Stages 5 and 6

Stage 5: Mankato Road Race, 92 miles, The Queen Stage

This week, as part of the Ryan experience, I did two radio interviews for Mankato. In both interviews, when asked about the hill in the finishing circuit, someone responded with "I don't even want to WALK up that hill!" The race is 80 miles of flat Minnesota farmland followed by 4 brutal finishing circuits in downtown Mankato. Each time around the circuit has about a mile long climb that averages 14%...ouch.

I was worried about this race. I don't get nervous much, and I couldn't tell if it was nerves or the constant over-caffienated state I've kept myself in for a week, but I could barely keep my hands straight. This unhealthy state existed until the glorious final ten seconds, after the national anthem (which almost makes me pee my pants every time it's played on the start line) when they played the JOCK JAMS REMIX. You know, the one that has every high school pump up song on it. That's my jam. Fortunately, this seriously fired me up and I lost all inhibitions about my ability or desire to race for 91 miles. Unfortunately, I heard this song about a trillion and one times in my head for the following 4 hours.

The race was easy, much easier than Cannon Falls. And somehow, in two days time, people learned how to handle their bikes much better. I felt comfortable and able to move anywhere, which is a great feeling in a race like this. After some hydration mishaps, I was surprised when my odometer read 70 miles. Only 20 more. And only 10 til the circuit! There was a break of three off the front, and most teams were represented, so everyone sat around and waited for K Armstrong to do something. She drilled it for a while, but she's one person, and one person can only do so much on a flat and windy road.

Last year upon realized I was going to enter the circuit with the pack I had a religious experience. I'm pretty sure I cried a little, maybe I was a little underhydrated and hungry, but I was so happy I had come this far with the pack. This year, I was happy, but I knew what I had left to do. Four back breaking circuits. I thought they were never going to end. I had to restrain myself from taking a beer feed from a righteous party on the backside of the circuit, but I finished. Only lost 6 minutes or something. Alright. One more day.

Stage 6: Stillwater Criterium, 13 laps

This race makes Nature Valley famous. The course is a little over a mile long, run with criterium rules. It begins at the bottom of Chilkoot Hill and ends at the top. Chilkoot Hill: the hill of all hills. It's short, but at most points it's around 20%. People literally FALL OFF their bicycles. It's sweet though, because fans line both sides of the climb, kind of like in the TDF and if you need help they'll give you a push. Most people have no idea who you are but yell for you as loud as they possibly can. You really feel famous. Even if, like me and many others, you only make it through 5 laps of the race. To officially "finish" Nature Valley, you must complete 3 laps of this course without being pulled. This in itself is a challenge and doing 5 makes me really proud. Maybe some people can't understand smiling at the end of a race you didn't even finish, but I'm incredibly thankful for this experience. Especially since today was officially K Armstrong's last race in the US. I was there, I heard the goodbye speech, I heard K Armstrong cry. But more importantly, I saw her kick everyone ASS today on that hill (you know, because I was watching by that time!).

Some photos from the week:

Yeah girl yeah! Last hill K Armstrong will ever race up in the United States.

What most of our mornings/afternoons consisted of: the computer and Marco.

Our team car/John's new car.

Check out those shiny new white Hudz.

Rita and Marco.

At the baseball game.

Gabe: our resident hipster.

The happiest grim reaper you'll ever meet.

The team.

I am happy Nature Valley is over. I was fortunate enough to have great teammates and a great time, and can't wait to have more experiences like this one. But first, I gotta get back to Seattle. Yeah!

Stages 3 and 4

But first. Check this out, score! The caption read "Kendi Thomas (Ryan Collegiate All-Stars) passes her one-minute man.


Stage 3: Cannon Falls Road Race, 66 miles
We started with the neutral rollout...at 25 mph. In the first 5 minutes there were almost 20 crashes, I slammed on my brakes at least 20 times, and everyone made a conscious choice to abandon all previous notions of good bicycle handling. The race was hard, but it let up somewhere around the middle and we tooled around in the Minnesota countryside for a while. It would have been pleasant, but it seemed every time I looked at my stem notes or the person next to me someone new would be threatening to take out my front wheel. The hardest part of the race was staying upright. Which we all did. About 7 miles before we hit the gravel the pace quickened and people lost control of themselves. There was a huge crash about 4 miles before the gravel, which Sinead and I narrowly avoided, putting a foot down, and fortunately about 20 people missed the turn (there was no corner marshall on the most important part of the course) for the gravel and I ended up about 15th wheel going into the circuits. Thanks to all that gravel riding in Walla Walla, this was the part of the race I enjoyed most. Oh, there's even a photo from cyclingnews.

You can see Sinead in the right of the frame, too.

So we go through the gravel, hit the sketchiest downhill I've ever raced on, and then finally poor out into the circuits. WHOA: the circuits. I had absolutely NO IDEA it was going to be so fast. It was completely strung out, I was holding on to the wheel in front of me for dear life. I glanced back, no one was behind me. Oh shit, I made it to the front group! No big deal, only 5 laps of this circuit. It's sorta flat. Well, I made it through about 1.5 until I realized it was too hard and got blown out the back. I think Tina Pic was mad at me because I kept opening gaps. Oh well. Turns out I should have stuck it out because they sat up about 30 seconds later, but by that time I was too blown to do anything. But on the positive side, my teammates Sinead, Emma, and Erica all came up to me and we finished together. Erica Allar, a Ryan Collegiate alum, won the race!

Stage 4: Uptown Minneapolis Criterium, 25 laps
This was the first year for this venue, and it was a SICK course. It was L shaped and somewhat short, so you were turning pretty much the whole time. This race was so different from Wednesday's race, I had a hard time remembering it was the same pack. Not as fast-only about a 27 mph average, and people were controlling their front wheels (imagine that!). I had a lot of fun, probably should have finished better, but ended up with 46th. I didn't think about dropping out once, and my legs weren't completely destroyed at the end. That's a victory, in my eyes. When we finished there were close to a million fans lining the course and some of them even wanted our autographs! At least half of this million were fixie-doting, rolled cigarette-smoking hipsters, and at least half of that half million were friends of our mechanic Gabe.

91 mile road race in Mankato today. This is the only race that people want to talk to you about. It's long, hard, and the finishing circuit has a mile long hill that averages 14%, but is 22% at times. I do not want to get lapped by K Armstrong.

Stages 1 and 2

Stage 1: St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial, 6 miles
I was excited (and nervous) about the time trial this year. It's 2.5 miles dead flat out and 2.5 miles dead flat back, with a sensible (ahem) finish of a GIANT climb. I ask, why ruin a perfectly good time trial with a little rise in the road? Our team director John said the hill might "bother" us.

So I showed up to the start line on time, I freaked a little because I had gotten my bike approved about an hour before-hand, but then they made me get measured for my arms. I think I cheated, but I also think the lady was just nice. She said, in her cute little Minnesota accent, as I sat on the bike, "Ohhh I can just see the power!" Thanks, lady. I was set to go off 30 seconds in front of LVG (Laura Van Gilder for those that are acronym challenged). Perfect, I'm going to get passed a mile into the TT. It began. I found my rhythm. I felt good, got to the turn around, and almost peed my pants when I realized LVG was maybe more than 30 seconds behind me. Maybe then I relaxed a little too much. I passed my minute person. I went up the "bothersome" hill. LVG blew by me about 1/4 through the climb, as did Jo Kiesanowski. It's okay, I tell myself, they're reallly fast. After that I didn't lose too much time and finished good enough for 77th, of 119 starters. I'm happy enough with that, 14 seconds faster than my last year's time.

Stage 2: Downtown St. Paul Criterium
The Ryan team got to warm up in the "Athlete Village" which means a lot of things, but mostly that you can't change into your chamois while standing around and looking at the crowd. The idea here is to give out signed trading cards and motivate little girls to ride bicycles. We warmed up and got to the start line a good 35 minutes before the start. This part of these races in highly unfair. The fast people get call-ups, meaning they automatically get to start at the front of the race, and those who don't get call-ups end up fighting for their position. These crits are less about fitness and more about positioning, so your place on the start line determines alot about your race. So all the fast people get to warm up right up until 10 minutes until the race starts. And the other people stand around for 35 minutes, legs getting stiff, worrying about the start. Perhaps this is why it is so hard for everyone except for those fast people.

Anyway, enough about call-ups. The race: fucking fast. 28.8 mph average. Kristin Armstrong was on the front probably 1/4 of the race, just HAMMERING it. As my team director says, "This race will never be that fast again." Apparently, this is Kristin's last year before retirement. Those Armstrongs, always threatening to retire.

I had a great starting position, but fucked that up the second I started feeling like I was dying. I lost a lot of places, settled in, kept wanting to drop out, but finally got over that feeling. For this particular race, you have to finish 33% of it to move on to the next stage, so that meant 14 laps or so. In fast races I like to set small goals for myself. First goal: make it to the time cut. Despite my thoughts of dropping out at this point, I decided to set a new goal. Second goal: Make it to halfway. Upon reaching this goal, I realize if I haven't gotten dropped yet, I'm probably not going to get dropped. This type of mentality enables me to think more positively about the race and realize I should be doing better. Third goal: Do better. So at about 10 to go I made a huge jump up the hill and gained about 10 places, trying to make it up to the top 50. I succeeded and ended up with 46th place! That's my best finish yet at this race, so I'm pretty stoked about it. I'm sitting 10th for the Best Young Rider (which is everyone under 26) and something like 60th overall. You have to look hard, but this photo is from Velonews and you can sort of see me! I'm wearing green shorts with my Whitman jersey (a winning color combination, I know).

Tonight is the first road race, 66 miles starting at Cannon Falls. This race is pretty flat the whole time and includes a 2 miles dirt/gravel section leading into the 5 finishing circuits. The race truly begins about 2 miles from this section, as people want to be the first into the dirt and the first into the following steep descent on shitty, wet road. I'm excited. Stay tuned for more updates. I'll leave you with a photo of Sinead doing a television interview yesterday morning at 5:35 in the morning!

NVGP

Leaving in the morning for Minneapolis for the biggest race of the year; Nature Valley Grand Prix. Nature Valley is the highest pro-ranked stage race for Women in North America, and I'm riding for the Ryan Collegiate All-Stars Team. The Ryan team is a composite team made up of 7 collegiate riders, based on the Omnium results at Collegiate Nationals. You can read the press release here. It's all very exciting! I'm even doing a television interview with Division I Criterium Champ Sinead Miller on Wednesday.

The best part? I get a trading card! A real live trading card that could potentially be traded for Reggie Miller or Shaq. Let me know if you're interested and perhaps I could get my hands on some autographed copies.

Keep an eye out for race reports. I'll probably be twittering too. You can also check out the official site here.

It's not called Tough for nothin'

My second debut at Tulsa did not go as I had hoped. But, as much as this disappoints me, it also fires me up to train harder, work harder, and be much more motivated for races like this. It was HARD. It was HOT. Northwest collegiate races aren't exactly great preparation for NRC crits of 90+ riders and 27mph average speeds. Most of the highlights of this weekend have absolutely nothing to do with bike racing, and that's okay.

1. NIKE OUTLET IS OPEN. For years every road trip we've taken West from Indy has ended in disappointment to find out that the mexican Nike outlet store was closed. THIS TIME was different. Not only were they open, they sold me the most beautiful pair of hightops I have ever seen. Feast your eyes on these.

Even Harry inquired about the difference between Air Force Ones and regular hightops. We still have not found an answer.


2. Host housing is AMAZING. I knew this before, but now I'm a seriously spoiled little racer. They provided almost all of our food, we all had our own bedrooms, but the best part, is that they had a gorgeous pool/deck combo with a gazebo. It felt more like vacation than bike racing (well, let's get serious, it WAS a vacation) and when 2 hours until our race rolled around, we were sad to have to leave our oasis. Thanks Ann and Steve!

3. I got Floyd Landis's autograph! While I do have mixed feelings about this (he's a doper!) I also am pretty proud. Steve, our host dad, is tha BOSS-he actually thought up the whole idea for Tulsa Tough! So naturally, Ann and Steve were VIPs. After Friday's race they presented us with two cowbells personally autographed to us by Floyd Landis. She said she told him that I just won Nationals and he said he was "proud of me".

Overall, a poor show of bike racing, but a really fun time. Photos coming soon.