Alpenrose Challenge

While the girls continued tearing it up at Superweek, I went to give it a try in Portland. The Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge was 3 tough days on the track. It was so great to see such a tough women's field. For the first time, the promoters had to split the Women Cat 3/4 from the Women Pro/1/2. There were enough women for 2 HUGE fields!


Friday was the pursuit in the morning and the 500m sprint at night. I opted out of the pursuit since I have never done one and thought sleep would benefit me more after traveling on Thursday. In the 500m I finished 2nd behind Canadian superstar Monique Sullivan- this ended up being a theme in the sprint events.

Saturday was a long day; I think we were at the track for over 12 hours with about 1 hour in between sessions. The morning started with the 200m TT which seated us for the sprints. I made it into the sprint finals with little problems and got handed a wake-up call by Monique in the finals. Hmmm... I know what I need to practice! Also on Saturday was the 5 mile scratch race. This was a super fun win over a tough field. P.S. A scratch race is like a crit on the velodrome. Basically, after 5 miles the first one over the finish line wins. I sat in good position for most of the race and didn't panic when attacks went off the front. It ended in a bunch sprint which, of course, I love.

There was a nasty crash in the men's keirin on Saturday. The local news crew was there and caught it on video. Don't watch if you are scared of the track. Luckily, everyone walked away. The bad news is there was about $15k of broken bikes/wheels/computers/etc. I don't know why this is one of my favorite races.

Sunday was the keirin, miss and out, and points race for the women. I won my qualifier in the keirin putting me in the finals right away. The miss and out wasn't as glorious. I actually dropped out and decided to save my legs since I didn't feel like I had it in me to place well. I felt pretty good in the keirin final but still came in second to Monique; this race was a little more respectable then the sprint finals. She is super fast and fun to race with. I am trying hard to talk her into moving to Colorado to train with me :) The last event for the women was the Points race. At this point, I was exhausted (6th day out of 7 of racing) and tallied the Overall Leader's Points. I was winning and the only person that could beat me was Jen Triplett. If Jen won the Points, she would win the Overall. I rolled the dice and did not race the Points. Thanks to Shelley Olds for taking control and winning the Points race because I ended up winning the Overall too.

Thanks to all the Alpenrose folks for having such a fun and supportive race! See you guys in Seattle next!

Cari