the race that I’m second-guessing whether I could have pushed harder.

I was so pleased to have company though. Cindy Milnick and I worked together (we placed 1st and 2nd at Koppenberg last year as 4’s) and our pace slowed significantly because there was no one behind us. We weren’t giving up, but at the same time it was clear that realistically we weren’t going to catch anyone. We relaxed and I recall several times saying “This is fun!” but next time I don’t want to be able to say that until after the race. I guess I accepted we were having a race within the race, and we agreed we’d ride steady the next two laps together and try to not let the pro men catch us. We admitted at one point that we both thought the other was doing more work, and I felt tired but trained well enough that I knew I’d have plenty in me for a final sprint. I proposed that we ride neutral to the 200m to go sign and then sprint from there. I felt pretty confident that winning that sprint would not be a problem, and when I did finish second to last it was a good feeling.

Still, ruminating…what if? So next weekend I will remember this: I must, must be confident to my core because even if on the surface I think I’m cooked, my mind has a lot of power to control whether I agree and should let it go or whether I’m going to turn off the brain and turn on the legs and just make it happen.