USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals

Friday: Team Time Trial
Our start time was just after 8:00. It was pretty cold, but luckily the wind was relatively calm. There was a slight headwind on the way back. The team consisted of Julia, Tirrel, Rachel, and myself. This definitely wasn't the smoothest we rode all year. In team time trials, you're either off or on, and today we were definitely off. Anyway, we took 6th with a time of 29:40 for 20km. I think that turns out to be an average speed of just over 25mph. Decent, but definitely not National title winning speed. More pictures and results here.

The CSU guys team put in a solid 4th place finish against some very strong teams.
Saturday: Road Race
It's May, it shouldn't be snowing, or cold for that matter. But today it was cold, and windy. It didn't know for our race, but there were some flurries during the men's race. Our race started at 8:00am. I think it was in the 30's at the start. Anyway, I started front row, which was cool. I tried to hold my position while we headed towards the climb. Once we hit the west-bound road, the peloton shot over to the left hand shoulder. Huh? It was a cross wind and we had a rolling enclosure...so whatever I suppose. I got shuffled back a few spots. Towards the middle of the first climb I sprinted by lots of people on the left hand side. I knew things were going to be torn apart soon, so I needed to be at the front. I found myself in the top 4 with Chloe Forsman, Kristin McGrath, Amy Dombroski, and a few others. The pace kept steady as we climbed. Once towards the top, I looked down and saw how splintered the field was. We crested the climb and headed down the hill. Once we made the turn, we got organized in a break of 7. The break consisted of Chloe, Kristin, Amy, Melanie Myers, Carla Swart, Arwen Bradley, any myself. We all worked pretty well together. Carla from Lees-McRae was riding a smart race and hanging at the back quite a bit. I took my fair turns out of rotation as well. After all, there were two teams with two riders in the break. I figure if they really wanted to drop us, they could have done some attacking. But there weren't any attacks and we all rode in a group until the final sprint. The sprint was uphill into a cross wind. For some reason, I decided I'd sprint on the cross wind side. I think it just had to do with the way I came into the corner, poor positioning. Not good. So I came across 5th. I was pleased with my result. Being in a break with those girls for 50miles was a great experience. After racing at Sea Otter, I was a little nervous coming into this weekend. I was expecting it to be almost as hard as Sea Otter. Fortunantly, it wasn't. I kept telling myself, wow you're making it this far, keep going. My goal was to make it over the dams with the lead group. There weren't any attacks, so I was able to hold on. Then there weren't any attacks coming down the final stretch. I thought it was weird, but was glad I was still in the mix of things. Meanwhile, my teammate Carol Hutton had attacked the group she was with and was off with another rider. She finished less than a minute behind us after we had had over a 4 minute gap on the pack. I wish I would have known she was coming, but there really wasn't any way to find out. She finished 8th. Two top 10's for CSU was pretty awesome, especially considering there were roughly 80 starters. More pictures and results here.

This is the first climb that split everything up.

The break rolling through the loops in Masonville.
One of the hills towards the end of the race. It's a steep bugger. I'm hanging out at the back, so you can barely see me :).

Getting schooled in the sprint.


Later on in the day, Phil Mann took 8th place in the men's race. They ended up shorting the men's race due to weather conditions over the dams. So instead of 70miles, they raced 58miles.

At the banquet that night, I learned that Sean Noonan was involved in a crash coming down the last hill. I stopped in to see him yesterday. He seemed to be doing alright, given the circumstances. Hoping for a speedy recovery for Sean!

Sunday: Criterium
The race was at 8:00 again Sunday morning. The weather was nicer though. About 80 riders started the race. The pace wasn't extremely brutal. After one of the primes, two girls rode away. For some reason, no one chased. Lees McRae sat at the front and didn't do any work. Super confused about that one, but oh well. Julia, Carol, Megan, and I took turns attacking and counter attacking. It was pretty fun to mix it up. I had a hard time staying towards the front so I started to get nervous about the finish. I found Carol's wheel though on the last two laps and we moved to the front. She kept the pace up for the last lap and a 1/2. Coming into the 2nd to last corner, to Lees McRae girls attacked. I quickly grabbed their wheels. We sprinted it out for 3rd place. I finished 5th, again. It was a sketchy race, so I'm glad I stayed up right. However, my teammate Megan went down. She was having a super awesome race before she went down though. Fortunately she is ok and got back in the race, only to have her brakes rubbing. Carol finished 14th after leading me out - impressive! Julia rounded out the top 25. We got lots of points in this race. More pictures and race results here.

Later on, Phil Mann successfully defended his title and won the men's race. Coming in to the day, CSU was 6th in the overall standings. After both races, we moved up to 3rd place. Awesome!


I finished 4th place in the ominium and was invited to go to Nature Valley Grand Prix with the Ryan Collegiate All Stars team. I'm super excited about it.

Heading back to Iowa tonight. Hoping to make it to Lincoln before I have to stop for the night. I'll be racing in the Denzer Road Race in Denzer, WI this weekend. I'm switching things up a bit too, and will now be racing for Mesa Cycles out of St. Louis, MO.

2008 CSU Rams Cycling National Team

This collegiate road season was an awesome experience and I thank all my teammates, sponsors, coaches, etc. for helping me through it. Looking forward to collegiate mountain bike season this fall! See you all soon!
-A