Snelling Road Race and Merced Criterium
23-24 February 2008

Who raced: Holly Borowski

Holly's report on the Snelling Road Race:
Location: Snelling, California
Course: Flat to rolling, extremely windy
Field: Team High Road, Proman, Tibco, many strong local teams
# starters: 60-70
Place: DNF (but helped teammate get into the winning break to finish 4th!)
Distance: 63.2 (5 laps)
Teammates (Touchstone): Me, Olivia Dillon, Pat Ross
Prerace plan: Get a Touchstone rider in a small breakaway, preferably Olivia but we would trade off covering threatening moves. If it came to a field sprint, set me up for the win.
Report: Giana Roberge (Proman, former world TT champ) came with a full squad, and so did Team High Road, meaning the battle was on from the gun! I have never raced a harder flat race in my life. High Road is so experienced in setting up an echelon at the front and had the rest of the field fighting for the nonexistant protected spots (they also had Petra Rossner in a follow car telling them what to do). This meant a lot of surging and general sketchiness in the field. I had a really tough time moving up in the first lap, but my teammate Olivia was sitting in great position. In the second lap I got more comfortable and was able to roll up to the front at a perfect time--the first real threatening attack of the day. I got into a break with Kim Anderson (High Road) with every other team represented. I was a little surprised it didn't stick, but then again it seems rare that the first break of the day stays away. We were reeled back in and there was an immediate counterattack, which I was happy to see my teammate Olivia covering! I mistakenly expected the field to sit up, but there was still a lot of action as riders tried to bridge. I relaxed too much and drifted back quickly. Just at this time the field was shattering, and I found myself off the back when gaps opened a few riders ahead of me. We worked together for awhile, at times thinking we were going to catch back on to the "field," which had turned into a tiny chase group. On lap 4, I decided I wanted to see my teammate Olivia finish, since she was in a stacked break (with Kim Anderson (High Road), Rushlee Buchanan (Tibco), and Megan Guanier (Proman), and Anke Wichman (High Road). So I hung out at the finish waiting for Olivia. The break was shattered, and each rider rolled in alone. Kim Anderson won, and Olivia finished 4th! I was happy to be able to contribute (by being in the break before Olivia I helped her set up to get in the counterattack), but frustrated with my own result. I learned that, especially in a windy race, I should never let my guard down--any off moment in bad position can mean being gapped off from the field. But my biggest mistake of the day was such a stupid one. While waiting for Olivia to come through, I didn't eat or drink anything. I always have a recovery drink/snack immediately after a ride/race, so never realized just how significantly this would affect me the next day (see Merced report). Lesson definitely learned....

Holly's report on the Merced Criterium:
Location: Merced, California
Course: Flat, technical, Merco/McLane in reverse. I love this course! Lots of rain today, very cold and wet
Field: High Road, a handful of Tibco and other riders. Relatively small field but fairly strong, meaning it was hard to hide!
# starters: 20-25
Place: DNF
Teammates: none
Prerace plan: Follow Emilia Fahlin (High Road) everywhere. Get into a winning break.
Report: This was a continued lesson in what not to do. I warmed up for maybe 20 minutes, just spinning really easy (way too little, way too easy). It was raining on the start line and I was freezing, losing any of the warmup I had already gotten. Emilia attacked from the gun, and I was surprisingly able to hop onto her wheel. We got off the front with Rushlee Buchanan, but my legs were screaming, feeling the effects of poor recovery the day before, and of my paltry warmup. We were working well together for 2-3 laps and I could tell this was the break of the day. But, just after I had taken a pull and was sitting third wheel, Emilia jumped (fairly hard) around Rushlee and opened a gap on me that I couldn't close. Any other day I think this would've been no problem, but I just didn't have the legs today and had to go back to the field. Emilia and Rushlee were still within bridging distance, and I was so angry about getting dropped from the winning break, that I relentlessly tried to bridge, probably not allowing myself enough recovery between attempts. Just after one of my (too many) bridging attempts, I was reeled back in by the field and had nowhere to hide. So I quickly shot right out the back...my legs felt horrible. I pulled out--no sense in riding around by myself in the freezing cold rain, only to finish last! I was so angry that I had the sense to get into the winning break, but didn't have the legs to back it up (Emilia won). But, at least I know exactly where I went wrong--recovery the day before, and a bad warmup.