She-Sharking
Last year I had the opportunity to race on a first year domestic elite team: Pastaria Big Shark also referred to as pasta sharks, or if an elite female, the She-Sharks. I recently wrote a season recap for the Shark’s newsletter, and thought I’d share. Enjoy!
The 2017 season kicked off with a brutally cold road race in Pheonix, Arizona, where the she-sharks and I learned just how chilling the desert can be during a rainstorm in February. Three sharks were caught behind a crash and I was dropped from the pack with one lap to go after several ill-timed attempts to chase up to the break. As four of us, soaked to the bone, shivered quietly in our rental truck driving back to host housing, I dismally set my expectations for the 2017 road season. I prepared for physical and mental pain, to be pack fodder in the big races, to accept that I was racing for the love of racing and had a lot of room to grow. After all, this was only my second season racing, so the journey to racing at the pro level was going to be tough, right? My coach, Jim Schneider, set different expectations. He told me I wasn’t in racing shape yet, but that come June I would be flying. He told me after every failure, you’re just as strong as the girls in that break.
I’ve said this phrase many times over the past two years, but the truth of it still rings so loudly that it’s worth repeating here: I should have listened to Jim. By July 2017, our little squad had not just survived many PRT races, we had multiple top 10 finishes in the PRT, two of us were top 10 overall at Tulsa Tough, a 7th place finish in stage 3 of Joe Martin, we had several podiums at local and regional events, and learned to successfully deploy team tactics. Perhaps most importantly, we earned a reputation in the pro circuit as that new Pasta squad whose name no one could pronounce, but was putting up a big fight in the pro field. (My favorite mispronunciation? Piss-STOR-ee-ah, Fort McCllelan road race).
My individual season had many ups and downs. I raced my first Redlands Classic with Amber Neben (who went on to be the first American woman in history to win TT and road nationals) and had the opportunity to defend her yellow jersey in stages 2-5. I learned that the blue UHC jerseys do indeed contain humans instead of superheroes, and if Amber said go I could hop in a paceline with them or chase down attacks. I also discovered the upper end of my pain threshold when I crossed the Yucaipa stage finish line in tears, just minutes before the time cut off. Our team mechanic (bless his soul) caught me and world-tour-style pushed me from the finish over to a shady area and brought me back to life with oreos and pretzels. I still get fuzzy thinking about how grateful I am for his care in that moment. The heat was so intense that day--a few girls lost consciousness mid-race. After Redlands, I started to believe that I did belong in the pro peloton. By July, I was racing BC Superweek with IS Corps and learning the pro-level tactics that helped the Schneider sisters dominate the PRT in 2016. I raced in the inaugural Colorado Classic where I learned what it feels like to go hypoxic on moonstone loop. My season culminated in September with an offer from the Papa John’s squad that included the support I would need to train and race harder in 2018.
The She-Sharks’ 2017 season ended with Amy McClintock on the podium in Gateway Cup, Stacy Bragg winning the amateur omnium and catting up to a 2, and with Ashley Weaver catting up to a 1 (AND signing to papa johns with me—yay!). Most importantly, we laid the foundation for a budding women’s elite program. At the beginning of the year, Mike Weiss said he just wanted to see us work together and have fun in races. We always made that our first priority. When I look back on what made the difference for us between success and failure, I think it was a persistent focus on being teammates on and off the bike. Trusting our training and our coaching, and learning together that we could impact the outcome of races and of women’s cycling in general. Thanks to Mike, Gerard, Jim, Amy S., Chris C, and all the other sharks that took a chance on supporting an elite women’s team this year. I know I speak for all of us when I say our success this season wouldn’t be possible with you.
