Rider Highlight: Casey Cohenmeyer

Casey recently completed her first Belgian Waffle Ride after volunteering last year. She’s been riding bikes for about a year and a half now. She not only finished the BWR, but finished 24th out of 40 female starters and 407 out of 548 overall starters for men and women with a time of 11:35:55. Way to go Casey! We are excited to see what you do in the future.
Read on to learn about how Casey worked with her coach Elliot to accomplish her goal, how the race went down for her, and her advice to new riders. And be sure to read our Seven Things You Should Know Before Your First Gravel Cycling Race or Epic Gravel Ride.
Name:  Casey CohenmeyerCasey Cohenmeyer Finish
Event & Category: Belgian Waffle Ride 2016 – women’s wave. 
About the Belgian Waffle Ride: 146 miles with 12,000 feet of climbing, 40 of those miles on dirt, sand rocks, water crossings etc. 
Which coach do you work with and how did your training help you prepare for the event?
Elliot Reinecke is my coach. He came up with a fantastic training plan for me that worked around my work schedule and other races this season. He did a great job getting my endurance gradually built up, and always pushed me just up to the brink, but never over it, always allowing for enough recovery to let the fitness build. He also got out in the dirt with me so we could work on some skills. I’d definitely love to do more of that in the future to work on my handling.
Elliot also made sure I was getting my hard group rides in, which meant I was never out on a solo ride trying to force myself to do VO2 intervals.  Adding solo dirt on to the end of group rides was great practice for keeping my wits about me in the later dirt sections of BWR.
How’d the race go down for you?
We started with an 18 mile paved neutral zone was not so neutral.  I decided to stay with the group, figuring the risk/benefit of working a little harder vs getting the benefit of the draft and saving a lot of time at the beginning would be worth it.  From the start to the top of San Dieguito and the first dirt, we averaged 21mph. The wave of Cat4 guys behind us caught us when we were about a quarter mile from the first dirt, so that pretty much made it a total melee.  All my practice and plans of picking my perfect line were sort of out the window.  Wake up call.
I was proud (and yet also embarrassed) of myself that I semi politely yelled at people to walk off to the side, don’t walk on the good riding line!  Unless that’s your race strategy I guess, right?  When we got to the beginning of Lusardi there was TONS of sand, around quarter mile of it, people were crashing everywhere around me, but I stayed calm, upright and pedaling and made it through that section no problem.  It felt like I was playing Frogger.  I think I let out an audible cheer at the end of that part.
By the time we got to a narrow rocky single track that I was planning to walk, EVERYONE was walking like we were waiting in line at the Hillary Step on Mt. Everest.  The rest of Lusardi went great, set a PR on whole thing, and chose to walk the short super steep at the end.
Lemon Twist, had to clip out once cause a guy went down in front of me, but still went really well.  On Hodges west-bound dirt and rocks I was catching and passing people!!!   Couldn’t believe it.  Climbing the pavement on Highland Valley Road was predictably painful, punctuated by two coyotes close enough to touch them.  At the top, I caught a nice group and wheel-sucked into Ramona.
I took my time on the Black Canyon dirt climb, not my fastest up, but I wanted to be conservative, did PR the downhill gravel though, so that was a nice accomplishment.  Descending the paved 78 was totally terrifying with hostile cars and very strong winds, but I kept my cool and took the lane.  Too bad, mean drivers, you’re waiting for me…. and I ran over a snake on that descent.  Sorry snake, I was going about 35 when I saw you at the last second.
Next, Sandy Bandy, toppled into a wooden fence right in front of my friend, but didn’t go all the way down.  The comedy cheered her up though. An awesome dude from Idaho gave me a nice push up the hill and then chatted and distracted me on the rest of the way up.  Rad guy.  Mule Trail on the way back with the headwind was some work, but not bad… and at this point I’d hit 100 miles, and was just feeling physically like I was on a normal long ride.  No cramping, nothing, not fried, just pedaling away.  
Once I got to the beginning of the Hodges dirt Westbound I was totally giddy.  Past 100 miles now and I had successfully made the first two time cuts. I was back with my BFF Cat 1 MTB friend and I chased her pretty briskly though the entire sector of rocks and dirt and kept up.  It was AWESOME.  At one point I even followed her on a line I’d never tried, straight up some nasty rocks, as I screamed “MOUNTAIN BIKER LINE” while she and the guys behind us laughed.
Back to Lusardi on mile 118, the 20% downgrade entrance that I’d practiced a few times, super scary, was now really really loose and sandy from all the riders, I got scared, went too slow and started to go down.  I managed to clip out just in time and land on my feet with the bike tumbling down the 20% into me.  Good comedy and bruises.  I’ll call it a save.   Went on to PR the rest of that dirt sector.
Hiked a lot of the section up to Artesian, coming up on 120 miles at this point and just wanted to stay safe.  My coach Elliot texted me at this point to check in with me and I happily said “I’m doing fine!”
The next section, which was all very familiar home club ride pavement was quite comforting.  Heading up to the Oasis went well, just took my time.  I kept telling myself that I just felt at this point like those rides when I try to do intervals and can’t quite do it… but I can still ride!  The bikini girls were gone for the day by the time I got there.  Maybe that should be a goal for next year.  I walked the brief rocky downhill after the oasis, then paper-girled my way up to Elfin and kept it super chill til Double Peak.
My dog, husband, and some friends were there at Double Peak to cheer me on.  I rode straight, albeit slowly, up that rung of Hell!  No paper-girl.  Then home to the finish, even jumped out of the saddle and sprinted on the last 200 yards just out of pure happiness!!
What advice do you have for someone up and coming in your cycling discipline?
The biggest surprise for me during training for this event was that I never needed to ride longer than 5 hours or 75 miles. Going in, I thought that I’d have to be riding 100 miles or more on a regular basis, but that’s just not the case.  Also, I’ve only been riding a bike for a little over a year and a half, and four months before this event my lifetime dirt mileage was about 25 miles, so don’t let the dirt scare you away, you can learn!
What is your next event?
My next event with be the Barrio Logan Gran Prix criterium hosted by my racing team San Diego Bicycle Club.
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3 Comments

  1. Michael Craven on April 28, 2016 at 1:40 pm

    Amazing performance and interesting narrative of the ride.
    Outstanding!
    Its hard to imagine doing so many miles with so much challenging terrain.
    I’m definitely impressed.



  2. […] cycling race or first epic gravel ride. Read about current Source Endurance athlete Casey who recently completed her first Belgian Waffle Ride. We’ll be releasing a series of blog posts and a webinar all about gravel racing throughout the […]



  3. […] Thanks Karen for sharing your advice and Panaracer/Stan’s NoTubes p/b Bicycle X-Change for being such a great program to be associated with. Interested in learning about another woman’s first gravel race experience? Read Source Endurance clients Casey Cohenmeyer’s first Belgian Waffle Ride. […]