Ryan on the attack in the 15-16 crit
Cresting the hill in the Womens Open Crit
After camp we headed up to Kentucky for a weekend of racing. We decided to go up and do the Tour of the Red River Gorge. For the 17-18 juniors it was a world qualifier race but since I'm still 15-16 I raced the women's open instead of juniors.
I was tired from a week of non stop riding but I was very excited to get out and race. There was a crit on Saturday and a Road Race on Sunday. Tyler, Ryan, and Ethan came out from Cali to race here and then head over to the Tour of Ohio. Its always great to see Team Swift so I was pretty excited.
The crit races didn't start until the afternoon because of the Timetrial in the morning so I got to sleep in and take it easy.
The course was crazy. It was in a local high school parking lot and had 10 corners. It was basically a hill and a descent with a ton of corners thrown in. The start/finish was at the top and then you descend and whip around the corners. After making a 180 and a couple 90, there was a small hill, then the final corner, and then 40 meters to the finish.
Ryan raced about 1 1/2 hours before me and he ended up crashing but getting back in and finishing second.
I was pretty nervous at the start. We had about 14 ladies in our race. As we sat at the line I decided that I didn't want to just ride in the group and have all the girls there and have the race come to a sprint. If I had done that then maybe I could have finished a couple places higher but this course wasn't made for a field. I attacked from the line and bombed the descent. I whipped around the corners and tried to keep as much speed as possible. The group ended up splitting and 2 riders were off the front with me. They pulled by me on the hill and I tried to follow but the moment I stood up my legs finally felt tired. I ended up dropping off the pace and slid back to 6th position on the road.
The rest of the race went by without anything exciting happening. With 2 laps to go I was with another lady and we were still racing for 6th place. We were almost caught by the leader but got through without getting lapped. I led through the last lap and hammered on the final hill. I sprinted out of the final corner and almost won the sprint with she got me by a few inches. I wasn't to happy and was out for vengeance the next day.
The next morning I felt a little tired but I was pumped up for the race. The start/finish for the RR was basically at the same location as the crit so we were able to warm up on the crit course. It was really foggy so the officials delayed all the races for an hour to let the fog lift.
It was finally time for the women to start. We set off at a break necking speed of around 15 mph ;). No one was in a rush to start racing so for the first 16 miles it was basically a group ride. About 17 miles into the ride the two ladies pulling sat up and yelled out asking if anyone had to use the bathroom...now I've never stopped in the middle of a race and taken a pee, but the whole field pulled over and stopped at the side of the road...I was totally bewildered as to why they had to stop in the middle of the race but I guess there is always a first time for everything.
We started up again and were about 4 miles from the first climb. When we hit the hill the pace immediately went up. One rider went to the front and just hammered. Riders were shelling off the back left and right. Soon the main field had widdled down to a group of 5. About 100 meters from the top I popped and found myself with another lady. She pulled through and started drilling it in the tunnel (the tunnel was about 50 meters long and one lane wide. It was pitch black and rather wet). As we crested the hill we could still see the field. Her and I took turns pulling as we bombed the descent trying to catch back onto the field. We caught back on just as the descent ended. We had another 12 miles until the next big climb so there was a little time to recover.
A few attacks went on the little rollers that led up to the next climb but nothing stuck. I was tired by the time that we reached the last major hill. My hope was that where ever I was after the climb I would have someone to ride with. About 50 meters into the climb the grade kicked up and it became like a never ending sugar loaf. I ended up dropped and could just see another girl up the road. She was like my carrot that kept me going.
I caught up to her at the top of the hill. There wasn't a real descent for a while so we struggled up the little rollers. Right after the feed zone we were caught by another girl. I was rather happy to have anther set of legs to help pull and a little bit of extra recovery time. We rotated at a steady tempo for the last 20 miles. No one attacked and we didn't add any rider to our little group of 3.
I was pretty tired as we reached the end of the ride. I had to push myself to take my pull and I was ready for the race to be over. About 2 miles out we reached a stop light and a traffic back up. The corner marshal funneled us through a gas station parking lot and the girl that was on the front attacked. I was last wheel because I had just finished my pull. There was a small gap and the other lady wasn't closing it down. I stood up and hammered to catch back on. My legs now screamed for me to stop. I was very tired and it was time for the race to be over. We made the final turn which meant 1 mile to go.
I was at the back and was waiting for the last little bend and the first glimpse of the finish line to attack. I finally saw it and then drilled it. I ended up getting second in our sprint and 6th overall.
Team Swift had a good day of racing. Ryan got 3rd in the 15-16, Tyler finished 21st and Ethan finished 31st in the 17-18.
All in all it was a great weekend. It was great to see teammates and it was alot of fun to race.
Florida has a pretty long down time without any racing so I think my next race is going to be in about a month in Georgia.
Thanks for reading!
Ciao
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