Rodent racing in Mankato
From: Sara Brokaw
Date: Jun 24, 2007 8:11 AM
Sara Brokaw
Womens 3/4
6th/?
35 min
racing with mens 4/5, Juniors
Rolled into Mankato with Racing Rodent Bergstrom, where shortly after
arrival (trying to figure out where to park), we encountered B-wood
with the rodent connection (rolling around on a bike) along with
Rodent Merwin who expertly captained an ATV-thing while directing us
to our excellent parking location. On foot we previewed the course,
which I would describe to be a crit-riders dream-type course, L-shaped
6-corner course with each corner a bit different from others, turns
into/out of widening/narrowing lanes. Rodent Hallager was also
spotted.
Good warmup. Rolled once around the course & felt like the rear tire
was a bit flat. Checked tire for foreign objects & extracted a chip
of granite stuck into the tire. Hmm… this is not good. Wonder if
the tube is ok. Checked tire pressure & found that the 95 psi put
into tire at car was at 80. Hm… Race time is close, and I don’t
really have time to run back to the car since I need a good position
on the start line (large field). No neutral support, but after like 5
checks of the tire before the start I convince myself convinced the
tire will hold for the race.
I knew the start was super-important, so I get myself into the top 6
or so riders (MNJRs) around the first turn. Nice. Eventually this
group swells to 25-ish riders (maybe 20, including Rodent Bergstrom),
and we’re hitting 30+ mph in parts of the course. Fun to be riding
with a fast bunch. I’m the only woman up here, so all I have to do is
stay here for the win…added bonus..nice. I think I touched my
brakes once which makes for fun crit riding! We lap one group of
women.
15 min into the race I seem to have a soft rear tire, so I let go of
this front group since we’d been hitting the turns hard & I didn’t
want go sliding across pavement. I yelled at Rodent Wheeler on the
sideline to find a wheel (which he graciously found on the next lap).
NV girl rolls by having a good ride, but concerned about the tire, I
don’t hop on. Almost rolled off course but felt like riding it out as
long as tire held. Later in the race some other girls roll by, but by
this time, and I hop onto their groups, but unmotivated to stay,
frustrated.
Roll off course after the finish, check the tire expecting it to be
soft, & it was fine. Ah bummer…missed opportunity. Bergstrom
reports back later things really ramped up in the last few laps
(whittled down to 15 or so guys), so I might have come off, but an
additional 10 minutes of riding with that group would’ve been really
fun.
After a post-race lunch at Paglais (sp) pizza with the WINNER of the
womens race (NV), we return to pick up her cash and both Bergstrom & I
are pleasantly surprised to find we both finished in the cash for the
day! Womens payout went 6 deep ($10), and mens to 10 (Bergstrom
placed 10th, $5). Apparently several of the riders up front were some
scrappy Juniors who were recent cat3 upgrades.
In the end a fun day. Well-run event.
Thanks for reading.
Sara
PS-Appreciated the depth of the prize lists AND the the free race for
women/jrs…. I the free entry did probably did help to increase
turnout from the womens side of things given we were racing with the
men.