Saturday morning was the start of the RMSR, with a fun loop on the roller ski trails at the Nordic Centre. No TT bikes allowed and only 4.8km made for a short suffer-fest of joy... or so the look on my teammate's face would imply! Lisa loved every blood-filled-lung minute. Right Lisa? This is one not to be missed next year ladies and gents. No seriously. Get up early and get out there.
The kids race was a total blast. My kids absolutely loved it. They had 4 categories to split up the age groups and handed out huge chocolate medals. I was hoping the adult medals were chocolate too, but alas...
Next up was the Criterium in downtown Canmore. This also served as "Provincials" and knowing this, I was feeling pretty intimidated as I had May and June off with an injury. Wow, what a great way to test out the limpy-leg?! Smart of me; I know. I was the lone STC rep but there were a few other loners too. In typical lady fashion, the onesies grouped together pretty quickly so that we stood a chance.
Things started off rather fast with Synergy and Crave working well together and pushing the limit out of the corners. There was one lone Bicisport gal who I knew well enough to know that her wheel was the one to be on, so I hung on for dear life and let her close the attacks. Crave had a good group out and were trying to work together but I think us loners kept getting in the way (wink wink.) Only one crash as a Synergy gal clipped a pedal right in front of the crowd (and the announcer - our very own talented Mike Godfrey.) Repeat after me, "INSIDE PEDAL UP."
That Crit course is my new favorite as the S-turn corners work to my strengths by slowing everyone down, thank goodness. Wait, that was supposed to be my quiet voice.
When I heard the bell I was so relieved to still be in the race. That last lap was a doozy. Everyone stepped it up 2 gears and I used every ounce of juice I had to hang on. By the time we hit the sprint on the final straight, I waved good-bye and took a 3 sec loss to come in 7th.
I had Lisa and Rebecca cheering me on as well as my family which really, truly helps. Thank you.
There was a fair amount of debate in the Michalski house last night as to whether or not we should beat ourselves up again today for the road race. If you have never done an omnium event before (3 or more races in a row,) just know that when you show up for the last event with fresh legs... we hate you.
Kidding. We envy you. If you are on our team, we LOVE you dearly and hope that you are willing to nurse us to the line. Anyways... at 5:30am, Mark woke me up so I took that as a sign that it was time to see if all those lonely dark nights in the basement on the trainer have paid off. After seeing the Cat 5 and 4 men off the women were ready to go. Lisa, Rebecca, Jenn T, Emily, Erin and I were off. The first lap was fast, and then things slowed down a bit. I tried to stay within the top 5-6 riders so I wouldn't get dropped on the hills. And this course was just all hill. I lost track my ladies in red after the third hill repeat. After the roundabout I saw that 4 of the 5 STC women had formed a chase group and were working well together. Jenn was no where to be found and I later found out she had pulled out sick. I figured I may as well test things out for realz and decided to go with every break. I guess Crave was bored, because they put on 4-5 solid attacks. Those breaks didn't last. Finally on the 3rd lap, a super strong Crave rider put on a huge solo break, with her teammates creating a challenging wall for us to get around. It stuck. Darn. At this point I was at the end of my matches and began to cramp. Try stretching out your inner thigh on the bike. Not pretty. I figured at this point I was probably not safe to be around and pulled off. 3 cars (no kidding - I must have looked that bad) pulled over to offer me a ride. Nope. I waited for Rebecca and Emily to come by and pull me to the finish. Ouch ouch ouch. So I think that I racked up a total of 5 whopping points this weekend. I finished with a smile, well, grimace on my face and got to spend the weekend in the mountains. Thanks ladies for coming out! Here are the pics Mark took.
Next up, TdB...
Peace out ~ Marie Crampy-Quads Michalski
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| Marie taking a pull |
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| Enthralled fans cheering on the STC Contingent |
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| STC Contingent |
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| Lisa & STC ladies crushing it!!!! |
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| Emily crossing the finishing line |
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| Rebecca crossing the finishing line |
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| Lisa crossing the finishing line |
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| Erin crossing the finishing line |
4 comments:
Great race report Marie! Thanks again for pulling me in on the last lap. And thanks to Derek, Jen and Darcy (am I missing someone?) for being in the feed zone to give us all fresh water bottles! It's a short race, but with the heat, I think we were all going through water pretty fast.
Sounds like an awesome weekend ladies, sorry I couldn't be there. Looking forward to Tdb with all of you :).
Another great race report from the women!
Marie, you are an absolute inspiration - 2 months off and you jumped in the deep end! Awesome.
Great race report Marie and congratulations ladies!!
And thanks to whomever yelled "Go Speed Theory" to me when they drove by as I was suffering up the hill just before the feed zone. It gave me a good boost to keep pushing hard : > )
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