July 2003

07/04/03 – Davis Criterium
by Tracie Nelson
By the time I got to Davis on friday, I had a list full of reasons floating around in that cranial space of mine as to why I needed to do well:

1. Last year I did absolutely horribly at the davis crit. I was back, indeed, and back with a vengence.
2. Knowing that my post-race junk food consumption would be extensive, thanks to the july 4th festivities, I had a new motto: work hard, eat shamelessly.
3. After referring to myself as "crit scum" in one of my previous emails, it would be kind of lame if I didn't live up to the title.
4. I was out to prove that I don't need mountain dew, coke, double shot espressos, or complementary red bull (or MSM-laced-water) to ride a Cat 4 crit.

After a strange parking fiasco I weaved my way through a crowd full of children in flag t-shirts, poodles with patriotic visors, and men dressed up in Uncle Sam costumes (yikes) to find registration. I bumped into none other than our very own Sabine (who was not wearing a patriotic visor or uncle sam costume) who was cheering on Ashlyn who was busy racing (and winning!) her first ever criterium. Congratulations, Ashlyn!

After getting in a good warm-up and doing a couple laps around the course with Maggie, a Village Peddler rider who I had raced with at Pesky, the riders started convening at the line. As per usual, I was paranoid about my start position, and there really wasn't much room left on the line, but I squeezed in between two riders anyway, one of whom promptly gave me a weird look and nudged her bike over a few inches. Well, anyone who's done this race knows that it's a hard race to move up in, and I wasn't about to get suckered. I noticed something just didn't seem right on that start line, and glancing around I noticed that it was a big feild, but (gasp!) the Velo Girls did NOT make up the majority of the race! Although they had a good number of riders, as did Mcguire and DBC, most teams were represented with only one or two riders.

The race started off fast. One of the McGuire chicks took it from the line and hammered it for a good two or three laps. Strangely, this crit was not lacking in people who were willing to take it to the front and ride the hell out of themselves for a lap or two, and the pace never really slowed down. Still paranoid about maintaining my top-5 position, I glued myself to the wheel of every attack (not a particularly smart idea when you are working for yourself, but oooooh well). One rider, an unattached triathlete, made a few attack attempts and spent a lot of time at the front of the race. I knew that this is a typical move for riders who are strong but don't have a lot of racing experience, and figured that she would tire herself out up there. (This woman was seriously like the energizer bunny in human form.)

With about 5 laps to go I sank back to about fiteenth position. AAAAAH! Not now! With 3 to go I powered my way back up to top five and sat on a McGuire wheel. Based on past races I figured this would be the best place to be. But with 2 to go McGuire was sinking back and I wasn't where I wanted to be so I abandoned ship. Coming around the last corner for 1 to go the crowd started making a lot of noise. It was really crazy - a cat4 women's crit that people actually cheer for? Someone (can't remember who) attacked with exactly 1 to go and absolutely shredded the field. I was glad that the pace was fast so that a) there would be no surging and I wouldn't lose my position and b)I wouldn't have to worry about whether I should take the inside or the outside of the last corner. However, this pace was insane, I think my nose was on my toptube. I rounded the last corner in 4th position behind a Davis Bike Club rider and punched it with whatever I had left, but Maggie crossed first and the unattached triathlete nipped me right at the line!

After washing the sandpaper feeling out of my mouth and flaking off the crusties that had formed around my lips, I was ready for my podium ceremony. Although I was disappointed that no Mario-look-alikes were there to grace my sweaty cheek with kisses, I was thankful that the Uncle Sam Costumed People kept their distance.

06/28/03 - The Pesky Lowdown
by Monica Neilson
I came up to the starting line after chatting with Joy Shaffer of LGBRC for the first time, that I can remember at least. Joy was my guardian angel at the time of my accident at the Pine Flat (Out) race, yet I'd never met her. As we chatted she was telling me how horrible my crash was, how she has seen people unconscious before but never unresponsive for so long. I politely said, okay well, gotta go now!

I move on up to the start area thinking about how Pine Flat was my first Cat 3 race, it didn't turn out so great, there's this pretty intimidating field here.. ahh....I didn't really need to think about all that now. As I looked around at the women lined up for the race, both Masters & Cat I thought, its gonna be one tough race! The voice inside my head, you guys have those voices too don't you? said " you've been training really hard,trust yourself."

We're off..... Laura thanks for the pull up in the peleton across the flats there beforethe prime area. I didn't like where I was positioned in the group, I was trying to get out and then you were moving up on the outside. I grabbed your wheel and we rolled on up. Awesome teamwork

As we topped Haskins Hill on lap 1 I was gapped off the front 4 or 5, Jen was up there, I saw her. YAY! Down the descent, two others behind me caught me. We started working together, short, fast pulls so we wouldn't tire out so quickly and we could cover more ground. Jen hooked on about the same time 4 others did. It paid off to be a little vocal, I know hard for you to believe about me but it happens! Anyway, we were having a hard time getting organized plus we had caught some 1/2 women who were, let's say, a little bitchy! We had to get out of there, I rallied the group to get it together. It worked, we got away from them, everyone was happy.

Soon we caught the three girls out front, Cat Malone, Bev Harper and Kate Landau. It was really great having Jen there. Like she said, we were there to cover each other. We were the only team with more than one person in this break of 10 or 11. It was clear this group really wasn't going to work together. There was a little bit of pacelining, but then someone wouldn't pull through. I often had to sit up, rest, fake work when I was in the lead 'cuz no one else was coming. Or Jen would come up, relieve me which in turn I tried to do the same when she got stuck up there. This was nice to be able to do.

Descending Stage Rd. Kate Landau went down in that sharp right hand turn, It was nasty, she was in the lead, we all saw it, she slide across the pavement. Yuck. I moved to the lead at the crest of the last knoll on Stage Rd as I felt the other girls were descending better than me so I wanted the lead position. I wanted to control how I went through the turns. This worked out well

Early onto Hwy 84 Kate Landau caught up with us. She immediately did what she had been doing the whole race, got in front and made everyone work. She is really strong, but doesn't yet race smart. When she learns how to, we gotta watch out. We all chased her, someone would go around her, get her in second or third position in the peleton, to try and hold her off. Sometimes this worked, sometimes not.

You know that antsy feeling in the group when you are nearing the end, well the closer we got to the feed zone the stronger this feeling became. I knew I wanted position 3 or 4 as we made the final turn to start the climb. I had to be ready if someone jumped. Sure enough, Stephanie Graeter jumped, Kate Landau and I followed. Fortunately, I moved fast enough to get a decent gap on the rider behind me. I thought I might catch 2nd for a bit as she wasn't that far in front of me but nah, not gonna happen. I then focused on putting as much distance between 4th and me as possible by using something Felicia told me once..... "focus on 4 big, strong, pedal strokes. Get out of your saddle, give it 4 big, strong pedal strokes. often on a big climb this is enough to maintain or increase the gap." It worked.

So, we got another $25 for the Party Fund. Sabine the check is in the mail to you. It was really cool seeing so many Bellas. Congrats to all who raced. I rode back down to the feed zone then up & over the hill (again) was I nuts? before back to the high school. I was constantly shouting to some Bella to "go, go, go" It was fun :)

06/29/03 - Burlingame Crit - Oh La La
by Heather Kirkby
Laying in bed on Sunday morning with my pooped pesky-legs I could think of several reasons NOT to go to the Burlingame crit but the reasons to go overwhelmed me:

A. The start line was a 15 minute drive from my apt.
B. There are no industrial parks in Burlingame.
C. I could sleep in and still race.
D. I have a new bike!

So off I went, just hoping I would find another Bella out there and sure enough as I registered I saw Jeni Udalls name on the list yipeee!

The energy in the town was amazing it was as though every local family and more had come out to watch the bike racers. The course was exciting in the heart of downtown with spectators lining virtually the entire course! A very small part of me is thinking wow, I really am a bike racer look at me in this cool sporty jersey with my race number and all these people coming to watch me race, but most of me is thinking dont all these people realize Im just a poser and did my first crit a few months ago and I finally settled on thinking theyve all come to watch the Mens Pro-1-2 anyway and our race was just filling time. Whatever all those people were doing in Burlingame on Sunday it sure made for one heck of an event&

Jeni and I agreed on the complicated strategy of sit-in. ALL Women were racing together 1/2/3/4/Masters in a single start&and there were heaps of girls. It looked to me like a lot of girls that had been wearing skin-suits for many years and were probably not excited about racing with the Cat 4s (= me & Jeni). I found it amusing we were saddling up to the start line with Kate Maher, Laurel Green and the Drumm sisters

Jeni and I of course were pushing our way right to the front! At least this way well start at the front and drift back instead of starting at the back and drop off. However the official had all the 1/2/3s roll up so our single element of strategy fell by the wayside and we were forced to start behind all the fast girls. Oh well many a fast wheel to try and hang onto : )

And we were off&and oh my&the strategy of sit-in quickly morphed to hang-on-for-dear-life. It was so exciting, I cannot tell you a Cat 4 crit is like a different sport compared to what I was experiencing out there. Jeni and I had managed to stay in the main group (the pace was so blistering from the start that there were girls lost off the back almost immediately). Everything was so fast oh the beauty of a fast turn! Despite being at the very back, and barely, there wasnt a single soul braking anywhere or any of that yo-yo business the pack didnt surge, it just flew. It was nutso exciting and I could barely breathe and my legs were exploding.

After several laps it was from this vantage point (the back) I caught a glimpse of Jeni becoming airborne in this very slow-motion kind of way. And I saw the bike kind of skitter sideways, and the back wheel start going vertical in the air and body and bike start going in directions that just are not meant to be. We had just entered what the race flyer described as the wild sweeper and Jeni had just taken a sudden exit.

If you are going to crash I say do it into the arms of a ½ dozen able-bodied firemen and an adoring crowd. Jeni did exactly this. It took me about half a nanosecond (less actually) to peel off the back of the pack and then just a few more to get back to Jeni. And in that time she had about 2 firemen for every limb. She literally crashed about 20 feet from the fire truck. She completely exited the course in her crash (onto an intersecting sidestreet), and had flown between 2 barriers set up to mark the course and block off the sidestreet. I think she actually aimed for a good landing spot.

As the firemen were clearing her spine (and inspecting road rash), to confirm there were no injuries, Jeni was asking if she could get back in the race! I already knew Jeni was nuts, but I took this as a sign that she was probably more or less OK despite missing large sections of flesh from legs, arms and hip ouch. I was answering questions for the firemen and talking to Jeni. I had become oblivious to anything else going on around us. Up until this point Jeni was still laying on the pavement exactly where she had crashed. It was now time to get up the firemen helped her up and suddenly the crowd broke into thunderous applause. It was truly amazing I really had no idea all these people had been watching this unfold but on every corner, every man, woman and child was clapping and hooting to see Jeni stand. There was happiness, joy, and smiles on every face. It is freaky to witness a crash.

As many of you know, Jeni is a trooper and a complete studette
. Pretty soon we were walking downtown, watching the end of the race (we watched another girl crash 3 feet from the finish line and cause a mini-pile-up she told me after another girls bouncing sprint elbows had literally wacked her down), and self-dministering first-aid back at Jenis car (Jeni has one bad-ass first kit it was the size of a small suitcase!).

So, all my healing Bella beams to Jeni for a speedy recovery!

06/28/03 - Fellas in the Feedzone: Pescadero
by Don Hendricks
After being looked after so well on the Flamingo ride last month by Jen, Laura, Brent & friends, I wanted to return the favor. A big thanks also to Wendy (wonderful wife, mom, and Bella fan), who worked thru the day so I could be out there slingin' bottles.

With great help from Ashlyn and Steve (with canine support from Migo and Emma), we did our best to take care of as many folks as we could. While our basic duties were to support our Bellas and local Fellas, we also invested in the Bella karma (helping out any rider in need).

Since we set up shop at the far end of the feed zone, we were the "last chance" for many dehydrated cyclists. As neutral water ran low, we could hear the desperate wail of parched riders approaching. I think they were a bit amazed that not only did we still have supplies, but we often offered them a choice of ice cold water or Gatorade (Ashlyn wisely filled only "see-through" bottles with Gatorade, so riders didn't inadvertently get a "surprise" if they sprayed it on their neck or back).

For those who weren't there, the feed zone was on the approach to Haskins Hill (the last climb of each lap and the finish line). We had a great vantage point for all the racing action, along with a feeling for the time splits and team tactics. It was simply amazing to watch Shelly floating along in her lead group, with her teammates riding just as elegantly and cheerfully in support a few minutes behind.

For anyone with a little free time to spare, feed zone support is great fun, and a way to provide a bit of a physical & mental edge for your friends out there.

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