Corner Brook BG World Cup Race Report ~ Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada ~ July 23, 2006
I discovered the hard way that you don’t race well every time. After a very disappointing, all-around bad race, I will just write this report, think about things I need to fix, and move on. I have lots of races coming up where I can race better. I did get points that all add up for my ranking for the Olympics so it wasn’t a complete waste of time, effort, and money.
Corner Brook is a beautiful, tree-filled, hilly town in Newfoundland. The hilly course is known as the most challenging on the World Cup circuit. The 6 lap bike course begins with a steep climb, then descends a long hill, goes along a flat, windy section along the bay, then turns around to climb back up the hills. The 4 lap run is never flat – it’s up and down some steep hills. I trained pretty hard to prepare for this course and it is very disappointing that those tough hours of training didn’t pay off like I had hoped.
I did a better job managing my pre-race stress this time. My bike didn’t arrive until the day after I arrived so I only rode the course once before the race. I was a lot less nervous than before my other races this season too, and I focused on staying positive and excited about the race rather than feeling terrified under the pressure.
We awoke to gray, cool, drizzling weather on race morning. We didn’t race until noon so I spent the morning getting ready without rushing. I was feeling very confident and excited to race. I rode down to the course, checked in my bike, got my numbers tattooed on, and set up my transition area. I ran a warmup this time because I wanted to feel warmed up for the long run up the steep hill into transition (a 2-3 minute transition period!). We all got into our wetsuits and I swam one lap of the 3 lap course for a warmup and noticed the water was significantly colder than the days before. I got pretty chilled after that since we have to stand around for 15-20 minutes while they line us up. I was 3rd to last in line, a pretty bad start position but I don’t think it mattered much.
I had an alright start and took off hard as usual and I remember thinking to myself to be aggressive in the water. A girl to my right (ranked lower) started pulling ahead and I had to make a decision whether to move over to my left to get in behind the big group or go behind her in the more open water. I decided to move left. Maybe I spent too much time moving to the side trying to get into a comfortable position, but it was pretty rough in that spot – lots of water in my face and mouth when I tried to breathe, plus my wetsuit seemed to constrict my throat a lot. I was anxious about staying in the middle of the group I was in. After the next two buoys it strung out and I wasn’t in the middle of the group anymore. I was still at the end of the group when we started the next lap but after that turn I saw that I had let a gap open up.
A sense of urgency surged through me and I went as hard as I could to get back on the group. A tall girl was right next to me and I started pulling ahead of her and I was thinking, why isn’t she worried about getting back up with the group?? As we finished the second lap I could see a smaller group off the back of the big one but there was no way I could close the gap to them. I started thinking about the transition and my plan for running up the hill. Since I was the first out of the water in my group I knew I’d be controlling the pace up the hill so as I ran up the stairs I started stripping my wetsuit. Once I got it halfway off I ran as hard as I could up the hill. The girls behind me couldn’t keep up and I left them behind, hopped on my bike, hearing in transition that I was 20 seconds from the small group ahead. Since I was by myself, I decided to put my shoes on before I started climbing the steep hill.
On the way back down the hill, I caught a girl who stayed with me on the flat section. I wanted to move up and catch the group ahead of us but the gap was widening. The girls behind us were catching us… I knew there were some strong cyclists there so I didn’t kill myself on the headwind section after the turnaround on the flat. The group of about 5 girls caught us coming up the hill. Going into the 2nd bike lap, I knew it was going to be a very long bike ride with such a small group. Out of the 7 of us, only 3 or 4 were working. Carfrae tried getting away from us a couple times and it hurt a lot but I’d always bring the group back to her. I couldn’t manage to accelerate enough on my own to just bridge alone and maybe be able to break away with her.
On the start of the 4th lap I heard Barry Shepley announce that the girl riding by herself at the back had caught our group. I was impressed: that means she was pretty strong. She rode with us for a bit and then unexpectedly she attacked at the bottom of the long hill finishing the 4th lap. 3 girls from my group jumped right on it and I knew I had to go with them, but I couldn’t climb hard enough to accelerate with them. I think maybe since I had had such a bad race already that I felt like it didn’t matter if I let them go. I guess I didn’t think it could get any worse, maybe. But, after seeing the results I know I should have sucked it up and just gone with them because I probably would have run faster, too.
So I tried to catch back up on the descent. I made up a lot of time, and when I hit the flat section I knew it was my last chance before the headwind. I gave it a huge effort but couldn’t get with them before the turnaround. So they were gone and putting more distance on me. Riding alone, it was very hard to focus on riding hard the whole time. I was very pissed off at myself for performing so badly. I took my shoes off too early, then rode into transition alone, unsure of how much time they had put on me. (Turns out it was about 2 minutes!)
I had a pretty crappy transition (22nd fastest) and then took off running after a Canadian who caught me in transition. She took off pretty fast, the course starts with a long descent. On all the descents I tried my best to make my legs go as fast as I could make them. I was slapping the pavement really hard even though I tried to land on my forefeet more. I was running up the hills pretty well, good form, running on my forefeet better, keeping shorter strides and a high cadence. I passed the Canadian as soon as we started to climb. I felt really good on the run actually, but it was hard to push myself because I was so far behind and because no one was around me. I caught 2 more girls by the end of my 2nd lap. It was frustrating because the hills were killing my rhythm… my heart rate and breathing rate would drop a ton on the descent but on the climbs it’d get way back up there. When I finished, I wasn’t wasted, in fact I didn’t hurt that much at all. I knew I pushed pretty hard into the finish though because its uphill and it hurt a lot but maybe I didn’t make it hurt enough.
So that was my race. I feel like it wasn’t myself racing out there. I really was trying to stay positive but it seemed like everything just wasn’t going my way and it was really hard to not let that get to me.
