While most of our teammates travelled home after Valley of the Sun and some warm weather training, a small but mighty part of the team stayed down south to race the Tucson Bicycle Classic: a three day stage race around Tucson, Arizona. The race consisted of a 6km prologue time trial, 130km road race, and 80km Circuit race. A defining feature of the race was that both the pro men and women raced the same distances as well as receiving the same prize money. A great step in the right direction for equality in bike racing!
Starting off with the time trial on Friday, it was a very blustery day. Tumble weeds were coming at us from all directions and there were a few port-a-potty casualties. Everyone put their best effort forward though and had learning experiences from doing such a short time trial. It was very technical so there was a lot to be taken away from the day!
On Saturday we got up before the sunrise to start our road race. It was the longest road race either of us had done, so we were excited for the new challenge. We were up against some stiff competition with two big teams in attendance. They each had a full squad of nine riders. Our plan was to make sure we were in every move that had both of those teams up the road. Although we were only two, we took turns following moves and made it into every significant break of the day. The race ultimately came down to a bunch sprint. It got hectic with it being uphill and a tail wind, so everyone wanted to go late. Holly held her own though to 9th on the day! Teamwork was the name of the game and we were both really pleased with how we executed the race.
We weren’t sure that we could top the success of Saturday’s Road race, but the circuit race did not disappoint! Over a 9km loop on rolling terrain, the race was punchy and fast. With speeds of up to 70kph on the decent, no one was able to get away and it made for a fast race. Holly did an amazing job of infiltrating the eight person DNA pro cycling lead-out train and freelanced her way to an amazing second place on the day!
It was a weekend that we are both very proud of and we built on the cohesion and race fitness that we had at Valley of the Sun. We are off to a pretty spectacular start to the 2022 season! A special shoutout to our “Tucson family” who supported us this weekend, we could not have done it without you! Both Holly and I are looking forward to putting more watts in the bank over the next month, before we meet up with the rest of our teammates at camp and then Redlands!