Tour of the
Gila has been a race I have always heard about, its supposedly one of the
hardest stage races in America. This isn’t just because of the ridiculously
long hills or the high level of competition but because it is at altitude,
which makes everything you do that much harder.
We had a
strong team with our GC riders Janel, Carmen and Jade. As well as Anna, Emma,
Lex and myself. The other good teams there included Exergy, Tibco, NOW, Rouse,
Primal and a few others.
The first stage was 118km finishing at the top
of a hard 11km climb. From the gun there was attack after attack. Emma, Anna,
Lex and I tried to cover every attack. The hard thing about racing in altitude
is that when you go all out to catch a break or do an attack your legs tend to
give up a lot faster. Mentally you can keep pushing but physically you are done
so we had to be careful not to kill ourselves too earlier on. The plan was for
Jade to go for the sprint points, and that she did. On the first sprint Jade
went for it and straight after a gap formed which included Jade, Armstrong,
Alison Powers and a couple of others. We didn’t have to do anything other than
covering attacks as Jade was in the break and she is super strong so we knew
she would do well on the climb. Tibco went to the front and drove the pace as
they didn’t have anyone up the road. Once the gap got to 2 minutes Anna and I
went up to keep it constant and not let the gap get any bigger as we had Carmen
and Janel in the bunch who couldn’t afford to lose too much time on Powers and
Armstrong. Once reaching the base of the climb a group of us got a wee gap on
the field, then next minute girls are flying in the air.. Emma came off and I
did a bit of cross country. My bike crashed but I managed to stay standing up.
Emma luckily had a comfortable landing on top of another rider. We then set-off
again but unfortunately the bunch had left us for dead and I did a massive
effort to get back on, got close, then blew. The rest of the hill was a
struggle but I did not want to kill myself too much as there were 4 more days
of pain coming up and we had riders to
protect. Emma, Anna and I pretty much rode the climb together with Emma
powering off on the last km. Once crossing the line we found out Carmen had
come in at 2nd, Jade in 3rd and Janel in 5th.
It was a bloody awesome effort for the team. Armstrong won about 2 minutes
ahead.
The next
day was a 125km stage with a few hills and a technical down hill. On the first
climb an attack went and I got on the wheel, the hill was hard. When I looked
behind I found that a bunch of 20 of us had gotten away (out of about 67
riders) which included Jade, Carmen, Janel and myself. The next 20kms of
descending split the break up quite a bit but once we regrouped I did a big
attack. Everybody sat up so I just kept pedalling. I was off the front for
about 5kms until a NOW rider, Robin Farena (USA National Road Champ) bridged up
to me. She sat on the front and I called up the team car to get some advice on
what I should be doing (and to get a feed). Robin was sitting just behind Jade
on GC (general classification) so I was to help out a little bit but when the
gap got to just over a minute I had to sit on as we didn’t want to get any time
on Jade. We stayed away for about 40-50kms
and when the bunch was about 200 metres behind Jade jumped across. I
went to the front and tried to help her out as much as I could, then after hard turn on the front I sore a bit of red,
then a wall appeared. The bunch eventually caught and I held on for dare life
(after dropping and then getting some energy out of know-where). On the final
King of the mountain a group of 5 got up the road including Janel and Carmen.
So again all Jade and I had to do was chase the breaks, which we did, and it
hurt! With 2kms to go, straight after a series of attacks from NOW, Jade
launched off the front and no-one could catch her. She finished about 6 seconds
infront of our bunch in 6th place. Further up Janel had broken away
from the group of 5 with Armstrong, sprinting to 2nd and Carmen
finished 3rd. I finished about 14th. The rest of the
field came in about 18minutes later, Emma, Anna and Lex didn’t have to do a
thing in the bunch as we were up the road, and other teams were in similar
positions so that helped with the big time gap.
After stage 2, quick de-brief.
In a short-lived break away with Jade.
Day 3
consisted of a 26km timetrial that had a 7km slow climb at the start, then a
few rollers, then you turn around and come back. Our Orbea tt bikes were
awesome! It was the 3rd time I had ridden my one but the 1st
time I had ever done an actual effort on it. They look good, feel great, and
are super fast. I went all out on the tt, but my legs were pretty smashed. It
wasn’t a good result for me but with that under my belt I will only get faster.
Carmen had an awesome one finishing 3rd, only 6 seconds behind
Alison Powers who is one of the countries strongest time trialists. Kristen
Armstrong did what she does best, totally blitzing the 26kms in a new record of
37 minutes. Jade and Janel also had great ones, both finishing in the top 15.
Theres that face again.
Warming down on some amazing Kurt Kinetic trainers.
The second
to last day was an hour criterium around the streets of Silver City. It was
hard, so hard. We averaged 43kms an hour and did 430metres of climbing within
the race. Everyone seemed like they were in the mood to attack so that’s
exactly what happened, one would attack, one would chase, another would
attack.. this continued for an hour. I hit the wall about 5 times in this race,
sore red 3 times, and threw up in my mouth twice. Riders were getting dropped
two laps into it! I chased a few attacks that didn’t have any Optum riders in
it, got in a break for about 10 seconds, and basically just bit my handlebars
for the rest. Anna did a great job earlier on in the race chasing all the
breaks, and so did Emma and Lex. Carmen, Jade and Janel controlled everything,
chasing what they needed to and not chasing when they didn’t need to. On the
last lap Janel gave an awesome lead out, to Jade. Jade then did a fantastic
lead out to Carmen, then Carmen finished it off with a 2nd in the
sprint. She is on fire!! Lauren Rowney won the sprint (member of the Specialised
Lululemon team but was guest riding for Rouse) with Christina Gockey-Smith
(NOW) in 3rd.
Pre-race tactics talk.
The final
day (thankfully) was basically the 2nd road race but backwards. It
was 125kms and finished on another long climb. I got in a small break at the
start of the race up a climb but it got swallowed up pretty fast. Then Anna got
in a break of 6. 3 got caught but Anna stayed away with another 2 who
eventually got caught on the climb. We started the climb off hard, Kristen
Armstrong powered ahead with Jade, Janel and Carmen close behind. I started off
good, stayed with the breakaway then my leg decided it didn’t really want to
pedal anymore which was a little inconvenient. So instead I rode up at a slower
pace, in a small group. Emma and I crossed the line together to find Carmen was
3rd, Janel 4th and Jade 6th.
Just before one of the climbs, alongside one of cycling's best, Kristen Armstrong.
Overall
Carmen finished 2nd and she won the points jersey, Jade finished 4th and Janel 5th.
I am pretty glad that one is over, but at the same
time cannot wait to come at it so much stronger next year (potentially with a
little more altitude training). Now time to head back to Asheville, rest up and
start some more racing. I love this job!
Thanks for reading =)
Courteney
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