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| Snake Alley Women's Podium: Jeannie Kuhajek (Psimet), Kaitlin Antonneau (Exergy TWENTY 12), Emma Bast (Speedfix) |
The Psimet women
tackled a huge challenge this past weekend: five races in three days at the
Quad Cities Criterium weekend. The goal for the weekend was to push our limits,
both physically and mentally, and to grow as a team. And we did just that and
more.
Snake Alley
The weekend
started on Saturday with the infamous Snake Alley. Snake Alley, located in Burlington,
Iowa, is once recognized as “the crookedest street in the world.” The road was
constructed in 1894 to link the downtown business district and the neighborhood
shopping area of the region. Bricks were laid at an angle to allow horses
better footing as they descended. The street was completed in 1898 and was
later named for its resemblance to a snake winding its way down the hill. Snake
Alley is a one-way street, with all traffic heading downhill—except for one day
each year when cyclists tackle the uphill climb.
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| Snake Alley: the view from the top |
Snake Alley is 84 m long
(about a block) and has 5 switchbacks in an 18 m climb with an average gradient
of 21 percent. Being the hill lovers that they are (NOT), our sprinters Leah
and Katie, joined by Marne still in her first few weeks of racing on the road,
tackled the Women’s 2/3 race, six laps of the fifteen block course, while
Kelli, Kim and Jeannie took on the Pro/1/2/3 twelve lapper. The weather was
reasonable in the morning for the 2/3 race, but by afternoon, temps for the
Pro/1/2/3 race were ridiculously hot, heading towards triple digits (35-38 °C).
Last year, Snake
Alley was my first race in the US. Sleep-deprived and jet-lagged, my
performance was a bit subpar. This year, allowing a bit more time to recover
from travel paid off. I got off to a good start off the line and led the field
the first time up the climb. The front
of the field quickly whittled to five by the second climb and by about the fourth
lap we were down to two, me and US National Masters Crit champion Debbie Milne
(Absolute Racing). To add another level of challenge to the race, I completely
underestimated the temperatures, and not even halfway through the race, I was
out of water and suffering miserably in the heat.
I think Debbie was
suffering too—which pretty reasonable because she attacked every single time up
the hill!—because the next lap, along the flat part of the course, I had my
head down following Debbie’s wheel, trying to will my body temperature back
down, we took a wrong turn off the course. I know. How do you take a wrong turn
on a criterium course? Well, we did. Debbie was following the route of a couple
of riders on the course in front of us. Turns out those riders were warming up
and weren’t supposed to be on the course. They turned off onto a side road when
they saw us coming. And we followed. Fortunately I realised immediately and
turned around quickly. But the detour was enough to allow two riders to sneak
in front and take the lead. Debbie took longer to turn around and she spent to
rest of the race chasing, finishing 5th. I put in a big effort and
caught the two new leaders before the next climb. One lap later we were back
down to two and had a new riding companion, super talented young pro rider Kaitlin
Antonneau (Exergy TWENTY 12).
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| Kelli entering the bottom of the snake. |
My body
temperature was now through the roof. One lap to go, last climb up the hill, I
tried to push it to drop Kaitlin but the heat prevailed at thwarting my effort.
I back off at the top and let Kaitlin lead down the hill and along the flat. Coming
into the last corner for the sprint, I was feeling confident about the win, but
when Kaitlin jumped out of the corner to start the sprint, my overheated motor
was slow to respond and she got a good gap on me. I made up ground in the
finishing straight, but the deficit was too big. But second I will take on a
course like that! Teammate Kelli enjoyed her first experience with the snake,
finishing 14th and I suspect ready to come back next year for a top
10 result. Kim wasn’t feeling well and got off to a slow start. Her passion for
the course prevailed and despite little cooperation from her body, she hung in
there to finish an admirable 18th. The podium was Antonneau (1st),
me (2nd) and Emma Bast (Speedfix, 3rd).
Melon City
Sunday morning the team headed an hour north to Muscatine
Iowa for the Melon City Criterium. The course was a one-mile circuit with a fast
decent complete with speed bump (judder bar) at the bottom, sharp uphill
gradient, and two 90-degree turns at the top. The course circumnavigated a
lovely park with statues of wild animals—elephants, deer, moose bison—variously
dotted throughout terrain.
Both Sunday and Monday the whole team tackled two races each
day, with the Women’s 2/3 race in the morning and the Pro/1/2/3 in the
afternoon. Temps were pleasant for the morning race on Sunday but headed
skyward once gain by afternoon. We used the races on Sunday to each work on individual
challenges and to work out tiredness in our legs from the snake. The morning’s
race was fast and exciting, with lots of aggressive riding from the field. In
the last few laps, Marne helped me chase down a dangerous break and it was all
together heading into the final climb. I attacked hard to push the pace up the
hill, but my effort was a wee bit early as I started fading near the top.
Around the final corner, 50 m to go, a felt Emilie Flanigan (Midwest Cycling
Community) at my hip, bearing down and oozing determination for the win. After
a difficult few months, I too was determined and pushed hard to keep the lead. She
veered in close as we stood to sprint, shoulder to shoulder. Unfortunately for
me the contact knocked me off balance. To avoid crashing, I quickly sat down to
steady myself. Having lost my acceleration,
I was lucky to take 3rd while Emilie and Mia Loquai sprinted past
for the top two spots. Teammate Kim was not far behind in 9th.
We lined up again a few hours later, each of us determined
to further push our limits. Perhaps because of the heat (again nearing 100),
the afternoon’s race was less exciting than the morning’s. With one of her signature blazing attacks, Debbie
Milne (Absolute Racing) escaped and soloed to the win, nearly catching the
field. Kelli and Kim both showed some
guts off the front, Kelli putting in an attack and Kim bridging to a break. Heading
into the start/finish with two laps to go, Debbie, still solo off the front,
was threatening to catch the back of the bunch. Rather than allow the catch,
the announcer eliminated a lap from the race and we were given the bell for one
lap to go. Caught off-guard, I quickly moved into better position, but ended up
boxed in on the final climb. Things opened up near the top and I was picking up
spots around the final turn. Then, Emma Bast (Speedfix) slid out directly in
front of me. I grabbed my brakes to avoid going over top of her. Meanwhile,
several riders sped past over the finish line. Fortunately I stayed upright,
redirected my bike and salvaged 9th over the line. Kim had a stellar
race, pushing several personal boundaries, and finished right behind in 11th.
Quad Cities
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| Leah taking over on the front in the Quad Cities W2/3. |
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| Me getting cleaned up after crashing. |
Back across
to the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, Monday we headed to Rock Island
Illinois for the Quad Cities Criterium, one of the longest running cycle races
in the country. The flat, fast, three-quarter mile hourglass-shaped course just
one block from the Mississippi River features ten corners with brick crosswalks
throughout. We awoke to cooler temperatures—which was a relief—but the source
of the cool down was rain—not a relief. With the combination of slippery pavement
and slick bricks, the morning’s race turned into a crash feast, claiming half
team.
In
impressive fashion, Psimet was in control off the line with Leah and I putting
in turns at the front to drive the pace and keep things safe. A crash early on took
out Kim, and then, in the final lap, Leah and I went down. Marne, Kelli and Katie
did an awesome job to stay upright, with Marne finishing 9th, Leah
13th and me 14th. The casualty of the day was Leah’s bike.
Her crash took her over top of another rider. While she escaped more than a few
scrapes and bruises, she totaled the right shifter lever on her bike and was
out for the rest of the day.
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| Psimet one the start line for the Quad Cities Pro1/2/3: Kim, Jeannie, leah |
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| View of the race with the Mississippi River in the background. |
The
afternoon brought sunshine and as the pavement dried blazing hot temperatures
returned. The team started the afternoon, one down with Leah on the sidelines,
slightly unnerved from the morning. Nevertheless, we turned it into our best
team showing of the weekend. We lost Kim early on, dropping off the pace as she
struggled with a sore shoulder from the morning’s contact with the road. Over
the first three-quarters of the race, Marne, Kelli and I each put in big
efforts off the front in promising breaks or patrolling the front to keep anyone
from chasing down our teammate up the road. With seven laps to go, Marne punctured
and was unable to regain the peloton. Kelli’s break was caught and former
teammate Jessi Prinner (ABD) and Debbie Milne (Absolute Racing) escaped to take
first and second. The bunch seemed fairly exhausted from the active race (I
know I was!) and Kiwi Hayley Giddens (ISCorp) slipped off the front. Kelli went
to the front and hammered it to try to bring her back to give me a chance at
third, but the race, and in fact the weekend, had taken its toll and Kelli
and I both faded towards the end, finishing 19th and 10th,
respectively. Not the result we wanted, but teamwork-wise, a stellar race and a
definitely high point on which to end the weekend!
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| Kelli solo off the front in the Quad Cities Pro1/2/3. |
Next up, the Lake Bluff Twilight Criterium on Friday night
and the Glencoe Grand Prix on Saturday.
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