off with a bang

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Jess Cutler

I’m sitting in my office waiting for Niels to pick me up to head down to California for the 4 day Sea Otter Stage Race.  It’s my first full stage race with a majority pro/elite peloton and I’m feeling pretty good.  I’m nervous and I think totally realistic in my expectations but I’m still just feeling good and excited.

I have no illusions about being able to race like I’ve been racing against these girls and I’m sure I’ll eat my share of humble pie while I’m down there but I think I can hang and maybe even be just a little bit aggressive.

This weekend was a real confidence booster. I had a fairly easy training week last week with all of my workouts been fairly short VO2 and higher type efforts (aka riding up madrona in the aerobars at 12 mph looking like a total dip).

Saturday I had two TTs up North.  The first was the Skagit Valley TT, an 8 mile out and back with a couple rollers in the last mile and a half.  I did real shitty at this race last year finishing in ~20:30.  This year my goal was to go a minute faster which is pretty ambitious but also the conditions were a lot better.

I woke up with a real bad stomach ache and immediately was totally crabby and petulant towards Niels because, you know, me having a stomach ache was totally his fault.  Despite my childish fits about not wanting to race and hating TTs I still managed to get in a decent warmup and drag myself to the line.  My stomach was a bit better by the start and I had the ridiculous idea to actually follow my coach’s pacing plan and not burn 90% of my matches in the first 3 minutes of the race.

I went out really controlled chasing my 30 second girl, Michele (who has been my TT idol since I started racing bikes).  Amazingly, a mile and a half into the race I wasn’t totally giving up and was able to start slowly ramping up the effort.  By the turnaround I had already caught my 30 second and 1 minute carrots and was closing in on my 1:30.  I made the third catch just before the little kicker about a mile and half before the finish.  I knew I was having a really good race.  At the hill I stayed in the aerobars and just railed over the crest.  At the top, I saw my 2 minute girl and made it my goal to catch her by the finish.  I made the catch just after the 1km sign.  I was totally tanked.  I had a hard time keeping the pressure on for the last minute but when I looked down and saw my garmin was still under 18 minutes I found one last match and burned it to the finish.  I finished in 18:08, 48 seconds up on second place (a pro, yo) and close to 2 minutes on third.

I was snotting and choking all over my bike by the end but I’m so pleased with the result and with how comfortable I’ve been on my TT bike.

After the race Sharon and I went over to the afternoon’s hillclimb course to drive it and determine which bike to use.  I had been told by coach to ride the TT bike so that was my plan but I may or may not have brought my road bike juuuuust in case.

The hillclimb was 2 miles that started on a downhill pitch into a ~ 1 minute kicker followed by a bunch of rollers with a steep 200m finish.

I went pretty much full throttle from the gun.  I tried to stay in the aerobars up the first kicker.  I gave up the ghost on that plan exactly 2 seconds into the climb.  Once I hit the rollers I was able to be back in the bars and moving pretty well, hitting speeds over 25 mph on a few occasions.  I sprinted up the final kick and saw 5:5X on the clock.  I railed across the line for the win and the only female time under 6:00, finishing in 5:57.  I was also the 8th overall finisher.

Carly “I’m not a climber” Tu also won the Cat 3 race officially banning her from saying she’s not a climber.

Here’s a bonus picture of me and Niels doing the SVTT last year on the tandem.  Please note the look on my face.  Yup.

Sunday I opted for a hard solo ride rather than doing the road race back up in Bellingham. It’s all good though because Courtenay took the win for the team!

Obviously time trialing well does not equal road racing well but I think I’m ready to step it up and race with the ladies I’m going to face this weekend.

One little post-script.  After my last post I have gotten tons of nice emails and people approaching me to offer their support regarding the negative vibes my team and I have been getting.  This made me realize two things.  One, that despite a few debbie downers and negative nancys the local women’s peloton is extremely kind and supportive and two, people actually read this blog which is super cool.

Thank you to everyone for their support and kindness.  I will try to not disappoint this weekend!

Thanks as always to Kevin Tu for the awesome photos!

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how i finally won a crit

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Jess Cutler

I cannot say enough how great my team is.  I love how well we work together and how willing each team member is to sacrifice themselves for one another.

This Saturday was a Seattle classic, the Volunteer Park Criterium.  It’s run on a D-shaped loop with a short climb and and a long straight slightly uphill slog to the finish.  Every time I’ve done this race there has been a break that got away.  Our team goal was to be aggressive, go for primes, and make sure at least one of us was in every move.  If we were all together at the end I was to be leadout for either Courtenay or Alicia.

The race started out fairly slow with everyone kind of sizing each other up.  After two solo wins in a row, I felt like I had a huge target on my back.  Courtenay easily took the first two primes and spent a little time off the front of the race both solo and with other racers.  Kelly threw in a couple of really smart attacks and also spent some time off the front and Alicia single-handedly pulled back a dangerous break.  I attacked a couple of times in the first 30 minutes but pretty much the whole peloton was stuck to me like glue.

With about 10 or 11 minutes to go in the 45 minute race the announcer called a prime and I decided to lead Courtenay out for it.  I knew Jocelyn (who is crazy strong, yo) was on my wheel and Courtenay was on hers.  I took them both to the line and Jocelyn got it but right as we crossed the announcer called another prime!  I decided I was going for this one myself and when Sarah Fletcher made a move up the hill and around the inside of the corner I was right on her wheel.  I came around her about halfway up the straightaway and took the $50 prime.  What I hadn’t realized when I went was that Sarah had pulled us away from the pack and that I had gapped her with my attack giving me about 5 seconds on the pack with only 5 or 6 laps left to go.

I wasn’t sure I could hold off a hard charging group with several extremely strong women but I had a gap and I was going to commit to it.  With three strong teammates in the pack it was a win-win.  Either I win solo or my teammates can rest while the rest of the pack chases and can be ready to set each other up for the win.

In the end I was able to put a little more time into the pack and come up with another awesome salute (“no, you all are the awesome ones!”).

After my victory lap (aka my hacking and wheezing lap) I hopped into the Cat 3 men’s race with Niels.  I promised myself that I would finish at least half of the race and that’s exactly what I did.  After several near crashes I called it good and pulled out so I could spin down and do the Cat 1/2 women’s podium.

I also worked a bit on my podium pose so that I wouldn’t look like such a dipshit.  It’s a little better. (thanks a ton to my pal Sara Youmans for humoring me and agreeing to do the podium).

Sunday was an 11.5 mile TT in Portland at PIR.  There’s not much to tell.  I won but Leia Tyrrell (back at her first race after a devastating crash a year ago) and Sue Butler certainly made me work for it.  I really don’t ever recall smiling during this race.  I’m just going to assume I have a really happy pain face.

So one thing that’s been interesting about the last month, since I started winning races is other racers’ attitudes towards me and my team.  I’ve made it a policy for myself and for my team to never try and undermine another racer’s success or victory with excuses or negativity.  There can only be one winner on any given day and most of the time, it won’t be you and it’s really unfair to try and take something away from someone’s victory by making excuses for why they won, why you didn’t win, why they shouldn’t have won, etc. I keep hearing grumblings that the times I’ve gotten away, my teammates have been berated and yelled at by other racers.  I’m also hearing grumblings that I’m only winning because my team is engaging in unsportsman-like conduct or because no one noticed my attack until it was too late, etc.  Hearing this totally breaks my heart.  My team and I have worked so incredibly hard over the last several months to be cohesive and fit.  We have a no-blocking no-disrupting policy on the team that I hope and believe we have absolutely stuck to.

I killed myself this winter and was out and doing my workouts in the worst possible weather and never making excuses for why I couldn’t ride on a given day.  During the snowstorm in January, I was on the trainer for 2+ hours a day for a week and a half straight.  I have done my workouts in the dark, in the rain, and occasionally in the snow and sleet.

I feel bad writing this because I’m not trying to passively-aggressively call anyone out on what I think is bad behavior, I’m just saddened by the whole thing.  At the end of the day, I’m really a pretty sensitive person and I let this stuff get to me more than I probably should.  However at the same time, I think acting this way is totally inexcusable.  Of course we all train hard and we all want to win but just because you don’t win on any given day doesn’t mean that you should ruin that day for the person who did win.

One quick anecdote before I’m done with this thought.  I raced a little bit of road when I was in college and in that time I only ever won one race.  It was a circuit race outside Boston and I won it in a sprint finish.  I jumped the yellow line just after the 200m mark and came around wide to take the sprint by a bike-length.  I was ECSTATIC.  Not more than 10 seconds after I crossed the line some nasty girl from Harvard came up to me and said “You only won because you jumped the line early cheater!” I felt totally deflated and even though I checked with the officials to make sure my win was legit (it was) that nasty girl ruined my first ever win.  13 years later and I still haven’t forgotten that.

That said, I’m still so happy for how well the season’s going and how well all of my training has paid off.  The weather’s finally getting better in Seattle and I still love to ride my bike.  Things are great!

Thanks to Kevin Tu for all of the awesome VP Photos!

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patience

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Jess Cutler

One of my downfalls as a bike racer is that I’ve never had a whole lot of patience.  I’ll sit on the front of a race for 218937918 miles and chase down every.single.move no matter how unlikely it is to succeed.  Training and working with a coach has not just made me fitter and faster but it’s also helped me a lot to race smarter.  I’m going into races with plans (okay the plan for Sequim was not to do what I did but it worked so … whatever).

March 24 was Independence Valley Road Race.  Every year I go into this racing thinking I can win it and every year I don’t win it.  In 2009 as a Cat 4 it was dumping snow I got pipped at the line.  In 2010 I ended up in a break with 5 women from the same team.  Last year I spent all day in the break which went from 7 down to 5 and finally 3 riders.  I got third from a break of 3 which is the same thing as getting last place.

This year I had a plan and I shared that plan with my team and gave them full license to yell at me and berate me for not following my plan.  I went into the race wanting to win and with a team of ladies who knew that I wanted to win and were willing to help me win.

Independence Valley is raced on a ~20 mile circuit with two small climbs, one at the beginning of the circuit and the second about 7 miles from the finish line (not right before the finish line like I always picture it to be).  Getting away over one of the climbs is definitely doable but staying away through the valleys is tough – especially if you’re solo.

Lap one I sat in and did as little work as possible.  Up the first climb on lap 2 I sort of attacked, hoping to take 4-6 girls with me.  I got a solo gap with several chasers and it looked like our break was established until we were neutralized because we were catching some masters racers.  We were kept neutral for several minutes and the whole pack came back together.

I sat in for the rest of the second lap totally bummed that my plan wasn’t working.  My teammates kept me close to the front and protected which was awesome.  Every time I wanted to chase down some dumb attack they would do it for me.

On the final lap up the first climb I decided to go for it and I attacked hard.  I tried to get one girl to come with me but when I looked back I had a significant solo gap.  I pushed hard through the flatter section of the climb and descended really aggressively into the valley.  Through the valley I just kept the pressure on and even looked behind me a few times to make sure I still had a good gap.  At the top of the second climb after being solo for about 10 miles, I had a 1:30 gap.

That damn second climb is always way further from the finish than I think it should be and I knew that even though 1:30 was a good gap, it wasn’t enough to stave off a motivated chase.  I pretty much just mesmerized myself with my Garmin counting down the miles and I rode as hard as I possibly could through to the finish.  Once I hit 1k I knew I’d made it.

My salute this time wasn’t as cool as last time.  I should have planned a little better.  But in case anyone was confused and even though I was real tired, I was able to effectively communicate what place I’d finished.

The rest of my team did awesome with JAC finishing 3rd in her first race as a Cat 3 (and getting out of the saddle to sprint) and Courtenay finishing 4th in the 1/2s.  Everyone else seriously did a ton of work and killed themselves to get our team the win.  Kelly took a 6 or 7 mile flier off the front and everyone else chased and strung things out the whole time.

So I did it, I was patient and I won.  I also convinced myself that what I did at Sequim wasn’t a total fluke.  I also got to stand on a podium which was cool.  I did however realize that I totally need to work on my podium poses so I don’t look so much like I’m about to start a gymnastics routine.

Sunday was the North Bend Crit which I raced with the Cat 3 men rather than the later women’s race because Niels and I had tickets to the bike works auction with our good buddy Bob Anderton.

I wish I could say that North Bend went as well as IVRR but I’ll be honest.  I kind of sucked.  I gave up wheels like it was my job and cornered like a mouse.  Every opportunity I had to attack and be aggressive I decided against it and I tailgunned most of the race. What it comes down to is that I was not aggressive in what was a not super fast race on a super safe course.  I let myself get easily sketched out by all the big scary Cat 3 men and as a result kept putting myself into the most dangerous position in the race, the back.

I always say that crits are not my thing and I think I need to stop doing that because I’ve really started to believe it and race like I believe it.

Two weeks until the start of Sea Otter and the first race is the crit.  I’m going to have at least two teammates, hopefully more if I can find more ladies to guest ride for Peterson.  I’m trying super hard to not totally psych myself out with all kinds of negative talk.  I’m super appreciative of all of the support from my family, friends, and teammates.  I will do my best to not disappoint.

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giving it a go

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Jess Cutler

I’ve spent the last 3 years really kind of dicking around with cycling.  I’ve walked away with the occasional win at a local race and more mediocre finishes than I’d care to remember.  Last July, after an embarrassing performance at Mt. Hood and heading into master’s nationals I decided to hire a coach for the foreseeable future.  With only 6 weeks of work I was able to walk away with a national title in the TT and a silver in the road race.

I’ve spent the last 6 months killing myself to try and give it a go and race with the big girls.

I raced cross from September to December despite feeling like cross is not my strength.  Still, I managed to rack up three wins and a Cat 1 upgrade at the local level and hold my own with the pros at the USGP of Cyclocross in Bend.

The last 3 months have been filled with incredibly intense training.  I’ve spent more hours in the saddle than I ever have before and my training has been meticulous and focused.  I’ve dropped over 10% of my body weight and totally cleaned up my diet.  Where I used to be plagued by stomach problems and an inability to manage my eating and weight, I’ve been able to focus, buckle down, and keep the weight off while still eating a healthy and balanced vegan diet.

March 10, 2012 was my first race of the season.  Coach had me race with the Cat 3 men rather than the women so I could just race without putting pressure on myself to win or help a teammate win.  I mostly love racing with the men.  I get the bonus perk of racing with my husband and I can really just try anything without having to be responsible to anyone but myself.  I had a great day until 3 miles from the finish when I along with probably 25-30 guys got taken out by a junior making a pretty dumb move.  I walked away with a few scrapes and bruises but nothing that prevented me from doing a hard ride the next day.

Last weekend was my first race with the ladies.  I was so nervous I felt like I was on a first date.  I was scared that all my training wouldn’t manifest in being able to actually race well.  I was nervous that other girls had trained harder than me.  I was scared to let myself or my team down.  The race was flat and a little windy.  Not really the best race for me but a good race for my team.  My teammates and I threw out several attacks and gave chase to all of the other moves in the first half of the race.

About 30 miles into the 60 mile race, our average pace was barely over 20 mph.  I decided to shake things up a bit and attacked on a long flat stretch from second wheel.  I looked under my arm and saw a gap of about two bike lengths so I decided to put in a hard 2-3 minute dig.  After 2-3 minutes I had a gap of maybe 150 meters and from there I decided I would do another 15-20 minutes at threshold (thanks coach for making me use my power tap).

When I came through the start finish line, I had maybe a :45 to 1:00 gap so I just kept plugging away.  After 20 or so minutes I dialed it back to a high tempo.  I was aggressive through the corners since the roads were wet and I wanted to use them to pick up precious seconds.  I recovered a little on the downhill and tailwind sections and tried to not blow up over the little rollers.

Going into the final lap I got passed by the 1/2 men who sat up just after passing me.  I kept the same tempo and ended up passing them back before they surged again.  Right after that happened I was neutralized for probably 2-3 minutes.  Since I had no idea how far up the road I was (I hadn’t gotten any time checks that I could hear) I started to panic and as soon as my lead car let me go, I put in another hard 5 minute effort.  Finally, with 6 or so miles to go and after having been away for over an hour I looked behind me and … nothing.  There was no one even in sight.  I continued to push until the last 200 meters when I finally allowed myself to sit up and celebrate (I totally spent the last 6 miles planning my salute … I think I nailed it).

My teammates were also awesome and did a ton of work to either neutralize or go with any attacks.

In the grand scheme of my bigger goals, winning a local race like Sequim isn’t a huge deal but in a way it is.  I see my strengths as a cyclist in my climbing, my endurance, and my time trialing.  A flat windy race is not an ideal race for me and in general I would see myself as more of a leadout in a race like Sequim, which was going to be my job if I hadn’t gotten away.  Being able to put in a big enough attack to get a gap and then finish the race with a 4 minute advantage over the field is a huge achievement in my book.  I of course don’t expect to be able to do anything like this at the pro level but I know if I can ride off the front of a local 1/2 race then I can likely be active in a pro race.  I tested myself this weekend and I passed with flying colors.

Sunday was a local flat 9 mile time trial in Snohomish, WA.  Long story short, we got delayed for an hour due to snow and when I finally did race, I hadn’t warmed up and was immediately so cold that I couldn’t move my hands.  I kind of botched the turnaround and couldn’t really put myself into the pain cave the way I had hoped to in the last 3 miles.

That said, I still managed to win over another pretty dang good time trialist.  I didn’t make my personal goal of going ~21 minutes (I finished in 21:26) but I’ll blame that on the conditions and the extra 10 lbs of clothing I was wearing, including my fleeced cyclocross skinsuit.

I have a couple more TT’s before my first big race in April as well as a few road races with some climbs.  After this weekend I’m feeling a lot more confident that my goals are possibly within my reach.  I’ve gotten so much support from my friends, family, teammates, and coach I feel like I’m at the beginning of a great season.

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