Cascade Cycling Classic

I just finished up one of the biggest NRC stage races on the circuit. Cascade Cycling Classic. 116 women lined up for this 6 day stage race. The biggest and strongest field in the races history. I headed to this race with my small but mighty team of Mel , Kathryn and our one last minute added team mate Tracy. We had our super duper director, whatever needed to be done,ect, dear Chris, my hubby, to help us girls survive this 6 day flog fest. The weather was brutally hot all week and the racing was tough.

I came into this race fit and hoping for a big improvement from my last NRC race.

Day one was a flat to rolling stage with lots of turns for the sprinters. I stayed out of trouble amongst the 6 crashes of the day and stayed hidden to not waste valuable energy. I rolled in with the bunch and was happy with a pretty cruisey first day.

Day two was extremely hot conditions and our longest stage. We finished up a brutal long climb that really separated the group. I tried to look after myself hidden for the day until we hit the climb and then stuck in there as long as I could. I gave it my best up the final climb to finsh29th on the day.

Day three was the TT. I need to practice my TT allot more but I had the goal of not blowing myself up on this day on the first 5 min of the race. It was a 16miles, straight out uphill and a fast return coming back down hill. I am yet to figure out the timing of a warm up that works for me and getting there in enough time to get my bike checked in and not sit for too long to loose my warm up. In the past I have warmed up a bit too hard. Today I did the extreme opposite and really didn’t warm up enough and then sat in the pen for WAY to long. This made for an extremely painful first 15min of my TT and not exactly the power I new I could hold L I was a bit disappointed and ended up 33^rd on the day.

Day four- Another long day in the mountains J We began straight up a 10min climb. Right out of the gates. The group absolutely PINNED it right off the start line straight up this climb. It was an extremely head pooping, leg burning way to start the stage. But I hung in there J Once over this climb we had lots of change of terrain until the final big climb. I managed to stay with front group right until the last 5km when I ended up in my small hard working group just behind the main bunch. My super duper team mate paced me like a machine up to the last 1km and then it was a mad race between me and 3 others girls to the finish. I managed 27^th this day.

I had hopes of maybe getting into the top 20 by the end of the tour.

Day 5- Crit night!! I knew this crit would be super fast and aggressive. It didn’t disappoint. The race for crits always starts before the actual crit, the rush and push for line up position is always such a funny thing, it is way more aggressive than any other part of the race. So lining up early for the gate…for the line up is a huge part of NRC crit racing. Once away on our 50min speedy loop my goal was to stay with the front group right to the end and stay out of trouble. Don’t burn any matches that I could use tomorrow on the final day, but not loose any positions on GC. I had to cover a few gaps left open to stay in the group, but other than that mission accomplished, I hung in there and actually moved up a couple GC spots. The crowds for the crit were awesome and it was a really fun evening.

Last day…Day 6. 100deg at 1p.m. Circuit race. This course would be a test of all skills, one steady short climb, a power climb, corners, flat, rolling and descending, all in this circuit. Plus the top GC girls were putting the hammer down without relent after 5 days of racing and in 100 deg heat. I raced my guts out. I tried to be apart of the race a little at the front and stick in there to the end. I accomplished this until the final 10km. I made the decision to get a feed on lap three and got a little to far behind, had to make a big effort from the back in a critical part of the race and ended up 2:30 down in a group of 4 in the very final piece of the race.

Overall I ended up 29^th on GC. I was 9 spots from my goal of top 20. The quality, size of this field and the racing level was much higher at this race than the last NRC. I felt I made progress, but just fell a bit short of my actual goal.

This NRC wraps up my major races for 09. I will look a doing some smaller races and do the homework that needs to be done over the coming months to move forward in my racing.

Happy training…….

Cheers,

Marilyn