“I hated every minute of training. But I said to myself, ‘Suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion.’ ” –Muhammad Ali
This quote means a lot to me. There are some days, even weeks, that I absolutely hate training. But I have to remind myself that all this suffering will be worth it. It can be rough, but if that’s what it takes to win, then that’s just what I’ll do.
And then, there are some epic races that show me that all my work is paying off. This was one of those gnarly, epic weekends. I spent all weekend racing at Folsom Cyclebration. Short track and time trial on Saturday, and cross country on Sunday. And all the points would be combined for the overall “stage race”. I normally race in the high school expert girl’s category, but this weekend all the expert women’s categories were combined into the open expert women, so the competition was tough.
My first race of the weekend was short track on Saturday morning. The track was 1.5 miles long around the rodeo grounds and Sherwood Forest. I had a good start, on the front with my friend, Folsom Bike rider Bonnie Darrah. We finished the first lap together, a few seconds behind a non-local racer, who is an A in cyclocross. By the 4th lap Bonnie had a few seconds on me and 1st place was way out front. I could see Bonnie ahead of me, but I just didn’t have it in my legs to catch her. I finished a close 3rd. I’m happy with that, but I feel like I could’ve done better.
The time trial was one 5 mile lap backwards on the prison course. I didn’t have my time trial until the afternoon, so I had a few hours to kill, most of which I sat in the car out of the sun. With all that time, I did manage to get a much better warmup than I did in the morning. I didn’t really think I was a good time trialist, so I was still pretty nervous before the start. On top of that, I was the first starter for the expert women, so I didn’t have anyone to chase.
I put that behind me when I got to the line. As soon as the countdown ended, I imagined myself off the front, trying to keep a gap. The course winds around the hills and doubles back on itself quite a bit, so I could see who was behind me all the time. I saw the next starter behind me, and it seemed like she was closer to me than the 30 second start interval. Mentally, I freaked out. I had to pick it up. I had to find time anywhere I could. It was hard to gauge the time difference every time I saw another racer, but I used it as motivation as I came to the last punchy climbs. By the time I hit the levee on the way back to the rodeo grounds, I was completely spent. After the last climb up to the rodeo park, I felt like I was about to pass out. It took me a second after crossing the line to even be able to speak. I was too exhausted to try to count the time before the next riders came in; but when the results were posted, I was on top by about a minute. I was so stoked for a win in the open experts, and in a discipline I wasn’t experienced or confident in.
This just made me more excited for the cross country on Sunday morning. It’s my best discipline of the three, and now I knew that I could win against these women. The open experts would do four laps on the prison course, which would be a little over 20 miles. 20 miles of hills… Lots of hills.
As I waited to start, the three main contenders and I decided as a group that four laps were too long to go all out for. With that said, we agreed on sticking together for the first two laps and staying at a comfortable pace. After that it would be a free-for-all.
Right off the start, Bonnie Darrah, Jen Shevock, Jennifer Marie Zierke, and I formed a train and kept the pace under control. One unknown woman tried repeatedly to pass and gap our group, but could never hold on. By the end of the first lap, the train was well ahead of the rest of the expert women.
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| Part of our 2-lap train |
I’d been pulling the group for most of the first lap. I was totally fine with that, since the pace wasn’t pushing me. But now I let the others take turns after the main climb, and we kept the train up during that whole lap. The tension started rising as we came into the last mile of lap two. How was this going to work? I wasn’t sure, but I did want to be on the front when we hit the singletrack. We were still all together at the base of the main climb, but by the top I was out front with a few seconds on Jennifer Marie, with Jen and Bonnie right on her tail.
We stayed in this order through all the punchy climbs. Jen and Bonnie were further back, but I could see Jennifer Marie every time I hit a sharp turn. Jennifer bridged the gap once, but quickly fell off when we hit the technical spots, but she was still close. Now I knew what I had to do. If I could get to the last, long technical sections in front of her, I was home free.
She caught up once more in the beginning of our fourth lap, right before the main climb. It was short lived though; she fell off on the big climb. All I had to do was hold her off until the last two miles. Easy, right? Not exactly. I had been suffering since the third lap to stay out front; it would take everything I had left to hold this kind of pace. But I wanted to win. Winning again would finally, for sure, break the bad streak I was in.
I could never tell how far back Jennifer was; but I was confident when I reached the technical section before she did. It’s not over yet. It’s not over ‘til it’s over. When I came in to the last turns into the rodeo park, I didn’t care how close she was. This race was mine. I crossed the finish line with a big gap.
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| Expert Women XC Podium |
I ended up on top for the overall stage race, with a 3rd in short track, and wins in both time trial and cross country. I’m super happy with my weekend’s results, my awesome race bike, and all the support from family and sponsors. Thank you all!
Keep chasing…
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| Stage Race Podium |
