Sunday, June 17, 2012

Folsom Cyclebration

It's taken me a week to get the blog up, but better late than never.

Folsom Cyclebration took place on June 8 - 10. The event is usually in September, but the city decided to move it to June. Why? I don't know. If you're wondering if people are happy about it, you'll get a different response depending on the person you ask.

I didn't do all three events. I skipped the time trial and only did the criterium and circuit race. I worked all three events in the registration tent, and let me tell you, I'm glad that's over. Hey, racers. Don't shoot the messenger and be happy that there were staff and volunteers to put this race on. Quit being jerks! It was unbelievable.

Saturday, June 9: Criterium

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! 
The course is the same as the Bicycles Plus/Sierra Nevada May Criterium. So, as we know, fast, not technical, and pretty fun. My coach and I talked about this race and we decided that I should play it smart if I want to do well. In short, quit being stupid and don't sprint for every single prime!

As the race went on, I went into "me" mode and was sprinting for a prime. Mid sprint, I told myself to let it go, and I did. I got another prime later in the race, but I didn't sprint for all of them like I usually do. Like I said, I wanted to play it smart.


Thanks to Dale Tapley for the photo! 
The race was pretty smooth. The girls weren't catty and there were no close calls either. On the bell lap, some girls were calling out their moves to their teammates. One of them said to her teammate, "I'm leading you out! I'm going to the left and get on my wheel!" Oh, don't mind if I do! I knew she was talking to her teammate but dude, this girl had been a great lead out throughout the race and I wasn't going to let a team get their tactics going, especially when I had no teammates in this race (Asa was working the mountain bike races of Cyclebration). The girl's teammate said, "No. I can't get to you" and that's when we put the attack. Coming through the last corner, we all sprinted. First, second, and third put a gap on the field... and I nearly caught second but I had run out of space. The finish line came too soon and I crossed in third. My second podium of the year! The rest of the day involved 12-1/2 hours of working registration. Ugh... I won't even get to that because I got on the podium! I had no pain in my achilles and my body felt pretty good. Overall, a good race. Now to move up in the podium...

Sunday, June 10: Circuit Race

I wasn't feeling it in the morning. I had little sleep after a long day of hearing grown humans complain over and over about the same thing the two days prior. If I had heard "Well my Garmin says..." one more time about a race that happened the Friday of the weekend, I was going to smack someone.

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo!
I warmed up with my old team, Team Revolutions, since my coach races for them. It's always nice to hear, "You're still part of the family!" from my old teammates. I had an "eh" warmup and then went to the line. The Elite 5s started a minute before us. Uh, okay. The whistle was blown and we all went off. It was a good race again. No major things, a few attacks. Toward the end of the race, a Rio Strada girl and I decided to get away, and we did! We had a good gap, we were going strong, and then the ref stopped us. I don't usually curse when I'm in a race since I like to keep a good name for my team, and all of the girls in my category have always told me that I have great sportsmanship, but I cursed... a lot. So did Rio Strada. She even apologized later and I told her, "Oh no worries. I'm not happy either!" The ref neutralized us because the 5s were passing us, but he didn't neutralize the rest of the field. All of that hard work was completely killed off. Ugh. The best part (only not) was that they did the neutralization by the roundabout. So, the ref an us were blocking the outside and the follow car was blocking the inside! Talk about poor planning.

Thanks to Alex Chiu for the photo! 
This had us pretty angry the rest of the race. I mean, c'mon! I posted on Cyclebration's comment box that in the future they need to keep the E5s and the W4s separated. This wasn't cool at all.

We had one lap to go and the pace went up. The sprint came fast and off we went. I kept it up but a Metromint girl got the best of us and did a monster sprint from about 6th wheel to 1st. I got nudged off the podium by about half a wheel. Crap! My coach was proud of my racing, but dang was I disappointed. The good thing is that I got points both days for my upgrade, so it should come soon! What did I do after the race? Worked registration for 14 hours. Ouch... Got there at 530am, left at 730pm. Awesome.

The weekend was fun. I'm glad I'm getting stronger, my sprint is coming back, and I've been consistently in the top 5. I'm working on getting top 3 all of the time and to upgrade soon. My coach knows what he's doing, so I'm listening and it's working. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have done so well.

As far as the overall omnium, I got 7th place, and I didn't even race the time trial. That's pretty awesome! I did better than most girls who did all three events. Can't complain about that! I'm thinking about doing a road race (eek. I know), Leesville Gap. We'll see if this crit slut decides to brave it out or not. If not, then the Fourth of July Davis Criterium and Lody Cyclefest are in the books for me!