Wednesday, March 27

Molly's Walla Walla Race Report

There are wayyyyyy too many things to write about for our home race, so I figured that I would bullet out some of my highlights from the week leading up to the home race as well as the race itself.

  • Jenna, Luke, Whitney, and my epic ride up Mill Creek. We ran into hail so bad that we had to take cover under a tree, which we had to abandon about 30 seconds later after we saw a lightning strike. I still have faint spots/welts on my thighs from the hail a week later! I would also just like to mention that the forecast did NOT call for hail or thunder storms.
  • Me screaming and tearing across the Home Depot parking lot in a somewhat delirious state after Luke called 'slug bug'
  • Hosting the lovely Central Washington University cycling team and some of my teammates in my house for the weekend
  • Sweeping corners with Charles in a constant gravel/dust storm
  • Getting to watch Becca stay with our lead Women's B pack for a huge chunk of the race
  • Realizing that I sometimes forget Andi (UI) and Laura (UO) aren't actually my teammates...
  • Finally getting Ryan out to race our home race (it only took 3 years and his sister joining the team...)
  • Being reunited with Lizzy after way too long. I'm so excited to ride with her again!
  • Not being a 'crit pansy' and actually being aggressive and playing a role in the race. This is the first crit in quite awhile that I have taken corners at full speed with the pack and was feeling totally comfortable :)
  • Finally finding someone to draw a unicorn on a pair of pink fleece pants that I've always thought needed a unicorn on them. And it didn't come out in the wash!
  • Acquiring the last of my points needed for an upgrade to the A's/USAC cat 3 (not upgrading for this upcoming weekend though) after losing a lot of them during my asthma-attacking season last year
  • Watching Luke and Berto put on an AWESOME event
  • Not having any lung problems
  • Finishing off a wonderful race weekend only to find that the battery of the suburban hooked to the trailer totally died on us
Love,
Molly

Sweeping SO MUCH gravel off the course


THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, CHARLES!!!!

Artwork by Seth from University of Montana. The pants definitely look like they need a unicorn, right??
Jumping the burb. Not something we really wanted to do after a long race weekend...



Tuesday, March 26

Missionary Omnium 2013 Race Report (HOME RACE!!!)

Last weekend (March 23-24) was our HOME RACE!!! We had a roster of OVER 20 riders, half of which were women, which puts many of the other team's women count to shame. I am just going to post the link to the results because there are so many racer's scores to record and only so much time in a college student's schedule to type them up... So here's that link. There is also a conference race report written by PSU rider, Colin Ross, which can be found here.

Some results highlights include:
  • We had 7 first-time racers this weekend, including Jeff Liu, Jeff Bak, Cam Hancock, Adam Dawson, Ryan Nesbit, Jenna Stanley, and Kristin Nesbit!!!
  • Rose Baunach (freshman) and Logan Thies (senior, first year racer) continue to improve as they start racking up race weekends.
  • Kevin Wallin (freshman) snagged 3rd in his first road race as a Men's C rider.
  • Molly Blust came in 4th in the Women's B road race. 
  • Becca Mellema (freshman) held on to the main pack for a large amount of time and broke into the top ten with a 9th place finish.
  • Whitney Griggs (senior) realized that he likes it when the Men's B and Women's A groups get put into the same race group because he gets to ride with fast ladies :)
  • Luke Ogden (junior) was part of a three-man breakaway that came across the finish line with 3.5 minutes on the peloton in the Men's A road race.
  • Men's A and Women's B TTT groups both took 2nd place finishes
  • Laura Neff (sophomore, first year racer) came in the top ten in the Women's B crit
  • Jenna Stanley (freshman) earned her first points towards the team scoring system with 13th in the Women's B crit
  • Rachel Geiter (junior) made a gutsy and aggressive move off the start line of the Women's A crit
  • Ryan Nesbit (senior) placed 2nd in his first crit in the Men's D field
  • Kevin Wallin took 1st place in the Men's C crit
A HUGE thank you goes out to everybody that helped put on this race weekend. Racers, community members, parents, siblings, Allegro, host houses, spectators, corner marshals, drivers, team members that didn't raced but volunteered all weekend, and everybody else that helped out in one way or another! We honestly cannot thank you enough and the race wouldn't have gone so smoothly without you. A special thank you to Debi Toews for finding us paramedic services to have on site and Cam Benner for coming in as an EMT last minute. We would also like to thank Charles Stanger for helping us blow all of the deadly gravel off of our crit course.

I would also like to give a special shout out to Luke Ogden and Alberto Santos-Davidson. Luke was the race director for this event and did everything from being the contact person for officials and filling out permits with the county to ordering the porta-potties. Alberto found and organized all of the volunteers for the event. THESE GUYS ARE THE BEST.

While the home race is always the most stressful, it is also the race that shows me just how wonderful my teammates and the Walla Walla community are. Thank you guys for all that you do, and here's to a great second part of the race season!

Love,
Molly



Monday, March 25

Kristin's Walla Walla race report


     It was a weekend of firsts. First race, first crash, first ER visit. I had been anticipating this weekend all break and was so excited to finally get back on my bike after a couple of weeks off! I was dropped almost immediately by the Women's B riders, but Rose, Jenna and I stuck together to form our own group and eventually build our own C group peloton. I had an absolute blast getting to know the other girls and working with them to cruise around the course....until I overlapped wheels with another rider and down I went. People usually say that in those situations, time seems to slow down and your life flashes before your eyes. For me, it happened so quickly that all I could think when I saw our wheels cross was "I'm going down," and then I had landed and skidded on my right side on the road. The first thing I saw was my ripped tights and the bloody, mangled mess that was my right knee underneath. Two very nice guys who were riding behind us stopped, helped me up, and waved down a nearby support car which drove me to the start line where the EMTs checked me out. I was surprisingly in very good spirits and was laughing and joking with the EMT as he scrubbed out my knee. They suggested that I get stitches, so my mom drove me to the ER, and the entire car ride there I was just blabbing on about this and that - probably due to shock and the adrenalin rush. Luckily, nothing was broken and the doctor said that I didn't really need stitches, but that the wound would heal and scab over on its own. As the shock wore off, the pain and stiffness increased. I didn't want to feel completely useless, so I continued to help out with and cheer on the team throughout the rest of the weekend - plus moving around helped keep my knee from stiffening up. 
     SO, it wasn't the best way to start my racing season right off the bat with a crash, but I had so much fun hanging out with the team and eating a ton of food. I LOVE the cycling atmosphere because everyone is just so nice and supportive. I can't wait to get back on my bike and experience the thrill of finishing a race!

Kristin

Wednesday, March 20

Willamette Race Results

We had our first wet weekend of the season, with rain during the afternoon road races on Saturday and a wet road for the crit on Sunday. The team took on a fairly flat road race course and a technical crit course full of corners.

Our home race is this coming weekend, so lots of prep work is being done this week! Check out our race flyer here.

Full results can be found here.

Right now it looks like we have upwards of 20 Whitman riders coming to the race this weekend so look for a VERY full results report after this weekend!

Love,
Molly


Willamette University Collegiate Race
March 16-17, 2013
Road Race:
      Men A: 
            Luke Ogden (junior): 9th: Luke is getting a lot more comfortable in the Men's A pack and stayed with them to come in with the main pack!
      Women A:
            Rachel Geiter (junior): 7th: Rachel stayed with the Women's A pack through an extremely wet road race! 
      Men B: 
            Whitney Griggs (senior): After getting drenched and solo TTing for awhile, Whitney made the smart decision to come in early. We would rather not let Whitney and his 0% body fat get sick from the cold and wet conditions. 
      Women B:
            Molly Blust (senior): 3rd
            Rose Baunach (freshman): 12th: Rose earned her first 5 points for the team! Woohoo!
     Men D:
            Kevin Wallin (freshman): 2nd: Kevin continued his absolute domination of the D field!
            Logan Thies (senior): 19th: Logan completed his first road race! 

TTT: 
     Cancelled due to rain, cold, and miserable conditions in general. Kevin wanted us to go out anyway. Don't worry - we didn't.

Crit:
     Men A: 
            Luke: 14th
     Women A:
           Rachel: 7th: Rachel went down on the last lap - she still finished the race and escaped with some road rash. Rachel is looking stronger and stronger in the women's A pack.     Men B:
            Whitney: 15th     Women B:
            Molly: 11th
            Rose: 13th    
     Men D:
            Kevin: 1st
            Logan: 17th

TEAM STANDINGS:
Whitman: 179pts
Overall: 6th place
DII: 2nd place behind Western Washington University (283 pts)

Thursday, March 14

Becca's OSU race report (Crit)


Woman’s C racers line up to the line. I roll up next to Rose. She’s beaming; this is her first Crit and she couldn’t be more excited to put the pedal to the metal today, despite our sore thighs from yesterday’s Road Race and TTT.  I smile weakly back, mainly due to the fact that racing with Rachel, Molly, and her the day before had built up more lactic acid in my legs than I cared to admit. Oh dear, I thought. This is going to be a VERY painful Crit.

As the race official begins reading off our names, Luke weaves in between the other bikes and gives Mackinzie, Rose, and me a few high fives. “You’re going to do awesome, ladies!”  I give him thumbs up, trying-but failing- to hide how uncomfortable those stomach butterflies were making me.  I set my hands on my handle bars and wait for that whistle:

“TWEEEEEET!”

And off we went. I pushed off and clipped in… or tried to clip in. The bloody clips weren’t going in! “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said as the peloton raced off ahead of me. (At least I didn’t try to take someone out during this process like yesterday during the roll-out start).  Try again—nope. Try again—nope. Try again—yes! (It wouldn’t be until a few days later that I discovered that that particular clip was actually missing a vital screw. Apparently, it wasn’t simply user issues).  

I spent the first part of the race simply catching up to people. About ten minutes in, I saw a racer ahead of me, whom I recognized to be one of the girls I had drafted and pulled with the day before in the Road Race. I caught up to her, and as I passed her, she slipped in behind me to draft. Now, for any of you who have not raced, the adrenaline pumping through your body at this point is incredibly high. Your filter for every day conversation vanishes, and you find that you yell really loudly to communicate. So, rather than telling her, “We should take turns pulling”, I screamed at the top of my lungs, “IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE PULLED, YOU’D BETTER PULL TOO!” And with that, she dropped off.  I wouldn’t feel guilty about yelling at her until after the race.

Towards the end, I caught up with a group of girls. I was feeling strong, and due to my apparent overdose of adrenaline, cocky, so I tried to pass everyone. Not my brightest idea. All of them started drafting off of me, and I was too stubborn to let them pull. I can do this. I can totally shake them. Hmm. I’m starting to get tired. This is getting harder than I thought. At the last lap, the girls passed me with little effort. Lesson for today: Don’t pull continuously like a fool.

After cooling down and wiping away the sweat, I made my way over to the results. I read, “12, Mellema, 307, WC, 1…” Wait, what? “I got a point?” I whispered? A point, a single point. That’s as much as a penny, yet it was enough to send me running to Rachel and Rose, whooping, “IgotapointIgotapointIgotapoint!”  Nothing like a good crit to get you excited about everything in life, even when your legs feel like jello.

OSU Race Report

Hey All,

Apologies for the late race report! Spring break seems to equal a delay in anything and everything, including homework and sending out race reports. We had a pretty small group again since this was our first weekend of spring break. Look for our numbers to skyrocket in a couple weeks when we have our home race!

A big thanks to Debi Toews for chaperoning! Debi has a great sense of humor and is so helpful - we can't wait to have her with us again for our race in Seattle in a few weeks!

We would also like to extend a big fat thank you to Zach (OSU racer), Ben (OSU racer), and Victor for hosting us this last weekend. Thanks for the hospitality, nonstop stories, laughter, and cheering at the race! We really appreciate it :)

Also, don't forget to check us out on Facebook (Whitman Cycling) and Twitter (@WhitmanCycling). We have some great photos up on our Facebook page that will hopefully be put up on our website soon! A HUGE thanks to Becca for taking such stellar photos! It's great having someone on the team that loves taking photos and puts in the time to go through and edit them all!

Tomorrow we head to Salem for our race hosted by Willamette University!


Oregon State University Collegiate Race
March 9-10, 2013
Road Race:
      Men A: 
            Luke Ogden (junior): 13th 
      Women A:
            Rachel Geiter (junior): 10th: This was Rachel's first race of the season, and first A race. The A peloton is STACKED this year and it is awesome that the women all get to race in such a competitive and experienced field.
      Men B: 
            Whitney Griggs (senior): 17th
      Women B:
            Molly Blust (senior): 3rd
      Women C:
             Mackinzie Stanley (freshman): 2nd
             Becca Mellema (freshman): 13th
             Rose Baunach (freshman): 23rd - this was Rose's first race! She was AWESOME!


TTT: 
     Men A: 7th
          Big shout out to Whitney and Mackinzie, who were pulled up to the Men's A TTT because of our small racer numbers!      
     Women A: 4th
           Becca, Rose, Rachel, and I made up the women's A TTT. Becca and Rose were AWESOME and worked  their butts off to finish with Rachel and me. Props to you two for hanging with the group and pushing yourselves past your limit. Rachel was an outstanding motivator. She really shines during the TTT's because of her ability to motivate those around her.

Crit:
     Men A: 
            Luke is going to be back in those pack sprints soon but got a lot of great practice riding in the peloton and learning to trust the wheels in the men's A peloton that he hasn't ridden with before.
    Women A:
           Rachel Geiter: 5th
           The women's A and B crit was combined. Rachel avoided a crash that took down three riders, one of which was able to keep riding afterwards (Rachel Dana, OSU). The women's peloton called the race after the crash and places were given according to placing on the last preme lap. Healing thoughts are being sent to Leia Tyrell (OSU) and Maire Osborn (UO). Both girls are ok and we will hopefully be seeing them in Salem this weekend! 
     Men B:
            Whitney Griggs: 17th 
     Women B:
            Molly: 3rd 
     Women C:
            Mackinzie: 3rd
            Becca: 12th, which earned Becca her first collegiate points! Way to go!
            Rose: 21st

TEAM STANDINGS:
Whitman: 140pts
Overall: 6th place
DII: 2nd place behind Western Washington University (203 pts)
   

Alberto's race report from U of O (March 2-3)


First Race Weekend as an A!

I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on my first race in the Men’s A field.  I was a bit nervous leading into the weekend because I had never raced at this level before.  I had seen how fast they were but still didn’t know how it would feel from within the race.  I was also really excited because my parents and my brother were going to be there!

The Road race started off very quickly up the first little climb.  I was surprised by how hard they went right off the gun.  Apparently some gaps opened up within the first half mile, with one person almost getting dropped!  I was comfortable sitting in the pack as we neared the main climb on the course.  It’s around 4 miles long, and is fairly steep in a couple of places.  Sure enough, about halfway up the climb I began to loose contact with the split.  I had seen people getting shelled earlier, so I knew that there were people behind me.  I kept as high of a tempo as I could and tore down the descent with the group occasionally in sight up ahead.  Part way down the descent my chain fell off of my cassette and got a bit jammed between the cassette and the frame.  I managed to get it out but was hesitant to use my biggest gear for the rest of the race.

Flying down the descent.  Right before my chain jumped off.


I never caught the lead group, but I ended up joining a few other guys and we kept on going.  We started off as four, but by the end there were seven of us.  The last time up the climb a few of the guys in the group were stronger than me and got away.  I came to the finishing climb with two other guys.  My legs were close to cramping completely so I decided to try and ride the other guys off my wheel rather than attack hard.  Luckily they were pretty tired because I was able to distance them without too much difficulty, and the cramps only hit right before I crossed the line.

The TTT sucked.  That’s all.  Kevin (a very strong freshman) had only raced 16 miles in the D’s that morning.  I had raced almost 60.  Kevin practically ripped my legs of in the TTT.

I was very excited for the crit.  I am a fairly good bike handler so I can normally hold my own in crits.  I hear that the A’s usually attack hard from the gun so I was ready for a fast start.  And it was fast!  However, I felt good.  I was moving around well, and none of the surges put me on the back foot.  Around ten minutes in there was a lull in the pace.  In front of me some people overlapped wheel and the guy directly in front of me went down.  I didn’t have time to react, crashed into him and went over the bars.

Before I crashed in the crit


That was my first ever crash on my road bike.  I have crashed many times on mountain bikes and cross bikes, but that was my first road crash.  Initially my breath was knocked out of me, but I got that back rather quickly.  I thought I was fine besides a little road rash.  During the car ride home, I was feeling very sore.  Especially on my right side (where I had landed).

Walking back to the cars with my brother after my crash.


My friends convinced me to go to the health center once we were back at Whitman.  The nurse I saw thought I was fine.  A few days later I began vomiting, and the pain in my side was worse because of the vomiting.  I returned to the health center, and the doctor sent me to get x-rays.  Turns out I had cracked a rib and that the broken rib caused the vomiting!

So, my spring break plans had to be cancelled.  I had been planning on doing the training camps and racing all break, but that was no longer a possibility.  So I bought a plane ticket home.

Yesterday I went for my first real ride a week and a half after the crash.  The weather was amazing.  It was hovering around 80F the entire time!  My ribs hurt while standing and pedaling, breathing deeply, or whenever I hit a bump, but it was manageable.  I think I will be able to ride gently the next couple of weeks!  And I hope to be racing again shortly!

Thanks for reading!

Alberto

Thursday, March 7

U of O- Mackinzie's race report


            I just want to start out with how incredibly FUN the race weekend was!!! The food was incredible (nutritious and delicious), the 6 hour long car ride on the way back probably generated to most laughter/time interval in my entire life, there was so much green and so many hills, and I was so inspired by watching all my teammates race and hearing the cheering squads while I raced.
This was my first time racing road and I had no idea what to expect or how the whole weekend schedule would turn out. I was excited for sure and didn’t really feel any pressure, but it was still something new and I was like ‘three races in one weekend…?’
            The road race started off at a reasonable pace, just cruising down the road while the field sorted itself out. Then we hit the first hill and I make the rookiest move, dropping a chain while shifting, and then somehow found myself unable to shift it back on. So I hopped off my bike quick, fixed the chain and got back on just in time to follow the last rider up the hill before the follow car caught up. I put out a hard effort then to catch back up to the lead group, knowing that I couldn’t let them get away and it would be easier once I caught up and could draft again. Once with the lead group, we hung together mostly until the big hill in the middle of the lap and I realized how stressful it is to race in a pack of other people. You never know when they might make a move or if you’re in a good position. And just being surrounded by other riders of questionable handling skills kept me constantly on the alert. As we reached the climb, girl from ID struck out off the front and I followed. I didn’t manage to quite keep up, but I kept her in sight up the winding ascent, kept up a good pace and I think even started to reel her in by the end of the climb. She reached the downhill ahead of me and I never really saw her after that. (It was downhill all the way to the finish line except for the last short steep punch.) I felt good after the race though and finished 2nd so that was awesome.
Later that day, about 40 minutes before the start of the TTT, I decided I’d better get up from my huddled position in the trailer and start getting ready. It turns out that sitting or standing in the damp and the cold for hours isn’t a great strategy for staying warm so the TTT was a great excuse to work up a little body heat. Molly, Luke and Alberto all have plenty more to say about this particular TTT ;) but I will remark that while I’m told TTT’s are supposed to be flat, this one experience would lead me to believe otherwise..
            I was probably the most nervous for the crit the next day, but it ended up being the icing on the cake (if I ate cake and liked icing). I started out by positioning myself near the front, paying attention to the speeding up that was happening near the start/finish line. When a prime lap came up, instead of fighting the lead girl for the points, I just followed her at a slightly more reasonable output of energy and then sprinted around her as soon as she started slowing down. When I looked back after the corner, she wasn’t right behind me so I put my head down and basically time trialed the rest of the way in to a solo win.
            A HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed to making this past race weekend happen and to those who keep the entire team running, especially Molly and Luke-I don’t know how they do it, but I’m impressed! Looking forward to the next race weekend, which is coming up real quick. Thanks for reading!!

Mackinzie