Exergy Tour 2012

Exergy tour was by far the most amazing race I have ever participated in, ever.

From the moment I stepped off the plane I was looked after like a celebrity, the organisers bent over backwards to support us and make sure we have an amazing time. The night before the prologue was an official presentation with all the teams and organisers, an amazing buffet and even an Exergy ice sculpture! There were flags for almost every country represented, including Italy, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, Germany, Belgium, US, Ireland, Columbia, Belgium…  The start list was BIG.

The prologue was first up, starting in the evening. We rode to the start on our road bikes to find our amazing Orbea tt bikes sitting there waiting our arrival all fancied up with our HED disks and tri-spokes and Lazer tt helmets. Couldn’t get much better than that! Adrian and John were rushing around making sure the bikes were all tuned, Karen and Jeremy were keeping us well fuelled and Rachel was getting the bikes checked, sorting our start times, and making sure we were all good.. So all I had to do was hop on my kinetic trainer, warm up, then bike fast. Easy, right!? It was only 3.1 kms, and I was 3^rd off. The course was completely covered in people, it was awesome! 4 of the Optum riders finished in the top 20 (out of over 100 riders) which was pretty dam impressive. I had a bit of a disaster with my leg deciding to seize half way through, but I am getting used to that. Unfortunately America’s top cyclist and Olympic champion time-trialist, Kristen Armstrong came down on one of the 180 degree turns. In doing this she broke her collar-bone and was out for the rest of the tour. She is strong though, and will no doubt be back and rearing to go for the Olympics.

                                                                    Stage 1

The next day was a 123km road race in Nampa, ID. It was wet, really wet, which just makes the racing better. Most people turn off in the rain, but Optum definitely does not, it just makes it more exciting! Nothing much happened at the start of the race, there were a few attacks but other than that people were just cruising along trying to stay on their bikes. When we got to the first climb I felt great, although a little curious as to why my bike all of sudden had a lot of suspension. I looked down to notice my tyre was slowly deflating. Not what I wanted to find. After the climb I stopped to get a new wheel. Unfortunately this took a lot longer then I was hoping, by the time I got back on the bunch was no longer in sight. I put my head down and about 10kms later I had rejoined the back of the main bunch, pretty much blown. At this time there was a small group up the road which included Leah so I could recover for a little, then it was full gas to the finish line. It ended with a big bunch sprint where unfortunately the world champ Georgia Bronzini came down with a few others. Leah came super close finishing in 4^th place with Theresa Cliff-Ryan from Exergy in first. Optum riders did a great job coming into the finish, but unfortunately it was not our day.

                                                                      Stage 2

Stage 2 was a 16.6km out and back time trial, again in the pouring rain. The start was super dodgy with tight, narrow corners and a very slippery road surface. A handful of riders came off before the race had even started, in the starting gates. Luckily all Optum riders stayed on top of their bikes! It was a hard head down, butt up race and we all did our best. Specialised Lululemon crowded the podium finishing 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.

Awesome photo taken by veloimages of Denise and Joelle crossing paths in the time trial. 

                                                                        Stage 3

Stage 3, finally what we do best.. road racing! The race started off fast and my job involved a lot of chasing. From go I followed every attack I could. After what felt like 100km’s I was at blowing point, looked down.. 15kms!! Only 15kms into the race. I will not repeat what went through my head at this point but it was not pretty. Thankfully Janel and a few others went off the front in a small brake so the attacking slowed down a little and I could have a breather. We then hit a 15km climb, all of a sudden I felt good (I think the BlueRidge parkway riding came in handy for this one). I rode in the bunch as people dropped one after the other. The bunch split in half and I was about to join the front halfit until I sore a team mate that should be in it miss the gap. I dropped back and helped pull her back on, then blew.. then felt good again and got back on (this happened a lot this race). We started a descent, then went up again, followed some more attacks, made a couple of attacks then we started the long descent to the finish. It started raining, which made some pretty exciting conditions. I played it safe but stayed in-tact with the front bunch. With 5kms to go Optum blasted off the front one after another, I tried at 5kms, got caught (dam). Then with 1km to go Optum took control, Jade led out Janel who led out Carmen who did a bloody AWESOME lead out to Leah. Leah went head to head with Ina Teutenburg, one of the world’s best sprinters, and got 2^nd by what looked like an inch. So close! But so well deserved for Leah and the girls. To finish 2^nd in this classy field was pretty dam impressive. To show how hard the race was there were 4 DNF’s and 21 people who missed the time cut. I finished somewhere in the front bunch, glad to see the end!

                        On one of the long climbs with snow surrounding us. Crazy views too. 

                                                                  So so so Close. 

                                                                          Stage 4

The 4^th and final stage was on a super hard, rolling course. Optum still had all 8 riders starting (which may I add, is pretty cool considering most teams had halfed). The start was awesome, we had army planes fly over top and the crowds were HUGE! Unfortunately the race did not last very long, however, for Janel and myself. 100 metres after go there were people on the ground, Janel swerved left to miss it I swerved right but it was too late, we were both down. I was fine, scratched up and bike pretty screwed up (my poor HED wheel had snapped in half). I jumped onto a spare bike that Adrian had got to me and set off again. But it was too late, the bunch was gone, long gone. The race was over. Janel was not in a good place, she had landed on her hip and had to go to hospital. Luckily she is on the mend now and is able to race almost at 100% again.

Back to the race, it blew to pieces on the first climb. Carmen missed the break so the optum girls got to the front to bring it back, then Joelle did a totally awesome 100% pull to bring it back together. She was totally blown afterwards but had got the team back with the leaders so did an amazing job. The rest of the race looked brutal. 14 riders were off the front by a rather large margin including Carmen. At the end Evelyn and Claudia (Lululemon and GreenEdge) rode off the front and Carmen was close behind getting 2^nd in the bunch kick (4^th overall).

That last night the Exergy organisers put on a Rodeo for all of the riders. First time watching anything like this, was definitely an experience! We also got given some super cool Exergy tour belt buckles to end the night, so country!

One of the many gifts we got from race organisers. A delicious chocolate shoe! How cool is that!!

All up it was a super awesome tour. So much fun, we were so well looked after. The race organisers were incredible and Rachel, Adrian, Jeremy, Karen and John made life so easy for all of us riders. Couldn’t ask for a better team!