So another victory for me in a sprint on stage 3 at St Raymond. After the race Joanie told me I always win from breaks in the sprint. Not really sure what that means, but it really comes down to when I am free and in a break of a few girls, I know my teammate Karol Ann has sacrificed her day for me and is left in the pack which is some what easy and boring for her. So if I'm the one that makes the break, I better sure hell make sure I win as I know she would do the same for me. It's like I am racing for the both of us. We sure have had some great success between the two of us this year. I won Ste-Martine, she won Brossard from a break and then I won the 3rd stage of this weekend while she took the stage 2 win in the TT. Saturdays stage one should have been a win but some bad luck was encountered. So out of all the Quebec races this year we have only not won one between the two of us.
On Saturday, first stage of 70km, I initiated a move and got a break of 6 of us rolling well. We had put a minute already into the pack in 10km. Then we started the significant climb of the stage and I dropped my chain. I thought dropping chains was left for cross season, but this is the second time this has happened to me in a road race. And of course the break wasn't going to wait for me. The worst part was I spent the last 5km of the break telling the girls how to keep things rolling and pull through. So as I dropped my chain I tried twice to bring it up with my shifters, nope no go, this usually works 90 % of the time, but not today. So I spent another 1 minute getting off my bike and unhooking it from being stuck to my SRM under the bottom bracket. I'm so careful with my shifting as well as I run a 50/34 and the spacing is off a bit on my SRM so I know this can happen from time to time. Derrick did install a new chain on Friday and because I had to set up my TT bike and ride it before the race I didn't make sure it was okay and good to go before the race. So it was partly my fault for not checking things through, but good call to change my chain as I heard about 3 people in the men's races breaking their chains, it was that time of year when the bikes had seen a good month of racing and things needed to be checked over.
Anyways the break roles off, I look behind and see the pack not 10 seconds behind me. One of my teammates launches from the pack and says she will help me and does get me out of site from the pack again but I'm left alone to try to get back to the break after about 2 minutes of her help. The first time gap I hear is 2 minutes. I got 40 km to catch and I try, I should of just went back to the pack but I didn't and I end up catching 3 girls who fell of the break as it blew to pieces towards the end. I never catch the lead two and spent 40 km of riding alone at tempo to come third. Probably not the smartest thing to do before having to do a 10 km TT later in the same day and then another stage on Sunday.
So TT, I decide to use a disc and was probably the biggest mistake and a costly error. Not only that, but out of all the girls there, I am the only one with out a trainer and I get soaked warming up in the torrential downfall of rain. There also late on the start times and I end up sitting in a car 20 minutes before I go to stop my shivering, so basically no warmup for a short TT. I start and I felt like I had never road a bike before as the disc made me go from left to right on the road in the high winds. End up giving it a half effort and still somehow came in third. Karol Ann won it which was awesome for us. She told me before the TT that she was going to rock it as when I was off dangling in the middle of the road race in the morning, she told me she did nothing in the pack and it was easy and would be ready to win the TT.
So stage 3 (Sundays race) was all or nothing for me. I was going to win no matter what for the team and for myself. It was another break and 4 of us rolled off on the climb half way through the race. I took Derrick's advice to be smart and never did more than my share of work in the break. I even skipped a few pulls in the last 10 km, mainly because I had no gels this weekend and it took me about 2 minutes to unwrap a stupid 40 calorie fruit bar sitting on the back of the break. Never again to I want to be gel-less in a race. I found myself a lacking a little calories throughout the weekend and not the zippiest at the end. But for once I was patient coming into the finish and waited and waited and one girl went and then another girl went as I just followed wheels and then I went and drove all the way to the line.
Ended up 3rd overall as I could never make up the time I lost on the first day to the two leaders after I dropped my chain. They both ended being in the break with me on the last stage so I knew I wouldn't get the time back and my only shot was to win the stage. I gotto to say though that the racing in Quebec is really high quality and not the easiest anymore. There are a lot of full teams working together and the race starts hard from the gun. Everyone wants to try things and having 50 people in the race makes it hard to know what's going to work and stick and what won't. I'm really glad I sat out Niagara and didn't do the negative Ontario racing that averages a pathetic 32 km/hour. And then because it is so negative the race organizers cut a lap off midway through the race. Quebec has definitely got the race scene going in the right direction, no wonder they produce so many accomplished bike racers.
All in all the weekend was not bad for having only 4 girls on the squad for the race and there was at least 4 teams in the race that outnumbered us. We took 2 of the 3 stage wins, 2 3rd places and then came 3rd and 4th overall.
Now I get to relax a little, take a weekend off and pre-pare for the biggest part of my season to begin. In two weeks it's the World Cup followed with the Montreal Stage race and PEI stage race. This week calls for the Ottawa training crit with maybe a hard group ride on the weekend. Looking forward to not pinning on numbers for a week and going to my parents to see my sis and her husband who I haven't seen in over 6 months.
NCE
No comments:
Post a Comment