Starting the Season in South America
Before I begin, I would like to thank the race organization for putting on such a great event, Hugo and Carlos for providing the team with everything we needed, Barbara Bialokoz and Curtis Cramblett for fixing me up enough to race despite an injured hamstring (they’re both amazing so if you need some physiotherapy or bike fitting check out their contact info on my sponsors page), and of course to all the TIBCO SVB sponsors and staff without whom it would not be possible for us to live the dream.
It’s hard to believe that the 2015 season has already started and that the first seven race days have already come and gone. Just a few days into the New Year I was on a plane to San Francisco where the squad selected for the Tour Femenino San Luis in Argentina would meet up with TIBCO SVB’s new director, Ed Beamon. After a few days of getting reacquainted we were on our way to San Luis: six people, ten bikes, six suitcases and a dozen pieces of carry on in tow. South America had been on my list of places to travel to for a while and I was beyond excited to have the opportunity to go there with the team.
The end destination made the insane travel worth it. Door to door it would take us almost two days, a car, three planes and a bus. Along the way we lost all of our bike bags (the airlines prefer the term “misrouted luggage”), caught a glimpse of Mexico City, had a cup of coffee in Santiago (Chile) that was out of this world, and got to experience some interesting customs regulations and security measures (did you know that Mexico only allows 30 compact discs per person?….so random!). On the drive into San Luis, we had a chance to take in some of the breathtaking scenery; from rugged mountains to the shrub covered grasslands, the geography was as beautiful as it was varied. Intermittently the raw, untouched landscape was studded with clusters of huts and small houses or lone farm houses but for miles there was nothing but untouched nature. It was a beautiful country. Finally, two days and a whole lot of airport/airplane time later we finally arrived at our hotel in El Volcan, just outside San Luis.
There were a couple days to get acclimatized and recover before the racing started, which was lucky for us because it also meant there was time to locate and re-route our misrouted bikes. Big thank you to United Health Care as well as some of the locals for loaning us bikes in the mean time! What a great show of sportsmanship! Luckily our bikes did show up the night before the racing started and so by the morning of the Grand Prix, TIBCO SVB was ready to roll. This first race was just a one day, super simple, short race in downtown San Luis that was perfect to start the season and get back into the groove of racing. The course was a simple, flat, 15km oval that we would do five laps. With the GP to open up my legs I was feeling ready and excited for the main event: the six day Tour Femenino San Luis.
Going for a walk instead of a spin while the bikes were still “misrouted”
Cycling was obviously a popular sport in Argentina and the TFSL was receiving a fair amount of attention. The importance of the event started to sink in: we were getting the VIP treatment. Each team had a van and driver assigned to transport us to the different events and stages, people would clap and cheer when they saw a team roll by on a training ride or course recon, kids would come up asking for one of your bottles to have as a souvenir, and it seemed like there was always at least one camera in your face. It was going to be a bike racing experience unlike any I had experienced before, starting with the team presentation. Now, normally, a team presentation basically means you walk up onto a stage with your team, wave, smile, names get announced and then the next team goes. Not in Argentina! It was a “fashion show”. Catwalk, music, audience, live TV coverage…..us in spandex. Thank you bike racing for letting me live my secret dream of being a runway model.
After strutting our stuff at the team presentation it was time to get down to business. The heat was intense and I was feeling very grateful for all the hours I had spent in a heated yoga studio suffering through Bikram practice. I don’t think I would have survived mentally or physically if it had not been for Bikram. Standing on the start line one day my Garmin showed 50oC and we had two and a half hours of racing on wide open black asphalt ahead of us. That day I drank five bottles during the race and another three right after the finish. It was so hot that at some points I could not think of anything other than to drink water. I could not get it down my throat fast enough. We also had ice socks in our jerseys but the ice was melting so fast that each sock would only give a few minutes of relief. It took every bit of focus and discipline I had to even pay attention to the race, so strong was the desire to keep drinking water, keep getting water, and keep getting ice.
The first few couple stages were sprinters stages and United Health Care dominated but then things got a bit more interesting with a hilly stage in Merlo. The course was insane. It started with a 4km climb that shattered the field right out of the gate. Sheer willpower got my big booty over that hill and words cannot describe the relief I felt when we finally reached the descent. I did not even care that it was quite possibly the scariest descent I had ever done, I was just so relieved to still be there with the front group after 4km of basically bleeding from my eye balls from the effort. The descent was twisty, narrow, through residential streets and over rough asphalt and cement. Twice we rode through water, some sections were just gravel, the corners were treacherously sandy and, if that was not providing enough excitement, there was several stray dogs that found their way into the road as well. After the descent the front group got organized and I did a quick inventory of my team mates – two were missing. Both Kendall and Sara had crashed. Kendall was out of the race but Sara managed to make her way back some miles later despite having ended up in a ditch with a motorcycle in her lap. With five of us still there, we worked to cover moves and protect our GC rider, Lauren, but at the end of that day I think we were all pretty relieved simply to be (mostly) in one piece.
The following day was the individual time trial and, after the excitement of the previous day, I was looking forward to being all alone on a wide open road. Nothing crazy, no other riders, just me. Of course I was also excited to test my legs out. I hadn’t been on my Norcom TT bike since World Championships in September and had no idea how much I had in the tank. The course was perfect: smooth, fast, simple and only 14km starting on a long gradual downhill that had me flying through the starting kilometers. It may have been months since I had been on a TT bike but just a few minutes into the course I was settled into the familiar rhythm and the familiar pain. I was feeling strong and knew that I was setting a fast time. The last couple kilometers were brutal; a long false flat into a low grade climb in cross head winds. It felt like time had slowed I felt like the more effort I put into the pedals, the harder the wind and road fought back. My legs were on fire with the acid and I could taste blood as the burning flooded into every inch of my body. Up ahead I could see the pink banner of the finish line and I locked onto it, shutting out every other thought and sensation. After what felt like an eternity, my front wheel crossed the line and I gulped for air, gritting my teeth through the waves of fire rolling through my body.
It was early in the day but I had posted the fastest time yet and so got to spend some time in the hot seat. Eventually my time was bested and, at the end of the day I ended up in 9th place. For a first effort I was happy with my performance. I know there’s lots of room to improve still but a top ten finish is a success in my books and I’ll be using that as motivation over the next months of training.
Lauren, my team mate, stole the show that day taking both the stage win and the GC lead. The whole team left in high spirits: the win, three in the top fifteen, and the GC lead to defend going into the queen stage. We were ready to race!
Lauren in pink, so proud of her!
It was a good thing we had the time trial in our legs as a warmup because the following day ended up being one long time trial for the TIBCO SVB domestiques. With Lauren in pink, we wanted to allow a break to go but without any of the GC contenders and maintaining the gap at one minute or less. By doing so we would keep Lauren in the GC lead, and we hoped that it would discourage attacks and therefore keep the race easier to control. There was a mountain top finish after a tough 5km climb and it was on this climb that Tink would be important to help Lauren. With Kendall injured from stage three, and Tink and Lauren protected, that left Kathrin, Sara and I to do the work. A break of eight riders went just a few kilometers into the stage and that meant 50 plus kilometers of suffering on the front for the three of us. With cross winds and wide open roads it was going to be a tough day but I was taking quite a bit of pleasure from knowing how much the three of us were hurting the rest of the peloton. Coming into a cross tail section I glanced back to see the field completely in the gutter, stretched out single file with no shortage of pain faces to be seen. Everything was going as planned and the gap was holding at just under a minute when Lauren suddenly told us to go steady.
We eased up and the gap went out to a minute and twenty seconds quickly. After the race we learned that some bad luck had befallen Tink. She had flatted just as we were ramping it up into a crosswind section and Lauren had had to put the brakes on so that Tink could make it back after her wheel change. With Tink back safely in our draft we stepped on the gas again and gave one last dig over the few kilometers of false flat leading into the base of the climb. Job done and tank empty I dropped through what remained of the peloton and watched the leaders attack the hill. The caravan started passing me and I grabbed water and ice before crawling myself up the hill.
When I finally reached the top I met up with the team and got the details on the finish. We had lost the pink jersey by just one second.
The last stage was laps of a flat, smooth oval with two intermediate sprints for bonus time. Our only real chance at winning back pink was for Lauren to get some of those bonus seconds. One second, that’s all we needed. But the Brazilian team, who were now in the lead, were ready for a fight. Right from the gun the race was fast and aggressive and for the next two and a half hours it never let up. Physically and emotionally this last stage was tumultuous. The whole team was putting in a huge effort and Lauren brought it home at the first intermediate sprint beating Fernandez, the Brazilian leader, across the line. Just under a third of the race done and we had moved into the virtual lead with a one second advantage over Brazil. That only made the racing faster and more aggressive. The second sprint came and this time Fernandez took the time and moved back into the lead. We fought hard but in the end we lost by just a few seconds. The air was thick with disappointment on the drive back to the hotel as each of us came to terms with the loss.
Big kudos to Ed who managed to lift everyone’s spirits in the team meeting that night. Yes, it was a big disappointment but we were able to take away the positive, be proud of what we did accomplish, learn from our mistakes and take the TFSL as motivation for the next races.
Seven days of racing done it was time to party South American style. The race organization hosted a wonderful after party in a hall just a few miles from the hotel. They served divine malbec wine and course after course of South American cuisine, most notably the famous barbequed meats and empanadas. Wine and beef: the two things Argentina is famous for. Then the DJ cranked up the music and the rest of the night was spent dancing and laughing and mingling. A perfect note to end a remarkable experience on.
ANIKA (the beast) TODD 