Sent by Karen Brems on 10/25/09

Today was the 2nd race in the Bay Area Super Prestige Series (aka Pilarcitos). It was a Coyote Point in San Mateo (only about a 25 minute drive from my house!) but on a different section of the park than previous races. The start was in the same parking lot as last year and up the pavement hill, but you only did that hill once. Finish was at the lot at the top of the climb, and the laps of the course were all on the Eucalyptus knoll and the grass and paths on the other sides of it. Different courses are technical in different ways, but this was definitely one of the more technical ones. After the mulchy climb, which went up, down and back up the hill, there were a bunch of loose turns ending in a double barrier. Then you did a short pavement descent into an off camber descent turning into a steep single track switchback climb, the last part of which was out of an off camber turn and was so loose and steep you had to run it. Then more turns up and down berms and into a sand pit with 3 s-turns in it to force you off the bike again. Then another off camber descent, and you turned up the hill to the finish again. This was the first CX race I have done, where I  only used my small chain ring (a 34). There were just never any real power sections where you could get any speed - the few straight flat sections were on loose, bumpy sand and grass, and the descents all had short uphill turns at the bottom where you needed to low gears and did not want to risk dropping a chain with a front shift. Nobody else I knew used their big ring either. 

I started the day in the leaders jersey, but this time Kerry Barnholt made it to the start, so I knew it would be a lot harder to repeat my win at McLaren. Other than Kerry, the field was about the same as at McLaren. The uphill start was a help to me as far as getting into better postion. I was maybe 4th off the line, but by the top of the climb, I was in 2nd behind Stella - a pretty common first lap position for me these days! Stella was going hard, but I was within my limits following her. The field had strung out, but no real gaps formed between the top riders. Then just before the sand pit, Kerry passed both Stella and I. Kerry had to work her way up from a 3rd row start since she missed the first race. I knew this was danger and I needed to get by Stella as soon as I could, as she was opening a gap to Kerry. Running through sand is not my strength, and Kerry gained on Stella and I there, but I eventually passed Stella once we started riding again and with a lot of effort, caught Kerry by the top of the climb at the finish of the first lap.

I was pretty gassed by this time, but there was a gap behind me, so I did everything I could to stay with Kerry. It wasn't like she went significantly faster than me around the turns, but it just seemed that out of every turn, she was pedalling one stroke before me and when she pedals, power comes out! I felt like I was constantly having to accelerate back up to her and eventually that takes its toll. She entered the sand pit with about 5 sec. on me and I knew that was trouble! By the end of the lap, the 5 sec. turned into about 10 sec. and I was losing ground. I basically had to let her go and ride within myself.

Not long after I lost Kerry, Sarah Maile caught up to me. I felt that I could descend a little faster than she could, so I didn't want to let her by, but her strengths are basically the same as mine, so she is hard to get rid of! I could also see that Carmen D'Aluisio was slowly gaining on us. Carmen has a few top 10 CX Worlds placings to her name in her past life as a pro, so she definitely has some skills and and is fitter than I have seen her in years, so she is not easy to get rid of either!

The trick about the sand pit is there is a pretty big curb going down to it that you either have to bunny hop, or dismount before. The benefit to the bunny hop is you can keep up your momentum and ride the sand to the first turn. The disadvantage is that if you don't land exactly straight, you can easily start sliding or endo (I saw quite a few of the Bs racers endo here and most of them seemed to dismount before the pit). I opted for the bunny hop, as did all the women I saw in front of me. Going into the sand pit on the 3rd lap however, I landed a bit crooked and slid and fell sideways. It is hard to get back up in sand and both Sarah and Carmen passed me. I got up behind Carmen and started running and then realized that somehow in the fall, my bike hit the BOA clasp on my shoe and knocked it open and the lace released and now my shoe was about to fall off! I managed to get through the sand and back on my bike and into my pedals without losing my shoe, but first there was a bumpy slight uphill and then a loose, off camber downhill, so it was not until I got back to the pavement that I could coast long enough to reach down and tighten my shoe buckle again. Of course this meant I was not pedaling as hard as I could have been, and was losing ground to Sarah and Carmen. I managed to catch back up to them on the next climb, but it took another big effort.

Now we had 2 laps to go. Sarah was still leading and then Carmen and I and a big gap behind us. Kerry was gone for good. It seemed a lot harder than it should have for me to follow them. I could do it, but barely and I didn't have any extra gas to get around them or try to attack. I decided to bide my time and hope that I could recover enough to get the lead on the final climb to a sprint finish.

The 3 of us stayed in the same order for the next lap and a half. I only recovered slightly, but was still hoping to salvage 2nd. Then we hit the barriers. The trick there, was there was a downhill chicane and a tight turn immediately before them, and I came out of the turn on a bad line and didn't have time to set up for a good dismount. I got my feet on the gound before the barrier, but as I picked up my bike, my front wheel hit the barrier, knocking my bike vertical and me off balance. I barely made it over the barrier, but stumbled after it and bounced my bike all over as I led it down. A wheel hitting a barrier makes a noise, and of course Sarah and Carmen heard it, and of course they powered away. I got going again, but now I had maybe 20m to close and I just could not do it.

Kerry won and Sarah stayed ahead of Carmen for 2nd (which was good for me since Carmen was 2nd in the series going into this race) and I took 4th. Katrina Baumsteiger rounded out the podium for 5th (fresh off a trip back east to do some UCI races with the big girls). I managed to just barely keep the leaders jersey, but overall, not a very good race for me. Last year, I would have been pretty happy to be 4th against this group, but as skill increases, so do expectations! I made some mistakes and just didn't have the legs to make up for it. Physically, this was probably the hardest race I have done all year and interestingly, I had my highest average heart rate and more time above threshold (almost half the race!) than any other race this year. Today though, heartbeats just weren't turning into watts! I knew going in that this race might be hard for me - I knew I was pushing my limits as far as training and racing every week, and am overdue for a rest week, but since I start working full time again tomorrow (after being laid off almost 3 months ago), I wanted to keep training as long as I could and I will be going very easy this coming week! Hopefully I can recover and hold my fitness another 7 weeks for nationals!

Print | posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 5:07 PM