Waterville road race
The Waterville road race was the first stage of this year’s Tour de Bloom stage race. Typically this wildly windy 90km stage is the last of four. The morning of the race we drove up to the start, which is sort of on a plateau above the valley, and geared up in the cold. The gals and I did a short warm up on a nearby street as the clouds rolled in, I was still convinced it wouldn’t rain though.
Soon we were on the start line, passing our jackets off, and taking our last gels before the race began. Once we got going people were throwing down attacks, Red Truck was going too in attempts to keep the pace high and possibly get away. Early on, around the 10-15km mark, one of the strongest riders from another team got away. One of our riders, Nadia, then launched an attack and made her way up to the other rider. For a while the two riders were in sight and at risk of getting caught, but as the race continued that risk quickly diminished. The riders off the front were from our team and the other large team in the peloton, Fount. Since two of the biggest teams had riders off the front we just needed to sit in the pack until a comfortable gap formed for our lead riders.
The Waterville road race consisted of two laps of two loops. At the end of the first loop there was an intermediate sprint that we wanted to get one of our riders to win for points. Brenna did a strong lead out for Isla who won the sprint. I then countered that move and Red Truck continued to attack and follow attacks throughout the lap. At some points the pack pace would dull down so we would try to pick the pace back up. Leading into the finish a couple other teams threw down strong attacks, Brenna and I had to move up the pack a bit so that Isla could be led out. Brenna set herself up for a strong lead out for Isla to win the pack sprint! Our rider up the road, Nadia placed second at approximately eight minutes up the road. Leaving the day with a second and third place was an excellent start to the weekend and left us hungry for the top step of the podium.
It should also be noted that my confidence in a dry race was unsupported and did not come to fruition. It indeed rained starting pretty early on in the race and was terribly cold. Most riders, including myself, were just in a jersey and shorts. We were huddled, shivering in the local school gym for an hour after the race and then jumped in the cars post podium looking forward to a hot shower. I may use this lesson to trust the weather report when it says it will be cold and rainy, regardless of what month of the year it is.
Malaga Time Trial
Saturday started off with an individual time trial. 14.2 km along a rolly course with some brutal winds that were not always in your favor. The way back was mostly uphill with a headwind, so fun eh? But the women laid the power down and alll placed in the top 11, after some solid efforts. Nadia Gontova placed in 4th, maintaining her 2nd place GC with an impressive effort.
Twilight Crit
After a quick mid afternoon snooze, we hit our second race of the day, in downtown Wenatchee at the crit. We raced aggressively, attacking and countering every move, which landed us second place from a breakaway (Isla Walker). Although, the real highlight of this race was cash that Brenna Pauly and Lilly Ujfalusi snagged in the bunch sprints. As Isla was suffering in the chase trying to close the gap between first and second, the rest of the girls were lighting it up in the bunch sweeping up all the money the crowds had to offer! They then proceeded to pay for dinner that night, thankfully. Both the time trial and the crit showcased the skills that each teammate brings in order to create a strong team.
Plain Road Race
Following a very late criterium night was an early awakening for the last road race and stage of Tour de Bloom. At 5:50am it was time to get up and get going, breakfast was the second challenge of the morning after getting up. Nobody wanted to be up this early much less choke down some oatmeal but we did our best and headed to the race. It was another cool morning but we were short on time and already had so much riding in our legs that we opted out of a warm up and went straight to the start line. This road course was similar to Waterville in the way it had lots of rolling hills, but it was much more scenic and had a 5 minute hill climb to the finish.
As the race began teams were eager to get riders up the road and thus threw down attacks and counter attacks. Red Truck was up there making sure nothing got away without us in it. Eventually a bit of a break away with four girls, including Isla, got up the road a bit. The pack was unsatisfied with this and bridged the gap. As this was happening the pack split into two for a moment and Brenna told me one of us would have to attack now to counter the move. I felt good enough so I went and managed to make some way up the road. Soon another rider from fount, Ellexi, joined me and we took turns pulling further and further from the pack. I hadn’t expected this move to stick but soon the pack was out of sight behind us and the follow car ws giving us updates on our split from the pack every so often.
The length of the race was 120km and Ellexi and I got away only 25 to 30km in, meaning we had a long way to go. We continued to take pulls and recover well when we were in the draft. I was feeling quite unwell for a large portion of it but the motivation of increasing the gap was compelling. On the last of three laps I took a feed and decided that we would stay away until the end. As we approached the last climb I knew I didn’t have much left in the legs so I let Ellexi lead us into the climb, I soon got dropped from her and went up as hard as I could, finishing in second place, six and a half minutes ahead of the next rider.
While I was in the breakaway it sounded like the rest of the pack was fairly unmotivated to chase, especially once we were out of sight and out of mind leaving the team somewhat frustrated. As the race went on Red Truck spent time on the front of the pack, trying to stay conscious of the time gap and the overall GC. Later there was a crash in the pack which shrunk the size of the pack. Leading into the last climb Brenna and Isla gave Nadia (our GC rider) a killer lead out so she could fly to the top of the final stage.
Everything didn’t shake out exactly as planned this weekend but it was truly an awesome stage race. Our team podiumed in three of the races, left the criterium with some good cash and became more fluid in the way we raced together. Looking forward to Joe Martin now!