Jeannie's Cookies: 17-18 May 2014 PSIMET Omnium

Despite a few summer days sneaking their way into April and May, a parade of wet, heavy snow flakes dressed the ground Northwest of Chicago for several hours on Friday morning – to remind us all that it’s only spring after all. The wintery weather gave way on Saturday to menacing but innocuous skies and a stiff, chill wind.

Spring snowfall Friday morning.

The weekend did not start well for me on many levels. Looking past the things outside of my control, I focused on the tasks for the weekend. I knew that four races over the two days would be a strain on my struggling fitness. I started out well enough feeling decent in my first race of the day, the Women’s 30+, a field featuring several of the top riders in the area. The field rode aggressively and I was impressed by teamwork, especially from PSIMET and xXx (Triple X).

Saturday Womens 30+ race - feeling outnumbered by PSIMET and xXx. Photo by Matt Boggs

The day deteriorated when a rider crashed in front of me on the final corner of the last lap. Life went into slow motion. I changed my line, veering right to avoid flailing arms and legs as she slide left. For an instant I thought I was clear, but her bike took a trajectory right and I went down in a jumble of bicycles. Several others riders came down around me but were back up and headed for the finish line before I could get untangled from the bikes. My left foot had remained clipped into my pedal during the fall and it took some time to work myself free. My bike had sustained a good knock to the rear derailleur, so I crossed the finish line – a good several minutes after the bunch – and went straight to the pit to get things fixed.

I had a few hours before my second race of the day, the Women’s Open, so I had plenty of time to tend to my injuries and have a short nap. When it came time the start warming up, my body was pretty stiff and my legs felt absolutely sluggish. I did a long warm up hoping to work out the lethargy with little success. Once the race was underway, I found that I increasingly felt like I was dragging a bag of bricks behind me. I slogged through the race, favoring my left leg, tender from the crash, and struggling to turn the pedals over. By the final sprint I was convinced that the problem was bigger than tired legs. Once again I crossed the line and went straight to the pit. I felt relieved to find that the derailleur hanger was badly out of alignment. All fixed, I was looking forward to the pedals turning much more easily the following day.

A bit more color in the Open race. Photo by Jaime Guzman

Sunday I had a big challenge ahead of me: twelve plus times up a hill my legs and lungs were not ready to climb. Sitting second in both the 30+ and Open omnium (I know. Crazy! Somehow I managed to get enough points in the intermediate sprints in both races to stay in contention), I had my work cut out for me.

Catching with the Chicago Vanderkitten VIP squad. Nikki, Kaitlyn, me, and Sue

In 30+ race I got worked over by PSIMET with attacks from Kelli, then Cathy, then Kelli again on successive laps. The tactics paid off to give Kelli a big gap off the front. And Kelli was climbing awesome. Since Kelli hadn’t raced the Masters race the previous day, I knew I was safe letting her take the intermediate omnium points. I just concentrated on reeling her in.

Heading up the climb at Fox River Grove. Photo by Jaime Guzman

The race ended up to be the most exciting of the day. Over three laps, I slowly narrowed the gap, getting ever so much closer each lap before making the catch just heading into the final descent. The finish came down to a close sprint. Having the advantage of Kelli’s draft, I grabbed the win. On the line. By a hair. One cool thing about not being in the leader’s jersey, though, is that I got to wear my Pactimo speed suit. That might have made the difference on the line. You never know! Despite my crash in the finish the day before, the win gave my enough points to take the lead in the omnium as well!

PSIMET sandwich for the 30+ Omnium podium.

The second race of the day surprisingly ended up being slightly less challenging. Again I had two riders – this time Kelli (PSIMET) and Daphne Karagianis (Cutting Crew) – making the race hard. But since these two were on different teams, the burden was less on me to take action. Daphne and Kelli both have some excellent climbing form and were definitely making me suffer on the hill. Unfortunately (although fortunately for me) Kelli dropped her chain with two laps to go. This took her out of the lead group, leaving me only Daphne to keep track of. By the final climb, I think Daphne was a bit puffed from attacking me and Kelli throughout the race. This allowed me to keep her close up the climb and come around her at the line for the win in almost a repeat of the 30+ race – just not as quite dramatic!

Struggling to keep contact with Kelli (middle) and Daphne. Photo by Jaime Guzman

My sluggish climbing meant sacrificing the intermediate omnium points for the win and Daphne was able to take the omnium by one point – which was a well-deserved win for Daphne. On my end, after pretty rough start to the weekend, I was pretty happy to come away with three wins and a second in a day.