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Joanna Bechtel's Journal
San Rafael Twilight Criterium
posted by at 11:37 PM on July 20, 2009
San Rafael Twilight Criterium
July 11, 2009
Womens 1/2/3
Code 3 Squad: V, Furman, Wikie, Karena, Kimmy, me
Field: 49 starters
Teams: ProMan, SugarCRM, Metromint, Vanderkitten, Tibco,
Time: 60 minutes (!)
Weather: waning sun, 70s, a pleasant evening for a bike race
Course: Rectangle. Slight uphill on finishing straight, steeper climb between Turns 2 and 3, downhill, nice pavement for a descent in Turns 3 and 4.
The San Rafael is a big event in NorCal cycling, and I was excited to our team was to be a part of it. Some heavy hitters lined up at the start, so we were all anticipating a fast, hard race. And it was an hour long—only the second time I’ve been it a crit that lasted that long, and the other one didn’t have a hill. With a sizable field containing several strong riders, hanging on until the end would be an accomplishment to me.
Turns out this course suited me fairly well and I exceeded my expectations. It’s a lot for me mentally to be jockeying for position in the front, especially as the course narrows into Turn 3 followed by a fast descent, so I stayed near the back or mid-pack most of the time where it was less dense. Somewhere in the middle of the race, I decided to move forward on the uphill between Turns 1 and 2 and do something about the break up the course. Since I was coming from the back I was right there when a Tibco rider in the middle of the pack jumped on the uphill. I hopped on her wheel, she let me through, and I was on the front pulling up to the break until the S/F line. That jump-started others and the break was caught in that next lap. I spent quite a bit of energy, but my high end is improving and I was happy with how I integrated back into the pack and was able to recover. A month ago I probably would have been toast.
As the pack thinned, I tried to maintain a position farther up the pack. I’m still a lot more comfortable on the outside of turns, but I was on the inside a few times. Then I reached my saturation point for mental stress and moved to the back. Being at the back means that you have to brake some through Turns 3 and 4 on the sweeper downhill, sprint uphill on the finishing straightaway, and then you were recovering otherwise and it was hard to move up, especially as the pace picked up. A good workout for sure, but my improving fitness meant I could hang on. The cheering crowd on the last couple laps (and the entire race for that matter, but the decibel level definitely went up at the end) was awesome. And so were all the Code 3 ladies on the side who I could hear every lap—Baker, Monica, Carla, Mason. Thank you for your encouragement.
A big pat on the back to all my teammates who raced with me. V came back from a small spill with 6 or so to go and finished 5th. Furman was a rock, as always. Wikie had some good pulls. Kimmy and Karena expressed some disappointment in their race reports, but both contributed and had constructive take-aways from the race. I learn from everyone’s race reports—thanks for sharing your wisdom and helping us all become better racers.
See you at Timpani!
categories: Criterium
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