Arizona Camp

I just got back from a long weekend in Arizona. I am still considered to be in my "off" season which will last through most of May. Dicky and I made a deal that this is "his" time with me and he gets to pick how we spend it together. Last week he picked Arizona. He picked Arizona because Amanda's (his daughter and Cal's head women's tennis coach) Cal team was playing both Arizona State and University of Arizona for Pac 10 rankings. He also knew I had plenty of training friends in the AZ area to keep me on the bike. The last objective was to find the "rig" we have been looking for. So Wednesday we set out for AZ.

I am exactly (1) month into my road training; having to start from near scratch on my base. Last week started "lite" hills. The bike objective of the trip was keeping me in the hills. My friends in AZ all are training for Ironman AZ in a few weeks so training with them was not an option- they were doing 115 miles of flat TT'ing. A friend told me there was a stage race in Tucson and maybe I could use that as training. I laughed because I am nowhere near ready for a stage race but I checked into it. The TT was 3 miles, the road race was 60 miles, and the circuit race 40 miles- all doable and as a bonus the stages were at 6:45 AM which meant that I could race and see Cal beat the AZ teams. Most importantly the climbing was ditto to my training goals. Registration had closed so I decided I would ask the race director if I could still enter. The RD called me as we were on the road and said I would be #520. "Oh Crap" I will be in a stage race this weekend.

Racing a stage race without racing is interesting. It is not that I would not give 200%, but what was very important was knowing what my limits were and making sure I had clear goals that I could meet. So the goals were simple: 1) finish each stage 2) try to get top 10 in each stage. (Only 20 riders were in the Tucson Bicycle Classic field so top 10 was doable).

Stage 1 3 mile TT: Short TT with (2) 150' climbs in the last 1.5 miles- I knew my limits and knew I had to take the first climb aggressively conservative and then empty the tank the final climb. I rode it perfectly to my fitness and placed 6th- 3 seconds out of 3rd place.

Stage 2 60 mile RR: 20 loop road race 950' climbing per loop and awesome headwinds. My pink power Seigler derailleur broke so I was on the ARKO- first time since SuperWeek- great hill training bike but not stiff like the Pink Power and twitchy - cornering and descents very rough- oh well. Goal was to finish and try for top 10. Sprint bonus was in the first 4 miles of the first loop on the ascent into the headwind- Cari Higgins lead out the sprint and I was in tow but placed 4th I think. I survived the first stairstep ascents and we rounded into lap 2 almost with all 20. (A few had fallen off). Then as I was being careful in a turn an attack went off and I was literally at the end of the peleton- I scrambled to just get on a wheel. 4 riders off- (2) Dairyland who then broke a rider off again. We were left with a group of 8ish. The chase was pathetic because out of 6 non-Dairyland riders only 3 of us were willing to work. I worked it hard and we caught a Colavita rider. At this point the fighting started between the workers and the non-workers and I knew I needed to just stick to my training plan. I did some great tempo work and placed 9th overall. Both goals met and I was alive and also holding 6th in the GC.

Stage 3 40 Mile Circuit: 5.5 mile loop times 7 laps 300' climbing per lap, massive head winds again. 6:41 AM start and I felt like crap. My legs were yearning for a nice 2 hour spin- not a brutal 2 hour sufferfest. Time bonus was 3rd lap so I knew I was in for a doozy. Dairyland set the tempo and were doing a lead-out for the bonus- all obvious...what I had not counted on was we passed a men's field just before the turn and the men did not move over- I decided to be safe and as I was being cautious Dairyland started the attack- I was stuck behind the men with another rider- by the time I got out of the mess the field was splintered and I was in a massive headwind solo. I passed a few dropped riders and found Dairyland's "spent" leadout Katherine Ross who I met at SuperWeek last year- I told her to "get on" and we started a VERY gruelling chase. 3 miles into it we caught the field!! The problem was the field was chasing the break and the field had the 2nd place rider in it who attacked just as Katherine caught the tail of the field- we were cooked, the field went full out on the 300' climb and Katherine and I were spit out the back- you gotta be kidding me. We were cooked. I again said "come on" and we pulled it together and chased down a group of 5. Ironically most of the women in the 5 were the "workers" the day before and they were cooked. I was cooked. Although a group of 3 were in view nobody had legs to chase so my wish came true and we had a lovely 3 lap chat. I did give everything I had for the sprint which was not a lot and got nipped at the line finishing 11th and 10th GC.

I finished. I placed 10th. I was properly cooked. Cal beat both Arizona teams. We did not find a rig. A great week was had by all. TBC is also a terrific race and really well run- thanx Alicia for letting me ride!