One of the only redeeming part of Army’s weekend last year amidst the hill-climb ITT and the hilly-though scenic road race, was the Stadium Crit – a venue where spectators could view all the action and where I had a blast, despite finishing dead last (check out the recap here). This year, due to an event in the stadium, that crit was to be replaced with a circuit race. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go –academically I was in between two hell-weeks, an awful lot of hills haunted the weekend, and as week 5 of 8, I thought it would be a good weekend to skip so I wouldn’t get burnt out on bikes. The road captains saw my hesitation and encouraged me to take the time off if I thought I needed it.  As fate would have it, however my best friend Becca Greene, who I had been encouraging to come out and race all season decided that Army would be her first weekend. I had no choice, friendship prevailed and I signed up for the weekend.

Boy am I glad I did!

(It turns out I also had an unwarranted prejudice against circuit races – this one was essentially a crit, with crit scoring and only one stretch of road with the yellow-line rule, earning its title as a circuit race. I also had to realize that since I wasn’t contesting green, the race was really more of a scratch race with primes for chamois butter than a points race.)

Alright, enough preamble, time for the actual race report:

Just before the race, Coach Nicole gathered Corey, Jen, Shaena and me in the Barge for a race strategy meeting. We had a critical mass of women in this race that we had a very real opportunity to employ some good team tactics. After debating strengths and different potential strategies, we finally decided on one, knowing that if it failed we would have to be flexible. The goal was to wait for the third prime. I would go for it, ideally get it with Shaena on my wheel and then she would attack and then hopefully get a break if she was alone or Michelle or Leslie went with her.  Then I would get to block and she would duke it out for the finish. If her break failed then Jen and Corey would try to be there and trade attacks. Once Shaena and I recovered, we would join in trading attacks until someone got away. It was a good plan and it let me practice patients since I have this tendency to jump at things early and waste a bunch of energy trying to be involved in controlling the early parts of the race.

The first half of the race went pretty much as planned. Shaena went for a prime or two, securing her green jersey and I tried to rest as other riders attacked and were brought back by a responsive pack. Aside from kicking a hay bale onto the course on turn one of one of the laps, fish-tailing and staying up, the first half of the race was rather uneventful for me.

The laps went by and suddenly the bell rang for the third prime. I tried to play it cool and worked my way up to the front of the back by the backstretch of highway road. At turn 3, I was in the front with Shaena close by, and at 200m to go, I attacked with Shaena on my wheel. Immediately after I got the prime, Shaena went. Unfortunately, Rose was the one who went with her and then refused to work, sitting up and letting the pack catch. Shaena’s attack was so sudden that Jen and Corey were not in position to trade counter attacks as planned. I was gassed from the sprint so it took me a minute to recover. When I got up to the front again, I attacked and Shaena traded a counter attack trying to split the field. The field, however, was very responsive. Other riders also launched attacks after that but the pack always chased and caught.

Well so much for that strategy. With two or three laps to go, I got to the front to see if Shaena wanted to try to get away one last time and if I could help by giving her an attack to counter. She did not and indicated that we should just try to rest for the bunch sprint instead.

And so we decided to wait for the end, where the last 10 seconds define an hour of tactical racing. As other riders went for the double-points final prime, I chilled in the pack. One lap to go. I took the last lap to position myself to the left of Shaena’s wheel. At 400m Shaena went and Gabby from Army and I were on her wheel (I was to left, she to the right.) With about 175m, I went and didn’t look back.

The finish line came and I did a bike throw out of habit. I didn’t know who was around me or how the field was responding. It was only after that I realized that Rose and this Kutztown trackie had finished with the same time as me but a bike length behind!! What a good lead out! My first Women’s A mass start win!  A rider came up to us after the race and expressed how thrilling it was to actually get to see people utilizing team tactics well.

And so, despite getting dropped on the hill in the following day’s road race, I am so so thankful that friendship persuaded me to race this weekend! (It didn’t even matter that that particular friend got in quite late the night before and actually missed my win, sleeping in the car.) I got to prove to myself that I could be patient and that I could be competitive in a sprint against this field. As Coach Nicole reminded me after the race: it’s one thing to say or think that you could do well in a sprint given the right circumstances and another thing to prove it. 

The Stevens Circuit Race was my fourth mass start road race of my season and of my career but by far the longest: 25 miles in New Jersey’s Watchung Reservation in the form of four 6.2 mile laps featuring climbs, rolling hills and twisty descents. As someone who fancies herself more of a sprinter, I was a little more than anxious. Now for the race details: With no chance to pre-ride the course, the riders used the first lap to feel out the course. We learned the sketchy feeling of descending in a pack (the erratic lines, bustling, over-breaking and surprise pot-holes), where the big climbs were, and where the subtle but deadly shallow climbs that crept up when you least expected it.

Toward the end of the first lap, I decided to attack, to shake up the field a bit and see if I could get on a break with a few other riders. It failed—no one else wanted to pull and the pack caught us. The second lap, the Penn State girl started to break away from the pack after the major climb, the pack noticed this but was reluctant to chase her down. “She’ll fall back,” they were saying. But after another mile she appeared to be gaining ground and I decided to close the gap. I attacked and after another mile or two I managed to catch her. Looking behind me I saw the pack approaching up the final hill in close pursuit behind us and felt a wave of disappointment, and sat up. I looked forward again and to my further frustration, saw the Penn State girl spin out of reach reclaiming her lead and never to be seen again. I faded back into the pack and took the third lap to recover. On the final lap, I made the conscious decision that I wasn’t going to use my brakes at all descending the twisty hills. Instead, by pedaling through and counter-steering, I would use my Montezuma skills from Training Camp to get a break on the pack. It worked. With two miles to go, I had a substantial lead on the pack with one BU rider chasing. She caught me, and we traded off pulls until we came to the last descents, which I lead and later realized meant I was leading her out to the finish line sprint. Whoops. She took advantage of this and exhausted but pleased, I coasted into third place.

After sitting in at second wheel the entirety of the Columbia Criterium the day before and sprinting to first place on top of earning 11 points in the sprint premiums and making third place in this circuit race, I totaled 61 points for the team omnium and decided it was time to upgrade. Women’s B, here I come!