Skagit Valley Race Report April 14 and 15

Karla Segale
 

This past weekend Shuksan Velo in Bellingham hosted three races that teammate Dave Acheson and I attended.  Saturday was a two-fer —an 8 mile road time trial on Saturday morning followed by a 2 mile hill climb time trial in the afternoon.  On Sunday we suited up again for the road race—26 miles for my category.

Having had time to review my TT performance at Icebreaker, I came to the conclusion that I road too conservatively. This time I knew I needed to put more into it from the start.  My goal was to keep my heart rate at threshold on the way out and push harder from there.  After that it was a question of settling in on the saddle and focusing on my pedal stroke.   The road TT course started out with a slight climb followed by a quick descent and then settled in to a long, flat section that traversed Padilla Bay.  Fortunately there wasn’t a cross wind.   There was a pretty steep hill near the finish of the course and I opted to sit, pick up my cadence and see if I could spin up it.  I definitely lost my rhythm and did not finish strongly, but I am improving.

 

The afternoon hill climb was race # 3 for the NW Time Trial championships.  There are 5 total races where points can be accumulated leading up to the State TT Championships in June.  This was my chance to pick up some points for the competition.  The hill climb started out with some good size rollers followed by a slightly steeper pitch and a rollout to the finish that looked like the Great Wall of China.  My main concern was not to drop my chain as I geared down to sprint to the top of the hill.  I finished in 7 minutes 28 seconds and picked up 1st place in the Cat 4 category.  Dave took third place in his category, so it was a good day indeed for Methow Cycle and Sport-Blue Star Coffee Cycling!

The road race was on Sunday.  The last sanctioned road race I did was in 2008. The one before that was 1987. Needless to say, I was nervous.  There were maybe 20 in the field and several of them were very twitchy. And this was in the first five minutes! A few stern barks from the peloton followed by the aforementioned rollers of the hill climb TT and things got quiet.  Attrition is a beautiful thing. The backside of the course had a relatively flat section that preceded a pretty steep climb.  Coming in to lap 2, I noticed there were five of us off the front.  As we rounded the corner to the back side of the course, one rider dropped a chain and we were down to 4.  #4 shed at the top of the next hill.  The three of us worked successfully to keep the pack away on lap three.  Then it was down to the last section -- a repeat of the hill climb course, Great Wall of China and all.  We stayed together over the first roller, but that pretty much cooked my legs.  I ended up third overall for the day, and I was thrilled!  

This past weekend also marked the debut performance of my new Shimano custom fit carbon cycling shoes.  Living proof that shoes DO make the woman!

Dave Acheson

This past weekend offered up some serious opportunities to test the progress of my training with two time trials on Saturday and a challenging road race on Sunday.  With the TT and road bikes on the roof of the car, Karla and I made a quick stop at Blue Star in Twisp to get a couple of iced coffees for the road and after some encouraging words from Meg headed off to the west side to see how far we’d come since the first race of the year six weeks earlier.  First up on Saturday was the Skagit Valley Time Trial held on a course overlooking beautiful Padilla Bay.  Conditions were nearly ideal with sun and temps creeping into the 50s and very little wind.  I had raced on this course three years ago, taking a second place that day, so I was hopeful of a good ride.  Of course that race was mid-season and this one was early on, but hope doesn’t trifle with details like that!  I had a solid ride and felt pretty good, definitely better than the first effort of the year.  My time was nearly a minute slower than my ride of a few years ago, so I wasn’t too sure what the results sheet would say.  It said 6^th place for me.  Faster than most, slower than some.  Five seconds faster would have gained me a couple places, but I was pretty satisfied with the early season result.

As with the morning event, the afternoon event, the Northshore Hillclimb Time Trial was part of the Cascade Time Trial Series.  I was not sure what to expect going into this one other than pain.  It would be the second time trial of the day and was nearly all uphill and under two miles in length.  It would be intense.  I decided the road bike was the correct bike for this test, but installed my deep section carbon Easton EC90TT wheels on it.  Their lightweight, stiffness, and aerodynamics were just the thing for this event.  As I warmed up, I was pleasantly surprised to find my legs responding and not feeling too hammered from the morning time trial.  Soon my start came, and I shot off the line across the short flat section before the start of the main climb.  The bike rocketed along, but soon the hill approached and the speed began to bleed off.  The course was not a steady climb and even had a flat to rolling section midway.  As I came off the steep parts, I really appreciated the lightweight of my wheels and how fast they accelerated.  Soon, I was in the final 150 meters, a very steep pitch, clawing my way to the finish.  I had survived one of the most painful six and a half minutes I have spent on a bike and began the wait for the results.  I was stoked to see that I had managed a third place with my effort.  My results from the day’s two time trials had moved me into sixth place in the Cascade TT Series standings after three of the five events.  The last two time trials are courses that I should be able to do good rides on, so a high finish in the series is in reach.

We closed out the weekend with the Northshore Road Race on Sunday.  The course in the hills along Lake Whatcom in Bellingham is a classic and challenging eight mile loop with two substantial climbs per lap.  My group was slated for 4 laps plus one more trip up the first climb to the finish at the top.  This race quickly turned into a training ride for me, as my legs were fairly trashed  from the previous days efforts and I was unceremoniously dropped about halfway through the first lap.  I eventually hooked up with another couple of riders and we worked well together throughout the rest of the race picking off stragglers as best we could.  The results placed me an even 50^th of 61 riders.  Certainly nothing to be excited about for that race, but given the results of the previous day though, the weekend was a success.

Ephrata Gran Fondo, March 30, 2012

“To say the Gran Fondo Ephrata is a hard ride is an understatement, even on a nice day. This was not a nice day. It was a day that any sane person would avoid outdoor activities. They surely would not consider riding a bicycle on 80 miles of primitive Central Washington back roads.”

                                                                                    Jake Maedke

                                                                                    Race Promoter

                                                                                    Ephrata Gran Fondo

The race promoter for the Ephrata Gran Fondo promised the ride would be “epic”.  For starters, this is an 80 mile ride at the end of March in Eastern Washington.  That alone is a recipe for epic.  Add to that the fact that roughly half the ride took place on gravel roads or muddy hard-pack, and your epic experience is guaranteed. 

So on Saturday, March 31^st, at approximately 0-Dark Hundred, my teammates Joe Brown, Jake Whipple and I threw our bikes on the top of Joe’s car and aimed for EPIC.  Clutching our coffee mugs, we bowed with gratitude as we passed Blue Star Coffee Roasters on our way out of town.   Always good, often necessary.  This was one of those times.

A Gran Fondo is a timed event, not a race.  Tell that to the participants.  There were clearly people who showed up to race—or at the very least put in a good time.  For my part, I had no idea what to expect from this experience.  My goals were to finish and keep the shiny side up. 

Just as we rolled out of town, we encountered the first climb—a steep mud-and-rock infested section of hard-pack.   My plan to stay in low  zone 3 went out the window.  I redlined. Once the climb was over, the course returned to pavement.  The pack was scattered, the faster riders long gone, the rest of us spit out to fend for ourselves.   There were little clumps of three or four riders, but mostly ones and twos.  I was riding solo.

I have ridden many centuries and ultra-distance events, but never one like this.  There were no packs, at least none that I saw.  Nobody worked together-- more like survival mode. This was later confirmed by both Joe and Jake, who, while finishing way ahead of me, also road mostly solo. As pavement turned to gravel and gravel to mud, I would encounter a couple of people riding together, but no groups, no pelotons, no pulls.   Much of the terrain would have made for dicey pack riding anyway, but make no mistake.  On a day like this, misery loves company.  And on this day, there was no company to be had.

The ride had one aid station at the halfway mark.  I re-fueled and quickly hopped back on my bike to avoid letting hypothermia have its way with me.  Twenty miles from the finish, I caught a guy’s wheel (finally!) and we rode in together.   It was nice to share the hailstorm with someone.   Such as it was, we ended up “working together” and managed to pick off five or six riders.

My new buddy and I finished in 6:10, and I was happy to have accomplished my goals.  Best of all, no flats, and no mechanicals.  I ran Schwalbe Marathon Cross tires and they saved me!

81 riders started the day. 67 finished. 5 of those were women, and I finished third among those five.  It’s shaping up to be an epic year!