Tour De Toona - Martinsburg Circuit Race

I entered this stage race at my first peak of the season, but sporting a cold that I got 2 weeks ago that had progressed to the "let's see if we can hack up a lung" stage. The two cancelled each other out, so I entered the races feeling strong but not the strongest I've been this season. I was definitely pumped, though.

These were the first road races where I've ever been in a "rolling enclosure," able to race over the entire roadway. Wow, fun! It felt very odd my first times riding on the wrong side of the double yellow, but I quickly got used to it.

This first race, a one-lap circuit race of 20 miles, was going to be fun. We were a huge (for me) field, of about 65 riders between the categories of 3 and 4. We started together in all races, but were scored separately. Throughout the race I jockeyed for position, at times moving up through the field and at other times moving back. At one point the opening I was going through closed around me, and my handlebars grazed a woman's thigh. She complained; then the girl to my right panicked, and her bike went a bit wild, and I had to drop back but without anyone crashing. After that, when I made moves, it was often from the far outside, and a lot faster. From what Wendy tells me, she wasn't so lucky when it came to the bike handling of other women--check out her race report.

All the terrain was rolling, with nothing significant, and I felt great, probably because I was never at the front, and often in the middle of the field. As the miles counted down, I made more of an effort to move up. On the uphills, I was always ready for the attacks, and never felt stressed. When the attacks did happen, they were covered immediately, and we were rolling closer to the finish still a huge field. About a mile from town (and the finish) I was sitting about 13-15th. We made the turns into town, and then a crash happened, two riders in front of me. The woman in front of me managed to get around, but as the woman finished her slide, I had no where to go but a dead stop.

This wouldn't have been so bad, if this hadn't been on one of the uphills, and me in my 13. Every other woman still in the field got around, and it took me 3 pushes against the pavement to get the momentum I needed to make forward motion, and then try to clip in, and, oh, my, try to pedal in a gear I would never choose for this condition. Here it was, dejas vous all over again, me going from being in the hunt to chasing down the field; at least this time it wasn't my own stupidity that caused it. It took me until the last turn to make contact, and then it was sprint. I made up only about 3 places. Crud, I shoulda been in the money. Guess I needed better reactions, and should have just immediately veered off my line when the woman crashed; but then I probably would have caused a bad ripple effect behind me, so I will be happy with how I finished this race.

This was the biggest women's field I have ever seen. We arrived the day before and went for a ride up the ugly climb for Saturday, I think I went to hard. I got popped off the back of the field a couple of miles into this and time trialed my way the rest of the way around the course. Beautiful scenery, rolling green hills. This was a course you were either going up, or going down. I did get passed by the Men's elite race at one point. They were quite nice, some of their team cars were not. Not a bad course, even all the twists and turns at the finish. I will say I did not enjoy coming down a hill, around a corner and finding the ambulance in the road. They could have warned us.

With a full field of 100 amped up cat 3's riding in what's arguably the biggest race in the country you have to expect some fireworks. The tension was flying high in the air as most of us had all morning to simmer since we were the last group to start. It was good to see a lot of familiar faces with central ohio teams (BreakAway, Summitt Freewheelers, and Team Dayton). From looking at the course profile I had my climbing wheels and gearing on but was warned to put on my "fast wheels" by Pete from BreakAway. So after a quick stop at the wheel truck I was set.

Right from the gun things were fast. Unfortunately they were a bit sketchy too. I chased down the first break of the day then just kinda sat-in for the rest of the first lap as I was told to. The race would begin after the hitting the main road back into town on the second lap. So lingering near the back realizing that even with the entire road there no place for me to move through this field, I sat. With about 3k to go I heard shouts then all of the sudden bodies and bikes flying everywhere. If you've ever watched NASCAR on tracks like Daytona and Talladega where they talk about the big one...this was it. I would have to guess that there were now 25-30 riders scattered across the road and both ditches. So I picked my way through about a 2 foot gap between bodies and bikes. I rode down at 10 people by the finish to roll in 60th.

Best wishes to Pete as you heal.

Well, after planning my entire season on this stage race, I finally had a REALLY bad weekend. Of all the times to get sick...

Sitting on the start line I noticed my resting HR was about double what it normally is. I just chalked it up to either nerves or too much coffee. Just 'sitting in' I was almost maxed. When the difficult parts came I didn't have a chance, and was immediately dropped. After I finished my flashbacks to the winter training rides, I just focused on finishing, and the next two days.

'Tuna, the race I've been looking forward to for a while now. I don't understand why the town of Altoona, a strip mall heaven in rural PA, has enough support for this race every year and why other more attractive cities can't seem to raise the money or support to put on a race like this. It's an awesome event. Rolling road closures, more state police motos (on your side) than you can shake a stick at, big fields and lots of strong riders, and of course lots of climbing.

Today's circuit race had a few big ring rollers and the strong guys I was watching didn't make the break and neither did I. Still getting over the last bit of a virus I picked up in Germany didn't help much either. So, I settled for placing in the field.

Hopefully I'll have good legs for tomorrow's 70 mile climbing sufferfest.

It was cool staying at the same place as Health Net and seeing Wherry (current yellow jersey holder in the pro race) and crew at breakfast.