Madera Stage Race = HOT

I did the stage race in Madera this weekend, out in the Central Valley, and all week, the weather reports were talking about how warm it was going to be over the weekend. I didn't really think it would be that hot, but it was. On Saturday, it reached the record high temperature of 96 or 97 degrees. Anyway, the race was a crit and a time trial on Saturday, road race on Sunday. I headed down to the race with Virgil on Friday after work, and we grabbed our room in Madera with Vern and Bruno. (All ladies with man-nicknames, of course.) Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny as we ate our oatmeal, packed the cars, and headed out to get coffee. And then to the race.

The CRIT
Crits are just fun, for the most part, and this one was decently fun, if not very exciting. It was flat, four corners, pretty straightforward. So, the whole stage race was set up so that the W1/2 and the W3 were racing in the same field (for a total of about 35-40), but we were picked separately, which gave an extra challenge to the strategy angle. At the beginning I tried to get in a break with Virg and some others...but we were caught. I threw out another solo attack after one of the primes, but no one came with me. And actually, it seemed like there was a lot of that -- lots of solo attacks that got off the front and were just left to dangle for a while before being sucked up. Trac attacked over and over, as did some of the Metromints, and others. But overall, the pace was pretty low. Finally we came down to the end. One cat 3, Kelli, who is an amazing time trialer, attacked off the front and got herself a nice gap. The 1/2s in the field didn't really need to chase her down, and the 3s (myself included) didn't really get it together enough to organize anything. Plus, she's super-strong. So she stayed out there.

Coming around the final corner I just tried to position myself well so I could be near the front for the sprint. My positioning definitely could have been better -- after the corner, I hesitated in order to get on someone's wheel, when I should have just started sprinting. But I crossed the line somewhere in the first 10 people. So all I knew, afterwards, was that I hadn't won the 3s race (Kelli did), but that I was probably somewhere in the top 5, because most of the other ladies I could see were 1/2s. And Virg won the whole race! She wound up the sprint right from the corner and held the speed all the way to the line. Awesome.

The TIME TRIAL
No results were posted after the crit, so I still had no idea where I was when we headed over to the TT. Oh well. And I totally forgot that my clip-on TT bars were for oversized handlebars, and my bar is no longer oversized. So I crafted some sweet shims for my clip-ons by cutting an old tube into pieces with a cable-cutter. Handy-dandy.

Our warm-up, in the 96 degree weather, consisted of sitting under the tent fanning ourselves and putting ice in our bras. And then rolling over to the start with a couple minutes to spare. My strategy for the TT was just to go out hard, but stay within myself, and then just keep going harder. I was the 3rd cat 3 woman to start, and we were headed out in 30 second intervals. I actually felt pretty good in the heat, and soon I settled into a rhythm. I passed my 30 second lady, and then my 1 minute lady, and it was just open road ahead. I made the first turn, kept pushing it, and pretty soon, I was already 11 minutes in. The funny thing was how much effort it took to drink -- it was sooooo hot that I wanted to keep drinking, even though the TT was only 10 miles. But every time I took a sip of water, my heart rate would go up, and I'd lose just a little bit of rhythm.

Soon I hit the second corner, still feeling fine, and I knew that it was a good TT for me. I kept going, going, until I saw a short rise in front of me. I focused on it, thinking, "click it down one gear, and just keep the cadence up. Up and over the rise, and then click it back down on the other side." Which is exactly what I did. I was focusing so hard on keeping the speed up, that I totally missed the cone on the side of the road that was supposed to mark the corner. So after I flew over the rise, I realized that I had just crossed the rail road tracks. I tried to think back -- had I crossed them before? No.... which would mean that I'm on the wrong side of the tracks.... and that would mean....no. not possible. I couldn't have missed the turn. but, the tracks? Shit shit shit... I couldn't see anyone in front of or behind me, but I swung around and headed back the way I had come, up over the tracks, and then I saw the corner. By that time, someone else was coming into it too. So I turned and hammered as hard as I could for the last couple of kilometers. Ugh. Me = not a happy bike racer after that. How dumb of me! I don't really know how much time I actually lost - probably somewhere between a minute and 2 minutes. Ouch.

Oh well. Vera had the genious idea of picking up a jar of pickles on the way to the hotel - totally delish post-race food, with the nice crispy crunch and extraordinarily high sodium content. Here's a tidbit for ya: just one pickle spear contributes 14% of your daily sodium needs. Beautiful! With some doritos and cheez-its thrown in the mix, we all managed to replentish our sodium stores. And the showers were glorious. After we all lazed around for a while, we decided to head out to Sal's taqueria for some Mexican food with the Dolce Vita crew of lovely ladies. J&J&O&S. Dinner took forever, but we ended up full and happy, so that's all that matters.

And, at the end of the day, when we finally got the results, I found out that I had come out 2nd place in the crit, and 4th in the TT. Yay! Overall, I was sitting in 4th place in the GC. I was pretty psyched for that, considering my oversight in the TT.

And now I'm tuckered out. Hopefully I'll write about the RR tomorrow.