Placer Valley Grand Prix: The End of the Season

Let's be real. We all want to win races. We all want to do some epic shit when we're racing, too. Breaking away, lapping the field, all of that awesome stuff. I've gotten honest with myself and realized that I'm not a rider to do such epic shit. Let's face it, I have more concussions than a professional football player thanks to breaking out horses, I'll most likely need hip replacement at 35 (again, thanks to horses), and I learned how to ride a bike at 21-years old. I'm not an extraordinary rider and to be more truthful, I'm usually the domestique. I like to ride bikes, and I'm happy doing so. Still... a person can dream of doing some epic shit during a race, right?

Scott working on my bike.

The last crit of the season was hosted by LeadOut Racing. It was a challenging and technical course. Everything I love, basically. This was definitely my last crit this year. I'm burnt out. I've been racing since January and my body is telling me to go to hell.

I rode the Women's 4 with Tamara. We were both nervous. I don't know why I've been getting nervous before crits. I guess I still have the crash in my head, especially on this course; some of those corners were effin' tricky. Also, my bike was having issues with shifting again, but Scott from The Hub was my pre-race hero and got me dialed in. Thanks, Scott! You're awesome! Either way, it was my last race, so it was going to be a fun one. But not only was it the last race, it was the first year my team put on this crit, so dude, have fun with it!

We didn't have many women signed up. Four women had signed up. More walk-ups came and we eventually ended up with nine. Okay, cool, at least we have some sort of race. We lined up, Tamara and I were goofing off because it's racing and it's fucking fun, okay? People who are too serious about this, chill out and have fun. Anyway, we asked the official if we were going to get a neutral lap. He said no. Er, everyone else has had a neutral lap, and with this course, we most likely need one. So, we were expecting to not have a neutral lap. When he blew the whistle, we ended up following the chase car into a neutral lap. Okay, I'm glad everyone is communicating well.

I'm glad we did the neutral lap, because I almost missed a turn. Some of the turns were sharp and sketchy... this was going to be a fun last crit.

The race started. My dumbass self got to the front again. After a lap, I decided to fall back a couple of places to get a wheel. Prime lap. A girl popped her tire and nearly crashed. I dodged her, caught back up to Team Revolutions, who led me out to the prime. I'M $50 RICHER, BABY! I sat back up to get back into the group, looked back, and realized, "Oh shit. I have a gap." That's when I heard past advice from Marissa Axell: the best time to do a break away is after a prime. You're ahead, if you have the legs, do it. Then I remember my coach saying to take the risk, all or nothing, just do it. Okay. I took off.

I kept going, just trying to get a big gap from the field. Bob Langley was marshaling one of the corners and after about 10 minutes into my break, I yelled at him, "Hey asshole, you better start yelling at me because I'm getting tired." And he did. Thanks for being an asshole, Bob! My teammates kept telling me my gaps. At one point, I had a 30 second gap, then an Early Bird chick brought it down to 11 seconds, but gave up. After that, I guess the pack gave up or something, and I kept gaining time on them. At one point,  I thought, "Shit, Tamara, block them for me!" Little did I know that she was definitely playing those games with the pack. How awesome is she?


Each lap I'd get times, teammates yelling at me, Matt yelling, "Hey Kasea, quit sucking!" Haha love it. I kept getting 40 seconds, a minute. What? A minute, really? I heard Scarlet, Asa, Frank, Brook, and a bunch of my friends kept cheering me on. I was deep in the pain cave. People were standing up to see this epic break away. Dude! How awesome. At one point I saw people timing me with their phones. I'm usually the person on the sidelines doing that! I've never had that happen.

Hugging the best teammate in the podium!

Three laps to go, and I just kept digging, because I was afraid that the pack would catch me. So I kept going. Two laps to go and I dug even deeper. On the final lap, I didn't let off my speed, but I heard Kevin say, "You have a minute-thirty on them!" I went through the maze type turns that the course had, entered the race way once again, and enjoyed the moment. That was it. I was able to win a race in an epic fashion. I never thought I would be able to pull off a breakaway like that. Tamara did a freaking amazing job at blocking the other girls.

Tamara had asked me how she could help me before the race. I told her if she could just lead me out to the sprint that it would be great, but she didn't have to do it. She said she would try. It's only her fourth crit so she's still learning tactics. We didn't plan for a breakaway and we didn't plan for her to block, but she executed everything perfectly. It felt awesome having a teammate work for me.

I saw the sprint, where Tamara did awesome, and then we hung out with friends after the race. Talked to my coach about it, and he was proud of me. I wouldn't have improved in my skill or fitness without him. He has witnessed my racing career since day one, was the one who taught me how to corner, be comfortable in a pack, etc. I'm lucky to have the best coach around. He's too humble to admit it, but we all know it's true. Actually, if it weren't for him, I'm pretty sure I'd still be severely injured and not able to ride a bike. I'm dumb like that.

The podium was great. Finally, I was able to step on the top step at a crit! The podium boy didn't do his job. It was disappointing to the point where I figure I should just call Chuck Hutcheson to be the podium boy. You know you had a pretty disappointing podium boy when you consider Chuck.

My moment!

So thanks, guys. This was a victory I never thought I would be able to pull off. Thanks to Bob for being an asshole and yelling at me throughout the race, all of my teammates for encouraging me and telling me the gap times, Scott for helping me with my bike before the race, Tamara for being the teammate of the year, and my coach for making me into a better rider. You gotta give my coach a lot of kudos, guys. He was able to teach me how to ride a bike in a race and let's face it, I suck at not falling. Also, big thanks to John Novikoff for organizing the race!




Since it was a LeadOut race, we stayed all day. I saw Mary Maroon win her race as well and shared a "recovery" drink with her. It was so strong, that I definitely forgot about the pain in my legs. Saw Chuck Hutcheson sort of win his race. After that podium, we cleaned up and I got distracted by a cowboy. I wish I had taken a picture of that. Finished the P/1/2 podium, cleaned up a bit, then went to Sam Horne's with Asa, Frank, my coach, his wife, and other teammates to celebrate a good season, a good race, and a possible new chapter in my life.



200 watt average power? I'll take it!


Epic shit, man. A ten-lap solo breakaway for a win and a one minute thirty second gap from the pack... That's definitely how a season should end.