Poplollie News
Albany Tri - Race report
04/20/08
by Megan Banks
Good to know there were some other crazies out biking and running yesterday (congrats Mudslingers!). When I left for the Albany sprint tri at 6 am, the snow was coming down. So different than Carol's IM Arizona, and not just because it was 124.2 miles less of swimming, biking and running! My bike was covered with snow in the transition area--ugh. The organizers gave people the option of skipping the bike, which was tempting but I decided it tough it out--I'm a poplollie, right? No delayed start so at 8:30, I started what felt like a long 750 meters (pool swim thank goodness). Swim was fine but didn't feel very quick. Tried to dry off and get some clothes on. Getting clothes on a wet body is frustrating and humorous to watch-and time consuming. Ugh again. My top half was toasty with my long sleeved poplollies jersey but out there on the bike course (12.8 miles) my legs were FREEZING! Strong head wind and the cold made it hard to get going and find a rhythm. When I did this race in 2005 (in the sun...), I averaged just over 20 mph. Yesterday I didn't even hit 19 mph [my training is really paying off ;)]. I can chalk some of it up to resistance training. I noticed afterward my new rear tire was hitting the seat tube and wasn't spinning. Ugh again. At least the course was scenic, not including the guy in front of me with the disc wheel who ended up in the ditch (did I mention it was windy?). Numb feet for the run but it went quick--only a 5k. A warm shower and hot drink were the best part of the day. I managed to beat the other old ladies in my age group, although I'm sure most of them had the common sense to stay home. I am about done with this winter stuff.
Mudslinger - Race report
04/20/08
by Julia Fudge
Unlike some other early season races (Jack Frost and Icebreaker), this one absolutely lived up to it's name. Candy, Kori and I headed up this morning about 7:30 in the snow. Maybe I should have heeded the sliding down the hill on Fillmore in my van as a warning for things to come, but it turned out OK then and for the rest of the day too, so no worries. We arrived on time (early!!), got a great parking spot and had plenty of time to register, gear up (with plenty of discussion of "What Not to Wear") and warm up before a 15-minute delayed start. It looked like a great turnout and the weather wasn't even too terrible, mostly just pretty cold, thank goodness for layers. Everywhere!
We rolled out the road to the start. Kori was up front with the Pro Women and Candy and I waited at the back in the last group, Beginner Women. Then we were on our way, up the "stair steps" first, five to six sharp inclines, one of which was said to be 27%, but "only" for about 30 yards. There were some little flat breaks between, but it was a long climb. Candy was off to a great start, coolly RIDING up everything while most of us had to hoof it at least part of the way. Then more steady uphills and a detour for some muddy singletrack and some more uphills to the top with a water station and quick views of the valley.
At the top, the "long" loop went left and Candy (out of sight ahead of me) and I went right for the "short" loop. Downhill on the road in a hailstorm, then some fun double track with "water breaks". At this point, more advanced riders were passing and it was cool to watch their techniques and lines and learn a few things. More downhill, then the piece de resistance. More like lack of resistance, as in traction. Plenty of resistance in the form of trees, roots, other riders and everything else found in a forest which could impede the progress of a person crazy enough to be coming through on (or accompanying) a bike. I think this is the section Kori referred to as "Slip & Slide" in her pre-race report. Candy said it was fun. I spent a lot of time pushing my bike, it was just plain SCARY! Spent just enough time on the bike just to totally clog my pedals.
At the bottom, Candy and I got to follow the sign with the arrow indicating "Finish" which took us back to the Blodgett School along the gravel road. My legs were crying "mercy" and those last few little rollers were a ton of work. But I finished strong and Candy was there when I finished with a smile and a hug. Kori, on the other hand, got to follow the sign with the arrow indicating "Loop" to experience the whole thing a SECOND time!
Candy and I hit the bike wash station, cleaned ourselves up and waited out a rainstorm in the van hoping that Kori wasn't getting too wet. Then back to the gym for awesome minestrone soup and Great Harvest bread, just what we needed. I went out later to check on Kori's progress and found her just finishing up at the bike wash. Did you know that her eyes are an even more brilliant blue when her face is encrusted with mud?
Our patience waiting for the awards and final festivities was rewarded with bronze medals for Kori and Candy and raffle prizes for Candy and me. We also avoided getting beaned by Clif Bars thrown by Mike's daughters with much more enthusiasm than accuracy. I was very pleased with my fifth place (out of 11) finish, only 1 1/2 minutes behind a very strong and experienced Candy. Another good showing for the Poplollies today.
Thank you so much to my compatriots, Kori and Candy, I had a blast and you are both terrific company. Thank you also for putting up with my anxiety about getting back for kid activities, you were more than gracious. Jill, you were missed, hope you are feeling better and look forward to having you out there next time. I had such a great time in my first mountain bike race and I can't wait to do it again!
King's Valley - Race report
04/12/08
by Jill Howe
The Willamette crew went up to Kings Valley for the 50 something mile road race on Saturday. The day was wonderfully warm (it hit 80 when we were finishing) so get this - no arm warmers! Our pasty little arms were all out!
The Poplollies had a fabulous race. Kori finished 2nd and Christi 5th in a long, uphill sprint finish. YES!!! Michele and I technically finished in the main first pack, though we got quite strung out over the last 200m. I was 13th and Michele 15th. Tara, who would have been right with us, got picked off on the 2nd lap by another rider. She is recovering nicely, though has many black and blues and some road rash on those pasty arms that saw the sun (and the road) for the first time this year yesterday!
The field was 52 women strong, with all categories together. The pace was surging, with accelerations on the uphills, some attacks, but nothing organized or strong enough to stick. So, we were a pulsing and surging pack of racers with some sketchy moments and the crash Tara was taken down in. Congratulations again to Kori and Christi for great efforts throughout the race, and especially at the end to contend the finish sprint! Way to go Poplollies!
Banana Belt #1 - Race report
03/02/08
by Jill Howe
Getting up at 5AM on Sunday creates a special kind of day. Ours started very foggy and cold, but Doug promised it would be sunny at the start. How does he know these things?
We left just 15 minutes later than we had planned. Getting 4 bikes and 4 wheels on top of the car, even when you practiced the night before, takes time at 5:30 am in the cold fog. Ask Doug about that. We made good time to Hagg Lake, to find it sunny and cool and meet about 60 people waiting in line to register. No exaggeration here. They started all races about 25 minutes late, and almost no one got more than a 5 minute warm up around the parking lot. This is not good for the nerves of pre- 40 year olds who take about their age in minutes to warm up. Kori got a flat in the parking lot before the start, with a tire issue, so we had to find the wheel car to get a wheel for her before the race even started! Things were a little hectic to say the least. (Ok, note to self. Leave earlier and pre-register online.) Thanks to Doug for getting our bikes off the car, put together, tire pressures checked, brakes checked, computers checked, trainers set up (but went unused), bags by each of our bikes. I am thinking that he must be studying pit crew process for women's cycling. He really had it dialed in for us! He hates to make a box lunch, but he can set up a whole Poplollie team to race! Incredible!
Luckily the first lap served as a warm up at a moderate pace. Somewhere in the 2nd lap Kori went AWOL from the pack. We learned after the race that the pit wheel she got was not working properly, so she limped back to the start line and had to abandon the race. There was one big exceleration/ break attempt in lap 2 on a long hill that Michele and I both hung onto somehow, but it did drop about a 3rd of our group. We both expected the attacks to continue, but they did not. We recovered and hung in. We expected the same type of attack on the last uphill mile to the finish, but it never came. Our little peloton electrified over those last 4 miles, steadily increasing in speed,, but there were no all out attacks. Michele and I found ourselves in good position going over the last hill to the slight downhill finish. A little shocked, we both just turned it on and sprinted to stellar 3rd and 6th place finishes. Go Poplollies Go! We were the only team with 2 people in the top 10. Yeah team!
Sarah has a stellar race as well. After running 18 miles on Saturday for marathon training, she was politely asking questions about what happens when you get dropped. We told her she won't find out, (we just knew), but did explain what we knew about the process. She started maybe 5 minutes after us in a large field of 4's and Masters. She rode in the front quarter of her group for the whole race, climbing very strongly and taking in all the sights and sounds of her first road race. She helped lead the peloton up the hills, but got passed on the downhills. We are going to help her with that! A slight downhill sprint finish did not serve her well, so she was bumped back to 11th. Another excellent ride and race, and another great placing for the Poplollies!
As some of you might know, I asked Norman to help me create a training plan for the 6 weeks leading up to the Willamette stage race. Thus, last Tuesday night in the barn he informed me that he would like for me to ride 2 extra laps after the race on Sunday. Now I asked for this, so even though I was a little stunned, I had heard about this type of thing happening. You ask the coach for advice and a plan, they give it to you, then you are not sure you should have asked? Anyway, I sort of tried to get out of it by carpooling to the race, but then Norman got to Sarah and Michele and convinced them to join me! So after our race, still full of adrenaline, we took off our numbers, refilled our water bottles, took food in our shirts and headed back out to do 2 more laps. INSANE you think. Well, yes, it was insane. (But it was sunny!) The cool thing was that we saw several other groups out doing the same thing, so we felt like we were working under the guidance of an excellent coach, that really knows what he is doing, who wants us to be as successful as we can be. So many thanks to Norman! We are listening to you, learning from you, and hope to race really fast at Willamette for you. We still think you are insane, but we are listening anyway.
Hope you enjoyed the story. It was a long and tiring day, but wonderful. It was sunny. We met new women racers from other teams, they were all so nice! And we had fun.
In The Press
The Following Article appeared in BicyclePaper.com, a fabulous website.
Many Opportunities Await Women Racers
Women's competitive and recreational cycling in the Pacific Northwest has grown noticeably in recent years. A handful of teams have sprung up in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia, making riding accessible and welcoming for female cyclists of all ages and abilities. The Willamette Valley Women's Cycling Team, also known as the Poplollies, is based in Eugene, Oregon, and supports about 15 competitive riders a year. In Vancouver, BC, the Chicks Cycling Club offers recreational and racing opportunities for women under the tutelage of former Canadian national team member Judy Latoski.
The governing bodies of cycling in both the U.S. and Canada (USA Cycling and the Canadian Cycling Association) have pre-defined racing categories. Category 4 riders ("Cat 4s") are beginners, having never competed. Cat 4s accumulate finish points to move up to Cat 3, a field of more experienced competitors. Cat 1s and Cat 2s are considered professional or top level cyclists; many Cat 1s train full-time and travel on the national and world racing circuits. These classifications exist to keep racing fields even, although race organizers often group several categories together (but score them separately) to condense the number of fields on the road.
Jill Howe of Eugene, OR, a Poplollie since 2006, started racing as a Cat 4, but upgraded to Cat 3 by 2007-she also won the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association's (OBRA) Best All-Around Rider Competition in the Cat 4 group. Howe raced on the East Coast in high school and college, but put her cycling on hold for almost 20 years after graduation. "I had other priorities in my life," she says, such as moving across the country and starting a new job.
However, she felt the pull of her saddle, and started riding again in 2005 not to race, but to train for Cycle Oregon, a scenic 500-mile tour. After completing the ride, Howe says she "really enjoyed being on the bike," and pondered trying a race. She discovered the Poplollies in a newspaper article, and recalls it being "a huge leap to contact them," knowing the team was competitive. Howe wanted other women to ride with-she would probably make some friends in the process, but racing seemed "a little scary" after being away from it for so long. She overcame her anxiety and signed up to ride with the Poplollies, which she calls "one of the smartest things I've ever done."
Howe is quick to give credit to the Poplollies for getting her onto the racecourse: "I wouldn't be racing without them." She says her team always encourages race participants to do their best to finish, not necessarily to win. "Winning is nice," says Howe, "but [for me] it's more about being out there, trying hard and having fun."
Although Leah Padaca of Boise, ID started as a novice earlier in the decade, tagging along with her friends and future husband on rides, she ended up on Team Dobbiaco, which is a mixed-gender group of cyclists, runners and triathletes. Formed in 2002, Team Dobbiaco started as mostly men. However, Padaca is almost single-handedly responsible for getting more women to join: she needed riding partners with similar ability, and the grapevine responded.
Women who want to cycle need somewhere to start, and a group training ride or class is the first step, according to Martha Walsh, a prominent figure in the Seattle cycling scene and organizer of the Team First Rate Mortgage women's group. "Beginners should take advantage of all the resources in their area," she says. Cycling clubs such as Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle and Cycle University offer training rides geared toward novices who need to learn the basics of paceline, technique and obeying the rules of the road.
The next step for a rider who has mastered the basics is finding an appropriate race. While the region caters some races to elite cyclists, many opportunities exist for Cat 3s and 4s. This spring, the Washington State Bicycle Association (WSBA) will offer a series of nine races only for Cat 3 cyclists. The purpose of this new change is to give Cat 3s the opportunity to race with their peers. "It's an exciting time for women's racing," says Walsh, who also notes the Pacific Northwest as being only the third region in the country to introduce such a series.
For younger female riders interested in the sport, the Northwest boasts several junior teams, such as Rad Racing in Olympia and the Boise Young Rider Development Squad (BYRDS). WSBA also organizes the Seattle Lance Armstrong Junior Olympics Road Series (LAJORS), consisting of five races throughout the year. From these groups, many riders transition to adult cycling smoothly, and with racing experience.
Although Howe says women's cycling has grown "steadily but slowly," she and her fellow riders are excited about future prospects for the sport in the Pacific Northwest. Walsh points out, "Nationally, the average percentage of women racers in a region is about 10 to 15 percent [of the total number of competitors], but in ours it's more like 20 or 30 percent." She credits women's teams like the Poplollies and Washington's Group Health for giving women's racing a kick-start. "Group Health in particular has really supported Cat 4 riders," says Walsh. "They started a Cat 4-only series, and just encouraged women to get out there and race."
However, while moving forward in women's cycling, there are some small growing pains. The Mount Hood Cycling Classic, a six-day stage race held every summer in Oregon, recently eliminated several categories, including women's Cat 3 and Cat 4 (along with men's Cat 4) due to scheduling and staffing limitations. Observing the flurry of messages from angry Cat 3s on the OBRA online forum, Walsh cites the organizer's desire to bring elite cycling to Oregon, as the women's Cat 1/2 race will be the only UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale, the governing body for international cycling events) stage race in the U.S. in 2008. In itself, it represents another form of development, but at the upper end, it provides a rare but excellent opportunity for many local Cat 1/2s to measure themselves against the elite of the sport.
Along with road and mountain bike racing, track (velodrome) and cyclo-cross (a road biking/steeplechase hybrid) are also gaining popularity among women. Howe describes her first cyclo-cross race as "fun but challenging," and hopes to do more in the upcoming season. Portland, Seattle and BC already have velodromes (BC has two; one is indoor), and Boise's new Idaho Velodrome and Cycling Park is scheduled to open in April. Track cycling and cyclo-cross are demanding in different ways than mountain or road, but are seeing more women participants each year.
Perhaps the area's biggest challenge in the future will be getting more women who start racing as a Cat 4 to stick with the sport long enough to move up in the ranks and continue to compete. The formation of more women-only teams geared to all categories would also be beneficial, because as Howe notes, teams made up predominantly of men can be "a little intimidating, especially to the novice rider."
Howe, Padaca and Walsh wish to encourage every woman who is interested in cycling to look into the opportunities available to them in their area. With new rides, classes and races sprouting up each season, there truly is something for all abilities. Women's racing is certainly on the rise in the Pacific Northwest-how far it will go is anyone's guess, but it will be interesting to watch.