Tour of Walla Walla!

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Walla Walla. This is the first time I've ever been there and it's by far one of the nicest towns in eastern Washington. The scenery is pretty, the downtown area has some nice restaurants and boutique shops, and there's plenty of wine everywhere! Sorry for the length of the post but hey, there's three race reports in one here.

I set 4 goals for this weekend.

1: Mid-pack finish in the TT (so around 25th).
2: Stick with main pack in the road race and get a top 20.
3: Don't get pulled from the crit.
4: Top 20 in GC.

Well, I pretty much got 3 out of the 4 so I'm totally happy with the results.

Time Trial
The TT course was a challenge for me and I think I'd actually do better on a totally flat course. It was a 10K course that was uphill on the way out and then downhill on the way back. I had my 30-sec and 1-min person in sight the entire way out to the turnaround and then never saw them again. I stayed aero and cranked my ass off but couldn't hit much more than 30mph on the way back. I guess I need to gain weight to haul ass downhill. I never got passed so I honestly thought I had put in a pretty good ride until the results came out and I ended up 37th out of 45 starters. Ugh. I guess the slow people were all behind me. My time was 22:43.28...about 1:20 away from 25th.

Road Race
I actually really liked having the road race after the TT since the TT is a perfect warmup. I thought the course would suit me so I decided to do everything I could to get a good finish and make up time I lost in the TT. Most of our 38-mi race was a complete snoozer. The course started with a relentless 3K climb at a 5% grade that was neutral (around 7mph) the first time up and would be the finishing stretch of the race later.

Once we hit the descent after this hill the next few miles were a bit tense. A pack of near 50 is large for the Women's 4s and I think it takes some time for everyone to lose the jitters, get used to having a lot of people around them, and get settled in. For some reason quite a few gals were being very catty and snappy and there was lots of live entertainment. Hey, I just want to race ladies!

I realized I had inadvertedly gotten behind some poor hill climbers and could not get around on the first big roller. I was starting to stress out when finally a girl next to me said "Coming through!" and motored up between them, thus setting off a chain of other gals doing the same. I guess I need to be more aggressive and shout like everyone else. One of the TiCycles girls went over the yellow line to pass, which I thought was a little crappy since I could have done the same much earlier but didn't. The follow car had a little talking to her about the yellow line violation. Definitely nothing personal, but I really wish they would enforce this when people do it deliberately to move up. Oh well. I managed to get settled back into the pack.

Most of the race was pretty boring and everyone seemed content to push the pace on the rollers to drop off a few people and that was it. Given that Group Health was the clearly dominant team with around 15 people in the pack the group tactics seemed questionable to me. Halfway through the race there was the typical "50 meter attack" launched that strung things out but everyone sat up and it all came back together. Maybe it's lack of fitness...maybe it's inexperience...but it's just plain annoying. It seemed to me that if TGH had organized and actually reeled off a few attacks one after the other they would have dessimated the pack. Maybe they didn't realize how many people had to chase back on after the small attack, but it seems to me they could have taken better advantage of their numbers. Oh well, what do I know.

A few miles from the finish there was a steep roller that finally split things up. I felt very strong and had little trouble getting over any of the rollers with the leaders. The pace finally ramped up heading into Waitsburg before that final 3K climb. I started having some difficulty keeping up and finally popped off the back coming through town. Luckily at that point we were about a mile from the climb. When I looked behind me there was no one there! I couldn't believe that half the pack was gone. Once I hit the climb I realized I was unlikely to catch anyone ahead of me and there was no one threatening behind me so I just settled into a nice pace, tried to ignore the cramping in my left foot and right calf, and ended up 20th. Sweet! Goal #2 met! Once they posted results I had moved up from 37th to 24th in GC.

Criterium
It started raining late Saturday and the roads were damp for Sunday morning's crit. We lined up minus about 10 gals who said they wouldn't ride if it was wet. Probably best since those are likely the ones you wouldn't want to ride next to in a wet crit anyway.

I lost my nerve a bit going into the first corner and ended up starting way too far back. I really need to work on my start positioning. I love crits and the course was really fun. Despite the wet roads, I felt totally confident and the course didn't seem slick or sketchy at all. I definitely should have started moving up on the straightaways immediately to get into a better position and I would have likely been able to hang with the main pack. Oh well. It took me a few laps to get into a rhythm and mid-way through the crit I was working in a chase group. We were able to barely survive and not get pulled -- hoorah!

I was a tad disappointed that I didn't stick with the pack but I think it was more a factor of poor positioning than poor fitness. This is the first real crit I haven't been pulled from, which was my goal. I did finish 25th a minute down from the pack but with the numerous people that didn't show it was enough to push me to 21st overall in GC. I wanted to get a top 20 in GC so that was close enough for me!

Overall, I'm totally stoked with my results for the weekend. Aside from the TT, I hit every goal I set and I'm definitely riding much stronger than I was last year. I need to start making some smarter positioning decisions in crits and road races and that will help me immensely. JoAnne did a great job this weekend and despite her dislike for the crit ended up 17th in GC. This was a pretty good weekend for the Zoka gals -- sweet!