The first race is in Burlington, Iowa on Snake Alley and around historic downtown. I did this race last year as a cat 4 and fell in love with the race. It's like a mountain bike type course on a road. Super fun. Last year I came out and got first place on the last lap for the Snake Alley Criterium, second in the Melon City Criterium, and fourth or fifth in the Quad Cities Criterium so this year I was looking to come out as a cat 3 and get a top ten in at least one of the 3 races.
We got to Burlington, Iowa on Friday night, dropped some stuff off at my grandma's house, then went out to Snake Alley to pre-ride a little bit and get some lines down for Saturday's race. My dad and I rode up Snake Alley a couple of times and on our last ride up we heard a loud pop. When we got back to the car we looked at my dad's carbon rear wheel and saw a pretty nice crack in it. Probably should have pumped the tubulars up before riding.... Unfortunately for him, the only rear wheels we had have power taps on them so he had to race with a heavy wheel.
Saturday: Snake Alley
Since I raced pretty early in the morning I did a small breakfast of a banana and some Naked smoothie, which I drank throughout the day leading up to my race. I rode around with a lady I know from Kansas City to warm up for about 1/2 an hour before my race then lined up. I didn't pre register for the race so I was called up third row but managed to sneak my way up to the second.
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| Bottom of Snake Alley |
We went back to my grandma's house, packed our cycling gear, then drove to a hotel in Muscatine, Iowa to get ready for Sunday's race, the Melon City Crit.
Results
Sunday: Melon City
The pay out for Sunday's race was much larger so my dad made sure to pre-register me so I could get a better starting position. I got called up second row and clipped in perfectly, moving into position behind a couple of women I knew hoping that since I didn't have any team mates that they would help me out.
The race went smoothly and I stayed with the pack for almost the entire race. I had no problems keeping up with the attacks and I was even riding at the front of the pack. Every time we got to the bottom of the hill and over the speed bump there was an attack but it was always short lived and as long as I kept a consistent power I didn't have to sprint up to them super hard.
With 4 laps left on the count down the announcers called out the second prime of the race and the pack sped up again. Everything was going good until the last leg of the down hill when a team launched a couple of their girls in a break away. The pack reeled them back in but another team launched some women at the bottom of the climb after the speed bump. The pace didn't slow down and I was slowly slipping back. I ended up getting dropped from the pack and I had to solo it with 3 laps to go. I finished in 20th place again but was a little happier with my performance than I was with Friday's.Results
Monday: Quad Cities
I was starting to get nervous about Monday's race since the course was a flat power course with a lot of sprints out of the corners but I was ready for whatever happened and since this was the last race of the weekend I was going to make sure I left everything on the course.
When we got to the race there wasn't much time to prepare, I had to get my number, change, get my bike ready, mix my drink, and warm-up, and I only had less than an hour to do it. As we were getting there it started to rain. It was going to be slick for my race but after my crash in the rain last year I learned how to ride my bike better and I wan't too worried. I knew the rain was going to slow them down so I had a better chance at that top 10.
I was called up to the second line but forced my way into the first. At the start I missed my pedal again (I really need to practice this more...) but didn't lose very many spots. I felt really strong today and the women were definitely going slower so they wouldn't crash and the sprints out of the corners weren't too bad. The problem was that I was getting juggled, hard. To prevent crashing the women were hitting their brakes to slow down and in the back we had to slow down more and sprint harder to keep up. The rubber band was in full effect. I was able to ride through this for most of the race but I ended up getting dropped and sticking with a chase pack.
I rode with the chase pack for the rest of the race watching how they were riding to see if I would be able to make a break away or if I was going to have to out sprint them. With one lap to go we came around corner 6 of 8, two women in front of me and two more behind. I scrubbed some speed early to back off of the women in front of me then took a sharper line around the corner and started my sprint. I managed to bread their group apart and none of them could bridge up to me. I increased my speed little by little, not using any breaks on corner 7 despite warnings to slow down and after I came around corner 8 I was in an all out sprint so I wouldn't get caught.
I finished the race in 16th, one place out of the money but I learned some more things about criterium racing. Even though I got dropped from the pack, this was my best race of the weekend and I felt strong. Hopefully this weekend helped prepare me for when I go to Canada and race against the other juniors my age at Tour de la relève internationale de Rimouski.
Results
Only a couple more weeks until Mountain Bike Nationals. Watch for updates for Missouri State MTB and Ute Valley Pro XCT!
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