Rhapsody Crit & TT- Saturday, 3/7

March 7 AM 20K TT

This was a windy morning with gusts over 30 mph. I was in the process of taping plastic wrap on my road helmet because I forgot my time trial helmet up in Wichita Falls! Luckily, I was parked next to a former collegiate racer and it was awesome because he let me borrow his nice aero dynamic helmet due to the greatness that is collegiate cycling connection - so props to collegiate racing! And further proof that collegiate cycling continues to give back even post graduation. Anyway, with my new and improved aero set-up I felt much more confident in the start line. In front of me were a couple of pro women and I knew it would be a challenging effort, in addition to the windy conditions. One of the riders in front of me was Mina Pizzini, a mentor and old friend of mine - also a seasoned Iron Man top competitor. Last year at Iron Man she was 2nd, and her time trialing is that of category 1 men. I knew she was the one to beat. Within the first few minutes I was passing my minute rider and that was a great sign because she is also a very strong and highly competitive woman, so I knew I was on the right track. I passed several more riders and Mina was within eye shot. She had started 3 minutes in front of me and was still quite a distance away. At the turn around I had a moment of relief with a tail wind and just barreled through the last 10 K. I was on my road bike with clip on handlebars, one of these days I'll get a tt bike set up! I finished in a little over 30 minutes. I felt it was good enough for second behind Mina if not even the win. Results were to be announced at the criterium - the suspense of official time trial results gets me every time...


March 7 PM Criterium

I arrived at the criterium with less warm up time than I hoped for. Of course the first thing I did was hunt down the promoter of the time trial to see if I actually had a faster time than Pizzini. I found him and looked over the results and there I was listed in 10th place. The crazy part was that I saw several women that I had passed with times of 1 to 2 minutes faster than me. I told the promoter that there was no way this was possible - by now everyone is starting to line up on the start for the crit, I was still debating my results, it wasn't a good scenario. The promoter said to be happy, there were a lot of strong women in the field and that 10th was nothing to be disappointed with, he also said to go online to officially protest. It was very difficult leaving him and jumping into another crit - with the 40+ men, and no warm-up. My head was reeling. It was difficult to let go of the time trial and mentally switch to the race at hand.
Of course the guys dropped the hammer from the gun, it was even winder now than at the tt. I'm not sure, but it felt like 35+ mph gusts. Also, it was crucial to hear the announcement that the women's field was going to be included in the men's purse. I missed that part while I was in discussion of the time trial results. Also worth noting, there was a female U23 national champion in the field who had also won the sprinter's jersey at Superweek in 2008 (not to mention on a UCI pro track team) and this course was flat. I knew to keep my eye on her the entire time. The dynamic of the crit was different, I of course was confused as to why the men wouldn't let the women get into a break, which was of course because we were all playing for the same outcome. It was frustrating out there, not only windy and hard with out a warm up, but there was a lot of pushing. Guys were taking their hands off the bar and shoving other riders. A guy did that to me once in a turn, actually he pushed me 3 or 4 times and the last time was pretty dangerous, I swerved and almost lost it. Thankfully another male rider stood up for me and told him to keep his hands to himself. It was odd, lots of aggression. Finally the last lap comes around and it was a stellar sprint between me and the National Champ. It was close, she had it up until about the last 5 meters before the line. I felt good and was surprised to take the win for the women. I believe may have won the field sprint with the men? I was 7th over all. I know there was a break of about 6 up the course.
There was confusion with the lap cards, the officials forgot to change the card back one for the field due to the break. LUCKILY, they chose to score the women based on the lap we thought we were sprinting - not on the lap we were cooling down on!