After a great week of hard training at the legendary Santa Rosa camp, some of the members of the TRT race team headed down to Wenatchee, Washington to take park in the Tour de Bloom, a 3 stage/2 day race, featuring a mass start hill climb, a twilight downtown crit and, a long 165 km RR in the around the beautiful town of Waterville.
After the team arrived at our host house located right on the hill climb course, it was time to hunker down and focus on the task at hand. For many members of the team this would be the first test of the form after a hard block of training the month before. Both the men’s and women’s team had good efforts on the opening Hill climb, the most notable result was a top three ride from climber extraordinaire Dylan Davies.
Later in the day, following an afternoon filled with classic 80’s films, food and recovery, it was time for the team to tackle the exciting twilight crit. The crit was a short 700m street light-lit circuit featuring a cobbled decent, and four beer gardens… for the spectators enjoyment of course. The women’s race was late afternoon, with both Sarah and Suzanne in the mix until the second-to-last last lap. Unfortunately Suzanne got squeezed on turn one, and was forced into a pot hole, resulting in a crash. Although road rashed, bruised, disappointed, and with a bike with some “modifications”, she remained around to cheer her teammates on it the men’s crit.
Sarah upheld the load for TRT, and sprinted to a well deserved second place finish, barely failing to get first. With the sun set, and a full moon, it was time for the men to take over. The team raced well as a unit, covering moves as they went up the road but, after a couple minutes of racing, it was clear that neither Russ Hayes nor Langous Brown would let anything up the road. This forced us, after many spirited efforts, to sit and wait for the sprint. When all was done and dusted, Willem, who is a new addition to the team this year, was able to pilot his bike to an impressive fourth place finish.
When Sunday morning rolled in it was clear that the team was hungry and motivated to get someone of the top step in the podium. The race was a long one, 165km. For many in the peloton, this is the longest race of the season. When the early move went up the road, no one thought it would stick and the chase was delayed. Unfortunately for us, the break did end up sticking which wiped our chances of making the podium. Sometimes that’s just the luck of the draw. Nevertheless, Willem, Dylan and Joel finished as the eventual GC winners. Sarah, the lone wolf. stayed with the leaders in a long slog of a race, eventually finishing a respectable third.
The team will be racing in the Devo stage race as well as the Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race over the next few weeks.