February 13, 2013

Chicago, IL – Activists in the Illinois women’s cycling community have bonded together to create Illinois Women Cyclists. IWC comprises of a social platform presence at meetup.com/Illinois-Women-Cyclists, organized gatherings to provide an all-inclusive space to welcome women to the bicycle scene, and a gateway to competitive cycling in the Midwest. Women from the hilly downstate to the urban Chicagoland to the borders of Wisconsin and Indiana are invited to advocate for a stronger, broader future for women’s cycling.

With nearly 6.5 million women in the state of Illinois, the IWC desires to bridge the existing gender population gaps in cycling. IWC seeks to raise the number of women who ride by reaching out to those who would not otherwise know about the many rich Illinois cycling communities and by supporting those who already bike by providing a central location for information and resources about other events, rides, and races on the Meetup site. Meetup members, teams, and promoters are encouraged to enhance this collaboration by including their own activities and ideas, thus allowing the forum to self-sufficiently drive the momentum.

Rolling out for the inaugural Spring Thaw Icebreaker, the first Chicago Meetup will occur Monday, March 4, 6:00pm to 8pm at the centrally located Banger’s & Lace, 1670 W Division Street. The event will feature familiar faces to welcome newcomers and old friends, including members of the Illinois Women’s Racing Consortium Vanessa Buccella of Illinois Cycling Association and Half Acre Cycling, Lindsay Knight of Chicago Women’s Bike Racing and Blackstone Bicycle Works, Marie Snyder of Chicago Cuttin Crew and the Northbrook Cycle Committee, and Becky Welbes of Pretty. Fast. and Kinky Llama Racing. All those who identify as women are welcome to meet, connect, and befriend fellow women cyclists.

The Illinois Women’s Racing Consortium focuses its endeavors on promoting women’s racing in Illinois. Contribute to the movement on Facebook.

Illinois Women Cyclists is an independent organization supported in large part by the Illinois Cycling Association. To discover more cycling events in Illinois, visit ICA at illinoiscycling.org.

Learn more about Illinois Women Cyclists by emailing IllinoisWomenCyclists@gmail.com or following @ILWomenCyclists. Join meetup.com/Illinois-Women-Cyclists to create or attend your own IWC events!

Meet up with other female riders and racers in a friendly, low-key environment. Great for seasoned cyclists as well as newbies — come with questions or just come ready to meet new friends, say hi to old ones and be a part of Chicago’s growing female cycling community.

We’ll be working with local photographer Liz Markel of Tipping Point Photography to explore the idea of what it means to “ride like a girl,” whilst mingling and enjoying coffee from Heritage Bicycles. We’ll have some sweet prizes & give-aways happening too! We’ll be joined by some ladies from Sheila Moon with their new line of clothing to raffle off, as well as goodies from Trek Women, Gu, Gore Bike Wear, items from Heritage Bicycles General Store, Village Cycle Center, and more!

Visit the event page to RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/416723491700023/

I’ve practiced climbing with hill sprints, done spin-up drills to increase my cadence, began jumping on group rides to learn to paceline with the best of them and hold a fast pace for an extended period of time. All things that will help me be better and faster in mountain bike and cx races. I even took up track racing from time to time to put the competitive fire under my ass to spin those legs faster and faster, and of course polish my sprinting skills. But I still said “Road races aren’t my thing.”

Then an opportunity arose that I couldn’t turn down. The day I was trying to register for Iceman, a point-to-point mountain bike race, the server crashed, I was left waiting and annoyed. I had money ready to spend on bike races, and there was all this buzz on Facebook about Gapers Block Crits. Even an offer from Tati for free shoes to women who were first time crit racers who pre-reg’d and raced. I have to admit, being the girl who hosts events and gives away awesome prizes to others, it sounded kind of nice to be on the receiving end of bike goodies. Moreover, I realized that by starting a women’s cycling organization that promotes all kinds of races, I should at least try all of these disciplines. You know, make an informed decision. So, I bit the bullet and registered.

I then raced Barry Roubaix — a 36 mile road race + cyclocross of sorts — and finished remarkably well given the non-stop hills. Hey! Maybe that training is paying off! So, I also mentally committed to racing the Leland Kermesse, a 31 mile road race on 1/3 gravel farm roads. Following are my experiences in each type of road race I tried.

Gapers Block

Cold. Windy. Fast. Those are the words I’d use to describe these races. I raced 3 of 4 nights (my little leggies were tired after Barry Roubaix the previous Saturday!) and had fun at all of them. The first night I finished 7th, which made me pretty stinkin’ happy. I didn’t think I’d be out of the pack in my first crit. The crits were fun because they were fast. But they are mentally stressful for me. You have to be IN each race with your head. Much like some track races, but crits are longer. My mind tends to wander while I race. I look up at the trees, think about other things, and just keep riding, racing. Maybe that’s how I push through… allowing myself distractions and to let my body do what it knows how without mucking it up by overthinking each move. Well, you definitely can’t do that in a crit. You need to be paying attention, otherwise a careless move can cause a nasty crash.

The next two nights, I had strong sprints but were counted as pack finishes. The last night, it was nice to have my teammates Katie Tomarelli, Anna Bascik, and Jenn Wilson out there with me. It was fun to see other llama jerseys around me. Again, these races were fast, but in my opinion, stressful and serious. That mental stress is what I think is so addictive to some people, but it’s not something I really enjoy. So, going fast and sprinting for the finish is fun, but the mind-work, maybe not so much.

Leland Kermesse

Oof. This one was a doozie. At the beginning of March I took on some freelance work in addition to my day job. The project ran past the deadline, and suddenly I was facing a 31 mile road race with punishing winds, false flats, and gravel roads running on empty. I had averaged about 5-6 hours of sleep per night for the past month and a half. I skipped an entire week of training just to work, so instead of resting those days, I was up at 5am to work, and going to bed at midnight. I fell into the trap of eating poorly and not hydrating enough because I was so busy. So all of that factored into Leland Kermesse being one of the hardest races I have ever done.

I warmed up and knew I this would be hard. I felt sub-par. The first lap went fine, but the entire race my legs were screaming. I was mid to front pack, knowing I’d want to be toward the front in the event of a break. Sure enough, in the corner out of the first gravel section on lap two, five girls broke off the front. I could see a group of 3 in front of me. I hung out for a few minutes and caught my breath, then bridged up to the next group alone. My teammate Katie Tomarelli was in the group (along with Katie Mann from Tati and Lori Hotchkin from RealWomen Tri) and had organized everyone. She welcomed me, told me we were taking 30 second pulls, and worked as our cheerleader from there on out. After my solo-bridge to join this group, I had a hard time keeping up at times. Working with other girls here made it possible for me to finish this race where I did. The wind was strong, the terrain flat and lacking distractions. Lori dropped back. I finally remembered to eat the chews in my pocket, which helped my legs a little. It was very hard, but I enjoyed sharing the work, and had it not been for Katie’s positivity, leadership, and reminders to keep looking forward with our eyes on the prize, I most definitely would have dropped back.

At the very end, the group behind us caught up. But I said to myself, “I’ll be damned if those girls beat us at the line after we worked this hard to stay in front.” So somehow, the three of us had an unspoken understanding. We let these ladies move in front of us. We rode their wheels for that last mile down the pavement, and at the last minute, we all stood up and sprinted past, crossing the line with just inches between the three of us. It felt so good to finish together after the hard work we all put in.

That opportunity to share this experience with a wonderful teammate and to really benefit from someone else’s energy in this race was awesome! That was hands down the most enjoyable part of this very difficult race. That is an experience that you rarely, if ever, will have in a dirt race.

So my verdict? I still like the dirt more. Given the nature of road racing, it’s serious. Therefore, racers take it very seriously. That’s par for the course, and some people really love it. My style is a little more low-key, so given the chance to race mountain or cross bikes, I’d pick them over a road race. I’m glad I’ve tried some road racing, I’ll probably try to make it out to some of the “spring classics” again next year, but as soon as mountain racing starts again, that’s where I’ll be. I guess that means you can officially consider me a dirtbagger!

——

Photos used under the creative commons license.
Photo Credits: John Greenfield and PelotonPix.com

Mark your calendars for May 12 at 9am where we will be meeting up at Palos Forest Preserve. We will be meeting at the Wolf Road Woods parking lot.

Ride begins at 9am. Get there early to get set up. We ride rain or shine— in case of rain, we will ride the double-track. If the weather is nice, bring snacks for a picnic afterward. Need a bike? Need a ride? Post here for help!

This year we have an added bonus, Honey Stinger is sponsoring our series and bringing out lots of things for you to try out and fuel your ride! Big thanks to them for this!
Added note: We know this is the same day as the Monsters of the Midway Crits. Unfortunately, we can’t avoid all conflicts, so we chose to plan this day around mountain bike race schedules. If you’re interested but planning on racing Monsters, have no fear. We have 3 more rides this summer planned that you can attend:

June 2
July 7
August 4
(Possibly Sept 1)

From Half Acre Cycling’s Vanessa Buccella:

This Saturday Half Acre Cycling is hosting our annual Women/Trans Road Clinic. Registration can be found here.

This year we have two new clinic leaders.  We are FLYING in our Intermediate Clinic leader, Cycle-Smart coach, Shaun Adamson,  from Alberta, Canada. This makes him a VIP!  Many Half Acre-ers have been making use of Cycle-Smart coaching services with the guidance of Shaun, and we are excited to have him in Chicago for the clinic.   The beginner clinic leader is Pascale Petro who wants to get women pumped about racing.

The location is almost exactly where the Lincoln Park Crit took place this past Sunday (if you were there).  We will meet for a classroom portion at the Clarendon Park Fieldhouse (4501 N Clarendon, Chicago) and move over to the park for the on-the-bike portion.

We are open to some suggestions as far as topics go, however we are pretty sure we have a great agenda for each group.

For the beginner group we are going to talk about the different kinds of racing, why we think racing is fun, what you need to start racing both gear-wise and license-wise and lots of other topics to get you started. On the bike you will practice pacelines, cornering, and communication.
For the more seasoned riders we are going to focus on choosing target races, recuperating during a stage race along with other stage racing techniques and race tactics.  Then we will practice some skills like sprinting.  We will try to cover as much as possible in our three hours with Shaun.

Half Acre Cycling is dedicated to providing this clinic only to women and trans individuals, however as registration for the intermediate clinic is low, it may be combined with Half Acre Cycling’s OWN team road clinic. Please register soon so we can keep these two clinics separate!

Reverse Breakaway

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” Cyclocross racing has been my response to this adage for the last few years, but little did I know that I’d be taking on another scary thing this spring: criterium races.

2011 was the first year that I said goodbye to long distance running (for a little bit) and spent my summer training for the Chicago Cyclocross Cup race series as a part of the Iron Cycles team. In addition to having an absolute blast crashing through sandpits, as well as making significant personal fitness gains, it was so amazing to have races with fields of 30-40 women! There’s something inspiring and awesome about women and girls on bikes that makes me absolutely giddy. It was significant motivation to show up and race every Sunday for three months in the fall, frequently in awful weather conditions.

Fast-forward to early 2012: my social media networks are buzzing about the Gapers Block Crits. Beginner-friendly! No crazy corners! Local and easily accessible venue! $25 for 4 nights of racing! Meanwhile all of this chatter is being counteracted by the voices in my head yelling, “Crits are fast–you are slow!” “There’s lots of crashing, injuries.” “You need a team to do well.” “There are no sandpits.”

And then came the offer of free bike shoes for pre-registered ladies, thanks to Hyde Park’s Tati Cycles.

Free shoes? Let’s be honest–what woman in her right mind would turn down the opportunity to get a pair of free shoes? Not this woman. So I registered.

I showed up Monday night not sure what to expect. I had taken advantage of a ladies’ ride hosted by Half Acre Cycling a few weekends prior. At the ride, I had met a few other new gals and also gotten excellent practice with pacelines, but I wasn’t sure about my confidence level in a pack, and with a sold out Women’s 4 field, there were a LOT of ladies to contend with! Exciting, but somewhat nerve-wracking. Turns out I didn’t have to worry: the whistle blew, and the pack was off at bat-out-of-hell pace down the straightaway. I spent the next 20 minutes in an adrenaline-induced stupor trying to catch…well, who was I trying to catch? I couldn’t see anyone ahead of me. It was pretty lonely, except when the pack lapped me, which happened at least twice. Finally, I managed to catch up with fellow newbie Melanie Kujovich and we rode together for the remaining laps, with me doing most of the pulling. On the drive home, I was lucky enough to have two very fast ladies–Ellie Blick and Sarah Lu–to chat with about the “first crit” experience, and they were wonderful in providing words of encouragement. NEWBIE NOTE: Carpooling is one of the best ways to meet your fellow racers!

Tuesday night I, again, showed up with no expectations. The wind had shifted 180 degrees. My legs were questionable. Thankfully we were starting into the wind, which slowed the field down and meant I was able to hang with them for the first two laps! Hurrah! But I couldn’t find a steady wheel to hold, and pretty soon I was off the back and busting my butt solo for 20 minutes. I did managed to crack 24mph with a tailwind, and maintained 17mph into a headwind, and after what seemed like forever I caught up with Melanie and we worked together for the final two laps. We finished, but I was exhausted, and I needed to do some serious thinking about how to connect with the rest of the ladies who were falling off the pack so that I didn’t have to spend another night going in circles by myself.

At the starting line on Wednesday, I grabbed Melanie and a few of the other newer girls and said, “We’re all getting dropped. Why don’t we just work together from the start? That should be more fun.” I was relieved that they were enthusiastic about the idea! The whistle blew, and after some shuffling at the back of the pack, the five of us sorted out into a paceline and spent the entire race together, with each of us taking a turn pulling the group. We kept a pretty good pace, stuck together, and unbeknownst to us until after the race, Laura Pyle won a field preem! On our final corner, we also had a good reminder of one of the most important rules of road racing: BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS. We had kept a safe and courteous distance from the pack for the entire race, checking over our shoulders frequently and moving to the outside, but on the approach to this final corner into the finish straightaway, chaos broke out as some of the leading ladies broke away from the pack and charged furiously towards us. Suddenly it became every woman for herself, and I found my competitive spark igniting. I set my sights on Shannon Keeton and ran through all my gears to chase her down and catch her just before the line. No matter that I was two laps down, the rush of that chase left me thinking, “Holy cow, I may actually be a bike racer, and not only that, I might actually ENJOY it!”

L to R: Michelle Loomis, Tonya Nicolaou, Liz Markel and Laura Pyle.

Thursday–the final night of racing–was a cold one, and any little victories of the previous nights were far from my mind. Instead, I was preoccupied with just how many layers I should be wearing, and in what order, to stay warm but not overheat. We still had a full field of ladies, but there were lots of rumblings of cold toes, chilly fingers and bodies aching from 3 nights of racing and/or the onset of sickness. Our back-of-the pack team had dwindled to three: me, Laura and Tonya Nicolaou, whom I’d met on the Half Acre ride and was also new to this crit racing thing. We agreed to the same plan of sticking together and sharing the pulls for the duration of the race, though I have to give mad props to both Laura and Tonya who did an excellent job of pulling, while my legs felt like dead weight. Our first few laps, we entertained the crowd on the home straight with our synchronized arm flourishes, and about halfway through we were graced with…another field preem lap(!) which Tonya won with a head-to-head battle against Laura.

Our group remained together until the final turn, at which point we broke for the finish line and my legs made it loud and clear that I had absolutely nothing left for a sprint. I smiled as I watched Laura and Tonya pull away, and I coasted to the finish.

Now that it’s all over (even though it’s really not over, because my legs are still achy and uncooperative when walking up stairs), I can look back and say that Half Acre put on an excellent beginner crit racing experience! Will I be turning into a crit racer anytime soon? Right now it’s highly unlikely, but this race series was an awesome way to get my feet wet–safely–and figure out firsthand if it was something I’d like to pursue long-term. Right now I’m planning to get back to the dirt for the Pretty Fast + Half Acre ladies’  dirt days rides out at Palos……but you might see me at another crit later in the summer!

1500+ Racers line up for the Barry Roubaix

Last Saturday was the Barry Roubaix, a 36-mile (or 62-mile if you’re brave) gravel road race. I’d describe it as a road + cyclocross race, although I only had to dismount twice due to crowds of people walking, there was certainly some technical riding included.

This race had some significance for me because it was the first real race of 2012. Last fall was a difficult season for me, dealing with burn out from overtraining, injuries, and asthma. After last cyclocross season, I have taken a good deal of rest, got on a better medicine to control the asthma, and started my base training. Technically, this race marked the end of my first base period, so I wasn’t quite sure how fit I’d be. Most of my training up to this point had either been strength training or low-intensity, longer rides.

Due to a hectic work week, we left Chicago later than planned Friday night, not arriving to our hotel until 11:30. We basically got there, went to sleep, woke up and left. I woke up feeling sleepy but excited. I had some coffee and a bagel — the same breakfast I eat before every race. We drove to the race course, registered, and then got ready. This race felt very anticlimactic I guess, because I’m used to getting to a race and trying to get in a few pre-rides on the course. You can’t exactly pre-ride a 36-mile race! 

My warm up ended up being spinning around a paved loop with a couple of hard efforts. This has become pretty standard for me, it works for me. I like the hard efforts to gauge how I’m feeling and how my breathing is that day.

Right afterwards it was time to line up. I rolled up to my staging category, found some familiar Chicago faces, and try to remain calm. That’s nearly impossible for me. I feel like puking before most races; that nervous knot in my stomach is ever-present. In a way, I welcome that feeling. That nervous excitement is why I love racing. Each time is a gamble, a test, full of risks and attempts to perform at my best. I often say that if that feeling goes away, maybe the magic of racing will have gone with it.

Suddenly the whistle blew and we were off. This race had a start I’m not totally used to, a motor-paced lead out to the gravel, with a slow-rolling start. It was kind of nice actually, being surrounded by about 200 men and somewhere 10 other women. Our 14-29 field was smaller than the others, but no doubt a strong field.

About 5 miles into the race I was settling into a pace and came upon a gravel descent into a hard left corner. Somehow down that hill, my water bottle fell off my bike and I was without hydration. It would have been unsafe to stop and go grab it, so I continued on. I began thinking about how I was going to do a 36 mile race with no water. At some point, I desperately stopped and grabbed another lost water bottle that was about half full. I know what you’re thinking, it’s gross!

Chasing Christina up one of many hills

Well, I didn’t put it on my mouth, and it was a “desperate times, desperate measures” situation as I had started to combat dehydration and cotton-mouth. You gotta do what you gotta do!

All I can say about this race was that there were so many hills! I caught up with Christina Peck (Chicago Cuttin’ Crew) and we both exchanged positions several times throughout the rest of the race. I really enjoyed the course, with the mix of surfaces — from gravel to pavement, sand, and mud puddles. The hills were something I wasn’t ready for, but I did my best.

I was able to ride most of the sand except for two spots where there were just too many people walking their bikes for me to get through. In those instances, I pulled out my cyclocross skills and dismounted, shouldered the bike and jogged through the sand. It certainly seemed easier than dragging my bike through the loose and turned up soil.

At some point, we hit pavement and that was the home stretch. We had maybe 5 more miles to go. Christina was right behind me, and Chelsea Strate (the woman who went on to win the race in our category) was right in front of me. Somehow, these ladies grabbed a good wheel and off they went. Perhaps that’s experience, knowing when to lay down your final effort. I kept Christina in my sights thinking maybe I’d try to catch her.

So. Many. Hills.

Honestly, I was so happy to be finishing this race breathing normally and easily (well, relatively), that I didn’t try to sprint to catch Christina. It was very hard to tell where I was  in comparison to the other riders. For all I know, somewhere far ahead were more ladies mixed in with the many men that could have been the front. So, I decided to enjoy the rest of the ride and I finished a short 28 seconds behind 2nd place. 

After the race, I waited in line to see the results, and they had me placed as 4th. Most races I’ve been to do a podium through third place, so I packed up and headed north to see my family.

My podium shot (with a little photoshopping!)

As it turns out, I was actually third! There was a miscount, which put me on the podium where I belonged! I missed my podium and prizes due to the oversight, but knowing I placed 3rd in my age group and 10th in the 36-mile women’s race overall made me very happy. This race was my first race after a really tough season, and I was so happy to be feeling healthy again, that was really what made this race awesome. 

So what made the difference? Rest. I have learned the hard way that rest is very important, and by taking lots of rest over the winter, I feel as though I have come back strong and I couldn’t be happier.

And the prizes? The Barry-Roubaix organizers have mailed them to me. And the podium shot from my first road race? Well, I just photoshopped myself in.

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All images are used under the Creative Commons License. Credit for images goes to Jason Duggan, Andrea Tucker,  and Steve Balogh.

Dirtbag teamies!

A few weeks ago, four of us ladies from Chicago ventured north of the cheddar curtain to the Ray’s Milwaukee womens weekend to participate in the Friday clinic events. With my teammates Katie Maser and Katie Tomarelli — The Katies as I lovingly call them — and former teamie Ellie Blick from Johnny Sprockets by my side, we got up bright and early and took off.

Last year I made this same trip with Ellie and two other girls, so I was really looking forward to this event. Since Ray’s started doing the womens weekends in Cleveland, and beginning last year in MKE, Friday has always been free for women only, and was full of clinic style instruction. I couldn’t commit to the whole weekend, but Friday was a must-do. 

We arrived early this year which ended up being good; none of us realized we were supposed to reserve bikes in advance this year. After a few tries, we all got bikes that fit, and hit the park for some warm up laps.

As soon as I got on the bike, it felt strange. It had been months since I’d been on a mountain bike. Autumn is always packed full of cyclocross races, and the last time my mountain bike and I had been out, we had bad luck (sidewall cut + flat tire 2 miles into the WORS Wigwam race). It made me a little sad to feel so awkward on a mountain bike. But, that’s why I was at Ray’s, to kick off mountain biking season, learn some new things and get comfortable riding again.

pump track!

I took a few laps around the cross-country loop, rode a few sport-level ladders, and felt like myself again. After a bit of a delay, the clinic kicked off. We were left to self-assess and choose groups to start in for instruction. I began in the “intermediate” group at the ladders. This was the same group I began in last year, and immediately realized I was repeating information, things I have moved past and felt comfortable doing. This year’s clinic also had nearly double the attendance of the previous one, and all of these extra riders seemed to be in my group! Feeling a little anxious around all of these riders crammed on the ramp, I took my first chance to ride the ladder and take off.

I switched to the pump track group. I had fond memories of the pump track last year. Learning to ride the pump track was what finally made the concept of “pulling up on the bike” really click in my head. It’s more about your body than just pulling up. It’s pumping with your legs and letting the bike move naturally and pulling up with your arms to help it. I got in quite a few laps on the pump track, felt pretty comfortable and fast again, then moved to the Micro-rhythm or small-jump line.

The micro-rhythm section was being coached by Tammy Donahugh, freeride/ dirtjumper extroardinaire. She gave me some good tips to help clear the jumps, and by the time we broke for lunch, I was clearing the first half of them. That was sort of my goal after last year, to learn how to jump my bike. Jumping bikes is so fun!

After lunch, I decided to take a big risk and attempt the expert-level jump line. I know from my experiences riding with others, that I am fairly good at bike handling, and I’ve definitely mindlessly followed peoples‘ lines off of big drops and jumps, so I was pretty sure I could land the jumps. But you never know unless you try, right?

Again, Tammy was our coach here, and she gave some tips for riding the line. I consulted with fellow Chicago biker Rachel Gatto, who assured me that I could do this and I’d be just fine. So… I dug deep for my inner badass and off I went. The first time I hit the big first jump I felt so weird! I was airborne, and there’s this weird moment where you almost feel like you’re levitating, right between the up and the down part. It was exhilarating! Somehow, magically, thankfully, I landed the jump and continued on the rest of the line.

Blue Bertha, my new dirt jump bike!

That jump line was addicting! Each time I finished, I felt a knot in my stomach and couldn’t wait to go back for more. As I did it a few more times, I started having my feet come off the pedals! Crazy! I guess this is because I’m used to being clipped in, and I have to learn to ride flat pedals. But each time I landed with my feet back on the pedals. It was so much fun!

Eventually I tired myself out jumping things, so I moved on to ride the xc line again, and tried some expert ladders — one even had a wobbly board that went into an elevator! 

At the end of the day I was tired, but so very happy. Each time I go to Ray’s Womens Weekend, I do something I never thought I could do, and I manage to leave unscathed. I came home talking about how I wanted a dirt jump bike, apparently for several days after. Since then, I’ve procured my very own dirt jump bike so I can keep practicing flat pedal riding, some dirt jumps, and riding the pump track at the Garden in Chicago.

Big thanks go out to Ray’s for hosting this event and to my awesome counterparts that day at the park. I think I can safely say we all accomplished something we didn’t realize we could!

Becky, Pretty Fast Organizer, and Joel, one of the knowledgeable staff members at Village Cycle Center (and also a frame builder) spoke to us at the Women’s Racing Mechanics Workshop about tires.

Tire Tread Patterns
For cyclocross there are three basic tread patterns to consider, and each have their advantages.

File Treads

1. File Treads are great for riding in grass. There is less grip down the center, so you can go faster than on knobbier tires, but there’s thicker grip on the outsides that help your wheels stick to the ground when cornering.

Racing Ralph All-arounder

2. Medium profile or all-arounders like the Racing Ralph tires have more grip overall in comparison to the file treads. The knobs in the middle are close together for lower resistance. And once again, there’s more grip on the outside for stickier grip when cornering. More grip in a corner means you can get down lower and take the turn quicker and faster  without your wheels slipping out from underneath you!

Mud Tires

3. Mud tires have knobs that are set further apart and crisscrossed on an angle. This tread has more resistance than the other two, but allows mud to fling off the tires as it’s spinning around. So it should essentially not get as bogged down in softer/wetter conditions. Sometimes people will run different tires in the front and back. Or some might keep more than one set of wheels and have them set up for different weather and course conditions. No tire is always ideal, and often your preference will decide what tire you should be riding.

Tire Pressure
Regardless of which tire you choose, having the correct tire pressure can make or break your race. If I am riding in the street, I’ll usually inflate my tire the full amount that it says on the side of the tire. For cyclocross tires, it’s usually around 80psi. For a race, I’ll be around 35psi. Joel confirmed that in saying that for regular clincher tires, the race pressure should be between 30 and 40psi. You should experiment to figure out what works for you. Less tire pressure will give you more suspension over rough terrain. It will also allow your tire to conform to the ground, meaning you’ll have more traction and thus more control over your bike. However, if you pinch flat, that means your tire pressure is probably too low. When you find your magic number, it will probably be the same pressure for both your mountain bike and cyclocross bike. Becky went on to explain that she runs about 27-30psi on her mountain and cyclocross tires, and dropping below 27 resulted in a flat on the trail. The best way to figure this out is to start around 35psi and go lower as you see fit, and you’ll soon learn what too low is, either by feel or by flat.

Not just for muddy riding, but for road riding as well, wet conditions call for lower tire pressure than dry conditions. Road tires should be 10-15 psi lower when it’s wet outside. The ground is more slippery so you will want more traction.

The only time you absolutely need your road tires filled all the way (generally 120) is when you’re on your trainer. If they are not completely full, the pressure from the trainer wheel can cause flats, or worse, over time it could put your wheel out of true. Riding on the road, 110 is fine for everyone. The less you weigh the less pressure your tires actually need.

Tubeless and Tubular
Tubeless and tubular tires do not have separate tubes, and they can be run at lower pressure than your standard clincher tire, because there is nothing to pinch flat. This makes them very desirable for cyclocross, because lower tire pressure means better traction. Both can be more expensive than your standard clincher tires to start, but they can perform better and might be cheaper in the long run. They should flat less, but when they do flat, it’s obviously more complicated to fix than a standard clincher. Tubulars are stiched closed around the inner tube and glued to the rim of the wheel. They don’t hold air as long as the other too options and they’re fairly involved, but Joel did show us about how to convert a clincher wheel to hold a tubeless tire, which is the cheapest option among these types of tires.

Tubeless Conversion
First, seal the wheel. There needs to be an adapter strip centered on the inside of the rim. This seals all the holes where the spokes were installed.
Then, get the tire on the wheel. Regular clincher tires are made with Kevlar and have a little stretch to them. Since tubeless need to be airtight, there is no stretch. This makes them difficult to get on the wheel, but there are tricks that help you to get all tires on wheels (see Tire Tips below).

Lastly, seal it! Inflate the tire. Shake the bottle to mix up the latex platelets. Spray at the point where the tire meets the wheel, spin it around and hit the entire seam, now flip and do that to the other side. Air might fly out at first, and then it will bubble. It might seem like you’re doing it wrong, but you’re not. Then you need to let the wheel sit for 5-10 minutes. The air pressure pushing out is going to help the latex move around and seal all the open spots.

There are a lot of resources online to refer to if you are embarking on a tubeless conversion. Or I’ll bet the guys at Village would love to help you if you have any questions!

Tire Tips
Some tires can be more difficult to get on wheels than others. Making sure the tire bead is pushed as close to the middle of the rim channel as possible can make it much easier to get the entire tire on.  The theory behind this is that the inside rim of the wheel is shaped like a circle, so it’s deepest in the middle. If the bead, which is the part of the tire that has the smallest circumference , is pushed to the part of the wheel rim that has the smallest circumference, less pressure will be needed to get the tire on the rim.

SRAM

After Joel & Becky gave us tons of tips on wheels, Matt from SRAM talked to us for a bit about their wheels. SRAM owns ZIPP, TruVativ, RockShox, and Avid. Most of their components are made in Indiana or somewhere in the United States, save Swiss bearings and Belgian spokes.

The type of wheels they offer are notated by the thickness of their rims. They have 202, 303, 404, and 808 – 202s being the shallowest rims, and 808s being the thickest/tallest rims. 303s are popular in cyclocross, 404s are popular in crits, and 808s would be ideal in time trials. Deeper rims will use less energy to spin fast, because they become more aerodynamic than shorter rims, but they can take more time to accelerate. 303s start seeing an advantage at 18mph. 808s start seeing an advantage at 22mph.

These wheels come in aluminum or carbon. Aluminum is cheaper but generally has less depth and no dimpling to aid in the aerodynamic gains.
Matt was really knowledgeable and passionate about the sport. Thanks for bringing out your tree of wheels and taking the time to talk to us, Matt!

(And many thanks to Joel for being so stoked on sport legs – shhhhhh)*
*Inside joke, had to be there.

I was really happy when I found out Pretty.Fast was hosting a racing specific mechanical workshop. Too often cycling workshops for women are really basic, like how to fix a flat. Ladies who ride regularly with teams and race already know how to do this. But after a full cyclocross season, I started to figure that there were probably a slew of lesser known practices to make a bike run smoothly, and I was sorely neglecting them.  I just didn’t know where to start.

I had been to the West Town Bikes Women’s Open Shop Night, and that was great, but it mainly addressed commuter issues and whatever problems people brought into the shop. For example, I once assisted a girl re-cabling her brakes, and that was helpful to better understand the mechanics of a vintage bike, but what about making quick adjustments moments before a race?

Ladies attending the workshop

Village Cycle Center was the perfect location for this workshop. It’s really spacious and unpretentious. It’s also where I purchased my first bike, and where my Dad bought bikes when he was my age. They also have an almost excessive amount of staff, so no one’s questions would go unanswered. We broke into small groups and spent time at four different stations. My group was primarily people who do a lot of cyclocross races, so this information is kind of skewed towards that discipline, but there was also helpful info for road and mountain bikes. The four stations went as follows:

1. WHEELS (coming soon!)
2. PRE-RACE (coming soon!)
3. POST RACE (coming soon!)
4. DURING THE RACE (coming soon!)

At the end of the night I think I can vouch for even the savviest ladies there (Sarah Rice) to say that we all picked up useful bits of knowledge that we didn’t have before. And if it didn’t all stick, we now have a good rapport with the kind folks at Village. I know I wouldn’t hesitate to go in there to ask for help in the future. In fact, I used this event as an opportunity to drop my cross bike off for a complete overhaul, and it came back to me better than when it was brand new. How they got it so clean, I will never know.

Prizes afterward

Not that you have to bribe any of us women to get excited about bikes, but Bontrager, Gore Bike Wear and Village Cycle Center all generously chipped in for some really stellar raffle giveaways. I actually won the Pedro’s Allen wrenches, which, as Joel taught us, the extra-long handles have a better torque, which gives you more power for unscrewing those really tight bolts. I was really happy to add those to my growing collection of bike tools. Sometimes it pays to be a lady. And sometimes it pays to participate in these great events that Becky Welbes puts together for Pretty.Fast. They are always a ton of fun, and I always walk away having learned a lot about cycling.

A big thanks to Becky, the crew at Village Cycle Center, Matt from SRAM, the fast and fabulous Mia Moore, and everyone who contributed to making another great event for women in cycling!

**Watch for the 4 parts describing each station in detail to be published over this week!**