As this is my second full year racing in the Southeast, I'm starting to get a handle on what the good races are, most of which I missed last year!  The circuit race at the Barber Motorsports Park is definitely one of the races I'd heard about.  

I was excited to go this year with my new team, especially after having a good race the week before at Tuscaloosa.  Several of the NashvilleCyclist.com girls and boys made the trip down to Leeds, AL this past weekend for the opportunity to race a crit-like circuit race at the motorsports track.  The race is run on the track, a 2.3 mile circuit, and is run based on number of laps, not miles. The races are short, 45-60 min, and feel like a crit in terms of intensity.

Nashvillecyclist.com was well represented, as was our bike sponsor, Blue Competition Cycles, fielding racers on RC8s in the women 4s and 1,2,3s as well as the masters 30+, 40+, P,1,2s & 3s, and even women in the men 4s race!  I travelled down with Marsha White, Laura Reinert, and a new-to-racing friend, Kyle Sharow; Ginger Wade met us there from Auburn. Kyle, unfortunately, so far has proven to be a rain-magnet.

The morning started off with the cat 4 women, with Laura representing us- relying on the mantra, “What Would Patrick Do?” she pulled out a 4th place finish despite some crazy winds and no other teammates!  The 1, 2, 3 women were next, followed by the cat 5 men.  The wind was really getting going and we decided it would be a tough race for a break to succeed.  Nonetheless, Ginger attacked from the start, managed to get back on when we caught her, and then took turns with me pushing the pace on the hills. There were a couple good attacks - one I burned a match and managed to go with, getting a decent gap, but the dog gone girl sat up despite my REALLY wanting to get a break going! The other two either Marsha or I covered, using a few more matches.  Kyle was racing the cat 5 men right after our race- did I mention he was a rain magnet?  With 2 laps to go the rain started, and started pouring the last lap. Take a look at our post-race picture to see some wet smurfs!

Ginger Wade, Marsha White & Alli Greening post-race

With one lap to go we were still all together; Jen Schuble went to the front and hammered the last lap in an attempt to hold off sprints.  I sat on her wheel until the last turn, where I attacked thinking I'd get caught and Marsha could counter and win.  I figured Jen would blow and be out of the picture.  Instead, Jen turned it up another whole notch and won! Marsha pulled out a 2nd and I got back on and snuck around a couple women for 5^th J.  The bummer was that I had banked on Jen blowing after pulling the last lap; had I realized she was that strong I would have just stayed on her with Marsha on my wheel and led out Marsha - stupid hindsight! Other than our inability to predict the future, I think we were all pretty darn happy with our race!

Still high on endorphins, Laura and I decided to see how long we could hang with the cat 4 men in the afternoon.  We lined up with 50 of our new friends at the line, relieved to see familiar faces in Brad Wormer, from Harpeth, and Max Gander from the Moonstone/Tristar junior team.  Not surprisingly, the race was fast from the start and full of faster surges.  At the end of first lap a group of 5 guys swung out wide and attacked hard, and I, still salty about not getting in the break earlier in the day, tried to go with them.  After about a 1/10th of a second I realized that wasn't going to happen - in fact I was getting dropped like a rock from the whole race.  Bummer!  I consoled myself that at least the weather was nice, and then dug super deep, burned a whole book of matches, and caught back on!!  The race had several more huge surges, I burned one match to go with each one, wondering how long I could keep this up; especially given the eat-your-bars puke-pace speed we were holding in between the surges!  I kept thinking I was so done, one more surge and I'd blow sky high. Finally I decided to just ride like I had a full book of matches as long as I was there - no holding back, a decision which served me well and I need to apply to all my races!  Check out the serene look on Laura’s and my faces!

Laura Reinert & Alli Greening racing with Cat 4 men

As you can imagine 50 squirrels, er, uh, cat 4 guys, going as fast as they could was a little sketchy!  Laura was riding like a pro - up in there holding her wheel like she'd been doing this forever. If there was an opening in the pack she put herself in it - so proud of her! Some guy crossed wheels with me - I felt something rubbing up against my rear wheel followed by someone behind me saying, "Nice save!" as the guy managed to stay upright AND not put his skewer into my spokes J.  Later in the race, with a lap and a half left a guy lost it going around a corner, un-clipped, skated across the track on one cleat, and then somehow managed to stay upright and get going again.  

Everyone attacked hard when this happened, and I was done, for real, kaput.  I was able to hang onto another dropped guy, and managed to give him a run for his money for the sprint.  Laura was in better position and was able to hang with the pack one more lap, until a bad crash really mixed things up.  In amongst the sketchiness I found some baggage I had hidden away - not a lot, just a small handbag, or maybe a rucksack. The first corner was a fast, downhill 180 with a bunch of guys - the last time I did a hairpin turn on a descent it ended with a helicopter ride that I don't remember, and never will.  This was a couple years ago, and I thought I was over it.  As we went into the corner I sat up, went wide, and came out of the corner at the back of the pack, surprising myself with my apparent inability to corner.  Each corner I got a little braver, working through that hidden away post-wreck baggage, and by halfway through I was counter steering, jamming my weight down through my outside leg, dropping my inside knee, and trusting my sew-up glue, just like old times!  I actually realized I hadn't really cornered that hard in a couple years, and was enjoying it!

The men had a good day as well, though I was only able to watch the 30+ race, arguably the most painful race of the day, where we got both Tim and Patrick in the break – go NashvilleCyclist.com!

** All photos courtesy of Marsha White **