East Union Circuit Race

I’ve never done a circuit race before but it didn’t seem all that different then a short road race.

I don’t know what it was, but I was nervous about this weekend’s race. A few things brought on these nerves: 1. Still tired from Duluth’s races. 2. Not sure how I would do after the poor performance on Monday’s crit race. 3. Poor performance training on Wednesday when we went out to ride the course. 4. I needed to have a good ride in order to secure my ROY position. All in all, I wasn’t mentally prepared for the race and it was windier than expected.

After talking to some of the guys after their race to find out the “sweet spots” we pulled out the map and formulated a plan.

As you all know, formulating a plan in the parking lot is great in theory but we have been trying for the past four races to play the team strategy but have never got it to work as smoothly as we hoped. In racing there are too many variables.

Jen wasn’t able to race this weekend (and we missed her dearly) but Carrie—our secret weapon—came out for the first time. She is a true Hellion. This girl is so strong, but you would never know that before a race. She will smoke a cigarette, kick your butt during the race, and then finish the cigarette and drink a beer after the race is over.

The first stretch (start/finish) was tailwind. We were all flying down the road without breaking a sweat. Turn one, there was a north west crosswind—I was able to find a sweet spot to stay sheltered. Turn two we were in head/cross winds. I was stuck in a bad spot and exerted too much energy just to stay with the group. Jordan was in the Junior group that started 5-10 minutes behinds us. He jumped and soloed most of their race on his own. He came up and passed us making it look easy to ride in the wind when you 100 lbs soaking wet—but for him, it was—14 years old and an amazing racer!

We make turn three and had more tailwind then I expected. Right from the turn the group picked up speed and a breakaway group got away. I wasn’t sure who was in the breakaway so Kristy and I worked together to get towards the front of the chase group. June was leading the charge, Kristy was in second position. I pulled up to Kristy and said if we work together we can get them. Kristy informed me that it was OC and Carrie who was in the chase group—two of our own. We both said “sorry June we can’t help” I sat up and fell back a few spots.

On the start/finish stretch Points, Kristy and I got to the front and held the group back. On the first turn (of the second lap) the girls figured out what we were doing. Five of them went to the front and started to work together. Kristy, Points, and I stayed with the chase group who was gaining ground on our girls. Turn two same story, but our girls were no longer insight. Turn three, we got to the front. Kristy was itching to jump so Points and I stayed up as long as we could—not much, while Kristy soloed it to the finishline. Once she made the final turn I knew she had it. Then it was Points and my turn to make our move. I knew that it was going to be a sprint to the death. I gained ground on a few girls but wasn’t able to match two of them. 5 more feet and I would have had 4th place. I got 5th for my category.

It was exciting we swept the podium, but was even more exciting was that our team strategy worked!

As I said before, there are too many variables and we are too new to this sport so if you’re racing against me don’t worry—we just got lucky.