October 25, 2009: Sunday Oct 18th. First Race Tom’s Farm Time Trial
Race report by Verna
Doing this race was a very last minute decision. I raced Fiesta Island the previous weekend and got second place. Not bad for having a mechanical and almost missing my start time! I had no idea that there was a So Cal Time Trial Series, but my 2nd place at Fiesta Island gave me 4 points and I was tied for second after two races. When I found this out I decided to do the next race in the series which was Tom’s Farm. The only problem was I was already registered to do a track race later that day.
I had done Tom’s Farm TT back in September so knew what I was in for. It’s an 8.5 mile course with a half mile climb right near the start and rolling for rest of it. I showed up right at 7 as I wanted to have an early start time to have as much time possible between my TT and the track race. I am still getting the hang of proper TT warm ups but it’s getting better every time, I spent nearly an hour on the trainer warming up. I was the second rider sent off and I passed the first rider with in a few minutes. TTs are such a mental challenge, I knew there were a few downhills where I would spin out so I really tried to focus on suffering as much as I could when I wasn’t going down hill. I would get out of the saddle and hammer up the rollers and notice my speed would drop instantly. If I can learn to climb in the aero bars I can be faster. Once or twice I caught myself thinking that I had a second race to do and I should hold back. I quickly erased those thoughts and pushed harder, knowing that was just an excuse to stop the pain. I was hurting pretty bad by the end and could barely keep my bike upright after crossing the finish line. Just how the end to a TT should feel.
Over all time was 24:21 and an ave speed of 21.2 mph. Good enough for second place out of 6 women and 4 more points in the So Cal TT Series. I have been 2nd place the last 4 TTs I have done (Piru, Tom’s Farm, Fiesta Island, Tom’s farm) One of my goals for 2010 is to win a time trial!
As soon as results were posted I hopped in the car and drove off to the Encino Velodrome for an Omnium. I set up my TT bike on the trainer for keeping warmed up between races and put on my warm up gear. (I used an 88” for warm up, a 90” for the races. Looking back I wish I had gone smaller). It was an open category race and it was a pretty strong field for late in the season. Hanan from Pro Man came down from Hellyer and I knew she was going to kill it! I’m still pretty new to track racing and there’s so much strategy involved. First up was an 8 lap scratch race. It was pretty slow paced at the start, there were a few attacks but no one really put the hammer down until 2 laps to go then it was all out. I ended up 5th and scored one omnium point. I was happy with that as I knew there was some fast girls out there.
Next up was a miss n out. I’d never raced one before but I had seen one. Every other lap the last person across the line gets pulled til there is no one left. I much prefer tempo races but no one asked me! Obviously everyone else had raced one before and had a better idea what to do! I got boxed in and pulled early.
Those two races were about 10 minutes apart. After which there was pursuits and sprints, neither of which I raced. So I had quite awhile before my points race, at least 30 minutes. I rode the TT bike on the trainer for a bit but it was very hot and I was ready to go home by this point. All the racers were huddled in the little bit of shade from the two tents in the infield. They finally call us up for the points race, 40 laps and sprints every ten. Two girls went off the front to lap the field, and the field split after that. I was in a group with two other women, one of them had a team mate in the break. Obviously she wasn’t going to take any pulls. I wasn’t really feeling all that motivated myself but was working in the paceline. One girl started yelling that if we didn’t work together we’d never catch them. Eventually they break lapped the field, shortly after that I start to feel the TT damage in the legs. I was was starting to suffer badly just to stay within my little group and was fading fast. Knowing I wasn’t going to score any points and that I did so poorly in the miss n out I decided to pull off the track with 10 laps to go and call it a day. Not my best moment but I just wanted to be off my bike and out of the sun. Last over all in the omnium with 1 point but they gave us all prizes anyway. I got a sweet pair of sunglasses and a tub of Cytomax. So thanks to Bicycle Johns for sponsoring the race. 2009 was my first season of racing and I’m really looking forward to the 2010 season with a strong group of ladies!
