With no team race on the schedule, Brian and I decided to head down to O’Fallon, Illinois, for two days of racing aimed at boosting our fitness for the harder racing ahead. About five-hour’s drive south of Chicago and just east of the Mighty Mississippi River, O’Fallon is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The course was a 40 km loop through mostly narrow rolling rural roads, the rows of early season corn lining the course lush green and just inches above the soil.
With the point of the weekend being training, I was hoping to get in some hard racing. Well, I got it! Not because of the field, the course or even the intensity of the race. It had entirely due to Mother Nature. With temperatures soaring above 45 degrees (high 90’s) with humidity to match, a cloudless sky, and a stiff headwind on most of the longer straights, the race was one of attrition. The women’s race was two laps (80 km) of suffocating, energy draining heat. I tell you what, that was plenty. Brian’s mater’s race was three laps and the Pro/1/2 guys had a brutal 150 km.
I wanted to make the race hard without blowing myself apart, so around each corner (the course had 23 per lap) I went to the front and rolled through so that anyone breaking into the corner would have to work to get back on. About halfway through the first lap, the field was struggling. I upped the pace around the next corner transitioning from head-cross into a tailwind and the bunch splintered, leaving a lead group of six. With two of the three bigger hills on the course in the last 8 km of the lap, my legs and arms began to feel like jelly as we passed through the start/finish and a nap seemed like quite a good idea.
Having finished two of my three bottles, I was grateful to grab a fresh ice-cold one through the feedzone (Thanks Jane!) where, unloading my empty bottles, I accidentally threw my remaining half-full one. Being a bit loopy, but not crazy, I stopped to retrieve the accidentally discarded bottle (Thanks again Jane!). A modest attack after the feedzone meant a bit of work chasing back on but the heat quickly demotivated much output of effort from the girls and I was quickly back in the group.
One rider tailed off not long into the second lap and we were soon five. The remainder of the race was relatively uneventful as we each struggled to conserve enough energy (and water) to finish the race. By about 15 km to go, I had just a splash of drink left in my bottle. Heading into the last 5 km of the race, all of us dragging in the heat, one rider attacked up the climb. I dug deep and followed with Chris Roettger (Revolution Racing) on my wheel. We pulled hard over the top, I took my last sip of water, and heading into the last hill at 2 km to go Chris attacked up the climb. And then there were two.
Cresting the hill I felt pretty blown, but the 500 m to go sign boosted my spirits. Gasping for air I stayed on Chris’s wheel out of necessity rather than tactics. She put in a dig for the line but when I stayed with her she sat back down. I stayed on her wheel, sprawled on my bike, melting. Two-hundred meters to go and Chris let loose again. I had just enough left to come around. Chris sat up and I was able to cross the line solo in a full victory salute. My first 2011 US win!
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