From... Cary

Madera Stage Race Report: Getting Back on the Horse
I entered this race very early with the idea that it would be the culmination of my first foray into bike racing before switching gears and giving triathlon (my primary sport) my undivided attention for the rest of the spring/summer. Thanks to the peleton pileup and shoulder injury sustained at Snelling , Madera turned instead into an opportunity to “get back on the horse”.
Criterium: 3 weeks after busting my shoulder in a pack incident, my wheel is on the start line for a criterium, of all things, with 49 other cat 4 women. Meanwhile, right next to me, a crash victim from the previous race is being loaded onto an ambulance. I was more than nervous, I was sick to my stomach scared and a pale, bleeding guy on a gurney wasn’t helping to calm my anxiety. I had a very specific plan for the crit…to stay near the front and attack every time the pace got slow. Keeping it fast would keep it from bunching up and feels much safer. I wasn’t worried about saving myself. I had no interest in my position in the GC. My goal was to make it to, and through each stage and help my team if I could. The crit was fast for the first 50 meters then slowed immediately at turn 1 so I got to put my plan into action almost immediately. I rocketed from mid pack out to a huge lead then settled into a fast pace until the pack caught up. If it was fast I stayed in the front half to the outside, if it got slow I attacked again. Our team was awesome. I was able to get behind a teammate’s wheel and catch my breath after each attack. Everyone was right there positioned well to react to whatever happened. Ruth was constantly talking to me from behind. It was reassuring to know it was her behind me. Carol took over attacking when I was recovering, especially late in the race. I only had one missed heartbeat when I heard a lot of gasping and expletives to my right as a rider went down on the inside of a turn. I just looked ahead and forced it out of my head. Starting the final lap I saw almost all of our team right there. I took the last turn on the outside and was positioned with a great line for the final sprint, I just can’t sprint. I finished with the pack in the middle of the pack but I was ecstatic to have ridden strongly and finished whole and healthy in a criterium with 50 racers.
TT: A few hours later. I knew I had burned some matches attacking repeatedly in the crit. It’s also very early in the season and I have not done any LT, VO2 max or power oriented training, just base building aerobic stuff. My adrenaline level was so high during the crit I hadn’t noticed my injured shoulder but when that subsided I realized it was hurting. Luckily the TT position is easier on it.
I didn’t know what to expect, only that I would ride as hard as I could from start to finish…no computer, no heart rate monitor. The road is kind of rough and there was a brisk headwind on the back half of the course. I knew it would be a tough ride but a hard, solo effort is right up my alley.
My turn to go, the first time I’ve ever been held for a start. I’m not sure what will happen when the guy lets go. Fortunately I go forward ;-). Clean getaway, out of the saddle to get some speed then it’s time to drop into the aerobars and drop the hammer. First half rides fast despite the tooth jarring road surface thanks to the wind direction. Bees bouncing off of helmet and glasses. The rider behind me goes past in the first straight. She opens a big gap quickly. Grrrr! Turn one…perfect. The rider who passed me is no longer pulling away. I pass one rider, my first “roadkill” (mwahaha!). The rider who passed me is beginning to come back to me. Turn two, I have so much speed going into it I have to swing much wider than I want, struggle to stay inside yellow line coming off the turn. I recover and focus ahead. The gal who had passed me is gone =:-O! (turns out she crashed on turn 2). Now going into the wind, working hard, not going as fast but feeling good about the effort. Get 2 more scalps. Turn 3, perfect, now into the teeth of the wind. A 4th victim is in my sights. The gap is closing fast but I’m running out of real estate. I’m giving my all, breath coming in ragged gasps. Sounding like a freight train there will be no sneaking up on the rider I’m catching. The white tent, the white line, I just miss the final pass…darn!
I was very happy with my effort. I know I gave it everything. 28:05-Good early season time for me in those conditions. Good enough to put me in 10th place, only 13 seconds back from our fastest rider.
Road Race: I knew going in that my fear about mixing it with the pack would prevent me from being a factor in the road race. My goal was simply to cross the finish line and, hopefully, make at least a small contribution to the team effort. After chatting with Kelly M. and my teammates I came up with a plan to attack early. It would give our other riders a chance to see how the pack would react, I’m strong enough that if the right people came with me it could potentially stick and, at the very least, someone(s) would have to work to chase me. I chose the “roubaix” section as the place I would attack from.
I felt pretty ok about being in the group during the neutral promenade. Unlike Snelling, the group was riding smoothly. Rolling onto the race course I was just where I wanted to be, on the outside and near the front. Then women began to pass me on the left even though I was just inside the yellow line. They would cross the yellow line, get half a bike length ahead then start to cut in on me. I don’t know if they were testing my resolve to hold the wheel ahead of me or just unaware that they had not cleared my wheel…but I was not about to find out, the hard way, which. Before I knew it I was in the middle, near the back having flashbacks of the peleton collapsing under my front wheel under Snelling.
When the woman next to me touched the wheel in front of her and almost went down I bailed and dropped to the very rear giving the peleton a good 10-20 feet of space ahead of me. Fortunately, the pace was mellow and it was effortless to hang back there. When we turned on the Roubaix section and had the whole road, with my heart in my throat with all the wobbly bikes around me, I began to work my way forward to about midpack. I nearly got guttered by swerving riders a few times but hung in there until a window of opportunity opened up. Enough space to rocket to the front and away from the field.
I put my head down and hammered as hard as I could for about 90 seconds then went to hard, sustainable effort. I finally dared to look back and saw a rider behind me and a huge gap back to the pack. She said it was just her and me. I thought if we worked together the break might last a while but she just sat on my wheel. When it was clear she wasn’t going to help I should have shut it down but I wasn’t to keen on the idea of being back in the pack. So I held it as long as I could.
It lasted to around the S/F line. Then the wave caught me. I could have jumped back onto the back of the train but I realized that in my gut I didn’t want to. I was afraid of it. I let them by and spun easily to the junction of the main road to let them get far ahead. Then I settled in for a hard solo effort so I could at least get a good workout. I reeled in a few solo riders who stuck so we became a rotating paceline of 4 and began to work in harmony. That was great fun. Our small group began to reel the pack back in. We got to within about 100 meters at the start of the Roubaix section on lap 2 then my paceline mates began to fall apart. They stuck with me but could not pull so I pulled the entire remainder of lap 2. The pack pulled away in the hills. I got a little help at the beginning of lap 3 but again became the sole puller after only a few miles. We started to reel the pack in again. I was actually having more fun chasing the pack than I would have had riding in it!
Midway through the final time through the Roubaix stretch it became clear that I would not be able to pull my little group to the pack so I shut it down. We introduced ourselves, than ked one another and enjoyed the scenery up to the base of the rollers. Then the race was back on ;-). I was able to outclimb them and won our little minirace.
I was thrilled to learn that Anna had won the race and that our novice team had worked together so well. I was also thrilled to have made through all 3 stages of the event and despite my “issues” with pack riding I finished solidly in the middle of the field in the GC. I was disappointed that I was so fearful of riding in the group during the road race. I had hoped that the positive experience in the crit would have bolstered my confidence more. I wished I could have played a bigger role in the team effort. But I found the nugget of fear that the Snelling incident planted was still very much alive and I was still very twitchy about the riders around me. It might be partly because I am riding with a still resolving injury that I’m protecting and maybe I’ll be less fearful when I’m fully healed. The psychological damage is going to take much longer to heal than the physical damage.
Maybe trying to take up bike racing as a new sport at 52 is nuts but I look forward to having a go at more road racing after my triathlon season is over. Meanwhile I’ll be sticking to the TT’s.