Blog for Megan Hottman
road season is a wrap -now onto track season!
well, the road season has officially ended for 2010. Hard to believe it! I wrapped up the season that began for me back in March and consisted of over 50 race days, this labor day weekend with a 4-day stage race in Steamboat. I had put in a pretty monster training session at the velo thursday afternoon, followed by Thurs nite velo racing, so I came into the weekend with what coach called a "fatigue handicap." Therefore I had to be very true to my real goals for attending and couldn't vary from them, as hard as it was at times.
Day 1 was the prologue TT with an uphill finish. I took 2nd to Jeannie Longo (who put 40 seconds into me in 10k!). Day 2 was a hilly circuit race with technical descent in Marabou Ranch - SAWEEET course on normally-closed roads. Longo rode away from us mid race. Towards the end we had a very small group of riders left including teammate Kasey. Toni Bradshaw of Vera Bradley attacked up the final climb but began to fade, so I countered and took 2nd and the time bonus.
Day 3 was a brutal road race. Only 50 miles with some climbs, but we started at 1pm and the wind never died down below 25mph. Early on, Jeannie, Toni and I rolled off the front. Teammate Kasey was just a few bike lengths back so I told Longo I would not pull through until she caught on. Longo proceeded to berate me for my "stupid tactics" and as I sat on her wheel, she "jake braked" meaning she locked it up hoping I'd rear end her. I swung out to her left, at which time she proceeded to push me on my back and told me to get riding. I just sat up and let her ride up with road with Toni. Life's too short to spend 50 miles with someone like her. They proceeded to put minutes into our chase group - mainly because our chase group refused to get organized and I eventually quit trying to form a paceline. With a few miles to go, Kasey rolled off the front of our group and no one chased, allowing her to make up significant time in her GC standings. I finished the stage 6th and was feeling pretty punished for having spent a good deal of time in the wind. It was a really really tough day for as short as the stage was.
Day 4, Monday, was the crit. A rectangle with slight rise through the s/f and a short popper hill on backside, with the descent into a headwind. The race was fairly active but the final 15 minutes was where the action unfolded. Kasey and I each sprinted for $50 primes -yeah! We ended with a group of 5-6 of us and on the final lap Longo attacked me and got just enough of a gap; I couldn't close it before the line. So, 2nd for me. Kasey pulled out a sweet sprint, taking the 3rd place time bonus and with that effort, moved herself up in GC from 6th to 4th overall! So we had 2/3 of the crit podium - super!
final GC: Longo, Bradshaw, Hottman:
It was a nice weekend of training in preparation for track nationals which are in 3 weeks, and it was a positive way to end the road season and my tenure with the team that I've run for the last 5 years.
Well done to all the DFT ladies that raced this weekend, including Roberta (5th-SW3) and Becky, Jennie and Shannon in the SW4 race!
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