Team Delphine

Laurie Shammel started riding with Team Delphine last summer. The following is her continued story of making the transition to racing for the team.

Finally, an opportunity for me to contribute points to the team presents itself in last weekend’s Tour of the Bitterroot… A 17 mile TT fits within my time limit, so I decided I would do that when I learned 3-4 racers from TD were going. When I saw how few people were signed up, and that the Cat 4 women raced by themselves in a 30 minute Crit six hours before the TT, I decided it might be a good opportunity to try a Crit, and a possible way to get a few more points for TD. At our Thursday night Crit practice, I had a breakthrough in learning how to corner correctly, so I went ahead and signed up for both events. Mollie, Mel, and I drove to Hamilton Saturday evening, since our Crit was scheduled for 8:30 am the next morning.

We obtained info on the Crit course that evening and walked the route, which has sufficiently wider streets than our practice Crit course. Mel and I crawled out at the crack of dawn to spin some laps on the course before the race, and realized the wide streets would allow the pace to be VERY fast. For some reason, even though I had lain awake half the night, fearful of riding in circles crashing into other cyclists, I felt great that morning and was raring to go. (I’m NOT a morning person – hence my surprise.) My main goal for this race was to live to tell about it, with a secondary one of not being lapped. One street had two semi-truck trailers parked on it that spelled disaster, but luckily they were moved prior to the start of the race. We registered and went back to the room for last minute prep, and then headed out to warm up again. There were six of us on the start line: three NRO racers (outnumbered again), two of us, and one other rider. I had a great start off the line, thanks to our Thursday night practice. I was 2nd behind an NRO rider, but didn’t get completely onto her wheel. The pace was furious, as Amy and Jenner warned it would be, and I maybe stayed with the pack for the first 1/2 lap as they went around me before being dropped. I was able to experience riding at least two corners with riders beside me to experience what that was like; not as scary as I had imagined. Lesson: do NOT get dropped in a Crit; it’s awful to ride it alone. I rode about 20 minutes alone (with Mollie and Tyler and Bill yelling encouragement to me on every lap) before finding Mel and getting her on my wheel. We rode together about 1/2 lap before the NRO riders finally lapped me right in front of the official’s platform, and Don Russell yelled “Get On”, at which point I jumped onto the trailing rider’s wheel and tried to catch my breath for the next two laps. One positive sign was that the NRO riders took every corner slower than I had been riding them by myself, so at least my cornering was working. Having ridden so much of the race by myself, I was unable to match the acceleration on the final approach to the finish line, so I was a spectator to the three NRO riders sprinting across the finish. One goal met, and definitely got an education.

After the Crit, I went back to the room to eat and shower and ice, and wonder where I might buy a new set of lungs prior to the TT. I went back out in time for Amy and Patricia’s race at 11am. It helped a lot to watch the Cat 1-2-3 women’s race to see how a Crit works, though it was brutal because NRO outnumbered TD 3-2, and they took advantage of that the entire race. Bill recommended that I walk the course during the Cat 1-2-3 men’s race and watch them take each corner, so I did that as well. The men’s race was entirely different because of the larger number of riders.
We then headed out to a hot and breezy staging area for the TT. When doing century rides, the rule is to start very early in the morning, when it’s cool, so you’re finished before mid-afternoon when it’s the hottest and the wind comes up. Evidently those common sense rules don’t apply for racing. We rested in the shade, and did a short warm-up prior to the start of the race. I knew going into this race, having driven the course, that I had an advantage because I like climbing and downhills. My goal for this race was to come in under 50 minutes, having checked the times from last year’s race and my times on my two practice TT’s last week. Molly and Mel started ahead of me, with Bill providing a nice steady held start for each of us. The first mile felt awful and I took it easy, waiting for my body to settle in to the race. I started feeling better and ramped it up some. I knew the first half of the race was a steady uphill and convinced myself to push through the pain to the turn-around, where I figured the downhill would make the return a lot easier. Plus, I told myself, my legs are strong and this is an easy, short climb as compared to the Beartooth Burn. Eventually I could see first Mel and then Molly ahead of me, and set intermediate goals for myself to reach and pass each of them. I need to make sure I switch positions to keep my neck and shoulders loose, so I stayed upright when climbing and used the drops to take advantage of any flat or downhill, using this technique to gain on them. Both of them were riding well, and made those goals difficult to achieve, but I was able to do so prior to the turn, encouraging each as I went by and hoping that they would use me as a rabbit to chase. I wanted to stay in front of the NRO riders that started behind me as long as possible, but one of their riders (complete with TT helmet and bars) smoothly sailed by me on the climb within a mile of the turn. This was the only rider to pass me, so I knew for sure there was at least one Cat 4 woman with a better time than mine. I suffered to the turn, promising myself things would get better on the downhill. I wobbled around the U-turn on the narrow road and breathed a sigh of relief, only to feel a gust of hot wind in my face. I was surprised at how much impact the wind had on the descent, and realized I was going to have to spend a lot of time in the drops. A valuable lesson I learned on the Helena Double Divide ride, where we dealt with a headwind for at least 50 miles one day, is that there’s not much you can do about a headwind except not allow it to get to you mentally. If you get frustrated by it, you have allowed it to beat you. I finally located the Cat 4 woman that had started in front of Molly. She had TT bars and was faster than me on the downhills, but slower on the uphills. I had to pass her twice before I finally left her behind. At that point I was only a couple of miles out and ramped it up and pushed as hard as I could. I sprinted to the finish line and, upon finishing, blinked one of my contact lenses out (great timing), so I rode back to the team tent with my hand over one eye so as to not lose it – I’m sure that looked pretty weird. My time was 0:50:50, so I missed my goal, but not by much. However, it was good enough that day for a 3rd place finish! Overall, I felt very good about my performance and was pleased that I had been able to recover from the morning Crit.