Team Velo Girls scored two more wins this weekend -- Emily Weinert in a dramatic battle at the Pine Flat Road Race and Thea Stein in a wet and muddy mountain bike race at CCCX #1 -- along with multiple top-ten finishes at Cantua Creek Road Race.
Coach's note: I was driving support for the W4 race at Pine Flat, and I have never seen a more dramatic hilltop finish. I've still got chills thinking about the last 200 meters!
Here's Emily's race report for Pine Flat:
It was an awesome weekend of racing and I'm so proud of the whole team!!!
The morning of the Pine Flat Road Race started out so-so - it wasn't raining, but no one was super pumped to get back on their bikes again after working so hard at Cantua Creek the day before. There were only 6 racers in the W4 race - Dana, Jill, Vanessa, and I, representing Velo Girls, and two Christines, one from the Reno Wheelmen and the other was unattached (and doing her first race). Everyone but unattached Christine had raced Cantua Creek and was talking about using Pine Flat as a training ride.
The race started out with a promenade up a ridiculously steep hill, which pretty much killed your legs by the top. We then headed out on our out and back along the lake with some beautiful views. We were all pretty much together until after the turnaround (~12 mi), after which unattached Christine started picking up the pace. Reno Christine went with her, so I figured I'd try to hang with them and tucked in behind unattached Christine. After a few miles, we started a rotating paceline and rode along at a pretty good clip.
There was an awesome downhill ~25miles - it was really fast, with nice wide turns so I didn't even need to touch my brakes (and I nearly caught up to the guy who had blown by us), which was super fun. Then, the course got unpleasant. We spent about the next 10-15miles riding along fields and orange groves with nasty winds. By the time we turned onto Rivebend Rd. and headed towards the hills (and into a lovely gusting cross wind), the only one who seemed the least bit fresh was unattached Christine. The roads were pretty flat, except for these very unpleasant, small, steep hills every couple of miles that sucked the life out of your legs.
Finally, around mile 50 (~13 miles to go), we hit the beginning of the big hills and unattached Christine took off. Within a few seconds we couldn't see her anymore, so I figured it was down to a race for second place and I just tried to spin as hard a gear as I could. The hills started as nasty rollers that punished your legs on the way up and then gave you barely enough recovery to tackle the next one.
Somewhere in there Lorri and Yari (who were driving SAG for us) drove by and yelled that I could catch unattached Christine, to which I grumbled something about her fresh legs and thought some rather profane things in my head. But, soon after, I finally saw Christine on the road ahead for the first time in over ten miles (and many minutes, since I was crawling along). When I finally glimpsed her, she was passing a guy from Touchstone Climbing, so I tried to pick up the pace to catch him (she still seemed way too far off).
Unfortunately, about half a mile down the road was where the hill really kicked in. My Garmin was having some issues, so I don't know if the measured grade was real, but it was definitely felt/looked like 10+% and just went on and on. I actually promised myself that I could get off my bike when I hit a garbage can at the top of a particularly nasty part of the grade, but somehow I managed to keep myself upright and (sort of) moving forward. But the whole way up the hill, I made up ground on Christine and by the time we hit the summit, I was only a couple hundred meters behind her.
We then started a big descent followed by lots of flats and gentle descents through beautiful farmland with snow on the sides of the road. I lost sight of Christine again, since she had flown down the backside of the hill, so I just tried to push as hard as I could and figured that even if I got second, I'd try to leave everything I had on the course.
A little before the 1km sign, we started climbing again and I slowly started reeling her in. As the hill climbed on and on, I made up more and more ground on the gap and finally, with 200m to go, I pulled even with her. At which point, she sprinted past me and I thought it was all over, but I just pedaled as hard as I could (I had been in my easiest granny gear for a long time at this point), and tried to make up ground.
With about 100m to go, I heard someone screaming at Christine that this was the finish, and I just tried to sprint as hard as I could (I don't think I really made it out of the saddle, but all my memories from this point on are a little hazy). I passed her with ~75-100m to go and just tried to hold on. I'm sure it was terrible to watch, with the two of us locked up and grimacing, battling it out at 5 mph (or slower, I don't even know). But I just kept trying to keep the pedals turning over and was completely bent over the handlebars, willing the bike forward.
And somehow, I managed to cross the line first. I think that Christine had given up/burnt out and crossed the line 15+ seconds back. So, that was pretty much the whole race. After chasing Christine for more than 10 miles, I caught her with 200 meters to go, and we battled it out to the finish.
I spent a considerable amount of time at the top of the hill leaning over my handlebars, trying to breathe and be able to stand up, before spinning back to the starting line (which was over 8 miles away - I definitely reconsidered that choice on the way back). Reno Christine took third and Dana gritted through all the pain from her crash at Cantua and battled up the hills to take fourth.
