Sunday, June 17, 2012

NC.com Crit #4 and Avery Trace/Cookeville RR Course

My herb garden is growing! Well, just the marjoram so far.

AJ and me after Saturday's race
Saturday's race was a very hard race. Not sure what made the first 20 minutes some of the hardest 20 minutes of a crit, but they definitely were. I wanted to drop off the main group at minute 19 (at the time, it was me [Belladium]; AJ [Treehouse]; Jes, Kathy, and Katie [SVMIC]; and Paula and Shannon [Vantaggio]). Right around then, we caught Valerie, who motivated me to get back up and stay with the group. I did, and eventually it slowed down a little, but it still was hard. We averaged 23 mph over that 0.6-mile, 6-turn course, so you know we were riding fast!

(front to back) Katie, AJ, Paula, me mid-race

(L to R) Me, Paula, Katie, Shannon, AJ, Jes mid-race

This was where I decided to make my move—but it really looks
like we just couldn't get organized or no one wanted to lead

Besides making sure that AJ and Jes didn't get away, I didn't have to do too much work, so I didn't. I just sat back, plotting when I'd have to make my move in order to win. I made it at the right spot, and I won the race. Woohoo! Definitely thanks to Valerie for the motivation, Will for the coaching (even though I had a workout before and after the race), and Todd for telling me to stand up and sprint because AJ was coming for me at the line!

Stats: 40:18, 15.36 miles (~26 laps), 23 mph, 186 bpm

Cat 4 start line

Cat 4 race (Shelly in the mix)

Val and Jess having fun on the podium

On Sunday, Anna, Parri, Val, Kiki, Todd, and I headed east to ride the Cookeville/Avery Trace road race course. I didn't know anything about it and am glad I went to ride it. It was much more challenging than I'd thought! The day and the company ended up being wonderful, though, so I was happy to get in a good hard 50+ miles! Not that my day ended there, though, as I had to go to the Y and do a workout still (I ended up combining the AM/PM workouts into one since we left early in the morning and I didn't want to have to go out again).

Sunday team ride/Cookeville Road Race route

This course is definitely a rolling-to-hilly course, except for up on the rim. However, there, it's pretty windy. The good thing about the course is that when you go up, you pretty immediately come down—so it's very rewarding. It's also long and beautiful.

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