Report from LiLynn:Just like the name of the race sounds, thats basically how it went for
anyone who entered.
The icing on the cake was the Auburn newspaper TT
results with our own Bella Sue Atwood averaging close to 60 miles per
hour in her time trial. We had her hidden in a duffle bag in the trunk
of my car a block away so they couldn't do a pee test. We succeeded in
gettting away clean without any testing and she held her first place
position. You know Sue, you could share.
Here she is cracking up at how she blew away the rest of the field...
Our visiting Bella
Liz Beneshin from Cal took a more serious approach to the TT and spent about 2 hrs warming up on her trainer
while the NY Bellas were warming up their yapping muscles -very important for time-trialing. After making fun of my clam shell/world war 2 helmet and attaching our aero fluff we 'thought' we had 45 minutes to warm up. Got back with 10 minutes to pee and collect ourselves. NOT. I missed my start. Stuck behind some van with a bike on the back that I couldn't get past, they kept calling out my number (which I didn't even know was my number) to see if I had shown up. Gosh darnet all to heck. Missed my start. Jersey unzipped, gloves in hand, computer not set, they told me to just go. In disbelief, I asked him, "...did you say just go?" and he said, "...just go!" With tail between my legs I stuffed my gloves up my jersey and tried to zip it up while trying to clip in. Someone was taking photos of the woman 'sprinting' out of the start. I looked at him an just said "shit!"
Got it together, but no other women were out there. All by myself... don't wanna be... All by myself, anymore. Sure enough, here comes some pro woman terrorist on a red fast bike, like a whirlwind. That woke me up. I chased her until she was so nano tiny I couldn't see her anymore. Then the turn around. Fun, fun, fun, I got to see all my Bellas. First Sue A rippin it up at just under 60 miles per hour. Then my mate, Kate Stewart, then Sue Kahler, then the well warmed up Liz from Cal. I was passed of course by two more woman but tried to stay close all the way back to the finish. Sue Atwood with her speed of almost 60 mph didn't even see me waiting at the finish as she was passing all the traffic. This is a comfortable pace for her being a semi truck driver. Puts her right in the zone. Ruler of the road. Then came Kate, Sue K and Liz. We were ready to go chill with Flat Eric.
Another 30 minute delay for the crit. NOT. Kate and I are signing in with our street clothes on and the woman says, "you know the women's race is starting on time." Oh shit! Here we go again. Kate and I are running through alleys trying to get to the car to get changed so we can get a little warm up and pee. Although I opted to pee in the alley and a postal woman came walking through with her hands full of mail and I jumped up from behind a truck and she dropped her mail so I had to go
back and help her pick it up. A Bella good deed moment. Kate and I stripped down in the parking lot in down town Auburn. No one was impressed. Then we headed out for our warm up. We were warning women hanging out in cars that the race was on time. yikes.
The open women lined up and Gaetane showed up with hubby to cheer us on and of course our main cheerleader 'Madonna' as always was there belting out the motivational cheers. It was so exciting to be lined up with such awesome women riders. I looked around me and wished I had a camera to take pictures of me lined up to ride a crit with these girls. Not the crit itself. Just the start line. That was my moment of glory. My goal for the whole weekend was to ride with the big girls, (not talking butts) the pros, for as long as I could hold on, 2 minutes... 1 minute... Well I hung on for 2 laps and learned so much. I watched every move they made but the pace was above and beyond any level I could ride for 25 minutes straight. Liz and Kate (my mate) hung in there the entire time. You two rock. The rest of us Bellas were lapped 1 time but hung in there and golly gee, we did not get pulled.
Kate used up all her legs for the weekend hanging with the big girls that night and she is my hero. I got to cheer her on when she lapped me. Thats the fun part of being in the back. Sue A and I got to ride the rest of the crit together and at one part heard some church bells. We almost bagged it and went to church to pray for our slow sorry asses. But we figured we had a duty to hold on to our places in this race and that we did. We motivated each other the entire time and finished strong and together.
The road race started late. REALLY. They even switched the order so the women started even later. It was great. We rolled out very fast, of course, because these girls' easy pace is my race pace and about 1 mile into it made a wrong turn. yup. I went the right way and was in the lead. So I waited for everyone to regroup. Where was the camera dammit! Well we rode down Rockefeller along the lake to the first hill which I wasn't even thinking would be a factor. Forgot who I was riding with. This was their first attempt to drop people and it only dropped the baby cat 4's.
Me and Sue. All by ourselves.... don't wanna be.... All by ourselves, anymore. Sue's optimism was at a 10 at that point. I'm like, sure sue, we can catch them. Thinking she must be in serious oxygen debt. So we started working together and we actually were doing pretty good but not catching them. Finally she said to me, "we're not going to catch them." I said, "no Sue, we've been dumped." So we decided to have a fun day and not blow up but try to stay in the race. It's hard when there's no one around. You just start riding like its a fun ride and forget to race pace. We did a lot of that. Sometimes that makes you more tired than having people around to keep you focused. We finally made it to Moravia and we were getting mixed signals from the marshals but went the correct way. whew. Started up Dresserville and I started feeling good. Before we headed back down to the highway Sue was feeling a little wasted and told me to go ahead. Bad idea because 2 minutes later it started hailing and down pouring and I was a little freaked about riding on the highway. Made it to Murphy hill and it was so wet and greasy that my rear tire was slipping so I had to 'tiptoe' up it. Going at a snail pace made my butt cheeks a perfect target for the horse flies. Between trying not to slip and slapping my ass it was quite a site for sore eyes. Once out of the trees the flies split and I was ready to ride hard again.
Everything was going just fine but then I suddenly started thinking I had been on this road for a long time and didn't really recognize anything. My mind started racing. I started slowing down looking back to see if Sue was coming. Though I should go back to see if she was even on this road. Started sweating. I don't even sweat. Started sweating more. Started thinking I might get shot. (Looked a little like Wellsville, where I grew up, they shoot at any moving target) Then I decided I would
ride forward and pick up a highway and find the course again. I had it all figured out and then I came to a little rise in the road, just over the rise were these stupid little arrows, 3 inches long, the official markers for the course and voilà, I was still in the race. So now I had to get my head back together and pound it out again up the last big hill and then the turn on Baptist. I got to the turn and yelled to the corner marshal to wake up from his nap in his car as I made my turn that I knew about from a previous race. I yelled "Thank you, I got it!" "Don't get up on my account." Now to the finish. I only had the 3 hail mary's is what the catholic girls call those hills, but I'm sorry, I know that's not what you are saying when you get to them girls. Actually there are 4 and my mate Kate and I call them, more appropriately the 4 f@#$%^*. And thats just what they are at that point in the race.
The best part of the day was coming to the finish and having Sue K's Bella Fella orchestrate a cheering squad of about 20 people as I came through. In my mind the pros were way behind me by the sound of the cheering. Sue A came in right behind me so I think we hammered those pros Sue! I never saw them, did you? Sue Kahler, alias "Mighty Mouse" had the ride of her life on her home turf and faired very well in the end. Liz came in a little after and Kate behind her. Sue and I did our important job of picking up the rear as we were the brave cat 4 babies that dared to enter. All in all the Bellas had a topsy, turvy day and we all traded places a little but ended up with big smiles on our faces and celebrated with Flat Eric at the end of the day that we all survived without injuries and just some tired, worn out bodies. But still in awe of Super Sue's TT time.
