Koren Does the Impossible

Held in various locations around the Illinois-Iowa border, the Memorial Day Weekend Bike Races are three of the most prestigious events in the Midwestern race calendar. A top finish in one of these events can make a season, but a clean sweep of all three signals the arrival of someone special. Lindsay graces us with a clever account of her domination at Snake Alley, Mellon City, and the Quad Cities:

"One of my goals for this season was to win Snake Alley and get some other good results at the Memorial Day weekend races before making the jump to Cat 3. It was my second stab at all of the races after some disappointing results last year because I wasn’t logging the training time. I came back stronger to start the year off (probably as a result of all the training volume of last year in preparation for the ironman…..just proof triathlons are awesome). A few months of training with the powertap, a pretty decent coach ;) and some great prerace advice/strategy really paid off this year and I nabbed the first goal of the year. Here’s a little break down of the races….

Snake Alley
I think about 20 women lined up for the race. Since I hadn’t preregistered I started near the back and when the lead women took off like bats out of hell from the gun I found myself in pretty poor position approaching “The Snake” for the first lap. A few girls went down right next to me in the first switchback, probably as a result of misjudging what gearing they’d need. I can’t blame them as I almost found myself in the same position last year, but just managed to keep it upright. After some serious wheel rubbing with one other woman throughout the first time up the shoot, I managed to get clear of the biggest groups. There were still a handful of women quite a bit up the road but my legs felt surprisingly good. Rumor has it brakes aren’t needed on the descent. I did my best but still needed to use them a little as I was still sharing the road with a few other women. At the bottom I could see the leaders still up the road and I grabbed the wheel of another woman still in front of me. We gained some ground on Kelli Mente (Punk Rock Cycling) and Sarah Huang, who were leading at that point. I don’t remember exactly, but I think going into the shoot for the 3rd lap I was able to barely pass the two leaders up and put in a bit of a gap by the top. The rest of the race was basically a time trial to the line of my second victory ever! I apologize to those who have expressed concern with my finish style but a victory is better celebrated upright and not on the ground.

Melon City
This race was more representative of what real racing should be like. I have to give mad props to the women from Punk Rock Cycling. They’re strong and they were throwing attacks like mad…great strategy since they had several women hanging in the top 10. Without any teammates in the field I really had to gamble and cover everything with hopes I could still pull off a sprint if that’s what it came to. I think the repeated attacks and subsequent efforts required in the field started to slowly shed people and string the field out. I was certainly starting to question whether I’d have it in me either for the end or to finally get an attack to stick. Finally, one of the Punk Rock girls threw a really hard attack from a ways back in the field and it was Kelli Mente, Sarah Huang and, her and myself up the road a bit. The attack must have cooked her but she got her teammate up the road and Kelli and I worked together to keep the pace up and the gap stable. Coming up the hill on the final lap I found myself in front and knew I needed to be the first wheel into the hairpin corner so I gave it one more effort. Surprisingly my legs hadn’t quit on me and I put a big enough gap between myself and the girls and took it to the line. Again, a two-hands-on-the-bars finish, but nonetheless a victory.

Quad Cities
This was another fun race and I really like this course. This time I started in the third row and spent the first lap pretty boxed in near the back. Luckily the girls at the front were pushing the pace enough that little gaps would open up near each corner and I quickly moved up to about 5th wheel by the second lap. My plan for the race was to ride in the top 6 or so, try and get on board if any breaks went otherwise throw an attack on or during the last lap and try and take it home. There were a few small attack efforts but the field quickly pulled things back and the extra effort ended up being a waste. Kelli Mente road really strong again pushing the pace and pulling the field for most of the race. At one point I was off the front with her and Sarah again. Sarah must have been feeling good because she took some great pulls (unfortunately when you’re twice her size the draft isn’t that great). It came down to the last lap with Kelli, Sarah and myself near the front again and since I didn’t know what caliber sprinters either of them were I decided to gamble and go since my legs were feeling strong. I told myself to just kill it and it’d be less than two minutes to the line. Initially I don’t think there was much of a gap but I kept hammering and checking behind me. Going into the last corner I had enough of a gap to breathe and take in what will probably be the last victory I’m going to get for a while. My 3 upgrade came in last night so now I’m ready to rock and roll with the big girls. The only major goal I’ve got is to not get dropped. Now I have teammates and next up are the Winfield races this weekend. Gotta bring my “A” game.

All in all it was a great race weekend. The races were hard, but I still got some good results. All I have to say is the women’s bike racing scene better watch out….little Sarah Huang is going to be kicking ass and taking names before she even has a drivers license."