Short Track success
I have a love/hate relationship with the short track races.
it's such a great biking scene and awesome atmosphere. In addition to being a great workout they are a lot of fun to watch. The Men's A race always features the best racers - in any given week you may see World Cup racers, Olympians, national champs, etc. It's a thing of beauty to watch those guys rail the turns, strategize and duke it out.
However racing them(for me anyway) is extremely painful .
I've only raced 1 short track race this season as i've had some other stuff going on. Of course I'm racing my SS against the gearie girls. These races are power courses - lots of flats so racing the SS is challenging to say the least. The race I did in June - I ran an 32x17 and I realized I needed a taller gear as I was spun out a lot.
My good friend, Sasha, always whoops up on me on these races. She's got some big muscular legs and she is fast on the flats. When it's flat I rarely stand a chance against her - i can get her on the climbs and technical terrain - but when it come to full on pure power on the flats - i'm usually toast against her.
I was on the fence about racing last night as it's been hot...but cloud cover rolled in, it rained a bit and it cooled down -I decided to race but "take it easy" this race. My plan was to purposely start out in last place and ride hard but not kill myself. I threw on a taller gear (32x16) and headed to the race.
I pre-rode the course a couple of laps - it was definitely a power course with lots of flats and only moderate climbs - I didn't struggle on the climbs with my gearing but I was spun out in places. oh welll...the joys of racing SS.
At the start is was me and 7 other girls - they were all on geared bikes. I did as planned and started last. I was at the back of the pack and feeling really comfortable and not working hard at all. I started passing people - i wasn't *trying* to pass folks as I was riding a comfortable pace for me - it was just happening that way.
At this point I'm gaining on Sasha and can tell even at my moderate effort i was riding faster than her. ??? I was pretty shocked(but accepted it) and went to pass her on a slightly technical section - she bobbled that section and fell over - right on TOP of me! whoa! The girls behind us got stacked up and I got tangled up in the course tape - it took a little bit to get untangled but I did and got back on my bike.
This was the first lap the crash happened - i continued on at a moderately hard (but not all out) pace and passed another girl. I was now in 2nd place. wtf??? I kept expecting Sasha to catch back up to me but I just kept pushing it and riding the best I could. I was keeping up with an expert racer, Pam, when Toni Geer passed me. Toni is super strong on the flats and I think she's won all the short track races she's participated in. Toni then passes Pam.
I'm able to stick close to Pam for the next couple of laps. At this point I look back for Sasha and I see her quite a ways back. This surprises me - and I realize for the 1st time in years I'll be able to beat her at a short track race. I put the hammer down on the last 2 laps and start working really hard - i'm hoping to catch Pam but she pulls away from me.
Toni won by a ~20 second margin, and I was ~8 seconds behind Pam. Dave said Sasha finished a good margin behind me and on the last 2 laps (when I finally decided to hammer it) she did not gain any ground on me. Sasha told me latter that she was trying to catch me and going all out - so that fact she didn't gain any ground makes me happy.
anyways - I finished in 3rd place - i'm finally on the podium with the geared girls. :)
it's such a great biking scene and awesome atmosphere. In addition to being a great workout they are a lot of fun to watch. The Men's A race always features the best racers - in any given week you may see World Cup racers, Olympians, national champs, etc. It's a thing of beauty to watch those guys rail the turns, strategize and duke it out.
However racing them(for me anyway) is extremely painful .
I've only raced 1 short track race this season as i've had some other stuff going on. Of course I'm racing my SS against the gearie girls. These races are power courses - lots of flats so racing the SS is challenging to say the least. The race I did in June - I ran an 32x17 and I realized I needed a taller gear as I was spun out a lot.
My good friend, Sasha, always whoops up on me on these races. She's got some big muscular legs and she is fast on the flats. When it's flat I rarely stand a chance against her - i can get her on the climbs and technical terrain - but when it come to full on pure power on the flats - i'm usually toast against her.
I was on the fence about racing last night as it's been hot...but cloud cover rolled in, it rained a bit and it cooled down -I decided to race but "take it easy" this race. My plan was to purposely start out in last place and ride hard but not kill myself. I threw on a taller gear (32x16) and headed to the race.
I pre-rode the course a couple of laps - it was definitely a power course with lots of flats and only moderate climbs - I didn't struggle on the climbs with my gearing but I was spun out in places. oh welll...the joys of racing SS.
At the start is was me and 7 other girls - they were all on geared bikes. I did as planned and started last. I was at the back of the pack and feeling really comfortable and not working hard at all. I started passing people - i wasn't *trying* to pass folks as I was riding a comfortable pace for me - it was just happening that way.
At this point I'm gaining on Sasha and can tell even at my moderate effort i was riding faster than her. ??? I was pretty shocked(but accepted it) and went to pass her on a slightly technical section - she bobbled that section and fell over - right on TOP of me! whoa! The girls behind us got stacked up and I got tangled up in the course tape - it took a little bit to get untangled but I did and got back on my bike.
This was the first lap the crash happened - i continued on at a moderately hard (but not all out) pace and passed another girl. I was now in 2nd place. wtf??? I kept expecting Sasha to catch back up to me but I just kept pushing it and riding the best I could. I was keeping up with an expert racer, Pam, when Toni Geer passed me. Toni is super strong on the flats and I think she's won all the short track races she's participated in. Toni then passes Pam.
I'm able to stick close to Pam for the next couple of laps. At this point I look back for Sasha and I see her quite a ways back. This surprises me - and I realize for the 1st time in years I'll be able to beat her at a short track race. I put the hammer down on the last 2 laps and start working really hard - i'm hoping to catch Pam but she pulls away from me.
Toni won by a ~20 second margin, and I was ~8 seconds behind Pam. Dave said Sasha finished a good margin behind me and on the last 2 laps (when I finally decided to hammer it) she did not gain any ground on me. Sasha told me latter that she was trying to catch me and going all out - so that fact she didn't gain any ground makes me happy.
anyways - I finished in 3rd place - i'm finally on the podium with the geared girls. :)
Comments
Woohoo!
Jj