My Tour of Walla Walla

My biking tour of Walla Walla did not involve any wine tasting, just some bike racing. 

After hearing many great things about the TOWW, I decided I really wanted to race this stage race, so I registered early.  A couple of other women on my team and myself rented a house for the weekend, along with Chris and one of the women's husband.  Friday afternoon I make the drive to Walla Walla with my teammate Sarah.  What great company for a long car ride!

My goal for this stage race was to #1 have fun and #2 do better than Cherry Blossom. 

Day 1, Stage 1: Time Trial (ew):

Thermal skinsuit = WARM.  Just getting started.

I had a pretty good start, look at my face I was smiling.  The time trial ventured off onto some roads, they seemed pretty flat and fast.  My goal was to not get passed and try to catch my 30 second carrot.  I pedaled my bike in my aero bars and felt like a rocket, I had a smashing good time (not time as in minutes or seconds) being all aerodynamic.  Then I hit a hill, caught a rider, heard Carly tell me it was all down  hill from there.  I got bummed...she was right, the rest of the course was literally all down hill.  Weighing approx 128lbs doesn't do you much good on the down hills so I knew I was going to lose a lot of time.  It was also a weird feeling, because it sort of felt...easy?  I was pushing myself, but yet I wasn't all at the same time.  It was weird.  I finished 8th overall though (it must have been Jess's thermal skin suit).

I'm sooooo fast in my aero bars

Day 1, Stage 2: Downtown Crit
 



That women is having more fun that I am



The promoters decided it was best to combine the W1/2/3's together for the Crit.  I disagreed with them, but that didn't really change their minds.  My feelings regarding this crit: it would have been different for the W3's had we had our own field.  I was bummed, but more importantly I was terrified, roughly 60 ppl in the combined fields.  SCARY.  I was more than just scared, I was very very very terrified.  I pre-rode the course 2x through, which in hines site....was not enough.  I probably could have pre-rode that course 100x and it still would not have been enough for me.  I don't even want to talk about how bad that crit was for me.  I was scared the entire time I was on my bike.  The race started pretty fast but I was able to keep up with the main group, but then every turn took me by surprise, I didn't know where I was going, there where people, cones, corners, tape, and wheels everywhere.  I couldn't get in a flow or a rythym, and all I wanted to do was quit.  I lost the main pack after the first half of race out of being timid and scared, and rode by myself for quite some time, then a group of a couple riders caught me, then out of no where there was a whole new 2nd group.  We finished 1 minute 24 seconds behind the other group, and I finished 9th in the 3's.





I like to ride by myself

Following the crit I was 11th in the GC

Day 2, Stage 3: Kellog Hollow Road Race

I was really looking forward to this road race because I lost so much time after the crit.  I wanted to make sure that if there was a break that went, that I would be in it, I needed to make up some lost time, so once the race started I tried to make my way to the front of the pack.  The course went something like this:

Flat section to get to the rolly circular section...ie we did 2 laps of a 20 something mile circle making our race roughly 65 miles with 3400 ft of climbing.  That doesn't sound too bad after the circuit race for Cherry Blossom (36 miles 4300 ft of climbing). 

Well I am not sure why I was worrying so much that a break would happen in this race, because NOTHING happened.  The first lap we were going so slow and it was only 40 degrees out so I was FREEZING.  I hated the race the first lap, I was bored out of my mind, no one would do anything, and no one wanted to push the pace in the front and no one wanted to be in the front.  I suppose I can't blame them because I didn't either, when we still had another lap to race.  I was seirously debating about quitting because I was so cold and bored.  Well...I didn't, my legs were feeling too good to quit...and I don't quit races unless something is seriously seriously wrong. 

At the start of the 2nd lap the pace sort of increased up the first hill, there was this women who was also at Cherry Blossom and she just had no problem pulling the entire pack up those hills (she did the same thing at Cherry Blossom, really likes to ride in the front).  After the raging down hill with a sharp left turn up into another hill I decided to push the pace up the hill.  I was bored and cold and the race was more than half way through, it was time to make something happen.  I knew that I couldn't climb the hill at 100% or else if someone decided to attack I wouldn't be able to keep up, so I kept it at a pace that I knew I would be able to sprint out of if need be.  I also was pretty sure that no one was going to move around me to the front so I continued to drill it up the hill.  Once at the top I heard someone say something on the lines of "wow that shattered the field".  We decended on the other half of the hill and at the bottom someone said "we got a group, want to rotate?"  I was all for a rotating paceline, and that's just what we did. 

The final 3k to 200m was the slowest strangest finish I have ever been in (did I mention the terrible head wind).  When we hit the 1k I could tell people were starting to organize their lead out trains, and I had no one, so I knew I wanted to get on someones wheel who could sprint.  So I did and sprinted my brain out to finish in 3rd place out of the 10 in our pack/break/what ever you want to call it.

I made up some time on some people after the road race and finished 7th in the GC.
Now the question remains on whether I will be back and race this event next year.  Lets review the races:
1) TT...I didn't like that the whole 2nd half was down hill, it doesn't put us little people in a good advantage to go fast
2) Crit....not fun
3) RR....nice country roads with some great hills, but a stupid flat finish (where's the hill finish)???
So next when the time comes to register for TOWW I will have to think hard about it, because right now I'm only 30% sure I might come back. 

All pictures in this post are courtesy of Kevin Tu, except for the first one (http://www.wheelsinfocus.com/)

I should also mention how much I adore my lady teammates.  Thanks for all the fun racing so far!!!!!

One more thing...Cucina Fresca pasta and sauces are DELICIOUS.  Now go buy some!!!!!!!!!