Race Report: Tuesdays at the Oval

Tonight was my first race at the Bud Harris oval here in Pittsburgh.  Every Tuesday in the summer, the ACA holds a criterion series, which people absolutely love, but I've never even gone to watch as I've always been out riding my bike during this time.  (I have pretty great Team Decaf attendance).

I am registered to race in the Steel City Showdown this coming Sunday with a few of my teammates, and I am absolutely terrified.  There are 4 corners in a lap of this race, and not only do I have zero experience racing in a crit, I can't corner.  It doesn't matter how strong or badass or powerful I am, one turn of the corner and the pack will be up there and I will be back there.  Well, at least this is what I feel a criterion with corners will be like.  So clearly racing the oval tonight was priority.

Well, I can say that I had no idea what was going on.  Upon reflection, I still am not sure I know what was going on.  First off, they had us women racing with these juniors, so you really have to get over the astonishment of having some 60 pound girl on a bike that looks too big for her riding next to you, or pace lining on these little bitty wheels of some intense looking kid.  Right as I was getting to the warm up loop, Kamden runs up and gives me a coach-like pep talk.  It went something like "grab a wheel!".  So the race started and I naturally grabbed Kim's wheel.  I have absolutely ridden behind Kim's wheel on that oval more than anyone's by a factor of a lot.  Plus, Kim is really smart.  A good chunk of bike stuff I know is because she told it to me.  Mary was riding next to us yelling tips at me, like "Pedal in the turns!".  I was just coasting and totally not keeping "a line".  So we'd get to a turn and she'd start yelling "pedal pedal pedal!".

Since I have no oval picture, here is one of my ass

 I spent half the race sitting there, until it looked like Kim was getting tired pulling me around.  (At this point, I didn't grasp the idea that everyone was in one big pace line.  Or maybe we were a mess and that didn't happen until later?  I don't know!)  So, I thought I was giving Kim a rest by trying to go in front of her, and after that I had no idea what was going on.  I do know that around lap 10 I started getting much much better at staying in line around the corners.

At some point with 2 or 3 laps to go, I ended up in front of the pace line.  My turn had come, which was great, except that I have NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING!!  I never actually figured out what to do: I was saved by a group of boys "making a play" and sprinting up together.  Then I was just like la la la I'm riding my bike.  This girl from Steel City Endurance who I do not know saved my butt and answered every single one of my stinking questions.  Saying stuff like "get over there" or "I'm off", which apparently means I'm not on the pace line so don't draft off me.  Even on the last loop, when I asked "Is this when everyone starts sprinting?", she answered my question.  ("Not until the last corner usually".)  So, I finished in who knows where in who knows how much time, now knowing that I now have an idea of what kind of questions to ask Thursday when we do skills.

I also learned that people at the oval are really nice, no one gets mad at you for being clueless, and so you shouldn't be scared.   I'll end this with a "Holla" out at Rick from Steel City Endurance for winning the dude race after us.