Before I start with this race report, I just wanted to share that I was not able to make the final 3 in the voting for Team Evotri. Thanks to all of you who voted, it means a lot to me. But I believe in fate, so I must have better things to do this year than add another team to my ever-growing list of memberships!!
NOW – on to Hillsboro-Roubaix!
I drove with awesome cyclist, Kristen Meshberg and her Flatlandia crew down to the race on Saturday morning. I was a bit concerned we didn’t leave ourselves enough time, and as the boys needed to stop every HOUR for a bathroom break, my nervousness deepened. However, conversation with Kristen made the 4 hour trip go by quickly. As we drove, we watched the temperature slowly creep up from the 28 degrees we started at here in Chicago.
It was about 40 degrees when we arrived in Hillsboro, the parking lot already packed with cyclists decked out in their gear. We hurriedly went through registration, picked up our numbers and came back to the car to change and try to sneak in a quick warm up before the race. I wavered on what to wear…my race was a 22 mile, 1 loop course with rolling hills, technical turns and cobblestones! The sun was in and out and at the last minute, I decided with the yellow lenses, big neoprene booties and that second pair of wind gloves. Yes, I hate being cold!
All the cyclists were staged, with the women’s cat 4 being just before the juniors. This meant all the other racers were before us. That was OK, because they’d only have to pass by us if we started before them, anyway. These roads were narrow. They had some gravel…even on turns. And the cobblestone section – shoot, I was even nervous riding on it in the warmup! There were some parts with big pieces of brick missing. Not fun to ride over!
All the VQ’ers lined up close together and AK discussed a little strategy with us. For all but 4 of us, it was our first road race. Unfortunately we had already lost one of our stronger riders, JC, on a little spill in the warmup that caused a trip to the hospital. Thankfully, she’s fine, but we missed her during the race! I really had no idea what to expect and my “plan” was to hang on with the pack for as long as I could. That’s it. Not much more strategy than that…I knew these women could kick my a$$.
We start off, and where the adrenaline is pumping, we’re ready to go, but we need to follow this pace car out…and we’re basically coasting and braking, making it a really sketchy start. I thought to myself, “I really hate drafting off people I never rode with before…” You never know what they’re going to do and if they make too quick of a movement, they end up taking you out while they continue to ride on. So there was a lot of pedal…BRAKE….pedal…BRAKE, OK, need to veer out to as not to hit the tire in front of me! The tension was building in my hands and wrists and I wondered how long this would continue.
The field was maybe 50-60, I’m not sure. It was really quiet. Then the pace car started to move and the pace picked up. Those that weren’t ready were dropped in a hurry. But surprisingly quickly, the pace settled in and it really didn’t feel like a race. We were riding along and I was following some squirrley girl who kept making erratic movements. I wanted to get out from behind her, but I was rather trapped. Bikes in front, to the left, to the right and behind…very close together. Something, as a triathlete, I am not at all used to, even in a training ride. Just stay calm… Next thing I know, squirrley girl starts shaking. Her handlebars jerk to the left and I hear tires sliding…I see her falling…she is just to my right in front. She falls left, hitting the girl DIRECTLY in front of me and I see her start to fall. SH*T!!! Now I have 2 bikes down, right in front of me. I think, “CRAP, I’m going down…where should I steer to make the fall the easiest?” I look at the bike going down and I look at the girl. The scraping of metal on the pavement is terrifying. I decide that the girl would be easier to go over…so I steer just a bit to the left to avoid the bike. Unfortunately, I hit the girl. I clenched my teeth and gripped the handlebars so hard, I swear I put indentations in them. I prepared for the worst, but somehow, I ended up going right over a small portion of her calf and remained upright. I couldn’t believe it. It took me a few moments to get my head back in the game. Now I had to pedal hard to catch the main pack.
With my heart rate skyrocketing, I manage to jump on the back of the peleton. The pace was again comfortable and I regained my breath and tried to forget what just happened. I watched a girl take a turn too wide, ride off the road and flip completely over her bike! She got back up, got on the bike and started riding again…I thought, “Holy crap, these are some tough chicks!!” We rode for a little bit, then a sharp turn would come, I’d fall off the back. Pedal like hell to catch the pack. Then a hill, I can’t get out of the saddle and the hamstring is hurting…wait to the flat…pedal like hell to catch on to the pack. This happens for most of the race. Any hill or turn and I am dropped like a hot potato. At one point I was dropped and was pedaling hard to get to the pack. I watched them get further and further away and wondered why I was doing this.
Luckily, there were 2 women who passed me. Not being a quitter, I jumped on a wheel and asked if I could ride with them until we caught the pack. Oddly enough, they almost seemed insulted. I was thinking, “Hey ladies, 3 of us taking pulls is easier than 2 of you!” (and if not, I’m just going to draft off the 2 of you WITHOUT taking pulls…your choice!) But we got into a rhythym and started making ground on the pack. It was so energizing, getting closer and closer. It took us what seemed like forever, but we made it and I was fired up. I think we had about 7-8 miles left at that point and I was ready to RIDE! But once we caught up, the pace seemed so slow. I caught my breath and soon became bored. I chatted with teammate LL and asked her if she thought I should attack (like I know what that means). She said, “No, the XXX girls are doing all the work. Enjoy the draft.” So I listened. We rode another few minutes and I was like, “Come on, I drove 4 hours to get here, let’s shake things up, I want to have some FUN!” So LL advises me to wait until the straight-away (very smart, thank you LL!). We make the turn, I move to the left and take off. I was leading the race for all of about 2 seconds, but WOW, what a rush!! I was caught quickly by girls on other teams, and I wondered if AK and NS were going to be mad at me for screwing up their race. I wanted to be able to bring those 2 up to the front, but it just didn’t work that way.
Now the whole peleton passes me and I just jump on the back. The pace slows again and I want to talk to AK to ask her what to do. I have no idea what I’m doing, I know I can’t win, so I just want to help my teammates. Hanging on the back of the pack is too easy…there has to be more to this. I politely move up next to AK and try to ask her to tell me what to do. I can see by her face that she’s not working hard, but she’s thinking about the next move. I wished we had those things in our helmets that would allow us to talk to each other…the wind was strong and it was difficult to hear. I saw her smile and say “This is it, here we go!” I look up and there’s this big hill. You’re kidding, you want to attack on the hill? As much as I’d love to, my hamstring says no and the whole group passes me by up the hill. I struggle up the hill and get a little cheer from some VQers in the feed zone…then it becomes flat and I pedal like hell…but there is no more “peleton”. Everyone is spread out and it’s every man (woman) for himself (herself)! Here come the cobbles…yikes, I hate these…here we go and I feel like I’m in last place, just chasing all those women into the finish. There were 2 quick turns, so I don’t even have any idea how far they are ahead of me, I just know I’m close to the finish, so I pedal as hard as I can. I crank up the gears and just push…head down!
Ah the FINISH LINE! I believe I was redlining from the time AK said to attack, and to stop pedaling felt wonderful. I have no idea how I placed, but I do believe I was in the top half of the group. Two of my teammates finished really well, 3rd and 5th! EXCITING! This was such an educational experience for me. It is obvious where my weaknesses are I hope to work on those for the next race. There is nothing that can describe the race…you just have to get out and do one of these for yourself!
