Superweek

Coming into Wisconsin for Superweek, I had anticipated big fields, high speeds, and crits. On my first day of racing on Thursday (7/15), I rolled up to the Start/Finish line and saw only about 20 women. The field contained strong women like Sam Schneider of TIBCO and Erica Allar of Team VBF but no teams present, just individuals. The first crit was a flat four-corners with bad pavement and was the first of the longest crits I have ever done – 100 minutes. 100 minutes that did not go by quickly. The general pace was pretty slow (21-22 mph) interrupted by a multitude of low-quality attacks that were quickly scooped back up by our small field. With many notable sprinters in the small field, I tried to get away a few times but was marked by my foreign “Webcor” jersey in the Midwest. I wound up finishing mid-pack for the field sprint so hopefully either my sprinting or attacking will get better as the week goes on…

On Friday (7/16), the criterium was a much more technical 8-corners (1 km). The weather conditions were very windy, hot and humid. I had been very frustrated with the way the day before had turned out so I decided give everything I had to one long, hard attack. During the second lap, I attacked. After a lap solo, I was quickly regretting my timing as I saw 43 laps to go on the lap-card. As I was cursing myself for foolishly, impulsively attacking too early, Jen Purcell of San Jose’s team bridged up to me and we continued to work by ourselves for another four laps. Then two more girls bridged up to us. Our group of four worked together for another 10 laps until another group with Sam, Erica, and another girl bridged up to us. Our group was sure to stay off the front with all the heavy-hitters present but I was having a really hard time recovering after my initial attack. I stopped pulling in order to recover and missed an attack by a Kenda rider. I pulled my group to try to stay up with that lead group but then Erica Allar attacked to get to that group and I all but exploded… so the break I had initiated had just dropped me. Two other girls in the group had also been gapped and were tried to work to get back up. We, however, were never able to catch them but with like 7 to go, they caught us, and so we tagged along the back of that group until the finish. Some other girls had been swept up before us but by the finish of another 100 minute crit, I was cross-eyed and finished at the back of that field sprint, not wanting to annoy to the “actual” contenders in that lead group.

(7/17) Saturday’s criterium was conveniently located only a block away from my host house. The crit was a four-corner rectangle with a significant climb on one of the long sides. Erica Allar and an ISCorp girl managed to go off the front on the second lap. Thereafter, the pace up the hill was high but manageable and I sat 1st to 3rd wheel for the whole race. And when I say the whole race, I mean up until the last 50 meters. I tried to attack with 3 laps to go up the climb but my chain wouldn’t stay in one place and jumped around a lot. Fortunately I was able to get it back to working order short after, but unfortunately my attack failed. On the last lap I attempted attacking again but wound up just being the perfect leadout for all the sprinters through the last corner. Erica had managed to lap the field even though I thought we had brought them back but that must have been a different break. I should’ve known that she was off the front but the announcer wasn’t telling us anything – gaps, breaks, nothing. After my second failed attack of the day, I wound up getting 7th. I’m pretty disappointed with how I finished because I felt really strong the whole day -- I need to learn how to be a savvier racer which will hopefully come with time.

Besides racing, I’ve been going on “Coffee shop rides” along the beach in the mornings before my late-afternoon races. To my surpirse, Milwaukee is a very cool city. Today is my rest day and I’m off to go jetskiing!