A Tale of Teamwork

Jean Conquers ML3 (photo by Brian Koder)

Sometimes during the course of a bicycle race, things can go absolutely sideways. And sometimes, well, sometimes all the pieces line up perfectly and you end up with an amazing adventure to blog about.

And sometimes, they both happen in the same race.

Which is exactly what happened today at Mason Lake #3.

As you may (or may not) know, yesterday at the Tour de Dung #2, Ann, Larisa and I made some pretty big strides towards racing together as a team. We had a game plan, we tried to stick to it, we came up a little short, but compared to the previous weekend, we were racing like a totally different group.

We were starting to figure it out.

Going into today's race, we wanted to build upon that progress. Realistic or not (keep in mind that two of us are juniors, two of us are fairly new to racing, two of us are still only in our second year and all of us are still getting used to racing with each other) our goal for Mason Lake #3 was to deliver our teammate across the finish line in first place.

Call us crazy.

On the ride home yesterday, Ann, Larisa and I devised a game plan that we rehashed over and over for two and a half long hours on Highway 101. During today's warm-up, we went over it again with Brandee and Andrea. In a perfect world, we would set up our strongest sprinter just past the 200m sign, and she would gut it out for the win. Sounds pretty simple, right? But if that was the case, everyone would be doing it. No, there is nothing simple about bike racing. And there were a lot of things that had to go right for our plan to work.

There were simple things (you know, like not getting a flat tire). And there were more complex issues (like how to get five of us lined up - in order - when there are thirty other women racing next to you on narrow, rain-slickened, chip-sealed roads).

I hate to say it, but a flat tire was my only contribution to the team effort today. And yet, as frustrated as I felt at the time (believe me, walking back towards the finish while the rest of the field powered onward was a pretty helpless and lonely experience - many thanks to the folks who loaded my bike in the back of their car and drove me those last five or six miles) I think it may have been the most amazing race I've been a "part" of in my still-young life as a cyclist.

Since I wasn't there to see the finish with my own eyes, I've had Ann re-tell me this story a few dozen times. I'm probably going a little overboard, but for me, this is the kind of tale you tell your grandkids. Yeah, I'm going overboard, but still....it's a great story, so here we go:

On the back side of the course, with maybe four or five miles left in the race, Larisa, our fifteen-year-old energizer bunny moved to the front of the field for what Ann described as the longest pull she's ever seen. It was basically Larisa up front pulling the entire field for three or four miles. The other teams were probably pretty happy to let her do all the work. What they didn't know was that Larisa was exactly where she wanted to be.

Somehow (maybe it was skillful riding, maybe it was happenstance, or maybe it was a little of both) Brandee, Andrea and Ann managed to line up in our predetermined order (erm, well, except I was supposed to be between Larisa and Brandee, but let's forget about that for now and focus on the positive). As the other teams saw the four of them line up at the front, they tried to react, but it was too little, too late.

Larisa picked up her pace for as long as she could hold it and then pulled off to the left, letting Brandee take over where she left off. For about a mile or so, Brandee pulled the entire field at a consistent pace and then found another gear at the 1-km sign. For the next 800 meters, Brandee gave it absolutely everything she had, depositing Andrea and Ann with 200 meters to go.

At this point, a girl from Hagens Berman and another from Bikesale had made their way up to the front with Andrea and Ann. Thirteen-year-old Andrea went shoulder to shoulder with the HB rider (jostling each other a bit in the process) but still managed to provide Ann a launching pad with about 50 meters to go.

Ann Moving Up on Lap 1 (photo by Brian Koder)

Then it was as if Ann's legs forgot that they had raced in Sequim yesterday. With everything she had left, Ann fought her way across the finish line in second place, just behind Hagens Berman and just ahead of Bikesale and Andrea.

On an individual level, today was a total bust for me. But as a teammate, I am absolutely thrilled. Amazed. Inspired. Humbled. Proud.

There were so many things that could have gone wrong today (and some of them obviously did), but the Oly Ortho girls stayed focused on the ones that were going right. Today's race may not have gone perfectly, but we proved to ourselves that we are getting better and that we can succeed as a team.

Who knows what next weekend's IVRR could bring....