Race Report: 2023 Green Mountain Stage Race P12 Women

Date: September 1-4, 2023

AVRT racers: Niky Taylor

Top Result: Niky 5th/74 GC, 9th in the stage 1 TT, 8th in stage 3

Day 1 Stage 1 - Time Trial

Course: First half is hilly, last half is pretty flat. There’s a final dip with a steep punch at the end.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9763516236

Recap: I was really nervous before this. I still feel like my respiratory system is recovering from COVID and I strained a muscle coughing a week ago. It's just been hard to push or trust my body. I almost always struggle with nerves, but after COVID I’ve felt very timid on the bike. I’m still terrified I’ll blow up randomly or something. But I’m here. All the logistics have been done and the only thing left to do is ride my bike.

I started warming up an hour before my start time. I rode down the hill to the start from our airbnb, then climbed back up (about a 15 min climb with a couple hard efforts thrown in), dropped off my stuff, and went back down. I rolled around a bit and then got in line. I chatted a bit with the girl in front of me. She was super nice. They sent her off. My turn.

Cam cheered for me as I started, then as soon as he was out of earshot a voice in my head said “I don’t want to do this.” But then another voice said “that’s ok, I do” and I felt like I lit up. So congratulations to me on having multiple bike personalities. I don’t mind if people think I’m weird. 

After those two thoughts I just zoned out and rode my bike hard. And that was great. It was amazing to just ride hard and fast and go totally all out and not worry about anything. 

I went pretty hard on the first climbs. I passed the racer in front of me at the end of them. I didn’t go as hard as I could because my coach had cautioned me about not going out too hard. So I did not go out too hard. 

Once the course turned and flattened out I kept it a pretty steady effort. At one point I got stuck behind a car and screamed at them to pull over, which they did. I passed the car and another racer.

I made sure to save some energy for the final punch. I tucked into the dip and shot out of it, passing a third racer. I messed up my gearing a bit but got it under control and punched it into the last climb. 

I felt pretty happy at the end of this. I gave it my all and even if I don’t feel as strong as pre-covid, I’m plenty strong enough to be here and race this. I was so grateful to feel my body able to push. I’ve missed that feeling a lot.

Turns out I got 9th. I’m pretty pleased with a top 10 finish in a national level TT. My strained muscle hurts now. Back to feeling scared and worried about overdoing things. But I think I’ll be ok.

Nutrition: 1 bottle of gatorade before and a few clif bloks

Day 2 Stage 2 - “Circuit” Race:

Course: Two laps of a mostly flat and slightly rolling 37 mile loop. One Sprint point and one QOM hill, then a technical descent and a flat sprint finish.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9771460965

Recap: My goals for the day were to try and get some QOM points because I’ve never tried to do that before. Once again I was so nervous. I fixate on things when I’m that stressed, and that day I fixated on not having put on enough sunscreen. Cam lied through his teeth and told me Vermont was at such a high latitude that you can’t sunburn. Which was a nice try except that he was clearly sunburned.

The start of the race was pretty chill. Only having one lane of the road was difficult though, it was so narrow. There were zero attacks. Nothing was happening. Then nothing continued to happen. It was one of those races where everyone was trying to just not be on the front. Including me. 

Leah Thompson from 3TQM got on the front a few miles in, and then basically was just there the whole race. We all fanned out behind her. I kept waiting for one of the other teams to attack or do something. There were at least 4 teams with four or more riders. Finally it seemed like one team was doing a lead-out for the QOM, but they were several miles too early and it dissolved.

Holding position was hard. Partly because we were going slow, and partly because the road was narrow. I rode on the right and could move up pretty consistently there but I would get shuffled back once near the front. I was maybe one of the more confident handlers in terms of obstacles, but was less confident fighting for wheels. So I started practicing that.

The course was overall fairly flat. We started going up a hill and I assumed it was the QOM hill because we were in about the right place. It wasn’t. The next bump was, which was strange. I went for it and got 5th.

There was the descent, a very slow roll to the feed zone, then it felt like we blasted through the feed zone and it was total chaos. Then back to slow roll for lap 2.

Lap 2 was insanely frustrating. I was on the left this time and felt like I was braking about as much as I was pedaling. I finally moved back over the right and it was slightly better. I went for QOM points again and got 3rd, but in the sprint someone swerved and shoved me way over the centerline. I yelled but managed to stay upright and the girl who’d hit me immediately apologized. That was exciting.

The five of us who made it over the QOM hill first started ripping the descent. That was fun. I finally got on the front and did some work and it felt so much better than sitting in at coffee ride pace. But we got caught. And then it went back to slow roll. Until the last mile, when Claudia (Monarch) ramped up the pace and then most of the field decided to sprint which was insanity.

So stage 2 was a bit disappointing. I was glad to have gone for QOM points, that was pretty fun. Minus getting pushed over the centerline, I had a great time battling it out with the other racers going for points. I started looking forward to stage 3. More climbs, some gravel, and hopefully some wider roads. Sounds like a good time.

Nutrition: two bottles of gatorade mix, a sleeve of clif bloks and half a waffle during the race. A bottle, a waffle, and some bloks before.

Day 3 stage 3 - Road Race:

Course: Point to point, mostly flat with two gravel sections in the first half. Sprint point, then the feed zone, then a QOM point on a small climb. More flat/rolling until the final climbs, then the final final climb called “App Gap” which ramps up from a steady 6% to a final 500m 15% pitch.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9777505982

Recap: Today was supposed to be a good day for me. There were several climbs, two gravel sections, and it ended on a big climb with a super steep pitch to finish. I was looking forward to it. I wanted a podium, but I also wanted a more interesting race and maybe QOM points.

I lined up next to Claudia (Monarch) at staging. The first 3 miles were neutral roll-out, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from national P12 races it’s that there is no such thing as a neutral roll-out. All that phrase means here is that you aren’t allowed to attack off the front, which I highly doubted anyone would do based on what I’d seen the day before. You still have to fight for position.

Our race officially started, and nothing changed. Except that once again, Leah from 3T was pulling the whole field. This went on for a few miles and then I decided I didn’t care if it ruined my race later, I was not down to just sit in and be bored for 3-4 hours. So I went up and got on the front.

Maybe a mile later, another 3T rider attacked. I did not respond, because a team should respond. The GC leader from Fount was on the front. She kept looking back for her teammate. A rider from Amy D briefly got on the front. Nobody pulled 3T back. I bridged. 

I tried to get 3T to work with me but she didn’t want to. The pack caught us and just stuck behind me. I slowed way down and expected a counterattack to go. But nope no one did because apparently the game is not “who can force a break” but rather “who can avoid pulling.” I heard someone yell “you got it 178, ride away! I’ll hold them off!” and looked back to see a gap with the 3T rider I’d bridged to earlier. I laughed. It felt like a commentary on the field’s unwillingness to do anything. So then we rode and did nothing. 

Then there was some gravel. It was pretty chill but it made people more nervous, which made me nervous, so I rotated in the top few wheels. After gravel there was a sprint point so I faded back into the pack. I got a bottle in feed from Cam's parents. I moved up for the QOM. I got boxed in and floundered up late. Not sure if I got points. I went back into the pack. 

A few miles later two riders touched wheels and the rider in front of me went down with a scream. We were on a perfectly straight non-technical descent. I watched her head and shoulders sliding across the road right next to my front tire. And then behind me I heard so much screaming and crashing and it felt like I was being chased by a wave of disaster and if I stopped pedaling I’d go down too. 

When I was clear I looked back and saw a pile of bikes and people and at least half the field either on the ground or stuck behind. I didn’t see either of the other NorCal racers, Rachel (Monarch, but racing for Amy D) or Claudia (Monarch) anymore. It turned out Rachel got up and finished the race but Claudia had to go to the hospital. 

I wanted to stop racing. This was the scariest crash I’ve seen so far. I was shaking and wanted to cry. I went to the front because I’d rather do work than be crashed out. I completely forgot to eat anything after that. I felt really alone.

On the beginning of the last climbs I got on the front and paced it up, then faded back a couple wheels before the QOM point. I ended up getting boxed in, but hauled around for a point or two. 

On the final climb people went out hard. I tried to go with the front 3 but couldn’t hold it. A few more people passed me. The climb was beautiful. There's waterfalls here, like everywhere, and people don’t even make a big deal about them. Where I’m from, a waterfall is a major destination. I really wanted to stop riding my bike and go stand in a waterfall. 

On the 15% I started passing people back. In the end I got 8th. 

I was disappointed. I felt like I could have done so much better. I wanted to win. I felt so alone. I wanted a team. I was sick of riding my bike halfway through this race. The course was beautiful and interesting but the only notable thing that happened was that stupid awful crash. 

Nutrition: Total fail. A small kate’s bar during the race and like 2-3 clif bloks, one and a half bottles of gatorade.

Stage 4 - Crit:

Course: L shaped, 1km, technical course. One long side is a descent, the other long side is an uphill to the finish. Runs counter-clockwise.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9784764781

Recap: I did not want to do this. But also I did. I was so depressed and anxious after yesterday. I didn’t want to get up in the morning. Cam had to gently pry me out of bed at 10 am so I could eat something and get to my start on time. When we got there my brother and his girlfriend and my cousin were there to watch and cheer. I felt so relieved to have family there to support me. 

We staged at 1:25 but everyone lined up earlier. There was a half lap “neutral roll-out” which I fully expected to not matter in the slightest. Then plot twist they were like “women’s field take two preview laps.” So we were all forced to ride the course twice. Basically a little race before the race to make sure you got a good position for staging. 

I got a great position. Go me. Then they called up the jerseys and the top ten! So I got an even better position! Sick.

The race started and yeah neutral roll-out was total bullshit no surprise. I held a position in the top ten wheels, then started slipping back. The first few laps were wild. It was blazingly fast. There was none of the slow, faking-it tactics. It was full on ripping corners and picking lines and sprinting up the finish hill. It was great. 

The course was technical but not difficult. I found good lines easily and was able to move up on corners 1-4. I still ended up braking and sprinting more than I wanted to, but I’ve definitely gotten more comfortable in crits and the more technical the better. I had trouble with the last corner—I’d gain a lot of speed drafting people on the downhill, and have to brake to not come around. Then that would screw me over when we came through the turn to go up the finish, because I couldn’t conserve as much momentum as I’d like. I focused really hard each lap on finding the ideal line and wheel.

Any hopes of sprinting for GC points went completely out the window, I didn’t have the power to compete. I focused on following safe wheels and marking people I knew were ahead of me on GC. I stayed in the top 20 or so wheels for the whole race and finished with the front group.

Two of the riders ahead of me on GC fell back from the front group, so I moved up to 5th GC. It took 24 hours for that to sink in. I got top 5 in my second national level stage race. That’s pretty good. And I could do better.

Nutrition: I really need to just bring like half a bottle of plain water for crits. I carried a bottle of gatorade and took like 2 sips. Had a few clif bloks right before.