2010 Owasco Flyer!

NY Bellas Kim Behrman and Linda Tersegno duke it out for the finish line!

 

Hot, humid and hilly.  Those are my three main adjectives to describe this year’s Owasco Flyer, a beloved citizens’ race in Auburn, New York.  Of course, it’s hilly every year, but some years those climbs are more painful than others…and obviously heat and humidity contribute to the perceived elevation of the last “Three Bears”, the finishing hills, which annoyingly are really FOUR climbs, not three.  The worst is, that while you know you’ve got those four last grinds to get up to the finish line, you forget that there are about 87 other hills to climb BEFORE them! (Ok, maybe not 87, maybe really 12…10? ok, how about 8 pain in the *ss climbs?)

This year, there were somewhere around 250 racers, which made for a CRAZY “controlled start” with people jockeying for position before even a mile had passed.  (The course is 36 miles.)  Survival includes suffering the usual terrifying shouts of “braking! Braking!! Braking!!!!”, the SMELL of braking and the knowledge that lots of people in this massive pack possessed neither skills nor the understanding of how squirrely riding can have a dangerously domino effect.  Nonetheless, all participating Bellas made it unscathed - we were treated to shrieks of enthusiasm from the lead car, carrying none other than our distinctly vocal LiLynn, who was sitting in on account of her injuries from an awful crash in last week’s citizens’ race, the Giro de Otisco.

 

Kate whistling a little ditty as she finishes.

Everybody has a different story of the outcome - mine was of being dropped on the first hill, but working with a splendid crew to miraculously catch back up to the “pack” at about mile 12 - the pack still being in the range of 100 people!  Then on yet another climb, an unexplained pile up (I looked up and saw bodies somersaulting into the ditch - and a dog shooting out of the pack, but no one else seems to have seen the pooch..) broke up the pack again, and from then on it was, for me, various small groups of fellow suffering non-hill climbers.  Thumbs up from a corner marshall that I was “3rd woman!” which turned out to be off by two, rats!  Oh, well, I’ll take it.

 

Excellent to see Linda and Kim mounting the last hill side by side, then a sudden burst as they tried to out sprint one another for the final stretch.  You can see from the photo proof above who got it, sorry Linda!  Meanwhile, Sue Kahler devoted her race to assisting newer racers by hanging back and being encouraging.  I had chatted in the bathroom with a woman who said it was her first race ever and that she’d “never even ridden more than 24 miles before” - Sue had her work cut out for her.  This was also the first race for NEW NY Bella, Kelly Bulkely - who has ridden her bike something like 483 days in a row, and who raced, as far as I can tell, with PLATFORM PEDALS and NO clips?!? (But WITH, mind you, a 4 tiered black mini-skirt over her bike shorts.  Gotta flaunt the flair, baby, flair.  And she’s working on getting a jersey…at least her handlebars are pink.)

 

 

All in all, we had a decent showing (thanks to LiLynn’s berating email urging everyone to race because we were “lame” this year.  It worked!) and the NY Bellas are BACK!

 

Bellas in Repose:

Front: Honorary Bella Ruth (2nd woman overall), Sue A, Kelly, Kate, Ellie

Back: Kim, LiLynn, Sue K, Linda

 

Kristin (and her brother-in-law, Mr. Clean) who missed our group pic.

Results:

 

Overall 3rd place woman, former NY Bella, Gaetane Perreault

Women 19-29:

 

• 3rd Kristin Mullally

Women 30-39

 

• 4th Kim Behrman
• 7th Kelly Bulkelly

Women 40-49:

 

• 1st Kate Stewart
• 5th Sue Atwood

Women 50-59:

 

• 2nd Linda Tersegno
• 5th Sue Kahler

Tandem:

 

• 7th Ellie and Ernie Bayles

 

 

Sarah Against the Watch at Sattley

I definitely felt ready for Sattley, the NorCal/Nevada district championship race, this year. I wasn’t sure I was going to be ready, as I came back from Germany so sick just about a month ago. But, as I ground into my final tune-up workout on Thursday, I was definitely ready. My intervals were strong and smooth, and my perception of the effort was comfortable.

Early Saturday, we got up and did my pre-race ride - mostly easy with a few speed efforts thrown in. Then, we packed up Kermit the Toaster and headed east. We made a small diversion in Ripon for my cousin’s wedding at my aunt and uncle’s house. It was about 95 degrees out at noon, and a challenge not to over-bake in the sun. The ceremony was short and sweet. We drank lots of water, carbo loaded on the cake, wished them well, and headed on for Truckee. This year, we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites, which was quite nice, and breakfast started at 6….perfect! We dined at a brewing company for dinner, which was good. I went for the 8 oz beer, as I didn’t want to overdo it before my race. Rick compensated for my lack of beer with 2 pints of a Belgian style ale.

Sunday, we rolled out of bed at 5:30 after a marginal night’s sleep. There had been some drunken revelers in the hallway around 2 am. Ugh! But, I felt relatively good. I had a shower and headed down to tank up on the breakfast. I also took a yogurt and banana for a 2nd breakfast, as my race was after 11 am.

I got a full, 1 hour warmup in and felt good. The weather was warm, but not too warm, and the winds were light. Also, I’d heard the expansion cracks in the highway had been re-paved, so that was cause for celebration.

I got a good start, and the first half of the race was pretty fast, with a light, quartering tailwind. There were still some expansion cracks in the middle of the course, but nothing like last year. I turned around about a minute slower than I wanted, but well ahead of last year’s pace. The second half of the race was purely mental, as I tried to block out some chafing on my saddle. I probably lost some focus with my constant re-adjustment. But, I definitely was putting it all out there, with copious snool developing in the last 1/4 of the race.

In the end, I rolled through in 3rd place, about 2:27 better than last year. I was happy with my result, and met my goals for the race. My next TT will be Benicia, and I will be making the debut of my new TT rig - the Ellsworth Coefficient and also a skinsuit for the first time in 2 years. Look out! I’ll be tearing it up out there.

—Sarah Clatterbuck
California

Kim does the Black Fly Challenge!

Bellas Take Ithaca Parade by storm!

 

 

Ithaca, New York, June 3rd, was the site of Flair Capital, at least for a few hours.  The NY Bellas, primarily Ithaca Bellas pulled out all the stops to show folks how it’s done.  For the Finger Lake Cycling Club’s entry into the the often bizarre Ithaca Festival Parade, several notorious Bellas set the bar high in terms of costuming and frizzle-frazzle.  We managed to get some extra miles in by circling our section of the parade like vultures, though this was not exactly a real intense training ride…

FLCC ready to roll!

 

Pre-race strategizing. Laura K and Carol B.

 

LiLynn’s a tough biker chick.

LL Dawg (always in pearls) and Cindy

 

 

Garden Fairy and beau Velo Fella Brian

 

Shannon Races Chalk Creek Stampede

Jen Tilley and I showed up for the next National race of the season- a Colorado shootout between the locals and the WorldCuppers. After having the perfect downhill road start, the selection was made on the short hill up sandy doubletrack. I just couldn’t stay with the first group of Georgia Gould (who lapped many of the pro men), Kelli Emmett, Katie Compton, Heather Irmiger and Jenny Smith. I sat up, let a bunch of women by and just settled into my own pace.

The course was rolling and singletracky, perfect for my new Ellsworth 29er Enlightenment carbon hardtail, with Stan’s NoTubes 1300g wheels, Maxxis Aspen tires, Magura Mag brakes, and Crank Brothers 4ti pedals- 21.2 pounds all built up with SRAM X.O. Even though I lost my Heed bottle and was taking only the neutral water, I felt steady the whole race and picked ladies off one by one. I need to work on my purple zone, however, because after taking almost a year off racing I am missing some high end. Still, considering the caliber of the ladies’ field, I’m OK with my 11th place finish.

I just have some more fitness to work on. I love that racing gives motivation and goals to spice up my time on the bike. Next up- Iron Horse, or maybe the pro XC cup at Lance’s Ranch. Decisions decisions!

—Shannon Gibson
Durango, Colorado

Misery Loves Company

Misery loves company. That is the actual race name of the race, a reference to the challenging dirt roads, deep sand, and climbs that make up this inaugural 14 mile mtb event. Also, but surely not what the promoters had in mind, I managed to create even more misery (but without company, thankfully) by racing a la batwoman (tights and long sleeves) on an 85oF day. (”why” is a long story involving an unfortunate encounter with poison ivy & the resulting complications which meant I absolutely had to stay out of the sun) Very sad that Shari didn’t have time to get her batman mask from the car before my start time….THAT would have been flair worth remembering!

So, while not a great day for fashion statements (on or off the bike), it was a gorgeous day for a ride. I’m grateful for running into Kisscross promoter & Misery Loves Comapny volunteer Rick Plite at Yankee Springs mountain bike trail in the morning, because he reminded us of this new event and encouraged us to zip over and give it a try after finishing up at Yankee.

The race was the first of a 2 event series put on as a membership drive for the West Michigan Mountain Bike Association (the generous volunteers who build and maintain the great trails in west michigan … if you use the trails, for riding or hiking or xc skiing, please become a member or send a cash donation or come out to a trailwork day!).

Highlights:

• Great concept: Fun, FREE race to members, start from and finish at a local pub/pizza place.
• Great people
• Very challenging (but not miserable) course, made Barry-Roubaix look like a piece of cake … chocolate cake … with pink frosting & whipped cream

• Time trial start format made it easy (and unintimidating) for beginners through elite riders to participate side by side

Monica Tory, Velo Bella, 1st women 35+. Check out the full results!

Come out and check out the next FREE event in August !
PM me for details or watch the MMBA blog and facebook sites)

—Monica Tory
Kalamazoo, Michigan

Kern Carnage

I went to Bakersfield to race the Kern County Stage Race with Andi Mackie, whom I first met in 2002 when we both were experiencing it for the first time. I think this year was the 7th Kern for us.

Stage 1- Bena Time Trial

Friday morning started off with a 10 mi TT. The temps were in the 80’s on Friday, 2009 was 95+. After check in, number pinning, getting trainers set up, watches set to the “official” clock (which actually, was non-existent), warm-ups started.

I discovered my bike wanted to stay in my big chain ring, never found out why for sure. Ah, not a big deal for a TT but this one has a bit of a climb on the return. My ever-positive teammate Liz tells me “You know, Monica I’ve never gone into my small chain ring on that climb.” Ooo-kay…I can do this.

The Pinkie (Kalyra Women’s Team) rider who started behind me is a bit of a TT specialist so my goal was to keep her off my tail. At the bottom of the climb, she was a bit closer than I’d hoped so I did all I could to get over that thing without losing too much time. I wished I’d had that small chain ring several times but I got over the hump and when I crossed the line with my mouth dry and lips stuck to my gums, I knew I’d given it a good effort.

Later, Liz tells me ” I gotta tell ya, Monica, I thought of you as I shifted down to my small chain ring on that climb.” Cammy took the TT by more than 40 seconds. I sat in 4th but only 10 seconds out of 2nd. For the record, Liz won 35+ and I think would’ve been 3rd in Cat 1/2 Women…not bad for a fellow AARP card holder!

Stage 2- Woody Basin Circuit Race - Saturday morning

Saturday we started with Cammy in 1st, me in 4th, and Andi and Linda not too far behind us. This race consists of 5 rolling laps with a time bonus on each lap and at the finish, which is at the top of a 200m roller with a decent pitch. Our goal as a team was to get the win for me and to gain as many of the bonuses as we could so as to keep 2nd and 3rd place from soaking them up.

We tried various combinations of lead-outs and sprint starting points on each lap, trying to win the time bonuses and thwart our opponents. Each time we got some time bonuses, and got smarter, until we nailed the ultimate combo on the final lap. I had been waiting too long to sprint, so I decided for the final uphill drag that I would go earlier…and it worked. I had a lot of help, of course…thanks to the Bellas for the awesome leadouts.

Stage 3- Havilah Hill Climb - Saturday afternoon

GC had Cammy in 1st, I was tied for 2nd, 10 sec back and 3rd place 16 seconds back. Andi was sitting in 6th and Linda 10th (I think). The Havilah Hill Climb consists of a couple mile run up over several rollers to loosen the legs, then you turn off the road, cross over a cattle guard (my favorite!) and immediately start climbing. Bob moved the start area this year for better parking, level ground and more space, but this added 2 miles to the lead in to the climb. According to Bob’s data, the main climb is 2900 ft in 7 mi with an average grade of 8-10% with some 12% pitches.

It was business as usual to the base of the climb, then Kim Wik, who I was tied with, and I set the pace. We quickly became a group of four - Cammy, Jill Gass, (Kalyra – Pinkies), Kim and me. Within the next few corners Kim & I were alone. I was setting a decent pace but she was matching me stroke for stroke. After a bit I looked over at her and saw that she looked hot and taxed, so I decided to up my cadence a bit to see if she could hang, but she was right there. Dang it, I started thinking, I gotta make sure I don’t blow this, because if this thing turns into a sprint at the end I need to have something left.

About a third of the way up the climb I got into a bigger gear and put on another seated acceleration. I gained a little gap so I got out of my saddle to try to increase this. Around the next corner there was a nasty pitch again so I sat back down and settled into a spin. The terrain was steep here, with a number of turns which kept me out of sight. It’s always mentally draining when you can’t see the person you’re chasing. At a clearing I looked back to see where Kim was, and felt confident I had a comfortable lead. Not knowing her fitness I tried to maintain a high pace but stay within myself so I didn’t blow. When I saw the 1 mile marker I knew I had it.

The hill climb is on a narrow, twisty one-lane road, and I’m not even sure cars actually travel up it anymore. Everyone waits on top for all the riders to come up before we start the descent. Personally, I hate descending it…there’s lots of debris on the road, gravel, dirt, rocks, it’s steep, and on top of that you’re cold, hungry and tired of being on your bike. This year I descended with Suenago and Julie Nevitt, of SJBC. Sue and I were stoked with the speed and confidence we went down that baby this year. Maybe we were just hungry enough to let ourselves go – who knows!

Saturday at Kern is an incredibly long day. You leave the hotel about 6:30, and drive a good hour out of town for the start of Stage 2. You warm up, suffer, hang out, then drive another half hour for Stage 3. More hanging out, tons of suffering, then the drive all the way back. We hit that little Mexican place in Bodfish for some well deserved burritos, tacos and beers. Relaxed and with full bellies, we headed back to town, arriving at our hotel at 7:30 ready for showers and rest.

Stage 4- Iron Mountain Road Race - Sunday

After three stages, I was leading on GC, Kim Wik 2nd @ 1:28, Jill Gass 3rd @ 2:16, Cammy 4th, Andi 6th, Linda 9th or 10th. The team plan was to keep the GC, win the stage, and move Andi and Linda up.

Everyone is tired at the start of this stage, and it’s hilly fifty mile road race. The start and finish were in different places this year, with the finish was at the top of a 1.5km fairly steep climb. Everyone secretly hopes the stage starts out slowly and doesn’t get too heated until lap 2. Ha!

Kim came out right away to make something happen, and she got on the front and drove the pace enough that people got shuffled off. Soon we came around a big sweeping left hand turn and there was a car in the middle of the road with the door open. Yikes! We all hit our breaks and discovered it was the support vehicle for the Cat 4 women, and two of them were on the ground. Ugh, hate seeing that.

On the back side of the course there is a long working descent filled with some rolling climbs. As we were headed down the descent Linda caught back on…YAY! She put out a pretty big effort to fight to get back on, so I went to the front and asked if we could ease the pace, just a touch, to let her recover. Ha! But it was worth a try, at least.

The second lap things began to heat up further, with Kim still driving the pace. I stayed in the back, protected – I had no reason to work. My legs felt good and I was enjoying the position I was in – five girls and three of them Bellas, Cammy, Andi and me. The pace was picking up a bit on each of the climbs, and finally Andi told me she didn’t think she’d be able to hang on much longer. We had a good gap from any other riders and we were nearing the end, so Andi’s 5th place seemed secure.

There’s climb followed by a fun twisting descent, a run out and then the 1.5-2km climb to the finish. As we neared the crest of the climb I picked up the pace and went for it, figuring what the hell, I had good legs and if I could get away I’d have a lead going into the climb…and if they caught me they’d have blown a match and the race starts over. With a 1:28 cushion I felt comfortable that unless a mishap occurred I wasn’t going to lose that much time before the line…plus I could lead down the descent.

I got a gap, with Kim and Jill in full chase. They caught me before we started the climb to the finish. As we all shifted down I kept the pace high, and just past the 1km sign I went for it again, jumping out of the saddle pushing the pace. I kept looking back wondering if they were going to catch me. Finally at the 200m sign I knew it was mine. Behind me Kim lead Jill up the climb only to get jumped by Jill at the line. Final GC was me, Kim 2nd @2:04 and Jill 3rd. Cammy was 4th, Andi 5th and Linda 9th

We headed back to the parking area, changed clothes, ate and hung out for the awards ceremony. For those of you that haven’t experienced Kern County, Bob Leibold makes all the awards, and they all tell a story. We have photos I can share. The Bellas took Masters 35+ with Liz 1st and Sue 2nd. We also took 45+. We had quite the collection of hardware.

My wins couldn’t have happened without the sacrifice and hard work of others, from Linda making me coffee every morning, to the lead outs she and Andi provided…it’s all about the group connection. If you haven’t experienced this race, I highly recommend it. It’s rewarding, challenging, fun and ever so satisfying. Think about it, where else at our ages can we race a stage race like the pros? Playing out strategy, taking on roles and thinking about the final GC, not just the event of the moment? It’s a special time indeed…and that’s not to mention all the goofy, silly girl stuff.

—Monica Nielson
Brentwood, California

Racing the Pink Hurricane

Turn off the Giro! The Heck with the TOC…

This is what you REALLY want to hear about.

The Flair-a- licious bellas headed to the balmy breezes of Bakersfield (not the usual heat measured in Kelvin degrees). Numerous emails flew back and forth deciding who should race in which Master’s category. We ended up with Sue Lo and I in the 35+ and Monica, Cammy, Andi Mackie, and Linda Locke in 45+.

As soon as we registered the entire Pinky team registered. I think they waited to see what we were racing before they signed up. Feh. They posted on their Pinky website the Pink Hurricane was coming to town. (soon to be downgraded to a tropical depression).

Bena ITT
What can I say about the TT? Well, it wasn’t hot or terribly windy, though it seemed to be headwind all the way. I started out the 35+, with a big gap between me and the 4’s so no help there. I was testing out my new speed suit so hoping for some added fastness. In my category was the pinky girl who smoked me at Madera so I had to really pull off a good TT.

Mike Hard, the official told me at the line I did the race more times than he officiated so I could read the rules myself. Which I did.
Rode hard, kept concentration, turned around the cone, rode back, crossed the line. and, well, yeah, I won by 35 seconds.

Monica was having trouble with her front derailleur and couldn’t go from small to big, and there is a pretty giant size hill, which you can stand and stomp or go small chainring and stay aero. I told her, no biggie in the biggie, but as I was riding up in my small chainring, I was thinking she would likely kill me for the advice.

Cammy had a great ride in her group for the win.

Stage 2 walker basin circuit race.

If you don’t like sprinting this stage sucks. Bonus points every lap, and with my group of 5 and going head to head against a sprinter, I had to do some semblance of a sprint each lap, but remembering I had a big old climb waiting for me that afternoon. Our meager peleton was 2 pinkies (Avalon former national team trackie from the 80’s and Janet G nice girl gone pink) and Julie from SJBC, another top trackie.

So each lap Avalon won each sprint, and of course the finish. Of note she was yammering to Janet, go harder, lead me out blablabla, and I’m thinking she could outsprint all of us even if we had a motorcycle leading us out! Let Janet save her legs for the hillclimb.

Havila Hillclimb

We hung out for a while then moved HQ to Havila for the hillclimb. Plan was Sue and I would ride together and get rid of everyone else. Popped Avalon on the 4 mile gradual rolling climb to the toe of the climb, rounded the corner and soon it was just Sue and I. I overcooked myself and was struggling, and offered Sue to go on, and leave me to the buzzards. She paced me and eventually I recovered and rode a good tempo. We rode together, and the glory was hers at the top.

I’m still hallucinating at the top and see Sue riding around, but what happened to her hair? Did she tuck it up under her helmet…No, its Monica!!! Holy crap she was just behind us, and kicked ass in her race.

Oh, yeah, she can tell you about her circuit race but she won that too.

The hill climb moved me back into first, Sue second. We gained 2:30 over the next climb finisher (Janet).

Woody RR

After getting back about 8:30 I was cleaning up my bike, and noted a nick and an aneurism in my rear race tire. crap. Had to ride my training wheel, which isn’t too heavy, but I love the lightness of the race wheels. Oh well, I had about 4 minutes to blow to keep my lead over Janet. The road course is full of bullheads making for a flatfest.

Anyway, short warmup, bunch of rollers till the big downhill. Which I think is a blast, and love to fly down it…in my moment of funnness, there is a cat 4 girl on the ground, support vehicle in the road, so we needed to go over the center line around a blind corner. Sue went to the right around the vehicle, through the dirt, and at that point I decided it wasn’t as much fun as I thought. All riders up and rolling, though marginally terrified. Avalon caught back on at the feed zone, rode with us on the descent, but was gone after the long climb.

Merrily we rode along, this time no descending insanity, chatted on the hillclimb, tempo’d along the way, Sue told me to go for the win, at 1 K I punched it, Janet couldn’t respond, Julie had fallen off on the main climb, Sue was pretty close behind, saw the finish tape pass under my wheel.

And just as I was stuffing my lungs back in my thorax, who comes by…Monica! By a country mile she grabbed first. Holy sh*t!

It was a bella trophy and GC sweep!

Will let them fill in their tales of glory! All I know is they rode smart and savvy.

We had a lovely and successful gang. No bitchin’, nothing but support and respect and bellavelolove among our teammies (I have been on some nasty ass teams and can tell you the bellas rock).

Side note….next year Masters Nationals will be in Bend. Masters squad will be on fire! I’m working on coordinating the masters team, so let me know if you want to have some fun!

—Liz Benishin
Northern Cali

Race for Hope, Borodino, NY

NY Bellas Kate, LiLynn and Sue

 

A fun and still “little” race, the Race for Hope is in honor of a well loved local cyclist and racer who died four years ago of cancer.  Our little crew of NY bellas has been not very active the last year, and hopefully with the success of yesterday’s race, energy will be imbued into the crew and we’ll pick up our participation.

This was a short, 24 mile citizen’s race, with a 3 mile climb which, thankfully, pays back with a long, sweeping decent to the finish.  The weather was absolutely perfect, not too hot, not too cold, very little breeze; one couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day.

LL Dawg Graves has been training all winter with her Ithaca Homies and has come into the season in the best shape of her life.  Her workout program (self designed) has whipped her pals and her into such incredible buffness, we’ll be seeing her on the podium a LOT this summer.  Sue and I, on the other hand, are not in our best fitness, but we went out there anyway - got to get a ride in sometime, eh?

The L Dawg and I were together in the chase pack for the first 6 miles, but as I expected, as soon as a hill came, I was spit off the back and I got to watch the pink fluff on her helmet lightly ruffle in the wind as she danced on her pedals up the hill.  I then jumped into the second chase pack, tried in my usually bossy way to get them to work a paceline and none of these guys were having it, and predictably, the next hill did me in, and I was feeling pretty silly about having given suggestions to those fellows about how to ride.  Along came chase pack #3, and not even with them could I keep up on the hill.  I dropped a chain on the upper part of the last hill, just as I trailed the grumpiest lump of a miserable cuss after having foolishly again suggested we work together.  (He did not like my helpful tips and told me to shut up - oh, did I want to trounce his little round ass.)  To try to  shorten a long and boring story, LL Dawg had a fantastic race,  pulling her little crew up the hills and she finished 2nd woman overall and let the boys in her pack sort out the finish among themselves.  I rode all alone for miles behind Mr. Shut Up and finished nonetheless cheerfully realizing I had gotten 3rd woman.  Did I get lucky!

Sue, in the meantime, was in her own little pack plugging along, until the guy in the front unexpectedly bunny-hopped over a pothole and lead Sue right into the pit.  Bam!  Flat tire.  Tough, resourceful cookie that she is, Sue came prepared and she stopped, changed her tire and finished her race well ahead of loads of people.  Now that’s an attitude which we can all emulate!

Here’s a random picture from last week’s Syracuse Crit (taken by Marcus Lewis http://www.varietystudios.com)  Suffice it to say, I stayed with the women (1-2-3s) for 21.5 of the 22 laps…considering it was my first fast ride of the year, I count myself lucky.  Former NY Bella Gaetane Perreault got 3rd Cat 3!

Bunny Goes to SoCali

I haven’t done a race report in a while so I decided it was time!

Jeff and I have been training a lot on our tandem again this year–no big surprise to many of you…..

I mean, we’ve got these stars-and-stripey skinsuits and if we don’t do some races in them, the per race price is going to be ridiculous for those things!  We missed the Berkeley Team TT because of the stupid Dinuba Crit and all those resultant fractures in Jeff’s lumbar spine….and Dunlap dropped their tandem category.  

So we’ve been doing training intervals and our local practice tt but it isn’t the same as a real race.  And the 10 mile Calaveras TT just isn’t enough practice before the 40K Norcal District TT next month.  So we packed up our bags and our dog and stuffed the car full and headed off to…….Southern California to their District TT.  Six hours from our house…..

I won’t spend too much time telling you how much we (didn’t) like Lancaster and Lake Los Angeles.  Blech.  I hope I don’t move into that district.  Oh, but I sorta do want to move into that district.  Conundrum time.

Well, our pre-ride was no fun.  We got a flat on some gravel in the 3rd turn, ruined one of our race tires, and almost went down.  We learned never to set our bike by a sprinkler.  We ate dinner at 10pm at the Olive Garden in Palmdale and went to bed at midnight with a 5:00 wakeup.  I’m not complaining–I know it was harder for the gals at Kern.  Just stating the facts!

We had some good competition.  Their district champs from last year who got 4th at Nats as well as the team that got 5th at Nats were there and we were sandwiched between them with only 30 second intervals.  And when I compared the size of my legs to their champ’s stoker’s legs, I was wishing for some hills….

But this course is a nearly flat rectangle that you do 5 legs of (so you do the 1st leg twice) and the (supposed) cool thing about this course is that it can be kinda windy and the leg you do twice is the tailwind leg so you get way more tailwind than headwind so the times are fast for 23.5 miles…..

As usual, we looked pretty damn good with our color coordinated shoe covers that I made. No pictures though, sorry.  I only saw one person with a camera and I think she was taking a picture of an giant red-ant hill.  

And we started off…….into a HEADwind!  It wasn’t very windy, but it was backwards so we had 2 legs of headwind.  That was cruel.  We caught the team ahead of us at about mile 15 but we couldn’t ever see the team behind us well and they were the faster team.  Jeff thought he saw them at mile 15 about 20 sec behind us but how he could tell that is beyond me.  He is amazing with that little mirror.  Or he my have been hallucinating.  So when we hit the last 6 mile headwind section we gave it all we had.  Jeff knew they were on our tail.  I didn’t, but I assumed that we were going to lose by one second so that I went as hard as I could and couldn’t say I should have gone just a little faster if they did win by one second!  I’m pretty mental. Despite all of that, the race was just a bit long for us.  There was a little teeny hump in the road at about mile 20 or 21 that I thought was going to stop us dead in our tracks. 

I spit on Jeff during the race.  I had to spit and didn’t want to really turn my head as that is so un-aero and half my job is to be aero.  So I just turned a smidge and aimed to the side but my spittle was pretty viscous at that point and it went straight into his butt.  He said afterwards that he thought I barfed on him!

Being out of district, we weren’t in contention for medals, but we were pretty stoked to win by 26 seconds.  It’ll make this week a little easier to take as I’m pretty sure I’m going to feel bad all week. 

Oh, and the socal tt crowd is way too intense.  They did not properly appreciate my rabbit ears……

See you at the next one!

— Soni Andreini Poulsen
NorCali

By: jen see ~ Filed Under NorCal, reports ~ · Leave a Comment  

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