4 August 2008 | Race Reports
World Cup #7- Bromont: Race Report
The course was pretty wet and sloppy in the pre-ride, and race-day we awoke to a steady drizzling rain. It rained all morning and even throughout most of our race. Luckily 2 of the 3 major climbs on the course were pretty gravelly so traction was good throughout the race. The 3rd climb turned into peanut-butter mud and was a run-up every lap (good ‘cross practice, right?). The course was very technical and not very fast- steep granny-gear climbs and tight technical mud roots and rocks in the trees. I made ample use of my cyclocross dismount and mount, preferring not to take any chances on the sketchier stuff. Here’s how it went:
I got the hole shot, but was passed by a few women on the first climb. I went into the singletrack in 4th, right behind Mary with Catharine and Marie a little ways up ahead. After the first wooded section, Katerina flew by me and I jumped on her wheel. We passed Mary and headed into the next technical section. Katerina was riding so well- I made a few mistakes and she was GONE. I rode pretty awfully on the technical stuff the first lap- I couldn’t let go of my brakes and I was making all kinds of mistakes. At the end of the lap Lene caught up to me and I jumped on her wheel. I passed her on the long switchbacking climb, but she caught me in the woods and she was gone too. At the end of the second lap, Willow caught me and she was FLYING through the sloppy singletrack. I stayed with her and then passed her on the climb. I rode hard on the climbs, opened up a decent gap, and tried to be super smooth in the singletrack. At the end of the 3rd lap, I could hear Willow catching up again, but I put in a good hard effort on the climb and then rode well in the woods to hold her off and finish 5th- barely squeaking onto the podium. My 4th lap was my best lap in the technical stuff, I was much smoother and faster. Overall it was a good solid race for me- just the kind of hard effort I needed as I ramp up for Beijing.
Sunday night we drove to Montreal airport, I got 4 hours of sleep then woke up at 4:30am to catch my 6:00am flight to San Francisco (Mary, Adam, Todd and I were supposed to go there to pick up all of our gear and credentials for the Olympics). Mary, Adam and I were on the same flight which, unfortunately was routed through Chicago. Of course there was bad weather in Chicago and our plane was delayed 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours…then cancelled. We realized that there was no way we were going to make it to San Francisco in time, so we all changed our plans and headed home. It’s been a long day, but it’s GREAT to be back home!