I have been fortunate to see quite a bit of bike racing in my career as a photographer. There are always new people to meet and new disciplines to experience. In the biking world, all genres seem completely different and unique. Each has it’s own lingo, it’s own special gear, and it’s own funny sayings and snobbish eccentricities.
The downhillers have the “Mine has more travel than yours”. The roadies have “mine is lighter than yours”, the cross folks have the “I can drink more than you while running through sand at 10am”. And the track-sters…well, the track people have the “I can push a larger gear than you”.
What does all of this have to do with anything? Nothing really, except that Ingrid Alongi is solidly based in the latter group. And, she truly can push a harder gear than you. To put it plainly, she knows how to kick some ass on an oval.
I met Ingrid in boulder at the Boulder Velodrome. In classic Ingrid style, she was scorching that wooden oval and putting a serious hurt on the other racers. After the training session was over, I showed her some of the images and we talked about setting up another shoot in the future. Little did I know that the future would not really happen for almost a year. In that time, she has started her own company and moved from bubble of Boulder to the rubble of 5 points.
Finally, we were able to make it work. A few Sundays ago we headed down to the metro station in 5 points and snapped off some frames. It was great light and the people watching on Sunday morning speaks for itself. And, some might say we made for pretty good people watching ourselves.
- With what team do you ride? Houndstooth/Panache Cycling Team
- How long have you been racing? I started in 1986 when I was 12, eventually making it to the Jr. Natioanl Team. In those days, there was no women’s pro category and there wasn’t a u23 program. Once I graduated from the Jr. National Team to the Senior B team in 1993, I got completely crushed. I was cleaning houses part time (more $ per hour than a coffee shop job, but physically demanding) and trying to make it. I recall going to a big stage race on my own dime in Bisbee, Arizona in 1993. One of my National Team mates was on the Kahlua team, one of the biggest women’s teams at the time. I asked if they’d hand me a water bottle during the road race and they said no. Here I am, completely unsupported at 19, driving to the big races, sleeping on couches. It was discouraging, I couldn’t hack it so I decided to give full time college a go instead where my life took me away from cycling for many years. Fast forward to 2008, I started riding my bike again to combat the stress of working at a tech start up in Boulder. The first time I rode to Jamestown, I could barely function the rest of the day, but I rediscovered my love for the sport. I got the racing bug in 2009 when the Boulder Velodrome opened. At 2009 Master’s Nationals, I silvered in the Individual Pursuit and won the Team Pursuit, in which I am still the national record holder. Now that I have my own company (www.quickleft.com) my goal is to continue to have fun with riding and racing.
- How did you get started racing? My dad started racing when we were kids, when my parents split. My brother and I used to accompany him to the races. I remember him racing on a yellow Schwinn Varsity… One day, we were walking around the Pearl St. Mall and saw kids our age racing a crit around the mall. This was the 1995 Red Zinger Mini Classic. We begged our dad for bikes, and we entered our first race in 1996.
- What is your all-time favorite race? Hmm, probably the 1992 Casper Classic. I was 18 at the time racing with the Women’s 1, 2, 3s and had a breakthrough getting up the first hill with the leaders. It was on a long road race where I knew if I was dropped, the entire day would be spent riding alone or with a very small group losing time in the overall gc. I was so proud of myself for having made it up that first hill in the lead pack!
- What is your strongest discipline? Individual Pursuit and Team Pursuit
- What part of bike racing do you absolutely loathe? The port – o -lets before the race. You’re in your cleats, you are nervous, you are trying to balance in there, it smells like everyone else’s nervousness. Ugh! The worst part of racing by far.
- Tell me a little about your bikes and gear. What are they, what cool little gizmos do you use to train, what is your favorite piece of equipment? The coolest thing on my bike is probably my Oval Jetstream fork. It just looks cool and is fast. Gears in track cycling are also quite fine tuned. When I ride at Boulder Indoor Cycling, I usually roll a 47×15 (84.6”) in the winter, and then put on a 48×15 (86.4”) for the summer. These gears are pretty small for racing, so it’s good to get to Colorado Springs and put on the real gears so that you don’t have the unpleasant surprise of doing a standing start or a jump with a larger gear. I tend to feel more comfortable in an 88” gear when I ride pursuits, but may try again with a 90”. I’ll use 90” gears for points races, unless the pack is really small or it’s really windy, in which case, I’ll go back to the 88”. I may even venture to a 92” for a Kieran (riders are paced behind a motorcycle to get up to speed. The motor pulls off at 2 laps to go on a 333 meter track, and the riders have 2 laps to sprint. Since you are already up to speed by being motorpaced, you don’t have to worry about trying to jump in a gear that’s too large).
- Do you have any superstitions about racing or any pre-race rituals? What are they and how did they start? I just like to fill my iPod (or walkman back in those days) with good music to warm up to and get focused with.
- If money was absolutely no object, what bike would you ride and how would it be painted? I pretty much have the bike of my dreams, but if I had all kinds of money, I’d get a really nice Zipp disk for the rear and Corima four-spoke for the front.
- If you could race with any pro, from any time in history who would it be? Hmm, It would be cool to ride with one of the first ever women’s racers. I don’t even know who that would be, but it would be cool to ask her why she got into racing, etc.
- You are granted a riding session with one current pro team. This session includes as many hours of riding as you would like, lunch at any location you choose and the ability to ride any place in the world. How do you fulfill this dream? Please be specific with details about lunch conversations with riders and any pertinent gossip that is applicable. You should revise your instructions that you can ask them whatever questions you want and they have to answer honestly. But, your instructions should also say that you are required not to divulge what they said… Peanut Butter and Co, of course! They have a some amazing track riders, including Cari Higgins and Corine Rivera. I would like to ride with them at the velodrome in Manchester, England because it’s a really sweet track. I would get all of the gossip. Who are the pack princesses? Who are the hard workers? Who do they think has the most potential? Who does and doesn’t eat (and how do they manage)? Who’s cheated?
- Who would you absolutely love to beat by the end of this year, and why? I don’t have anyone in particular that I want to beat, but I do want to better my 2 kilometer individual pursuit time. Although I did lose the 2009 Master’s National Pursuit title to Renee Eastman by .25 seconds, so if I had to pick one person… (but she was also my team pursuit mate).