Gate City Grind

Weekend after weekend it seems we're off doing something. The weekend of the 28th and 29th we headed down to Pocatello for the Gate City Grind, a small little stage race that we primarily decided to hit because it's a race in the LAJORS series for the junior team. So, Mike being the great guy that he is, volunteered to take a bunch of kids on our juniors team down for the race. I had originally not intended to go, but figured I'd rather be on the road with him than at home by myself with the kids. Seems that a weekend together as a family is better than one split, even if it involves a lot of travel.

We arrived in Pocatello late Friday nite, or rather early Saturday morning (around 1:30 am). Dave, one of the guys on the VE cat 2 team, along with his wife Courtney, were generous in offering us their place to stay while they were road-tripping it to CDA (ironic). We had to roll out early Saturday morning to get registered for the road race.

My field was small - only 8 of us 1/2/3 women. Two teammates from Bob's made it - Kimberly Turner and Sarah Brown, so it was nice to have some familiar faces. There was one lady from Salt Lake that was supposedly the biggest threat for the weekend. I didn't know anyone else. The road course was suited to me - rolling, with small power climbs. We did 3 loops of the course for a total race distance of 54 miles. We stuck together for the most part, until heading up the starting hill of the 2nd lap. It was then that the Salt Lake girl and one other and myself found a break forming. I worked hard to get a good gap going, and we managed to stay away. At the same place going into the 3rd lap, the SLC girl and I rode away from the other lady, so then it was just the two of us. I was feeling really good, so I did the lion's share of the work for the rest of the lap. I realized that she would probably sprint me for the finish, and I didn't want to do ALL the work for her, so going into the last 3 or 4 miles we rode side by side, knowing it would come down to a sprint finish. With 200 meters to go, she went for it, and I came around her at the line to get the win. Truthfully, I could've ridden away from her at some point before that, but I was nervous about spending all my energy in the road race with the time trial scheduled for that afternoon. I felt like I was definitely the stronger rider, and was hopeful that I could take her in the sprint. It was a risk that I'm glad worked out.

The time trial that afternoon went great. I posted a time 34 seconds or so faster than 2nd place (SLC girl again), which landed me solidly in first place GC for the day.

The crit the next afternoon was awesome. Mike felt like my best bet would be to go from the gun and see if I could lap the field. I took off, and of course SLC came with me, along with Kimberly from Bob's. I looked over my shoulder to see who was with me, and was glad to see Kim - she was sitting in 7th place GC, and I hoped to give her some time advantage by towing her along with me. I drove the pace on the front, which eventually dropped Kim, unfortunately. SLC girl yelled to me that I'd lost a teammate, and I think she wanted me to slow down, because she didn't want me to lap the field and have it come to a 2-up race. But Mike yelled at me to keep going. I put my head down and kept drilling the pace, and eventually dropped SLC girl in another lap or so, then lapped the field. I took a lap or two to get my bearings, then worked my way to the front of the pack again to drill the pace and try to get Sarah a break - she was off from 3rd place by a mere 4 seconds. My plan was to get her on my wheel, take her with me on an attack, and tow her around to get the 4 seconds (and then some) on the 3rd place girl. Unfortunately, the SLC girl knew this, and being a teammate of 3rd place, she and one other teammate managed to do some serious blocking whenever I tried to go. Sarah had difficulties maintaining her position on my wheel. I spent almost the entire race either on the front drilling the pace or off the front attacking. Going into the last lap I drove hard, and sent Sarah off as third wheel in perfect position for the finish sprint - but she crashed on the hot pavement in the final turn up the little hill. She got a nasty case of road rash, but otherwise was okay. Even though the field was small, it was SO much fun to be riding so strong and feel so in control. It was great practice to just sit on the front and push - eager for the Twilight crit coming up in a couple of weeks!