Race Report: 2023 Tour of America’s Dairyland - Women’s Cat 2/3
Race: Tour of America's Dairyland
Dates: June 19-24, 2023
AVRT Racers: Gina Yuan
Tour of America's Dairyland (ToAD) is an 11-day crit series in and around Milwaukee, WI. Each race showcases a different community, with local businesses setting up tents, restaurants offering tables with front-row seats to the action, and residents hosting block parties. There are many cash prizes and primes, as well as omnium prizes based on intermediate sprints and overall standings. I raced P/1/2 the first day, and then 5 out of the 6 races of the combined Cat 2/3 and 15-16/17-18 juniors omnium on the remaining days, for 6 days in a row total. I had so much fun racing these large fields and drinking all the free Kwik Trip chocolate milk.
Day 1 (June 19): De Pere P/1/2 (Strava), 10th/22
Course: Squiggly uphill on a parking lot ramp with a fast downhill corner into the start/finish.
I still get scared racing national-level P/1/2 races, so my goal for this race was to feel like I belong and assert myself in a position to sprint at the end. I actually managed to do so, inserting myself ~6th wheel on the backside of the course and keeping that position through some technical turns into the start/finish straight. However, the other women had been ripping that downhill corner all race in a beautiful and humbling way, and I didn't dare to follow in the final lap. I lost the wheel and a few people sprinted past me at the end, but considering I'm often tail-gunning, I was very happy to have accomplished my primary goal.
Day 2 (June 20): West Allis 2/3/juniors (Strava), 7th/44
Course: Flat L-shaped course with several 90-degree turns.
The morning of the race, I stopped by The Bread Pedalers, a bakery created by Sky & Sam Schneider (L39ION pros and West Allis Natives) to buy a cookie and take a picture with Sky. I'm going to channel my inner master's racer and say that the race felt sketchy with the larger field and all the juniors. But we raced the same people every day and it got better. After Kelly's epic race control at the Collegiate Nationals Crit where I really should have been parked 2nd wheel behind her, this time I wanted to be much closer to the front going into the final corner. I was looking for leadouts to follow in the final lap, and there were two teams of two ranked higher than me in Race Predictor doing just that. I haven't often participated in leadouts, but this one was fast and I can see why they work. Alas, I was unable to follow their wheel through the final corner and took a bad line, and lost a few positions at the end. However, I felt great moving around the field during the race, especially in the final lap when I almost caught my wheel in a crack and dropped back, but easily made up a lot of positions.
Day 3 (June 21): Mount Pleasant 2/3/juniors (Strava), 2nd/44
Course: Longer course around a park with some sweeping turns and hills on the backside.
I'm not a true sprinter and this course felt good for breakaways, especially in retrospect. The start of the race saw a break with two girls, from United and Twenty24, both strong riders with several teammates. I thought about trying to bridge but it was early in the race and the field was quite fast, which meant they were motivated to chase. A $100 prime came up, which really motivated the field. The announcers can be mean to the break like that. We swallowed the break and now three other riders were off the front going for the prime. The race had been fast and I was still tired, which meant everyone else was too, so I attacked.
I become that person in the breakaway, "We got a gap!" "30-second pulls!" "Nice pull!" It reminded me of my Cat 4 breakaway days. One of the riders was a junior, and the other two were District Taco teammates and sprinter-like. They all seemed quite tired. The announcer announced the sprint omnium lap for the break. Instead of resigning myself to not be a sprinter, I went for it and got it! We regrouped and the break got a $50 prime. Did the announcer have a change of heart? My break mates started reasoning about how we should all keep the paceline going and split the prime at the end. I bargained to keep the paceline going but only if I could be at the front and keep the prime. They actually agreed.
Thinking about the end-game, the District Taco girls had been sweeping up the primes in other races so they definitely seemed like sprinters, and one of them seemed to have recovered well since establishing the break. The junior seemed shy? I took a bet on a flyer on the final hill, but it was still pretty far from the finish. A District Taco girl caught me in the final 100m but I dropped the other two! This was wild. I not only placed 2nd in the race, I somehow also ended up in the pink cow leader's jersey AND the sprint omnium jersey. Not for long though haha.
Day 4 (June 22): Bay View 2/3/juniors (Strava), 18th/44
Course: Like a weird bowtie, a technical course with many corners of varying degrees.
This was a downtown crit with big-screen TVs broadcasting the events on the backside of the course, and lots of beer. All week I had been grappling with the realization that I can still get so much better at cornering, and this course really brought it out. I also don't have that same sense of fearlessness I used to have since sliding out on a descent a few months ago. It has been interesting to think about the situations where I gain and lose positions through a corner, the most efficient way to get through a corner, where it makes sense to move up in a straightaway if a corner is just going to come up, the impact of a little gap. I finished solidly mid-pack, but I'm still learning a bunch of tactical and technical skills I can work on in every race.
Day 5 (June 23): Shorewood 2/3/juniors (Strava), 5th/45
Course: Almost a square, four-corner crit except for the little wiggle before turn 2.
ToAD is amazingly well-run. I started the day with a Women's/NB ride with ToAD-sponsored pastries from a local coffee shop. The host housing program is awesome too. Our host, Samara, was so welcoming and knowledgeable. She knew a friend who lived on the course, and they hosted a watch party on their lawn. Every time I passed their house, I'd hear dozens of people shouting my name and ringing real Wisconsin cow bells.
I tried to repeat Mount Pleasant and went for a breakaway immediately after a prime. I was off the front for 2 or 3 laps solo. A rider came up to me after the race and told me she tried to bridge to me, but then they announced a $100 prime for the field! As the field caught me for that prime they announced another $200 prime. The announcers must have fun with this.
Since pretty much all of these crits had been ending in bunch sprints, I created a formula for navigating them. Before the race, I decide when I want to move up (2 laps to go), where I will launch my sprint no matter what (typically after the last corner), and which position I want to be in then (still not sure). I flowed through the pack pretty well in the last lap, even shooting a gap between two riders that was pretty slick. I entered the final corner wide but launched a proper sprint not boxed in by the riders around me, getting 5th. I've really come to appreciate the art of the field sprint from following pro racing more closely this year. I imagine I'll look like that one day.
Day 6 (June 24): Downer 2/3/juniors (Strava), 19th/46
Course: A four-sided triangle, apparently.
My host was good friends with the owner of the Wisconsin Cheese Mart, so we made sure to stop by and buy 5 lbs of Wisconsin cheese to bring home. I was familiar with this group I'd been racing for so many days now, and became a zombie going with the flow of the crit. Close this gap here, sprint out of this corner here, oh it's a prime lap get ready for this. The rider who tried to bridge up to me yesterday proposed that we look for opportunities to get in a break today and work together. I loved that idea. Unfortunately, the corners were not as technical as expected and the edges of the triangle were long and straight, so it didn't really pan out. Racing less than an hour every day was more tiring than expected. I found myself boxed in in the final lap, called it a week, and rolled it in grateful for all the hard and safe racing in my field this week.