Reality Flash

So the holiday is over. The two weeks between my first and second American races seemed to whiz by quicker than expected and faster than anyone would have liked. Just as I was sinking into a relaxing routine involving quality tanning time (California finally lived up to the hype) and copious amounts of study, primarily at the local coffee house where I attempted to pass as a university student from the local college (Cal Poly), I was rudely shocked back to reality: with a 6km uphill time-trial, the first of the three stage San Dimas Stage Race.

Time-trialling is not my strong point to put it mildly. Nor is hill climbing. Combine the two and it is a recipe for disaster. Needless to say, I didn’t impress and should probably count my lucky stars that I am still employed. Fortunately, my team mate Evelyn Stevens, a celebrity in the Dartmouth community (there is a running joke in the team after a random male rode up to us and asked/proclaimed proudly “Are you Evelyn? You went to Dartmouth right? I’m a ’92”) rode an impressive time of 14:47. Up a 6km climb that’s fast! It was enough to put her in second overall behind Mara Abbott, a former hTC rider but now a member of the Peanut Butter & Co team.

With only 16 seconds separating Mara and Evelyn we went into the second stage, a 90 odd kilometre road race, with the plan to be overly aggressive throughout the entire race hoping to try and put Mara under pressure and possibly gain Evelyn some bonus seconds at the very least.

I managed to make the first break of the day with fellow Aussie, Alex Rhodes and two others girls from the American professional teams Tibco and Colavita. Unfortunately, my climbing ability didn’t miraculously improve overnight and I was soon back in the peloton. While we managed to put Mara and her Peanut Butter team under some pressure with three laps to go when Ina, Kim and Evelyn broke away on the climb after Emilia and I had driven the pace on the front in the kilometres leading up to the King Of the Mountain we weren’t able to make any notable gain on the yellow jersey.


Photo Credit: Annette McCusker, velonews.com

The team was put in a confusing position when Kim made a break that stayed away for the remainder of the race. Sans radios we were left unsure whether or not to let the break ride and hope that Kim gained enough seconds to bring her within striking distance of the yellow jersey or to chase, hoping to try and gain Evelyn some bonus seconds.

The controversial radio ban sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale at the beginning of this year, where radios are banned from all national level, .2 (so smaller European races) and World Championship races, had an impact today as we couldn’t communicate with our directors or team mates in breaks.

The race, although small in comparison to other events the team competes in really acted as a taster for what’s in store for the remainder of the season, both in the men and women’s peloton. The radio ban really changes the dynamic of the race and can put teams off their best game, as it did us today.

Tomorrow’s final criterium stage offers the team another opportunity to turn our luck around and claim that seemingly elusive stage win after Kim finished third today. So far we’ve got the bronze and the silver, here’s hoping we can make it a boxed set!