Ah, the road race. It used to be my favorite stage, the penultimate stage of the Longsjo, the stage that separated the men from the boys, or the real racers from the posers. I refuse to use terms like women and girls, or even worse, ladies, because in general, terms that describe women seldom differentiate between ability and status in the same manner as words like men and boys do. Yeah, we’re women, but we’re racers too. And besides, whenever I hear the word lady, all I can think about is this skit from Little Britain, and it makes it hard for me to take anyone referring to herself as a ‘lady’ seriously.
If you didn’t watch that skit you should, you really should, and see if you can find the irony in it.
Anyway, the race…well, because of a rather disastrous ice storm in December of 2008, we now can no longer race up the mountain because there are basically trees down all over the road. And trust me, I believe them when they say that the road is not passable, because if you drive around the greater Fitchburg area, you literally see entire forests of trees just lying all over the place. I can just imagine what the summit road looks like, seeing as most of the lower lying areas were rather devastated. So, because nature got the upper hand, we now end our race at the base of the feedzone climb…which means, disadvantage Kerry, as my only hope for a good result in that race is the summit climb up Mt. Wachusett. I’ve had some decent results on that stage in the past, but the new finish really doesn’t suit me, as it guarantees a large group is going to arrive there together, which means sprinting will be involved, as as you all well know, I cannot sprint.
I purchased an 11-25 cassette after discovering I was frequently spinning out my 53×12 in the circuit race, and the guys at Gearworks Cyclery in Leominster hooked me up with a great price and fast service. It was a good thing I did that, as I was in the 11t quite a few times on the descent – that is, when I wasn’t coasting down by laying on my top tube with my chin resting on my stem. (look, when you only weigh 90lbs, you will do whatever it takes to avoid getting dropped on the downhill).
So, the race…I’d like to report that it was exciting and eventful, or give some witty insight as to what was going in the peloton, but there is not much to say. There was one trip through the feedzone where I thought I wasn’t going to maintain contact, so I absolutely buried myself to get across with the main field…I was going so hard I could no longer see colors, but I made it…and then as soon as I was comfortably in the pack we got neutralized because the pro men were passing…which meant I could have taken a leisurely stroll through the feedzone and still gotten back in. Lovely. At least I know that I can still achieve and maintain a HR of 196 after 12 years in the sport. By the time we got to the finish we only had about 35 riders left in the main field, and of course that meant 30 or so of us “sprinting” the last 200m at a 10% grade to the finish.
Oh, and about the feedzone – I’ve done this race 10 previous times in my life. Never, ever, have they every said anything about when you could feed. Granted, in most years I never take a bottle on the last trip through the feedzone, because the last trip through is punctuated by 2 more miles of false flats followed by the 4km ascent to the finish.. no on wants to carry another full bottle up the mountain. But, since we no longer finished in that manner, our last trip through the feedzone was actually the start of our last lap, which meant we had 11 miles to go after our last trip through. The reason I am mentioning this is because on our last trip through, I went for a feed (because I opted not to take it on the previous lap), and my feeder said he couldn’t feed me. Fortunately, my feeder knew that he was better of facing the officials and their warnings and fines than the wrath of one very hot, very thirsty 90lb girl, so he gave me the bottle. I needed that feed, I needed something cold…there was no way I could do another 11 miles without it it. As it happens I was taking a feed on almost every lap, and by the time we had reached the bottom of the descent and the turn by the reservoir I had usually finished the bottle. Despite this race being slightly shorter than years past, I went through nearly 3x as many bottles. And I am like a human camel, I can do a 3 hour ride on one bottle if the conditions are right.
So after the race, my friend Eric, who was feeding me, said that the officials changed the rules on feeding 3 times over the course of the race, and that he was told at the start of the last lap feeding was done, that it was a rule – no feeding within 20 km of the finish.
Except, the last time I checked, that rule applied to feeding from team cars..not feeding from a feedzone. And, when there is a feedzone with multiple trips through, the officials are supposed to tell you on which laps feeding is allowed…otherwise, it is understood you can feed on all of them. Individual races can make their own discretionary decisions as to when feeding is allowed in a race – like, you know, when it is over 85ºF and sunny. Another example of where I think the officials were really not reading the rules correctly, was that in the circuit race – a mere 34miles in length – feeding was allowed on every lap..which meant I could have taken a bottle on lap # 11 of the race, which was only 3k from the finish. But, in the road race, which was 66 miles in length, we were apparently denied the opportunity to feed after mile 55…makes sense (not). If they want to make the rule, fine…just don’t make it in the middle of the race and then decide not to tell the racers about it. Had I known at the start that feeding was not allowed on the last lap, then I would have taken a bottle on lap 5. Like I said, I have done this race 10 times before, and 5 of those times was in the Pro-1-2 field, and I never once was denied a feed on the beginning of lap 6.
Oh, right, the finish. Well, somewhere on the last lap the GC leader, her teammate, and one other girl got away, so the last lap kind of slowed down. And at that point I was sort of cramping and just sort of unmotivated for the finish, we were rolling along the back side of the course, when – I am not making this part up – the same obnoxious loud mouth woman from the day before actually asked where the finish line was.
For real. Apparently she missed the signs at 5k, 3k, 1k, 500m, 100m, and 50m to go…as well as the big line across the road that we had ridden over each of the 5 previous laps, the finish line camera, Richard Fries announcing the results of each sprint lap, and all of the people standing there cheering.
Seriously…you should have to pass some sort of a basic competency test before upgrading to cat 2. It ought to be a requirement, so that I don’t have to listen to this crap when I am racing. Although, it certainly does make for good blog fodder.
July 7th, 2010 | 
