After yesterday’s meeting, each of us knew exactly her role in today’s race and no one had it easy. Of course, I replayed my role over and over in my head all night long, anxiously awaiting the start and keeping my fingers crossed I could make it happen for my team. With a 9am start time, our morning wake-up call came early so that we had time to fuel up at breakfast and digest before hitting it hard on the roads in Mendrisio. Disappointingly, we woke up to rainy skies, which certainly injected a little apprehension into all of us because of the speed at which we’d hit the technical descent that followed the first climb. Well, there’s not much you can do about it when nature tries to spoil your fun so we headed off to the race with the hope that at least it would be a safe and successful race.

We pulled up to the course and immediately felt the energy that surrounded us. Spectators, police, and team buses filled the streets. Team Columbia’s bus was our home base for the day, and that in its self was a nice treat that pumped a little more energy into us. It’s not often that pro women get to enjoy the luxuries that the pro men probably often take for granted, so yeah, we were kinda giddy. But, regardless of the extra perk, we hadn’t forgotten our task at hand and how hard the race was going to be today. Keeping our nerves in check we rolled off to sign in and then each country was called up to the start line according to ranking – we were the 6th country to be called up so were pretty close to the front of the line, which was especially good for me. My job, to force the pace on the climbs for as many laps as I could, essentially started from the gun since the first climb came just several km’s after the start. The gun went off and I followed Kristin Armstrong straight to the front. We hit the climb, I went to the front to set the pace, I got to rest on the descent (it had stopped raining so it was slippery but at least not as sketchy as it could have been), and then went right back to the front on the 2nd climb of the lap. I got to rest again before we hit the 1st climb on the next lap and then didn’t have to worry too much about the pace up the climb because other teams were setting a solid tempo. Over the top someone ran into Mara’s rear wheel and broke a spoke so we decided that when we hit the 2nd climb I would give her my rear wheel (we had decided in the team meeting that a rider would be able to do a faster wheel change than waiting for the car because of the nature of the course and I was the first rider to give up a wheel) because she would be able to catch the peloton easier on the climb than on the fast and short flat section between the climbs. Just as I had gotten my wheel out, the team car pulled up and gave Mara a spare. She took off and caught the group but I was stuck in no man’s land – day over, back to the bus to watch the race on TV. Then disaster struck for real a couple laps later when Kristin and Amber both crashed. Amber ended up in the hospital with a broken metatarsal, but Kristin was able to chase back on with help from Kim. Then Kristin needed a bike change and once again had to chase back on – a lot of energy lost there – but she made it. Evie, the freakin’ energizer bunny that she is, kept setting a tempo up the climbs that was blowing riders out the back as if they were standing still. Evie kept coming back again and again to the front to set tempo, to chase, and to attack as if she had an endless supply of energy wrapped up in those legs of her’s. The woman is a freak of nature, no doubt, decimating the field like she did. Mara, Kristin and Evie pushed harder and harder to break the legs of the few women who were left in the very select peloton, but it was Guderzo (Italia) who made the move of the day. She attacked and a chase containing Kristin, Vos (Holland) and Cantele (Italia) ensued. In the end the 3 weren’t quick enough to jump on the chase and Guderzo took the gold, Vos silver and Cantele bronze. In our minds we knew that if Kristin had not had to waste precious energy chasing back on twice today, she would have made the podium – gold, silver or bronze who knows but it would have been one of those for sure.

In the end we didn’t get the WIN that we had hoped for and knew we were capable of obtaining, but we each did our job and gave it our best. Cycling is a tough sport and all you can hope for is that things go your way on the day. As far as the results go, today wasn’t our day but it certainly wasn’t for lack of leaving everything we had out there.

Now IT’S THE OFF SEASON!! Woooo Hooooooo!!!!! Well, for a couple weeks anyway. One season ends as another begins. ‘Cross has started and I’ll be anxious to join the races in a couple weeks in Providence, RI. Bring it on! First, tonight I will celebrate the season’s end and Kristin’s retirement with the team in Lugano and then will enjoy several more days here in Switzerland with Ben and friends in Lausanne.

Well, well it’s just about time to pack up and head to Mendrisio for the BIG day – the World Championships. I guess today was a big day, too, though. Actually, it was a HUGE day – Kristin Armstrong won the World’s TT!!!! And not only did she win it but she crushed it by 55 seconds! Hot damn. I’m looking forward to seeing her tomorrow to give her an enormous congratulatory hug. However, it was also Jessica Phillips who put on quite a show today sitting in the hot seat (leader’s seat) until more than half the riders had crossed the finish line. Nice job, Jess!

If I rewind a week or so, I’ll take you back to the beginning of the Giro della Toscana – a 6-day tour around the Tuscany region of Italy. So, we pull in to our hotel where we will stay all week long and discover that we are ocean side. Oh yeah. Falling asleep to the sound of the crashing waves every night wasn’t hateful. And one of the nights there was this wicked storm that went on for hours – the thunder was a constant rumble of bowling pins in the sky and the lightening lit up the sky like it was on fire. It was pretty amazing to watch from our balcony.

Prologue – what I learned is that I cannot go from sitting in the car for 20 minutes (to stay dry while it’s dumping rain outside) to 0-50kph off the start line of a TTT. It was my job to get the team started and I did that but then I totally fell apart. Yep, I sucked. All I could do was hope the next day would be a better day.

Stage 1 – Pissing rain. Going into a climb that necessitated good positioning I flatted my rear wheel. I got my wheel change pretty quickly but I had to haul ass to try to get back to the peloton. Bad thing was was that the rim on my race wheel is wide and I like to run my brakes pretty loose so when I got my spare wheel I had NOOOO brakes. That wasn’t a problem going up the climb but it certainly became a big one to me when I had to try to chase down a wet, twisty descent that I was unfamiliar with. Needless to say, I had to wait until we hit the flats to chase back on…which I did. In the end I was there on the finishing circuits to help lead Shelley out for the intermediate sprints. Our goal for the week was to get her in the jersey. Job accomplished on day 1. Go to www.procyclingwomen.com to get an idea of how we felt at the finish of that wet, miserable day.

Stage 2 – Volterra. All I’m gonna say about this stage is that it’s a long, hilly day that goes up one side of Volterra, down another side, and back up a 3rd side to the finish. Wait, one more thing…the coolest thing about this stage is that Volterra is the home of the king and queen vampires. For those of you who have read the Twilight books, you know what I’m talking about.

Stage 3 – 2km TT. Was suppose to be 4.4km but was shortened to 2km. Was also suppose to start at 7pm but got changed to 8pm – the morning of the race. I think our last rider off was at 9.52 or something like that. We warmed up in the dark and then raced under “lights”. As long as you kept your head up, you were fine.

Stage 4 – Goal was to keep Shelley in the jersey. Well, she did that all by herself when she went off with the break of 5. We just got to sit back and wait for the break to come back if it ever did, which it didn’t so our day was more or less pretty chill.

Stage 5 – Insanity. 46kph average for the day. Pot holes, road furniture, cars, tight turns, wind, crazy Italians. Finish in Florence. Full gas all day and then some. Was going ok until my wheel exploded just before the finish. Not cool as it was one of my wheels for Worlds. But, the race was over and it we accomplished our goal of keeping Shelley in the jersey.

We, that being Mara, Evie, and myself (along with Alex Howes, Kirk Carlson, and Chris Barton) have spent the last several days in Lucca decompressing from Toscana and concentrating on getting our legs ready for Worlds. I have been to Lucca numerous times now and I have yet to do exactly the same ride twice (hence why I don’t know my way around yet). The roads here are amazing. The climbs, the descents, the views – awesome. If I didn’t have other people yelling at me to keep up, I’d never get anywhere because I’d stop all the time for photo ops. Ahhh, the life. Tomorrow we will drive the 3 hours to our hotel in Lugano where will finally be able to see the road course. I’ve heard rumors that this is one of the hardest courses in a very long time so I am chomping at the bit to see the damn thing for myself. Whatever it is, I know it will be friggin’ hard.

Hopefully I’ll have more good news to share Saturday afternoon!

Met the Miller clan in Montana last weekend for a short trip to Glacier National Park. The place is beautiful, although staying in a touristy lodge isn’t exactly my idea of a mountain getaway. But, it was the perfect place to stay to accommodate everyone’s needs.

Ben and I flew into Missoula, had an overnight stay with our friends, and then drove the 3 hours to Glacier the next day. Driving along Flathead Lake near Polson was magic – the water was so clear and an amazing blue/green color that really made us say “wow”. The scenery from there continually impressed us the rest of the way into the park. Our lodge was situated right on top of Lake McDonald – one too many steps and we’d be going for a swim (something I don’t particularly like to do in cold water) – with multiple peaks surrounding the lake on several sides. Each night happy hour would begin around 5pm and we would sit on the water’s edge sipping fine wine (I did, to my astonishment, stumble upon Te Awa Chardonnay in a local store in Missoula – I’d been looking for this wine ever since I left NZ!!) and eating exquisite Wisconsin cheese (of the spreadable variety) as the sun set over the mountains.

Of course we were at Glacier to do some hiking, too, so Ben and I set out on day 1 with the intentions of walking about 6 miles or so. Well, 6 turned into 12 about 5.5 hours later. We starting the adventure at the Loop Trailhead and continued about 4 miles all uphill to the Glacier Park Chalet. At this juncture of the trail we decided the 7.6 miles to Logan Pass wasn’t all daunting of a task so we trekked onward and upwards. As the trail cut into the side of the mountain, rather than up the mountain, we passed 2 different herds of big-horn sheep, lots of pika and marmots, and a momma and baby goat. Wild flowers shot up through the rocky crags and plains in reds, whites, yellows and purples, but I can only imagine how the mountain sides must explode in an array of colors in the spring. As we got closer to Logan Pass, hordes of hikers passed us in the opposite direction. What we soon realized was that these people were trekking the “easy” way – 7.6 miles of moderate terrain to the chalet and then 4 miles of total downhill to the end. Huh, toughen up people. We heard that 75% of people who visit the park never make it more than 5 feet from their car and the average time spent in the park is 4 hours. Wow.

Needless to say I was a little sore the next day and wasn’t feeling quite so adventurous. 6 miles was all I had in me – 3 up and 3 down. The view at the top was worth the hike but the walk down was a bit rough on my back. I have to say I much prefer going up. That evening we enjoyed our happy hour on a boat that was chartered just for our small group of 9. We got a tour of Lake McDonald and heard snippets of history about the park, the peaks, the lakes, the visitors, etc. A very nice treat to end the day.

On the last day we went out for a short walk before our drive back to Missoula for our flight home.

Next time the backcountry calls.

At the moment I am sitting in Lucca, Italy, thinking about the racing that is coming up in France. With the national team, I will race in a 5 day tour in the Ardeche region of France beginning on Tuesday. After 2 days of rest, we will then start a 6 day tour around our little paradise here in Toscana. 11 days of racing to whip me into shape before World’s. Perfect…I hope.

Til next time I have internet….pace and buona notte.
M