Tour de Nez Northstar Circuit race
Katy 8th place of ~27
Teammates: Annie Malouin 12th, Rae Brownsberger 13th, Lauren Hecht 17th
3 Race omnium: Rae 10th, Katy 11th, Lauren 14th, Annie 16th
First, we need to thank our host in Truckee, Scott, for putting us up in fine
style. The races were in the evening each day, and Scott welcomed us into his
home late at night and allowed us to take our
time winding down from racing even though he had to get up & go to work.
Saturday morning he cooked some breakfast for us and came out to cheer us on.
While we were watching the men's race on Saturday he got us into the VIP event,
and Scott convinced the race promoter to give Rae a ride on the back of a moto
to watch a few laps of the high-paced men's race.
We need to thank Rand who put up with three women & drove us to the races all
weekend. Many thanks also to Dan & Andi Smith for loaning us the SportVelo
vehicle as our team car & loading it up with team food.
Now for the race report...
The course start/finish is in the center of the Northstar village on some fake
cobble. The two mile circuit takes you out of the village through some parking
lots and back up a short steep climb to the
finish. The circuit is all up and down, at most 200 meters of flat on the
entire loop (and it's not a continuous 200m). Because of the distance of the
circuit & the nature of the circuit there was no free
lap.
This was our third day of racing at altitude, and we had the pleasure of racing
at 6000 ft, the highest yet. The first two days I was working on hanging on
with the pack and adjusting to the faster pace
of the mostly 1/2 field; this was my first time racing with people who are paid
to ride their bikes (however meager that amount may be).
We went to the line prepared for a fast start, but the race didn't start quite
as fast as I was expecting (maybe my expectations were really high?) -- this was
a good thing, because I suffered plenty as
the race went on. Amber Rais & Katerina Nash were separated by 4 points on the
omnium, so Amber was closely marking Katerina and Tibco wasn't yet driving the
race. Lauren got to the front the second lap and put in a hard effort which I'm
certain made people suffer. On the next time through the start/finish Annie M
led & we got to hear her name announced. On either the third or fourth lap
there was an attack going up the first climb. I was pretty far back in the
field when
this happened, but I felt I had the legs to be up there. Commence the chasing.
The chase was a bit disorganized at first, but with lots of help from Rae we got
back up to the break in a lap and a half. That time through the village the
announcer called out Rae's name. A quarter lap later when we met the long climb
again, Rae gave me a face that said "you're on your own". She did an awesome
job getting me back up there, but now it was on me. Tibco controlled the pace
for the next two laps, and I felt like I had some time to recover. Then Stacy
Marple attacked, and I was back out of the lead group. I ended up with a
Metromint and a LaGrange rider for the remainder of the race. We were working
well together when a Tibco rider flew past us. We each tried to grab her wheel,
but we couldn't make it. This put 7 up the road ahead of us and 3 in my group.
I did a lot of work to keep our group from getting caught, and sometimes took a
longer pull to lead through a corner. There was one corner when the Metromint
rider & I would gap the other rider with us. Over laps 3 & 2 to go we tried to
shake her off after that corner, but she fought back on. My teammates made
certain no one from their group got up the road. I was thrilled when the 4 laps
to go sign showed up, but also afraid I wasn't going to make it. At 3 laps to
go I tried to convince myself it was only 6 more miles, but I knew how hard
those 6 miles would be. At two laps to go I tried to stay off the front of our
group, but I was in such a state that I don't remember much of the rest of the
race. My favorite part of the course was the downhill turn after we passed
through the village into an uphill. You could fly up the start of the hill with
your momentum from the downhill. I finished 2nd in my group for 9th place, or
so it seemed.
After the race we heard that the Tibco rider that flew by me had soloed for the
win. During her post-race interview she mentioned that she had taken a free
lap. Her honesty meant that the race win was taken from her as there were no
free laps. This gave the win to Amber Rais & moved me up to 8th overall.
Here is the Velonews race report: http://www.velonews.com/article/93662
It was a great weekend of hard racing, and I really enjoyed racing in a mostly
1/2 field (I'm still working on moving up from the 3s). I'd like to work on
staying in the lead group and being farther up when the break goes so that I
don't have to fight so hard to get back in.
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