End of the Season

This weekend marked the end of the road racing season in Colorado. The end of the season is always bittersweet. On the one hand, I love racing my bike. I can't think of a better way to spend my weekends. But on the other side, starting in February and ending in September makes for a long season and I'm definitely ready for a break. Although I can't claim to have raced for 7 months straight. There were those 2 months in the summer when I stopped racing to take some sort of exam...I vaguely remember it being called the "Bar Exam." Anyway, here's recap of the last 2 weekends of racing:


September 9th: Swanky's
This was my first race in Colorado since June 16th. And I was a bit nervous. The race was held on a 1.5 mile loop in an office park south of the Denver Tech Center. In order to get in a good warm-up, I decided to ride my bike to the race. It took about 50 minutes, which was perfect to get my legs warmed up. Well, before I took that 2-month hiatus from racing, I had upgraded to the next highest level of cycling. I went from a Category 4 to a Cat 3 back in June. Then I raced twice as a Cat 3, didn't finish either race, and quit racing for two months. The worst part about racing as a Cat 3 in Colorado is that you have to race with the Cat 1 and 2's. And they're fast! And to top it off, the Swanky's course is known as being a very hard course. It consists of 100 feet of climbing in just 1.5 miles. And I would have to climb that hill a number of times in 45 minute race. OUCH! But the great news was that I managed to survive the race. Not only that, for the first time in my career as a Cat 3, I finished with the pack! Whoohoo!! I finished 2nd to last, but if I had a decent sprint at all, I could have finished as high up as 5th place! I'll be working on that sprint in the off season. I just need to remember that sprinting = ferociously attacking your handlebars and pedals (according to Bobby V.).

September 15-17th: The Parker Omnium
After having my 1st successful race as a Cat 3, I raced this last weekend as a Cat 4. Confusing, I know. But the Parker Omnium was a USCF race, and I'm still a Cat 4 for USCF purposes (having failed to ask for an upgrade yet). So I had the option of racing as a Cat 3 or 4 in this race. I decided just to have some fun in the last race of the season, and entered as a Cat 4.
Friday was the time trial. I got beat out by a bunch of uber-triathletes and came in 6th. Hmm...I really need to work on this aspect of racing.
Saturday was the road race...21 miles over the rolling roads around Parker, Colorado. For some odd reason, the promotors raced the Cat 4 women with the Cat 5 men. Very sketchy! There were a lot of men who didn't know how to ride their bikes. Well, I missed the break, and two girls got off the front with the lead group of men. But I was able to work well with 2 others girls and we chased for about 10 miles and were in sight of cathing the break when....I couldn't get into my big chain ring! Not good when you're flying down rollers and spinning out on your compact cranks. One of the girls I was working with ended up taking off and dropping the 2 of us. I can't blame her. After about 20 minutes of struggling with my front derailleur, I finally got the bike to go into the big chain ring. And I refused to get out of it for the rest of the race. My cadence going up those rollers was really slow, but at least I could keep up on the descents. I ended up finishing 4th. Not too bad for having mechanical errors.
After my race, I helped out Team Einstein's in the Pro/1/2 race. I started off handing out water bottles in the feed zone ( and I didnt' drop any!). For the last half of the race I jumped in the sag vehicle with my coach, Jon Heidemann. What a great way to watch a road race. Einstein's had 2 men in a chase group of 5, so we got to follow right behind those guys for the rest of the race. Jon had a radio and was talking to the guys throughout the race. I definitely learned a lot about racing that afternoon.
Back to my race...the final race on Sunday was the criterium in downtown Parker. It was a pretty boring race, with noone wanting to do any work (myself included...hey, it was 9am and all of 40 degrees). But I raced smart, sat in the draft, and finally sprinted decently at the end of the race for a 2nd place finish. I ended up 4th overall for the weekend. Next year, no more Cat 4 racing for me. I'll have to learn how to suffer with the "big girls."

So that was the end of the road racing season. I learned a lot this year, traveled to some good races, made it to Collegiate Nationals, made a ton of new friends, found some great new rides, and learned a lot about myself. But there's a long way to go to be where I want to in cycling. So now I get to enjoy a few weeks of the off-season and then start to prepare for next season.

Oh, but first I have one more race next weekend to worry...it'll be my first real adventure race up in Breckenridge. More about that in the next post. If anyone knows anything about adventure racing....help!! I have no idea what I'm doing and need advice! In the meantime, I'll try to find some pictures of the races to post.