2013 McDonald's Tri-State Criterium: Super Size Me!...French Fry Premes

Race Report

Dana Stryk

Evolution Cycling Club p/b Long and Foster

Race	McDonalds’ TriState Criterium
Date	June 1, 2013
Field	10
Category	Women 1/2/3 racing with Cat 4, scored separately.
Race Data	0.8 mile rectangular course, flat as a pancake.
Weather	Sunny, hot and humid

Title for this novella:  “Super Size Me:  French Fry Premes”

In a month called January, when 3H weather (hazy, hot and humid) was something of which we could only dream, CA and I decided that a not-to-be-missed race this summer was a criterium in West by God Virginia.  The small town of Huntington, WV, is CA’s home and the opportunity to race before a hometown crowd is something he did not want to miss.  I didn’t want to miss the chance to race in front of his dad, Butch Kyle, who seems to be my PR department.  So last Friday, I packed up the car, picked up CA from the 5-sided wind tunnel and off we went to WV.

When I teach international trade and talk about the benefits and costs of trade liberalization, Huntington stands as one of the examples of the costs.  The shift from a manufacturing (steel particularly) based economy to one of services (health care and a university) leaves scars.  These scars were visible along the race course, a landscape of cute bistros and boutiques peppered with empty buildings  and abandoned steel mills.  This race was in downtown – and unlike many other race venues, the local population seemed excited to have an invasion of lycra-clad people with shaved legs who dressed alike.  The race promoter and key sponsor lined the finish line with professional barriers, a grandstand, and finishing arch.

The McDonald’s Tri State Criterium had several fields, including kids races (which was several laps of the course), race for police and firefighters, and a citizens race.  Now I must share the most interesting part of the race….let’s just say cycling fashion in WV will hopefully stay there……

The reverse belly-halter white tee
was an interesting twist!

To warm-up for his race, CA and I rode a couple of laps of the course before heading further away for some more intense efforts, pedaling down a four lane road across from the university.  As we rode the course, I noticed a head-wind on the start/finish leg, left turn, left turn, headwind, left turn left turn, back to the start with a headwind.  The course was a rectangle…how a headwind exists on both sections, I am not sure.  When I asked Butch, he simply said, “That’s Huntington.”  The 4 corners were all very open and my field small, so my plan of surging through each corner to try to burn up others’ matches seemed sort of silly.  I only knew one woman in my race, Jenette Williams of Jeff’s Bike Shop,  and she is very strong.  I knew that I needed to cover any attack she made, for she is someone that would stay away and she had teammates.

CA’s race time was almost three hours before mine, in the heat of the day.  

At one point in the race, he was gapped and reattached by the next lap.  I can only imagine the watts needed for that effort.  For the details of CA’s race, I will leave that to his race report (The Journey of an Amateur Cyclist).

Since I had warmed up with CA and the temps were well above 90, I decided that staying cool was more important than hopping on my bike again and found air conditioned solace with Butch in Starbucks.  When the course opened for warm-up, I took a couple of laps, then lined up.  CA overheard one team’s coach telling them to treat the start as a CX hole shot, so I kept that in mind as we waited for the whistle to blow.

As the race started, someone from the McDonald’s team (title sponsor….leading me to have expectations of French Fry premes) sprinted to the first corner and the race began.  I know the smarter thing, as someone riding without teammates in a field with two teams, could be to allow the two teams to chase down each other’s attacks and wait for my chance to counter. I thought if I let others chase, I may end up in a position

unable to respond to an attack that would result in a break with one member of each team.  Better chasing and tired than rested and relegated out of a break.  So….as I threw out this idea and found myself responding to alternating McDonald’s and Jeff’s Bike Shop attacks, I thought about Sufferfest’s Revolver which consists of 16 1 minute 110% FTP efforts.  From these workouts, I know I can do 32 1 minute efforts as long as I get some active recovery time, my crit training plan for the last few months was to do Revolver twice, back to back. Since crit power files seem to be a split between AR and Zone 6, I knew this training prepared me for the race.  The attacks came frequently but were shorter than a minute, so I figured I could cover 40+ of these short surges. I said a quick prayer to the higher cycling power that the attacks would be of a smaller magnitude.  I did not know the strengths of others and I knew what I could do so……BAMMM.  <sound of bike crash>.

After about 20 minutes of racing, someone slid out on a turn, clipping my rear wheel and generating mayhem in the back of the pack.  I slowly rode to the pit to have my rear (wheel) examined and repaired, then waited to rejoin the pack, along with some other riders.  With adrenaline coursing through my body, I willed my breathing to slow and my nerves to calm.  Didn’t work.  Ack!

The race continued as before – attacks and chasing.  Until 9 laps to go, we had no idea how much longer we would race, since the officials did not post lap cards until that point.  Not ideal.  I was sitting 2^nd or 3^rd wheel for the remaining part of the race but found myself sort of tentative through the turns after that ^th…..but….I actually did sprint to hold off those behind me. Two riders from Jeff’s Bike Shop made it into the corner first and I was sitting in sixth. After the sprint, I moved up to fifth to solidify my $102 worth of winnings.

crash

.  For the finish, there are 2 quick lefts before the final sprint.  The sprint is long enough to perhaps move up or down a spot but….you need to be top 3.  I knew that but lost position in the second to last turn and ended up 5

 

The final sprint

Lessons learned: 

1. While I perhaps threw away a podium spot due to nerves, I started thinking about what to do at the end of the race more than 250 meters from the finish line.
2. Have confidence in my training.  When I caught someone (from which team, I no longer recall) on the penultimate lap, I should have countered and attacked for about a minute.  All the other attacks were short and maybe the others would not be able to sustain a longer intense effort.
3.  Our MABRA officials are simply the best.

Kudos and Shout-outs:

Jenette Williams:  Congrats on the win - especially after the crash and then jumping into the Mens 1/2/3 immediately after our race.

Butch Kyle: Thanks for being my cheerleader, taking care of my bike after the race, holding the car door and all your charm.  I know from where your son gets his charm.

Butch’s neighbor – The race fotos you took are amazing!  Thank you.

MUSHY ALERT….

CA:   for sharing your hometown race with me and many other things.