Ever wonder how cool it would be to race a criterium with loads of spectators standing behind barricades, banging on the advertiser’s boards, and yelling your or your team’s name?

What if the whole race is broadcast live on a huge screen at the start/finish and being streamed on the Internet? Some of the boys and girls in baby blue found out at the Sunny King Criterium.

Alli Greening, Laura Reinert, and I traveled to Alabama for Sunny King and the Inaugural Foothills Classic Road Race. We were excited about racing on the same crit course the pros would tear up that evening. The event proved to be very well organized with large competitive fields. Unfortunately, the pollen count was too high for most allergy sufferers in the Southeast, and this had quite an affect on the Smurfettes.

Photo by Brad Wormer

About 30 women lined up to start the women cat 3/4 race. The course was rectangle with four turns and a long uphill with a tailwind through a straight finish. The pace was high from the gun. Alli attacked at the line, but they called a prime lap and she didn’t get away. I had a rough start and ended up in terrible position fighting to make up ground. Laura was mixing it up and being aggressive for most of the race. I felt a little sketchy, especially in the corners. The last time I was at this race I crashed out and later wondered if that had anything to do with my bizarre unsteadiness on the bike. Two or three more primes were called and I’m sure Zoe Frazier, a junior from Frazier Cycling got them all - nothing like being schooled by a teenager.

Both of my teammates had a bonfire raging in their lungs and I didn’t have the position or the legs to make it to the front to challenge the sprint. I guess racers have a bad day sometimes - the legs or lungs aren’t there, or the aggressiveness and confidence isn’t. This was that kind of day for the Smurfettes. The women were scored separately. Laura came away with 9^th cat 4, Alli with 9^th cat 3, and I was 4^th cat 3. Our results sound pretty good, but we all felt like we did not have anything near what one could call a good race. We were evidently unable to channel the energy of Patrick Harkins and follow our team mantra of WWPD.

NashvilleCyclist.com had four strong racers competing in the 116-man cat 2/3 field. With every passing lap, we cheered for Neil Fronheiser, Brent Mahan, Mathew Meunier, and Jason Shields. Unfortunately, our guys didn’t fare so well either in the as none finished due to crashes and such. The two that crashed ended up being ok, no ER trip needed, but Jason is out yet another helmet.  

The next day we headed out for the Foothills Classic Road race. About 20 racers toed the line to start in the chilly morning air. I knew the first 25 miles or so were pretty flat but I fully expected to get dropped as soon as the hills started.  I wanted to try to do something to set my teammates up for doing well in the hills. This was a cat 3/4 race with no pros, no cat 1s, but when I looked down my average speed for the first hour was 23mph! There were quite a few attacks that first hour. Alli and Laura were up front mixing it up. I was sitting near the back, but always managed to be in a position where I didn’t have to bridge or make up ground when someone got popped off the back due to the blistering pace.

The front group whittled down to twelve women. We were moving along at a good pace when a junior in front of me dropped her chain and was unable to get it back on. Her teammate was next to her and I had a feeling something bad was about to happen, so I rode on the yellow line to go around the ever-slowing girls. She fell over and I got relegated to the back of the field for moving up by crossing the yellow line. I sat on the back for quite awhile, not being bitter or stewing, because I knew the official was just trying to keep me safe.

We got to a section of downhills and I ended up on the front. Normally I love bombing down a hill, but not this time because I could feel my back tire getting low. I didn’t have a flat, but it was definitely feeling a little squishy. Then at about mile 45 THE hill came. It was about a mile long and started steep, then leveled out a bit, and ended with a painful steep section at the top. Two girls got away. One more bridged and got away. Then another two before one last girl got away. I tried to telepathically channel WWPD to Alli to make her go, but there was nothing either of us could do.

Alli and I made it over the hill with Elizabeth Brady from Headstrong. Elizabeth pulled strongly and bridged up to Jennifer Walz of Colavita. I knew what I had to do when I saw we were about to catch Jennifer. With about three miles of racing left, I attacked as if demons were chasing me. I looked back, had a good gap, and tried to settle in. After a few minutes it was evident the headwind was just too strong for me to hold it as the group of three caught me. Alli counter-attacked perfectly just as I was getting caught. But that wind was ferocious. I jumped on the back of the other two as they pulled me up to Alli. She and I quietly discussed what we would do as we approached the last kilometer.  Alli attacked with the finish line in sight way down the road.  I countered with a very early sprint for 6^th place. Alli got 9^th. Teammates working together is such a beautiful thin.

Our men had some great races too. Mathew came away with a 2^nd place finish. Neil put in some good efforts early and seemed pretty excited about his pack finish on such a hilly course.  Brent had the privilege of racing a bunch of continental pros and got 3^rd out of the field sprint.

Never in a million years would I have thought I would make it to the final climb with the front group. Did five leaders leave me on that final climb never to be seen again? Yes.  Did I, a “non-climber”, make it over what seemed like a thousand rollers and small hills and false flats with the front group? Yes! I learned some things about myself in this race, but one thing Tim wrote to me in an email last week really stands out, “…be confident that you’re a freakin’ strong rider!!”  Yes.