As my sweetheart is fixing my SRM in the basement tonight (I don't know what I would do with out him), I thought I would get a chance to reflect and write my race report on TDL.
First off I would like to thank the wonderful host housing we got from Loren (not sure on the spelling) and Kathy's home just outside of Leelanau. This was my first experience with host housing for a race and I bet it will be hard to beat the warmth coming from this family's home. Not to mention there dog and two cats. You two made my racing experience in Michigan one never to forget.
So Sunday's race for me was going to be tough. I was guest riding with Team Giant from Michigan and going up to the race with Derrick and his jet fuel teammates. Needless to say after going to watch Derricks' start which was 1h 40 minutes before mine and about 20 miles away, the host family dropped me off with an 1 and a bit to go for my start. I met the team, oh about 45 minutes before my start, quickly got a kit from them and changed and pinned my numbers on. I wish I had more time to gel with the team, but it was a bit of a rush for me and I was pretty nervous. The team was pretty organized and had already given tons of tips to me and knowledge of how the race had played out in the past. I even got a Sprint/QOM chart made in Km's to stick on my stem from them. Pretty thankful for that!
The race than began, 112k of rolling hills, some strong stacked pro team including Cheerwine, Colavita and Tibco making it an international field. We started as soon as the Men were at a certain point so that we would actually cross path's in the first few km's. It was pretty cool, got to see Derrick in the front move of his race as they were already 50k into the race.
So there was a sprint right off the start and sprint points were up for grabs. I'm not a sprinter and I just sat back. We came to the first significant climb of the day at 13k, thank the lord it wasn't classified as a QOM because it would of made my day over in about 20 minutes of racing. I dropped my chain. And yes usually this isn't a big deal, but I dropped it underneath my SRM sensor and it was stuck. I tried putting it up riding, no go, tried again, and resorted to getting off my bike and I still couldn't get it up. Finally the SRAM neutral support car came up and must of yanked it off because in the process it split my sensor under my bottom bracket in two. No power for the rest of the race, no files to look back on. So then I spent the next 5 minutes chasing back on. Who knows how hard I went up that climb, all I know was I was in panic mode and the pack must of went somewhat hard up the hill as I was riding through numerous of girls off the back. I then got in the caravan for the down hill and got some help from the cars to get up to speed to get back on the pack through the next corner.
Phew, back on the pack, but really worried about the efforts that I had to put in to do. I was really hesitant to waste any energy for the rest of the race. But.......we did hit the first QOM and I got third by elbowing my way up at the end. I was in about 4th and felt good, then some tried to elbow me out and I came around them to get 3rd. Anne from Cheerwine went off early in the race somewhere and I can't remember if it was here or earlier on in the race. But she was off the front going into the next QOM (Tower Hill) which is where the race kind of began.
Tower hill was kind of a gradual climb and then you made a right turn and pavement was in your face (about 20% climb) for about 400m. Karey from my guest team reminded me right before the turn to save it for the end. QOM points were still for grab for 2nd and 3rd. I was standing and staying near the front and then with about 10m to go (thank you compact crank) I popped around and gapped the whole field by a few meters taking the QOM from the pack. The race split here to about 20 girls chasing Anne off the front. 3 Cheerwine girls in it (Anne's teammates) not needing to do any help and then 4 or so girls each from Tibco and Colavita and then one's and two of some other teams. I was alone for team giant and got pushed to do a lot of work from the other strong teams. Eventually attacks starting going, and I found it really hard to figure which ones would stick. It seemed like every time I was in one the pack wasn't happy. Finally one stuck and I watched it roll away with 2 girls from Cheerwine, Tibco and Colavita. I was left with 10 or so girls and nobody wanted to work or let me go. At times the pace was slow and I just wanted to get all the hills and rollers done with. We picked it up a bit to the finish and I ended up coming 10th overall (best finish to date in a UCI road race) and 3rd in our group sprint. I later found out that the 6 that broke away never caught Anne and it kind of shattered near the finish leaving girls in ones or two's all over the course. In the end, I felt pretty good about my result having no teammates to help me out in the front break. Not a bad weekend for sitting in a car for 26 hours. Lots of thanks to Bryan Bowers (Bryson's Dad) for driving the whole way there and a back.
I didn't get any final results on the QOM but I'm crossing my figures that I was 3rd. With Anne off solo she racked up all the first place points and this might of let me squeezed out a third place overall. Even for the little bad luck at the start of the race, this has to be my favorite road course I have ever done so far. Good long race with lots of climbing, good size field and lots of organization put out into the race. Leelanau was a very beautiful area from what I saw as well.
I have marked this race down as a definite for going back next year in full force and hopefully with my own team EMD Serono/Steven's. But, many thanks go out to Team Giant-Michigan for all the support, taking me in and letting me experience this race this year.
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