Superior Bike Fest
Superior Bike Fest is a three stage race up in beautiful Marquette, MI. Although I am not the best suited rider for the hills in Marquette (MQT) County, the race holds special significance as both my first road race, first criterium and my former “home”. I lived in Marquette for 4.5 years when I completed my Bachelors degree at Northern Michigan University before moving down to pancake-flat Lansing.
Friday night started with the Twilight Criterium downtown MQT. Since our race was so late, I was able to have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Pasta Shop. After an awesome dinner, I set-up on the trainer at the final corner and watched the other races. Next thing I knew, it was twilight and time for our race which was 30 minutes plus 1 lap. It was much more difficult than the last time I did it two years ago. The other ladies gunned it off the start line down the hill at 25-30+ mph. Everyone who didn't get clipped in instantly or weren't in the perfect gear (like me) got strung out and gapped after 4-5 laps. I worked with the other ladies around me and we were able to keep a decent pace the whole time, we couldn't make up time on the leaders but we didn't get lapped either. I finished 10th....could have tried for 9th, but I got boxed out on the final two-part climb to the finishing straight.
Saturday morning was the road race which started with a “parade” through town out to the real start. It seemed to be a slower neutral start than previous years: 2-3 miles at 10 mph. My legs were nicely warmed up, but the neutral roll-out caused them to get tight and start to cramp up a little. Then we hit the gradual uphill followed by the big climb up Marquette Mountain (MTN). A few of us got dropped on the mtn, while I had neither the heart rate nor the legs to go any harder. I tried to bridge up a couple of times and made it to within a few meters of the group. I was so close, but then someone attacked in the group. Next thing I knew, they were all out of the saddle chasing and I couldn’t hold a high enough speed into the wind for long enough to try a third bridge. I finally had to give up on getting back to the group and worked with a friend of mine from Lansing, Laura W. Laura and I did the race as a two person time trial (TT) the whole way. She was awesome and backed off on the pace and pulled when my legs turned into complete cement bricks in Gwinn at the southern end of the course. Then we turned NW and had this monster cross/headwind to fight which seemed to never end! The saddest part was coming up on the remnants of a field crash which included my team mate Aimee. She had a badly punctured front tire and road rash, but mostly I was just bummed to see her not be able to finish when she was doing so awesome! Laura and I finished the windy 58 miles at 10th (me) and 11th (Laura) place. Later on, a fantastic dinner at the Vierling Restaurant of fresh Lake Superior whitefish followed by getting a signed copy of Jamie Smith’s book “Roadie” made for a great end to the day.
Sunday morning was a circuit race out at KI Sawyer Air Base with one uphill. This hill was hard on the laps when ladies attacked, but one could stay in the big chain ring no problem. The entire race and especially the final lap were “cat and mouse games” with the pace going from very fast to quite slow repeatedly. It wasn’t actually tough until the final lap, when the Giant and Hagerty Teams decided to attack quite a bit more. After going hard on the flat and downhill parts of the final lap, hitting the hill and having to accelerate with additional attacks left my heart rate quite high. I stayed with the lead bunch of ladies on the final climb and down the straightaway, but unfortunately my legs were dead for the sprint. I couldn't stay out of the saddle for more than a couple seconds with shoulder pain and unresponsive legs. Needless to say, a seated sprint is not very effective, but I still took 7th place. This ended up being enough points in the omnium to take 7th overall. It was a great venue, good race and one of my favorite towns to visit, what more could I want in a Michigan Challenge Series Race?
