By Amanda Eaken -- NCNCA Road Race Championships (W1-3) -- 08/04/07
Jane and I headed down gloriously early Friday afternoon to pre-ride the Fort Ord District Championships Road Race Course. The fog cooperated and gave way to a lovely sunny afternoon for our reconnaissance lap. We were pleasantly surprised when Rob and Molly showed up with the same plan and we schemed a bit as Rob estimated that the climb would take 3 minutes at race pace with an average expected power output of 321 watts given his “quick calculation” of the gradient and the 4 minutes the hill took at recon pace. Rob is an incredible asset to this team – if a bit of a bike nerd. We love Rob. Rob also took care to point out that of the 5 Metromints planning to race Saturday, I was one of only two who were not currently distict Champions (Jane, Jen and Molly swept Master’s District Championships last weekend.) “Tomorrow is your turn Amanda.” After dinner Friday night, Jane and I popped into Ghiradelli for some carbo-loading chocolate. Rob again pointed out that if Jane and I took 1st and 2nd – we would know why. Seems Rob had big plans for me. Apparently I am still sensitive to caffeine (or desperately in need of earplugs, or both), and I lay awake for what seemed like hours thinking about how much I love cycling. My final thought on falling to sleep was how lucky I am to have so much fun every weekend racing with such an amazing group of women. I promised myself that I when I saw Molly, Jen, Jane and Elis in the morning, I would tell them how much I appreciate them and this sport.
The course is fun -- a couple of steep rollers on an out and back on Eucalyptus road, one climb of consequence, approximately 3 minutes, a fun, fast windy descent, a little bumpy stretch with a gradual rise up to the finish, repeat 6 times.
With a fairly small field and 6 times up the climb, the pace was moderate most of the race, as it seemed many people were trying to conserve energy for the climb. I was practicing patience – a little trick I learned by watching Kelly Benjamin at Superweek. Every so often Virginia Perkins or Bri from Tibco would attack, but it was clear these individual efforts early in the race were not going to be successful. At the beginning of lap 5, Jen and I decided she should attack on the climb and try to stay away for the win. It was decided that I should “lead her out” for the climb by moving her up on the downhill lead in to the sharp left turn to the climb, after which she would attack. This plan worked so well that I almost took myself out on that turn, taking it way too fast, but set her up well. Virginia, Jane Despas and Yukie went with her. Their little break stayed away for roughly half a lap, forcing Janeen and Holly from Touchstone to chase hard. Ali and Ashley from Form Fitness put in a couple of good pulls and Flavia tried several times to bridge, every time letting up when she realized I was on her wheel. Finally the break was caught and Molly countered perfectly, taking Jane Despas with her, with Virginia a little ways back. Jen and I sat in this time, again watching Janeen do an enormous amount of chasing with Flavia and The Form Fitness girls in tow. Somewhere along Eucalyptus Molly’s break was caught and I countered briefly with Jane D and Flavia, but we were quickly caught. I found Jen and told her to try to go again on the climb to tire people out for the finish. She said she would but thought it unlikely a break would stay to the finish due to the strong headwinds on the flat stretch after the climb.
The last time up the climb Jen set a good hard pace, and the group was winnowed down to 10 or so by the top. The finish was only a few miles from the top of the climb but I managed to find Molly and Jen and tell them I wanted a lead out for the final sprint. I was impressed but not at all surprised when Molly (aka District TT champion) started her lead out at the 1K to go sign. It was beautiful: I was sitting on Molly’s wheel and everyone was forced behind us. Her pace was sufficient that the proverbial “swarm” of the peloton never really materialized. Around 200m to go, I saw Jane Despas attacking hard up the left side of the road. I happily remembered that in pre riding the course I had noted that the road curved to the right up to the finish line so I wanted to take the right (slightly shorter) line. I jumped to the right around Molly and tried desperately to close the small lead Jane had just established on me. With 50 meters to go I had overtaken her, and the finish line looked like it was mine for the taking. With 25 feet to go I felt Jane again bearing down on me and my legs going to mush. At the approach to the line I screamed No, No, No, feeling my win slipping away. We crossed the line almost exactly at the same time, with Virginia Perkins right behind. I asked Jane if she thought she had it, and she shook her head. I went back to the race official who told me they’d have to go to the cameras but he had the girl screaming No No No in 1st. A few tense minutes later, the chief official held out his thumb and index finger no more than an inch and a half apart. “You got her by that much!” Still unable to reconcile my apparent victory with my almost sure assessment of defeat, I confirmed with him – “So I got it? I won? Are you sure? It’s official?”
“Well, there’s a protest period, but, yes, we have you in first”
“Do you mind if I give you a hug?”
“Ummm--- sure, I uh, guess so.”
And thus, Metromint added another to its list of district champions.
Big thanks to my stellar teammates Molly, Jen, Jane and Elis for inspiring me tremendously.