There are many good reasons for a bunch of Canadians to be found in Phoenix, Arizona in February. After two years of little to no travel, neck deep into a seemingly endless grey west coast winter, a trip south was overdue. But the best reason of all to crowd into a house in the desert with eleven of your closest friends is for a bike race. While some Red Truck-ers had already been in the area training, and some others could not get away from the demands of busy university semesters, much of the team gathered last weekend for our first team stage race since spring of 2019. As everyone arrived at the team house on Thursday afternoon, the excitement grew, and the reunion commenced. The re-start of racing had been causing me some stress and worry, not knowing where I would be at physically. But as soon as the team came together, I relaxed and knew I was in for a fun weekend.
The Valley of the Sun Stage Race consists of a TT, Road Race, and Criterium over three days. Friday morning we loaded up the cars and drove about and hour in the westward direction to get to the pin-straight, nearly dead-flat TT course. Most of us were on road bikes with clip on bars, which meant no real chance of placing in GC as the cost of no aero gear is large over a 22km flat time trial. Still, we gave it our all and it was a great way to get the race feelings back. I was happy with my effort and the numbers put out on the day. Everyone was in good spirits post race and eagerly congratulated each other on great rides.
Friday evening the whole team came together to make dinner. With the road race coming up, plenty of carbs were on the menu. I cannot relay how much penne was made as it truly was more starch tubes than I have ever seen in one place. It was amazing how quickly the team clicked. We were immediately comfortable sharing food, laughs, and post-race games of ping pong in the back yard.
Saturday was road race day. The women (Brenna, Lilly, Sarah and myself) went into this race with the goal of having fun and working together. Our race was just over 100km, including four times up a moderately graded climb of about 10 minutes. While overall the race was a bit negative due to some tactics by the bigger teams, our little team of four did what we could to help each other and go into the final climb in good positioning. When it came to the final false-flat drag, Sarah came around me in absolute beast mode to close a huge gap to the top three riders. Already cross-eyed on her wheel, I did what I could after she pulled off but ultimately stayed in the same position, finishing 4th, with SVD just behind me. While there were definitely things to build on and learn from (which is what we want in a season opening race!), we were stoked with this result.
As always, Sarah was fired up for crit day and her contagious energy did the trick in getting us all excited. The crit course was in downtown Phoenix and featured eight corners, each quite forgiving. This was my first crit since Superweek 2019, so I appreciated the wide boulevards. We all took turns covering moves. At one point, Lilly was near me and there were two women just off the front. I told her to go chase, and she kicked it hard, doing a massive effort to close down the gap. These moments where we can communicate with each other in a race and deliver efforts for the team always make me buzz. The whole race was fast and hard with tons of primes on the line. Coming into the last two laps, Brenna came and found me and suddenly we were both at the front. She proceeded to cover a move, then stay on the front doing a monstrous pull. We didn’t have Sarah right with us, but we knew she wanted a fast lead in for the final sprint. With about a half lap to go, the pack strung out, I took a shot in the dark and yelled “UP BRENNA, UP!”. Incredibly, she brought it up. I was amazed and inspired to dig super deep when my turn on the front came. In the second to last corner, an attack came on the left side and I got swarmed. Seeing that Sarah was in there sitting third wheel, I decided to trust her to finish it off. I think I yelled that to her as well. She finished 2nd in the sprint, brought in by side-line cheers from the guys team, Steve, and BG.
While the racing was successful and the sun warm, I think the highlight of VOS was having the team back together. We closed out the weekend with a pizza night and chatting around the fire pit. As we all departed on Monday, which was Family Day back in BC, I thought of how grateful I am to be a part of the Red Truck Family. This team feels like home.