Snake Alley Criterium

I finally did it. Finally conquered Snake Alley in the Women's Pro/1/2/3 race. The rain stayed away for the women's race, thankfully. Slippery cobbles are never fun to deal with. I contemplated changing my tires to some rain tires (Michelin Pro Grip), but decided to just keep my race tires (Specialized Mondo Open Tubulars). I ran them a bit too high though and found myself skipping around on the cobbles. Lesson learned. Not sure on the exact number of starters, but there were 33 finishers this year. My two teammates Toni Bradshaw and Kate Ross made the journey from Colorado to come to these races. Toni is from New Zealand so she has never been to Iowa. Kate is from Wisconsin, but this was her first time racing Snake Alley. I was able to sneak up to the front row for staging. Starting position is key for this race. It's known to bottle neck at the base of the "snake".

The announcer sent us on our way and I took off from the gun. I was the first up the Snake and didn't look back at the top. I kept up the pace for the next few laps. Eventually I was joined by Meredith Miller (TIBCO) and Devon Haskell (Team BH). We worked alright together. I ended up setting pace up the snake and let the other two take pulls the rest of the course. With 5 laps to go (out of 12 total laps), I attacked at the base of the snake. We had started passing lapped riders, so I used that to my advantage on the cobbles. I got to the top with a decent gap. I had a little bit of help behind me from Meredith. But I was able to keep the gap steady, around 25-30 seconds for the rest of the race.

So there it was. I finally won Snake Alley. I owe a huge thanks to everyone who cheered for me throughout the course. It was amazing! I couldn't have done it without the encouragement from everyone out there! So thanks to all who came out to watch!!!

Here are the top 3 results and Team LipSmacker results:
1. Me
2. Meredith Miller
3. Devon Haskell
7. Toni Bradshaw
17. Kate Ross

And now for the pictures (courtesy of my mom, Erick Carlson, and Jessi Braverman)

Leading up the cobbles.

The break-away.

More suffering.

Yay!

Podium.

That's all for now. Hopefully you enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by!
-A