Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race 2014

All year, I've look forward to the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race in Enumclaw Washington, due to the big women’s categories, awesome atmosphere and super fun courses! This year, I raced cat. 3 women, which were combined with the cat. ½ women but got scored separately. The field size was the biggest field I had raced since Superweek. There were 16 cat.3’s and 25 cat ½’s!!! It challenged me to race aggressively to stay in good pack position and to be up there to counter-attack and go with the breaks that I could. This year was especially awesome as I got to race with my new teammate, BC junior, Clara Mackenzie. Although the pack was very strong and it was difficult to work with team tactics, we went in with a plan, and I found it really nice to have someone there to cover you when possible and as moral support. This was our first race together and we proved that we make a great, determined team, not to mention that Clara looks awesome in the Local Ride blue and orange!

After pre-riding the course with my coach (aka. my dad) and talking about every corner, practicing the final sprints for the road race and crit, I went into the tt more prepared than I have probably ever been. My warm up consisted of some efforts and a gradual build until I got called to the start, being totally warmed up and ready to fly.

The time trial went really well. I ended up passing my 30 sec mark and ended up in 6th place with around 45 sec to make up on the leader, Sara Bergen.

Us BC girls: Me, Clara Mackenzie, Brenna Pauly, Kia Van der Vliet

After a delicious brunch consisting of pancakes and strawberry sauce and a nap, I went into the crit excited and nervous but also curious as to how I would match up compared to the others (cat. ½’s). Luckily this year, I didn’t crash at the start ;) and fought for good positioning right off the gun. Coming out of the race, I have a much better understanding of how crucial it is to have really good pack positioning. The race went really well for me, getting a time bonus and almost winning the sprint for the $200 prime, as well as avoiding the couple crashes (another bonus of the good positioning). In the final sprint, I got sixth out of the whole pack (cat. 1/2/3’s) and won the cat. 3 sprint.


Start of the criterium

Lastly was the road race. Once again, Clara and I went in with a plan also knowing that it was going to be a test of how much pain you can tolerate, with the 20+ min climb and all. This was the longest road race that I have ever done- 97km! 

First lap, I made my dad very nervous by almost being dropped first time up the hill!! Me and some others worked together and chased back on, were I then lasted until the last lap. The accelerations by that point, were too much for me and I got dropped, but a chase group formed and we powered out the last 10km. Coming into the sprint, I knew there were points on the line, because only Sara Bergen (out of the cat.3's) had gotten away with the lead group. So I basically had to win the sprint! The determination fueled my fire, and after a leadout by Sara Coney (thanks so much!) I started my sprint at the markers that my dad and I had figured out, and won it! 

In the GC, I ended up second with Sara Bergen in first and Megan Doherty in third. 

Congrats to all the cat. 1/2/3 women who made this race awesome!! Also, thanks to Erik Anderson for running another awesome year of Stage Racing in Enumclaw!

Thanks always to Local Ride Racing, Kicking Horse Coffee, Golden Ears Physio,  Giant Bikes Canada, Power2Max, Cycles Lambert and Cycling BC for all the support! :)

GC: 1st: Sara Bergen, 2nd: Me, 3rd:Megan Doherty

Maggie :)




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