Sibley County RR

What a race!
From my perspective it was one of the craziest races I’ve ever been in—not to say I’ve been in many crazy races.

The race took place in the Henderson township area—quite fitting that my teammate’s last name is Henderson. 15 women started the race, 9 were in my category. Far less than the past couple of weeks, but with 4 road races back to back every Saturday it’s hard to get to all of them.

There was a three mile rollout. I’m not a fan of rollouts—I’m not sure what to think about them. It feels like a group ride but yet your trying to get your mind ready to lay it down—it’s a strange combination. On the line we discussed the hill was part of the neutral rollout even though the pace car would pull off ½ way up the hill—thank god it was discussed. Most of the time it’s a hammer fest up the hill and the race hasn’t even started—for the most part, a lot of us kept it in the big gear the entire way up. Once we crossed the line everyone started to click their gears into a higher gear—awesome sound by the way—and we were off! The course was different from most others, there were so many turns which caused the wind to change direction. Not only did you have to make sure you were in a good position in the pack you had to make sure you were in a good position to stay out of the wind. Tricky.

There were a lot of new girls at the race, unlike the men’s cat 5 race, those that have raced a few times were helping the new people. Teresa was racing within the 40+ category along with Sherry—which meant they were in our field. They have both said they would like to pay it forward and help the new riders. Last week it was fun. They didn’t affect the race—this week it was a different story.

Jen—my teammate was doing awesome she surprised me on some of her moves. She did great, but got caught up in the craziness of a pace line. A few people (40+ ladies) suggested we do a paceline. I was thinking “who the hell does a paceline when all of the women are together? You do a paceline in a race when you are trying to gain time. Not when you are all together!” I had a bad feeling so I stayed on guard. I was somewhere around ¾ of the way back in the line when one of the ladies that suggested to do a paceline attacked. Ok…stay with me because this where the craziness started and it all happened in less than 2 minutes.

Kristy saw the jump and yelled at Jackie (who was on her wheel) I perked up—I was on Jackie’s wheel. Kristy took off Jackie got stuck behind this one girl and couldn’t get around so she went left and jumped in the dirt sprinted for a few yards and then bunny-hopped back onto the road—Jackie has a MTB background. I couldn’t believe what just happened! There was no way I was going to do that move on skinny tires. I somehow got around the girl and started to race after Jackie. Now I don’t know what happened to Kristy but Jackie and a different girl were up ahead a bit. I sprinted and was able to jump on that girl’s wheel for a second. Jackie looked back and saw I was there she yelled at me and said “get the hell up there” to Teresa and Sherry. I rolled up to Jackie and said “why the hell are we chasing after the 40+? They aren’t even in our group!” she said “We aren’t chasing after them…” no need to finish that sentence I said “oh good plan” and took off. I caught up with Teresa and Sherry about 30 feet up—I was running on adrenalin. Now how the hell did that happen? I was rolling with the top racer in MN and keeping up with her while causing a breakaway!!

Here is was the craziest part. I wish I could rewind these moments because I would like to know what happened. Teresa heard me breathing heavily and said to not work so hard. How the hell can I do that when they keep pushing me out front? Sherry then said “You want to stay away correct? We need to come up with a plan.” Plan? I’m the cat 4—my plan is to suck your wheel while I catch my breath and bring my heart rate down. Chasing after you was not in my plan. I was hoping I wouldn’t bonk and that I had the energy to complete the race. We were only ½ around the first of two laps and still had the hill to do 2 more times.

Then came the downhill with a turn at the bottom. I hit 40 mph and that was touching the breaks a few times. I knew Jackie would catch-up on the downhill—it was great, she broke the speed limit by 10mph (50 mph)—she buzzed Teresa and Sherry on the way down then took the turn at 30 mph—I was around 20-ish. She slowed down and waited for us. Man, was I happy to have a teammate with me.

I’m not sure how this happened but two more ladies joined us. Sheryl (40+) and Heather (cat 4). We started the hill—I was trying to get out of the front but no one would move up so I went my own speed and set a tempo, but I lost Jackie. Heather was my competition but I knew should would hang-in there so there wasn’t much I could do. Once at the top the pace slowed to about 10 mph for a few yards. Then the attacks started, one after another—Teresa and Sherry where constantly attacking. We all stayed together for a lot longer than I expected but after a while enough was enough. Heather and I fell back together. Sheryl stuck with them for a while then was on her own. Heather and I started to formulate a plan. We would work together to stay away from the group until the end and then battle it out on the hill—we both knew we could climb but the true test would be who had the legs that day. It seems strange to form that alliance, but in all honesty we needed each other to stay away and it was a fair compromise.

At one point the pace car pulled up to us and said we had 2 minutes on the group. Holy crap that’s a lot! We caught up to Sheryl and asked her work with us. My right calf started to cramp on the backside of the course. I started to panic—I wasn’t sure if it would stop and it was still a long way to the end, but I was able get it to stop after a gu shot, several shots of water, and a good stretch. The second time we went down the hill I knew the curves so I went all out (44 mph). On the corner there was a guy taking photos. While I was turning I yelled “you better get a good one!”

The anticipation of the hill was killing me. It was much further away than I expected. Right before the turn, Heather and I both told each other good luck in a sportswomen like fashion. We finally made the turn and started the 2 mile climb. Nothing crazy happened. Heather and I took it easy. We passed the 1k marker and was still taking it easy. Once we rounded the corner we were jostling back and forth then she took off. My gas was empty and I couldn’t counter attack. I got 2nd place. My highest place to date. Next time! ;)

Heather and I shook hands at the top. I’m glad that I got to battle it out with her she’s a pretty nice person. Actually, there are some really great women this year in our category.

I quickly turned around and went down the hill to cheer on my teammates. Kristy was battling it out with one girl but kicked it in gear when I told her she was going for 3rd place. She got it! Jackie was not that far behind—she got 5th. Jen danced up the hill in 7th place. What a fun race!