June 2010

Had some great times on the bike this spring. A trip to beautiful Battenkill to race on the well packed dirt while enjoying views of the hills a quiet gully transformed by maple syrup collection tubes into a scene from Blue Man Group.

Joining Time and Suzanne in Vermont to celebrate Tim's birthday by riding 6 gaps. We saw a moose while coming down Lincoln Gap, enjoyed the challenge of a sweaty lung-busting climb up Lincoln Gap, downed some chocolate milk, sped along the long straight roads of the valleys, then ran out of gas with darkness closing in. Thanks to Susanne and Patrick for the concern, pick-up, and CAKE for Tim's birthday. We DID make it over that last gap after all. Had a wonderfully sunny spin with Susanne the next day.

Another trip to Vermont for challenging climbs and team bonding at the Killington Stage Race.

Come June, I've been a bit of a sluggy mood. First weekend of June we headed out to Philly for the very exciting and challenging Liberty Classic Race. My fitness seemed to have picked up after the end of the semester (thank goodness) and I made it over the climb on the 4th lap in contact with the field, yea! Coming down through the town in Manayunk, I felt that the bike was very unstable when I sprinted on it after a turn. A few pedals strokes, then a major blow to the head. I was out of the race after becoming quite disoriented, breaking my glasses, and damaging my shoulder to the point where I couldn't hold onto the bike. A later examination of the bicycle revealed that the front wheel had been changed out (I do not remember this). Front wheel had a destroyed tire, so it looks as though the tire may have blown in or coming out of the turn. I suppose that I'm fortunate not to have caused others to crash or done any more damage to myself.

After a few days, pain in the shoulder subsided to the point where I could dress myself and ride on the hoods. I decided to go ahead and head out to the Nature Valley Race in Minnesota as planned. This is a very tough race with many of the best American women there to push the pace. I really needed to be at 100% to race there and unfortunately I wasn't because the shoulder continued to be very tender and sore. I made it through the time trial - what a course!- there is serious climb for the last half mile! but confidence was down when my shoulder throbbed when I took a few turns on the descent heading back to the start. Also, I got spanked in the time trial, which although not unexpected, was a blow to the old ego. That night I lined up for a crit in St. Paul. I failed to come through with the aggression and confidence required in such a race to take the corners fast and ride very close to others. Within a lap I had slid to a very bad spot and had to focus to move up in an urgent way. Too late! There was a crash ahead of me and I got separated from the field. I ended up chasing with a group of four but we did not go fast enough to avoid getting pulled early in the race. No more racing for us and 3 others :(

I headed out to watch the last race of Nature Valley, the crit in Stillwater. That was a sight to see (and given the state of my shoulder, much better to watch from the sidelines). The race is laps of a very hard course. Each lap requires climbing up a steep hill, and a very fast corner at the bottom of the hill. After just a few laps, the wheat had been separated from the chaff and the pros were already out of sight of the amateurs. Everyone really slowed down on the hill so we got to see each rider in detail. The fitness of the top riders was truly amazing. It was incredible to see that some of the riders managed to bridge up from the 2nd group to the 1st when everyone looked to be riding full out. With 3 laps to go, there was an impressive attack at the top of the hill and Evelyn Stevens took off to eventually pull over 10 seconds away from the front group in her final drive up the hill.

I'm hoping that my shoulder will recover soon. It doesn't seem to make sense to try any more racing until I can use it normally again. In the meantime, I feel low on motivation for training and highly motivated to enjoy ice cream season. I put on my uniform yesterday and it fit like a sausage casing. This is not a good state of affairs.