Race Report - Low Gap Grasshopper 2023 Pro Women
Race: Low Gap Grasshopper 2023 - Pro Women
Date: January 28, 2023
AVRT racers: Niky Taylor
Top Result: 2nd
Course: Low Gap is a 44 mile mixed gravel and road course with a lot (5600ft) of climbing. It starts with a 7% (6mi, 2000ft) road climb, goes into a twisty road descent, then rolls on road and gravel with scattered climbs until the final climb at mile 28. That final climb is an 8% (3mi, 1400ft) gravel climb, which then deposits you on 13 miles of mixed terrain “descending” that involves a disappointing amount of pedaling but great views.
Report: TLDR: that was awesome.
This was my first race in a pro field. The day before the race I freaked out and texted a friend who races pro that maybe I shouldn’t have signed up. She told me the first step was to calm down. That was very helpful. Another friend told me my goal of “don’t crash” was boring and that my goal should be “attack Kate Courtney.” Weirdly, that was also helpful (spoiler: I didn’t get a chance). I also got great advice from so many other people about the course, mentality, nutrition, etc. Katheryn reminded me to stay within myself and enjoy the ride. Kelly walked me through how to do pretty much everything. My friend Jenny decided to do the race with me for fun, so we drove up together and met up with Kelly and Riley and crew to get ready the night before.
The day of the race I was nervous but excited. Kelly and I warmed up with Santa Cruz friends. But since staging started half an hour before race start and I wanted to get a good position, all the warming up I did totally evaporated. Staging was the most stressful part of this race. Kelly and Bernardo lined up with me at the front, and I was grateful to have people I knew nearby.
The race started and I followed a wheel to the base of the climb. When the climb started the field blew apart. I saw Kate Courtney and Anna Yamauchi taking off ahead and wanted to chase, but my legs felt absolutely terrible. I wasn’t warmed up at all. I started getting passed by men and women and it was so demoralizing and I felt like maybe I shouldn’t have tried to race this. I thought, maybe I’m actually not good at climbing? I reminded myself to just stay present and trust my body and do what I felt like doing. About halfway up I started to feel my muscles coming online and knew things were about to get better.
After a bit of rolling hills at the top of the climb I felt my body fully wake up. The views were beautiful and I once again resolved to just put everything I had out on the course and let myself just go.
The descent hit and the group I was with split in half. The better handlers pulled ahead, the more timid group fell back. I was right in the middle. Rough, cause then we hit the flat and I was all alone.
The canyon was really beautiful, but I was a bit disappointed about being on my own. Kelly and I had talked about how this was a great place to conserve energy by being in a draft. I thought about trying to catch the front group, but didn’t want to commit. Lucky for me a couple guys came along and I got in a group with them. They didn’t seem to want me to pull. I spent some time trying to decide if this was sexist or not but ultimately decided I didn’t care and was happy to just sit in and snack while I could. Other riders merged into the group, including Maude Farrell and one or two other women whose names I don’t know.
Another road climb hit and then we were onto rolling gravel. I dropped Maude and the other women on the climbs. I knew I was behind at least Kate and Anna and probably a few other women, but I didn’t actually care very much. I felt great. Everything was so beautiful. I like looking at the tops of trees when I ride. I was so happy. I felt like I’d been holding in energy and I was finally free to just let it out and I felt like I could fly.
For a while I tracked a guy in a MAAP jersey, so I will call him MAAP guy. When we came to the reroute around the bridge, we went down and around and then I sped off in the wrong direction. I wouldn’t have noticed except I was trying to get MAAP guy to work with me and he wasn’t, so I looked back in exasperation and saw him riding up the correct way a couple hundred yards back. I slammed on my brakes and turned back, really glad to have realized my mistake. Turns out a lot of other people also missed this turn and took what was actually a shorter route to the finish.
A bit more rolling, and then the final climb hit. Some guy tried to talk to me and I asked him to not. I buckled in for the climb. It was a blast. It was really fun. I don’t know what else to say about it.
When I got to the top, the feed zone people yelled at me to turn. In the real world I’m technically a Geographer, so you’d think I’d be better at navigation but I guess not. Also my Garmin refused to work correctly all day, so my route guidance was frustrating at best and distracting at worst. The feed zone people also told me I was in second, which surprised and confused me but was exciting. I wondered who was in first and if I could catch her.
Then came the final descent. The gravel was great. Then came a lot of road descending that wasn’t quite steep enough to coast, but was steep enough that occasionally I’d spin out. So I sort of time trialed my way down but my gearing wasn’t quite up to the task. Luckily, in the last 5 miles a person fully decked out in unicorn kit caught me. I started drafting them but couldn’t tell what their gender was, so I asked their pronouns. They said he/him and I said cool glad to know I’m not racing you. He told me he was impressed to see a woman this far up in the race. I told him women can be fast. He agreed. I decided he was cool, mostly because of the outfit.
I drafted unicorn guy for a while and did some occasional work when my gears weren’t spinning out. Then in the very last mile I hit a bump and my chain fell off. I really didn’t want to stop, so I then did the COOLEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE ON A BICYCLE and reached down and put my chain back on without stopping. I was so proud of myself. I know everyone thinks it’s cool I podiumed but on-the-go chain fixing was the cooler thing that I accomplished that day. I stood up, absolutely thrilled to bits with myself, and pushed as hard as I could to the finish.
I was so stoked crossing the finish line to know I had given everything I could in this race (and to have fixed my chain while riding, did I mention that???). I pedaled around slowly for a while in the sun feeling so grateful for my body and my bike and everything and everyone that has come together to allow me to do something like this, then headed back to find friends.
I was the third woman to cross the line. Kate absolutely dominated despite getting crashed into. Anna Yamauchi had an incredible ride but took the accidental short cut and was disqualified. So I got 2nd in my first pro race and I kind of can’t believe it. Riley and Kelly finished strong as well, Riley taking third in his age group and Kelly winning hers!
In the future I’ll test out my navigation before race day to make sure the route gets along with my Garmin. I’d maybe run a 2x, or at least take Riley’s advice and run a chain guide on a 1x. I’d like to learn how to warm up faster or stay warmed up during staging. And I’m going to practice riding on flats given that somehow on a 44 mile course with 5600ft of climbing, I thought “ugh this is flat,” at least 3 times.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8468611812
Nutrition: I started the race with 2 waffles, 2 sleeves of clif bloks, a syrup “gel,” and a small Kate’s Bar, also 2 large bottles of skratch+water. I had the syrup and the bar at staging. I ate most of the waffles in the canyon and a bit at the rolling gravel section. I went through most of 1 sleeve of clif bloks throughout the race. I also drank 1.5 bottles.
