Iowa – Memorial Day equals an extra long weekend for a junior bike racer like me and if you add Memorial Day to Cycling - like any good Algebra 2 student can do - you get an awesome three days of racing.
The weekend had started out early, with a flight from Orlando International at 7:00 o’clock Friday morning. That afternoon, Dean and Taylor Warren competed in the Wapello to Burlington road race. They both finished midpack and followed it quickly by a test ride of Snake Alley… Classified as the “crookedest road in the world,” Snake Alley is a one block, 12% grade, 6-switchback-long hill climb. And each year, there is a bike race run up it.
The excitement of lining up with 56 other junior racers to compete in the 2010 Snake Alley Criterium was like no other, but it quickly wore off when I realized I was on the very back of the pack. Callups were based on registration order, and being the faraway-Floridians, we had waited to the last minute to sign up. One racer beside us suggested we “cyclocross it” up to the front at the start. Giggle. With the whistle and a few curb jumps later, I had passed 20 riders in less than 5 seconds (and by the way, it was completely legal, it’s not my fault everyone was scared of the parking lane.) Anyways, a minute later we were at the base of the snake. In the 2nd switchback a rider took a spill just in front of me. Trackstanding for a moment, I had to swerve to the left to avoid crashing into him. Too bad for that kid behind me I cut off, I had just thought, when a voice on my wheel shouted my name. Oops, I guess you don’t get bonus points for cutting off your own teammate. Sorry Taylor. Continuing the suffering to the top of the climb, I shifted into a larger gear to descend and surprised myself at how many guys I was still ahead of. Reaching 30 mph downhill, one of them had just caught me when he entered the 6th turn and slid out before my eyes. My adrenaline rush had already come and gone with the previous crash so I lazily swerved around him and continued on. Compared to the first lap, the rest of the race was rather mundane. Enduring the snake 7 more times with my female competitors nipping at my heels was nowhere near as fun as just the experience of being there. I ended up winning the junior +15 girls and spent the rest of the day dedicated to maxing out my camera’s memory card with over 1,000 photos.
6:20 Sunday morning, my mother and I awoke to realize we were staying in a hotel filled with racers: Cyclists who were perfectly capable of devastating the Super 8 breakfast table with little effort. Getting out of bed earlier than planned, we managed to secure a few waffles and some juice before heading a mile down the road to that day’s course. A one mile long criterium, featuring a long sweeping downhill adorned with a cataclysmic speed bump before the long climb to the finish line. I raced Junior +15, keeping up with the national level boys for nearly a lap before coming out the back. There were a few other girls who stayed on the pack longer than I did but I was able to quickly catch them on the descent. When I got in a group of about 5 guys I realized that I had been to Junior Development Camp with a few of them. Fighting for a wheel, I’m sure they recognized me as that racer who won half the games of knockdown, earning me a few “atta-girls” while I was with them. Later in the day I raced women 1-3, a very interesting experience. Because of some friends in high places, I was able to obtain a top-ten race number, qualifying me for the front line of the race start. However, as I rolled up, I realized the woman beside me had the exact same number as I did. Uh-oh! Apparently because the category 3 were being scored separately from the women 1/2, they had repeated the number system and there were duplicates of every number in the field. Everyone was repined with a new race number before we got on the road but it was practically pointless for me. I stayed with the pro pack for a few laps into the race but a couple minutes after I was dropped, the officials accidentally pulled me from the race, mistaking me for many of the lapped riders I was already ahead of. It was disappointing but I didn’t let it keep me down; the next day was my favorite race of the weekend.
Standing on the start line once again, this time at the Rock Island/Quad Cities Criterium. A steady rain had begun earlier that morning, sending junior and masters racers sliding in the eight turn criterium course. Seeing as my own teammate had gone down a couple of races before, I was anxious not to end the race weekend on a bad note. The previous three days had been a compilation of climbs, descents, and fast cornering, only two of which I had really enjoyed. But now I had the ultimate advantage over the other racers in women 2/3 that day, with flat, fast and wet city street. My strategy for the first lap was simply to be the fastest one through the corners and let everyone else crash behind me. Soon that technique carried over to every lap, racing as hard as I could for my own survival. Midway through the race, a breakaway of 4 women got away and I ended up in a chase group of seven. I didn’t even know we were ahead of the rest of the pack until my mother shouted it from the sidelines. A few women tried to solo away but they were all either caught or crashed themselves out. When it came down the final lap, I found myself sprinting second wheel on the back side of the course, exiting the final corner with my head down until the line. A woman on my left, twice my size, beat me to it by just an inch but I finished 6th overall. Such an exhilarating feeling to end a weekend like that; I can’t wait to go back next year.
(Also published in the May edition of Florida Racing Magazine)
