mo diesel

A brief reflection of Thanks

2009-12-25T21:51:00.001-08:00

In an effort to meet my once per year post as the year 2009 comes to a close, I'll share a brief on one of my many bike racing adventures. A reflection on the continental championships, the PanAms.

As my plane lifts off and I look down on the sprawl of Mexico City, the blue mountain peaks obscured by heavy brown air give way to pure white cotton candy clouds, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of Thanks.

Thanks first for the opportunity to represent Canada at the Panamerican Championships here in Mexico; for the opportunity to have stood amongst a mob of friendly faces, listened to our national anthem and watched our flag during the podium presentation where my team-mate Joelle stood on the top step after a well executed race; for the blissfully positive ride I had put together the day before in the time trial; and for the fact that I am headed home to a place where the air is fresh and the water is clean.

The trip itself was a bit of a whirlwind- lots of travel and a schedule that changed by the moment, waiting in line-up after line-up, building up and repacking our bikes numerous times and lugging everything from place to place in the blistering hot sun. With a little over 100 athletes in total nothing moved very quickly.

Tara Whitten and I raced the TT on the 23rd. The bus that had taken us from the CNAR dormitories in Mexico City the day before delivered us from our resort style hotel in Tlaxcala to the TT site with all of 45 minutes before the first rider was off! I’d come into the race as well prepared as I could for things to be out of the ordinary and with only 45 minutes to warm up and be ready, I didn’t have time to stress.

In the absence of a recon of the whole course, and with attention to a particularly slow start because of the altitude, I was off. I could immediately feel that I had a good ride in me and catching my 1-minute girl (the only US rider there) around the 5 km mark was further confirmation of that. My timing wasn’t great as I overtook her team car on the only technical portion of the course, a tight left, right, right on the descent. Tara had started 2 minutes a head of me and near the turn around I could see that she too was having a good ride and had passed her 1-minute girl. I posted the 3rd fastest time to the turn around but fell to 5th overall on the way home, missing the podium by 27seconds. I was disappointed in the result, but I had a great ride so will take that away as a positive. Tara too had a great ride earning silver behind Giussepina Grassi of Mexico. The bronze medal was won by Valeria Muller of Argentina.

With the TT behind us, we set out a plan for the road race where we stood to bring home a pile of UCI points if everything went as we planned.

We knew only a few of the riders- a couple who race on US or Euro teams, plus the Cuban sprinters. I figured that if it came down to a sprint Cuba was our biggest threat- based on what I’d seen of them at PEI and Montreal they'd pulverize us!

Our plan was for Laura and I to be on the aggressive early on and save Joelle as our sprinter. We established a lead-out order if it were to come down to a sprint, looked at the finish and talked about where we'd like it all to happen. The race start wasn’t very fast; a few attacks went which we covered. I wanted to see one full lap before I went on the aggressive as I didn't want to risk being out there on my own and getting steered off course or something stupid like that! After the first lap we had some quick discussion about taming down our plan a little and just following wheels as all of us were feeling gaspy with the altitude - it weird cuz you can close stuff, you just don't have any top end punch and it takes extra time to come out of the red once you get there. It feels like racing in slow motion.

Up the climb a break of around 8 riders went with Tara in it. As we were cresting the hill I was looking up at it thru the single file chase line when the Columbian rider in front of me let out a gap, not sure if it was intentional to start or not but she must have looked up and seen 3 of her riders up front and she let off the gas. I made the split second decision to do the same as Joelle was only a couple wheels ahead and I didn't see any of the 3 big Cuban sprinters up front. So we watched them ride away and that was that.

Cuba had one girl in the break but clearly she wasn’t who they wanted there for the sprint as they tried to organize a chase with Costa Rica who had somehow missed the break entirely and were 5 in strength. With the gap near 2 minutes the Columbian girl and I quickly realized that the chasers’ organization would dissolve if we set out little attacks on the climb. This thinned out the pack and left us to a scenic ride through Mexico.

Through the town there were hundreds of spectators yelling and chanting “Mexico! Mexico!”. The bricks rumbled beneath our tires and the choking smell of hot greasy food sat heavy in the narrow shop-lined streets. On the backside of the course we were graced with a section of smooth highway, while the traffic was diverted entirely to the opposing side of the road. Busses of people cheered, horns beeped and we even saw several flat bed trucks of machine gun toting, full-masked military.

While we were still out on course the commissaires told us that we had won- we WON! We accomplished what we had come to do- I had goosebumps at the thought of it!

As we crossed the line we were swarmed by friendly congratulating spectators asking for photos with us, and for autographs on everything from scraps of paper to body parts. Despite the language barrier, the welcome and the emotion from the crowd was incredible- the experience is certainly etched in my mind for life.

Highs and lows, it has been a fantastic year.

Happy Holidays!

Moriah

A Brief Rambling on Hero's

2008-08-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

written July 23/08

As I sit here drinking my second cup of coffee, moderately aware of the pain in my back, the likely broken rib and low grade headache resulting from a crash a little over a week ago, I find myself browsing the web page of a long standing athlete hero of mine, Clara Hughes. I read about how precious her days off are, the importance of finding something to occupy the brain for a little while, something that you can pour your focus into that is unrelated to your sport, to the demands of day-to-day training and competition. I find this refreshing as I believe this to be imperative to recovery, to longevity and success in ones sport (or life for that matter) – it isn’t balance per se, just enough of a breather to allow the morale to stay high, the focus sharp.

I start to browse through the pictures on Clara’s site; a cycling image catches my eye. I zoom in and realize that I am dead centre in one of the photos, I believe from the crit at the Tour de Montreal. I can’t help but to smile. This has made my day at a time when I need a little boost. Sometimes after a block of racing the enthusiasm wanes, the body hurts and the morale becomes flat. Thank you Clara, albeit through a completely inadvertent action, you have lifted my spirits.

The thought I take away is this: we never know how our words, our actions, will impact those around us, those far from us. We never know who we will impact, or exactly how. But we do, and we will impact others. We do so continuously. So now the challenge is to make the decisions in our own lives, our own actions and words to put our best foot forward, then tread gently even when we'd rather stomp.

I had considered it a great honour to get to compete against Clara at Montreal. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to her and we had a great conversation; I had always heard that she was super approachable and personable – she is true to her reputation and certainly a refreshing face to sport.

Thanks for reading.
Moriah

Life is short. We have the ability to choose every detail. Choose well. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the ride.

Random Cycling Pictures from the past 6 Weeks or so....

2008-07-21T14:35:00.001-07:00

Tour de Grande Montreal with the National Team - thanks Anne & Leigh for your mentorship, Jenny and Betina for making me laugh and Luc, Andrew and Sophie for taking such good care of us!

At last, I got my picture with Jeannie the legend Longo - wikipedia her, its worth it! (taken at Mt Hood stage race in Oregon mid May) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannie_Longo Also in the picture is friend and fellow racer Allison Beall of Washington.

The Chinese Team Giant's spare bike at the Tour du PEI - 9 zip-ties will hold a carbon tube together won't it??

Me racing crits the way they should be - off the front! The last stage of PEI...

JT and I in front of Anne of Green Gables - this summer marks the 100th anniversary! How cool is that!! PEI rocks!

Our PEI team looking all pro, amazing what black & white can do for a bunch of bike racers!

JT and I after stage 2 of PEI where I failed to take over the top Canadian Jersey and would put myself in a position of chasing it for the remainder of the week. Excellent job JT for earning it in stage 1. We will be back next year!!

At the Nationals RR I enjoyed a call up based on my last years bronze medal performance; this year my success came in leading out my teams -mates JT and Steph where Steph was able to capture bronze in the U23 competition.

Note the super HAWT pink Oakley Radars!!

My new super fast stealth suit which even matches my TT bike & helmet - the National Championships TT was OK this year with my only major mistake being that I went off course, resulting in my going the same distance, but having to slow considerably to get back on course through backed up traffic. I posted the 10th best time.

A shot from the National Championships RR, beautiful weather prevailed in Beauce Quebec.

Here JT and I, clad in the blues of the Giant/ Team Whistler kit, are surrounded by the Quebecois Mafia in the Nationals RR.

Suffer-face extraordinaire at the Giro di Burnaby where I am racing for Giant/Team Whistler and sporting an old helmet (red) after cracking mine in a couple of spots in an unfortunate crash earlier in the week.... Thanks Giant/Team Whistler for warmly welcoming me onto the team.

Thanks for looking!

Saturday May 31st ~ the 11th edition of the Montreal Women’s Cycling World Cup

2008-06-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

In the North American women’s cycling scene the Montreal World Cup is a pretty big deal, it’s the highest calibre race on the continent, the only World Cup held in North America. And this year it is the final selection day for Canada, and I believe some of the other countries as well, to determine who will go to Beijing this August.

The course is roughly 1/3 up, 1/3 down and 1/3 flat, climbing Mont-Royal 11 times, each circuit lasting 10.06 kms. It’s a climber’s course; only true heavy hitters will be atop the podium at the end of the day.

I am here with the national team, the first time I have ever been the baby of the NT at an event. I’m excited to race with some of the more senior girls, although given the course and the level of the field I know that I’m unlikely to be able to contribute much other than possibly a wheel in the early stages of the race. The energy of the team is good, and considering all that is at stake there is a calmness I admittedly did not expect.

I arrived early with 3 full days to relax in Montreal and adjust to the time change. Many of the teams stay in the dorms at the University which is quite convenient as it is right on the course and although its not fancy, we each have our own rooms which is ideal given individual preferences for sleep and wake patters as well as tidiness.

Friday morning on our pre-ride of the course I was pleasantly surprised with how well my legs and bike felt. I hadn’t been expecting such a big difference in the way my bike would feel with new race wheels (Friday was literally my first ride on my new carbon deep dish Spinergy’s)… I think that sometimes when the bike feels really good the legs respond by feeling just that little bit better too. I was happy to feel a little spark back in the legs as I’ve had a disconcertingly long flat stretch. After a team dinner at a great Italian restaurant in the “Little Italy” district of Montreal and a brief meeting about the next day’s race everyone turned in for zzz’s.

Saturday morning we woke to a frighteningly loud air-horn noise, almost alarming enough to make a person wonder whether they should be hiding under their bed rather going to look out the window! I later learned that the use of this horn is customary here to remind people to move their parked cars off the road when a special event is going to occur, prior to them towing – nice gesture I guess.

Looking out my 11th story window the air was grey with rain, streams running down the streets, standing water pooling where it could. These are the kind of days where you either choose to enjoy the rain, or let it empty your mental fuel tank. If you’re scared, tired or sick its harder to convince yourself that racing in the rain is fun – and it can really shoot your day.
view from dorms and relaxing & elevating my legs while drinking my pre-race coffee

Getting a good position at the start I jammed myself into the middle of the pack as we started up Mont-Royal. Although I’m by no means a “climber”, climbing can be fun if you’re in the right mind-space. There are different levels of it: the cruisy, easy pace which comes sometimes early in long races before the tactics begin or in lower level races; the on-top-of-the-gear feel of a moderate paced climb, where it hurts just a little, but you don’t really notice the pain, or where you are being sucked along up a climb in the middle of the peleton, particularly when you enter the climb with momentum; and then there’s the kind that hurts. Sometimes it hurts intolerably. And sometimes you’re somehow able to get through that intolerance, to a point where you don’t really feel anymore, where your vision is narrowed and your ears ring, where your legs are able to do their job without apparent connection to the brain. There are also times where you want to stand out of your saddle, but your legs won’t let you. Times where it doesn’t seem like you’re going particularly quickly but your legs burn so badly they feel as though they may explode... or snap into bits. Times where it feels like your quads are lead and your bike a 100-pound object that you’re trying to roll up hill. Today things feel OK. As the pace slows on the climb the peleton gets wide; immersed in the middle, the distinctive smell of capsicum (in leg balm used on cold wet days), the sounds of the rain water spiting off tires, of others breathing, some heavily, some quite laboured, of spectators cheering, the taste of the spray water and grit of sand when I touch my teeth together, all distract me from the ascent itself. Sheltered from the wind I move with the flows of traffic through the peleton. Before I know it the first lap is over, then the 2nd, and 3rd…. with each pass I get closer to my goal of making it 6 laps; I know this doesn’t sound like much but the first time I did this race, 2 years ago, and on my very first project with the NT, I only made 3 laps. There are riders who I have a great deal of respect for who have ultimately ridden successfully at the international level who claim it has taken them years of racing this race before they were able to finish successfully, one year lasting 4 laps, the next 5 and so on. As the laps wear on the peleton shrinks and I yo-yo off the back at the top of the climb and chase back on the descent, sometimes with others, sometimes without. Going into the 5th climb with the peleton I remember the story of making it another lap or two each year and begin to think that I may actually make it through this race.

With each lap the cracks and pot-holes (Quebec pavement is notorious for being tremendously cracked from the freezing and thawing with seldom repair) in the road seem to get deeper…. to the point where it strikes me that it feels more like a pogo-stick race than a bike race!

Ultimately I do finish, albeit with a small group several minutes behind the first to cross the line. I am satisfied with my day. I rode to the best of my ability on the day, had fun and survived a race of attrition for a 44th placing - only around 1/3 of the 150-some starters made it through without abandoning or finishing outside the time cut.

At the front of the race Judith Arndt (HighRoad, Ger) and Fabiana Luperini (Menikini, Ita) finished in that order 30 seconds in front of a small group of chasers containing 3 Canadians. Leigh Hobson (CDN NT) convincingly won the sprint, Anne Samplonius (CDN NT) took 6th and Errine Willock (Webcor Builders, Can) 7th. It was a tremendous day for Canada with 3 in the top 7! And personally for Leigh, the ride of a lifetime, as this performance gives her an automatic spot on the CDN team at Beijing!!

A good day of bike racing! And now its time to rest up as we have only one day off before the Tour du Grande Montreal, a 5-stage, 4-day UCI stage race begins.

Thanks for reading,

Moriah

Late April in Belgium & Luxemburg

2008-05-31T17:52:00.000-07:00

Another outdated blog entry... the finale to my 9-week stint in Europe which was marked with an opportunity to race in the national team jersey.... in Belgium and Luxemburg.

April 24th – leaving one of the sunniest days yet in Limoux I set out to fly from Caarcassonne to Bruxelles via RyanAir, an experience in itself. Like cattle to a trough, my fellow passengers crowded the exit to the tarmac in anticipation of the unassigned seating free-for-all that was promised once inside the plane - this all well over an hour before boarding was to commence. I was admittedly a little taken off guard when a half-pint grey haired old woman began elbowing her way into line in front of me! After an uneventful flight we lowered through the clouds and into a grey rainy Belgian evening. Slopping through puddles on the tarmac and breathing in rain-cleaned crisp air I felt at home… France is sweet, but Belgium is truly the heart of the early race season, rain and all!

Michel the soignieur, complete with a little hand-drawn paper sign that read “MORIAH CANADA”, greeted me at the airport – in my shabby French we were able to communicate the necessities and have some broken conversation. As we were pulling away from the airport Michel stopped the van abruptly, backed up and made quick conversation with a fellow who was standing with his thumb out. Culturally, I am accustomed to not ever consider offering a stranger on the side of the road a ride, but based on what I could make out of the brief conversation between the two and appearance, it seemed OK. All in the adventure! Or so I told myself.

By the time we arrived at the house it was getting dark – the team has been staying in a rented house in a tiny town about an hour and a half from Bruxelles. Some of the girls had already gone back to Canada or the US as I was coming in for the last weekend of the project. Remaining were Felicia, Alex, Errine and Betina. We would race both Saturday (in Luxemburg) and Sunday (in Belgium), but Felicia would fly back to the US before Sunday’s race start and Joelle will join us in her place.

team house & pics from the morning ride

Friday morning – after a leisurely morning of coffee and bike assembly we ventured out on a portion of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (pro men’s race which would occur on Sunday) course which passed right in front of our house. There was positively nothing flat about the roads branching from our little town; but with the sun out and the roads dry I was pretty stoked for my first ride in Belgium! The architecture and scenery notably different than southern France – I quite liked the clean-organic appearance and tidiness of it.

In the afternoon we packed up the vans and car and drove to Luxemburg where we checked into the race hotel, ate the pre-race dinner provided by the hotel, had pre-race rubs and chill time before turning in early. I also received my new national team jersey which sports the L2RCP logo – without the funding from this group the spring national team project would not have been possible. With very few riders competing in Europe at the international level over the past two years, Canada had fallen considerably in the UCI rankings. As the number of starters a country is able to enter in the Olympic road race is based on the country’s UCI standings, we ended up entering the last stretch of point accumulation window in a sorry state. Fortunately the CCA has been able to bring on investors, and this spring the Canadian women have been able to score the necessary points to bring Canada back up into the top 16 nations, thereby ensuring the maximum of three spots in Beijing, and a maximal opportunity to medal.

In European fashion race start times were 1:30pm both days. Saturday morning was brilliantly sunny with promises of being the warmest race day yet of my season. The morning was spent eating a buffet style breakfast at the hotel – bread, cornflakes, museli, yoghurt, apple sauce, fresh fruit, tea and coffee…. and croissants for the staff. After a plentiful breakfast, team meeting and sitting on the curb in the parking of a neighbouring McDonalds restaurant to poach a few minutes of free wireless, it was time to eat again. It actually gets tiring how much eating goes along with bike racing. European bike-race custom seems to be an early pre-race lunch of plain pasta. When I say plain, I’m not kidding. Monstrous vats of squishy white over done spaghetti noodles, jugs of olive oil, white baguettes, and if you’re luck a little grated parmesan. I don’t normally eat a lot of white flour, in fact I do my best to actively avoid it… but in Europe its next to impossible…. the survival strategy I adopted was to cover all the white food in a blanket of black pepper, at least that way I could pretend that everything I was eating had some colour.

Back to the racing - its always a little harder to write about races that you are not satisfied with… so I will keep the words brief and post a few pictures instead. UCI racing in Europe is definitely hard, the courses are difficult and the girls are tough! I did learn some things, so all was not lost.

pics of getting ready to race, racing, buildings, etc... looks like i didn't get the memo about wearing the new shorts in our team presentation shot, oops!

later,
Moriah

Girona & Barcelona

2008-05-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

After two months in France my flat mates, Jasmine and Cam, and I took a little touristy trip down to Girona Spain where we stayed with another kiwi couple, Erica and Grom. Girona is a phenomenal place to ride and its, in a sense, the Hollywood of cycling as many of the pro men have homes there and live in Girona for portions of the year. Although the network of roads in Girona may not be as vast as that in the Limoux area, the road surfaces are definitely smoother, and many even have a centre line! click on images to enlarge

The autoroute along the coast to Girona...

We took the train into Barcelona for the day; visited the Temple de la Sagrada Familia (which has been under construction since 1882 - and you thought your reno's were taking a long time!!); wondered the streets attempting to get a lesson in architecture; ate an incredibly overpriced Paella for lunch.....

roamed the Las Ramblas ~ outdoor street area closed to cars and filled with booths of touristy things for sale... complete with mobile pet stores!... and performers....

Left: OMG, its a Soldier Boy sighting?! that one's for you Jas!

....visited the most incredible market filled with all the things you would expect.. and some you may not!!

Visited the water front (look closely at the sculpture and gul...ick!), trusted a stranger to take a group shot (left to right: Jas, Cam, me, Erica & Grom).... and even made it back to Girona for tapas (Jas and I on the bridge in Girona.. looking forward to tapas!)

And, last, but certainly not least... before leaving we had the opporunity to visit the Slipstream service core (where they store all their gear). That was a definite highlight!

Until the next batch!

Moriah

Pictures From France...

2008-05-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

This is ground breaking for me, two posts in the same calendar year!! As I seem to be attempting to play catch up in the blogging world, & since I've been on north american soil for a month now, its time to get the pics from France up!

Top: early spring vinyards & me just outside of my new hometown L: Jazy-J, one of my kiwi flat-mates at the top of Col de Festes
Below: jeepers its cooooold here!! Where are the leaves?

The Kiwi contingent: from left to right, Cam, Jas, Erica. The 2nd week in Limoux saw the annual wine festival, a full weekend of drinking bubbly in the streets! The population swells from 10000 to 50000!!

More festivities. Carnival for all ages in the square!

Mirpoix Market: every Monday a 36 km drive away was a half day super cool market (much larger than the weekly Limoux market). From far left: a popular squash that I didn't ever knowingly try; dried fruit; a homeless man who employed a donkey to transport his belongings rather than a shopping cart. Serious!

More market wares (look close, there are plastic figurs of the animals the sausage is made of on top of each type! Now there's creative translation!
Gargoyle faces carved into the outward facing beam ends of a building bordering the square.... someone had some extra time!

Roof tops....

The road to somewhere...?

Buildings in neighbouring town

Chilly morning in the square....

LET THE RACING BEGIN!
Below: start of the first French Cup, Pujols, France. Burrrr!

Lip bite'n time on the climb... Camping anyone?
Race terrain of the next French Cup. Northern France, flat!!! (ish)

My first truely enjoyable cup of french coffee, three qurters of the way through my 9 week stay!!

An unwanted house guest, ick!

Attempts at being artistic....

Churches & fences....

Trees & woodpiles.....

Whose idea was it to build a road here anyway??

100km ride to the beach with te team Swift girls and Chris.... & the beach!

Pic de Noir, one of the first warm days... And another castle on anther hill... racing the dark home.

Rooflines in northern france markedly similar to those in Belgium.

And now for some pictures of Switzerland! Kidding, Chambrey. But this was as close to Switzerland as I got on this trip. Chambrey was the site of my last race with Chris and the girls in France, an absolutely beautiful place and home turf of the legend herself, Jeannie Longo. My moments of glory in this race came when I got myself into a break with Jeannie; it didn't last, but while it did, it was painful and sweet!

Thanks for lookin'!

Moriah

A New Year, A New Team, A New Opportunity – A Brief History of How I Got Here….

2008-04-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

OK, so it has been 8 months since my last blog entry – I admittedly have some serious catching up to do as a lot has happened!! This entry is dedicated to a brief history of how I got to where I presently am – riding for Vanderkitten and living and training in Limoux France.

The off season started for me in mid September following my season cap off - the Tour de l’Ardeche, a 6 stage, 5 day stage race in France where I was fortunate enough to again represent Canada. This was my first trip to Europe and a discovery of the differences between European racing and North American style competition. In a nutshell – it is much, much harder in Europe.Upon returning to Canada and starting the process of reflection, recovery & rejuvenation - and goal setting for the upcoming season, one thing kept surfacing - although somewhat daunting, I was Europe bound. And this time for a longer period of time – at first I wasn’t sure how I would make this happen. Being completely un-networked in the European scene, it appeared at first to be a bit of a task. Relatively late in the fall things started to drop into place – I got hooked up with a place to live and train in southern France and I signed with the brand new Vanderkitten Professional Women’s Team; a fresh outta the gates California based squad with refreshing enthusiasm, remarkable organization and support for a first year NRC team. Between the opportunity afforded by Vanderkitten for racing in North America and my early season European ‘training camp’, 08 was shapin’ up.

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In typical off season fashion, its over before ya know it. Our winter in Van was particularly harsh this year, further enhancing the appeal of February's team training camp in California.

dylan & i on a snowy vancouver day....

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MEET THE TEAM - VANDERKITTEN RACING 2008 WOMEN's ELITE CYCLING TEAM

top row (l-r): Moriah MacGregor, Heather Sborz, Jane Despas
middle row (l-r): Melissa Sanborn, Leigh Valletti, Liz Hatch, Leah Guloien
bottom row (l-r): Flavia Oliviera, Jenny Trew
Photo courtesy of Kurt Harvey

Our team training camp started February 10th and was concluded with the NRC season opener, the Santa Rosa Criterium on the 18th, where we placed 3 riders in the top 20.

Following the race I squeezed in a couple day visit with my Aunt Sarah and family in the Bay area before heading home to Vancouver to unpack and re-pack for Europe.

Until the next chapter, salut!

CDN Road Nationals: a surprise podium

2007-07-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

the peleton cruising along early into the 127km day (that's me in the foreground in the orange and blue, white helmet)

setting pace on the circuit climb

tearing down the circuit descent
gina's sprint earns her the jersey, marni takes the second step on the podium and i take home bronze. now its time to celebrate!!

...

how it all went down:

after monday's disappointing time trial performance i entered the road race calm and rid of expectation. i knew, based on the course profile and that fact that it was the national championships, that there was going to be a lot of conserving of energy early on (read: a slow start to the day), girls waiting for the finishing circuit laps to sever the field (the course was basically a big loop, then 2.5 laps of a 7.3km finishing circuit, complete with a ~1km climb). early in the day emilie roy (qc, vinci-specialized-menikini) left the peleton taking with her one other girl. emilie was clearly the stronger and more determined of the 2 as she drove the gap up to over 2 minutes, the other rider dropping back to the main field. a few moves from various riders in the peleton were attempted, none of which amounted to anything.
with ~50 kms to go team expresscopy (the most dominant team present) started working to narrow emilie's gap; over the next 20 kms the gap closed and when emilie was again in sight the efforts of expresscopy ceased. krystal jeffs (on, team ontario/ hub racing) made a move off the front and time trialed her way up to emilie; then gina grain (bc, expresscopy) followed.
i was riding close to the front, watching as the 3 riders ahead made contact with one another, the motorbike with the lap board passed on our left and the gap read 22 seconds. i rolled slowly off to the right, looked over my shoulder to see whether my movement had created a reaction, then increased the pace. i looked again to see that i had drawn marni hambleton (bc, symmetrics) out with me; seeing that it was just the two of us i took the pace up another notch. looking back again and seeing the gap widen i committed to the move. my time trial legs, which had escaped me the day prior, arrived. marni and i quickly closed the gap to the 3 leaders and pushed the pace of the break up.

we were close to the finishing circuit now and would arrive almost a minute ahead of the peleton. it gave me goose bumps to enter the circuit in the break, and hear the surprise in people's cheers.
uncertain as to how quickly the climbers from the peleton behind could make up time on the finishing circuit, we continued to work together to preserve our lead. the first time up the climb i felt fantastic, by the time we completed the first circuit we had extended our lead marginally and krystal had dropped off. the second time up we again stayed together, leaving it until the last climb to sort things out.

i learned some things and would have played my cards differently on the finishing circuit if given the chance to replay the day; but i am ECSTATIC with stepping onto the national rr podium!! and i'm proud of the fact that the podium was made up of girls who nobody would have put money on for the day.

the season has been tremendous. every time i think, it cannot get better, it does! its just bike racing, but man is it fun.

early season racing in cali

2006-07-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

California: umbrellas, sun screen & snow tires required

Driving into Northern Ca on March 2nd it appeared to be a beautiful sunny day; a snow covered Mt Shasta loomed with wisps of lacy white cloud caught about her peaks. Occasional flakes of snow whipped past, carried by a ferocious wind. Although these initially amounted to nothing, closer to the mountain awaited a full-fledged winter wonderland with real snowdrifts piled high along the roadside and huge flakes pouring from the sky. I wondered briefly whether I had been foolish to take my tire chains out of the car before leaving home! However, as the elevation decreased the flakes turned to rain beating down on the rich red soil of Redding. I always welcome this part of the drive as with the first smells eucalyptus I know I’m truly in California!

Proof that the weather dictates that arm warmers are in order – good thing we have such stylin’ apparel! Heading out on my pre-race ride...

Saturday March 4th – McLane Criterium, Race day #1: Pre-race expectations can be a funny, that’s funny-peculiar, thing. As much as one, as an athlete, does their best to check their expectations at the door well before the start of any race, seeking instead in the moment, process focused thoughts; it’s difficult to keep the burnt-in past impressions of a race, of an experience, from passing through one’s mind. And it’s challenging to compete on a course for a second or third time without some shard of expectation stemming from those past experiences.

Let’s go back a few years, and open a chapter in the book of Moriah’s most embarrassing moments as a cyclist. Now, for those cyclist types, you can relate to the pre-race (criterium in this case) routine: sign-in, number pinning, warm up, numerous porta-potty breaks (hoping that the nervous cyclist ahead of you hasn’t emptied to TP roll), sunscreen application, jitter-jitter, get on the course the moment its open to scope out the pavement and turns, get to the line early so you can start at the front of the peleton…. Well, my first year racing McLane Pacific, one of the early season National Race Calendar (NRC) Classics in Merced CA started off just perfectly… my timing was text-book, I was completely ready to go and on the course the moment it opened. Looking back, I actually think that this was my first ever NRC race and I certainly was in over my head. Well, I was pounding around the course with the rest of the 90-some other women racers, warming up, everything seemingly A-OK. But then things started to get really, I mean REALLY fast, I thought, ‘man, these pro girls really warm up hard!’ They were all stretched out single file and they were really flying – I figured maybe I should speed things up some too if they were warming up this hard. Well, it turned out that the race HAD ALREADY STARTED!! Somehow I had missed the start while out on the back section of the course. Fortunately none of the officials seemed to have noticed, but it didn’t much matter as I ended up pulled along with other stragglers somewhere around half way through the race.

So, today I re-visited Merced for the first time since that lovely experience, here to race the crit, my first race of the 2006 season. With over 90 starters and all the big teams well represented it looked to be a big-girls’ race for certain. Following my NRC experiences of last season I was pleasantly surprised to feel much more at home, despite being here in the absence of team-mates or support staff.

Mclane Criterium line up; a sunny but cool day, perfect racing weather. Where is Waldo, err, Moriah?

The start line was the usual pushing match, toggling for position, the line creeping forward like a giant amoeba despite the officials best attempts at keeping us back until the call up was complete. My start position was fair, not ideal, but certainly not in the back line.

As luck would have it the girl directly in front of me missed her clip-in and drove herself headfirst over her bars into to pavement – ouch! Getting around her I ended up going into corner-one pretty much at the very back of the peleton which wasn’t ideal considering the race started off with primes on the first 4 laps! That means things really start off quick! While I was far from the action making my way thought the back portion of the peleton, Laura Charameda of McGuire established her dominance in the sprint early on taking 2 of the 4 initial primes. I was able to get myself into the middle of the peleton within a couple laps of the 0.8 mile course; the process of moving forward generally gets more difficult as one gets closer to the front. Kudos to Lisa Sweeney (a girl from home that I’ve been racing with for the past several years; she’s now on a US team doing the NRC circuit) for getting herself to the front a couple times, driving the pace and grabbing the attention of the announcer.

Just over half way through there was a pretty good crash in the chicane (the course was a 6 corner circuit with a single lane chicane with a giant inflated Red Bull arch way over it). Unfortunately I was caught up (not hurt though), but back in after a jog to the wheel pit on the opposite side of the course with 15 or so others; thank goodness for the free lap rule. I really felt quite good as the race progressed on and the peleton dwindled; I was able to smell the grease laden mystery meat hot-dog stands, the kettle-corn and hear the cheering spectators lining the course. I managed to avoid further mishap and elbowed myself into the top 10 with 4 laps to go; the band in the chicane was playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ - I was exactly where I needed to be going into the final 3 laps. This is where one learns to save the self-praise for after the race – while I was busy being happy and setting process aside, I got rubbed out by one of the tiniest riders in the peleton. By the time I got myself re-focused I was again just pack fill and came across the line in 34th position.

Kudos to fellow Canadian Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing) for her second place finish behind Laura Charameda (McGuire). Rounding out the podium was Christina Becker of Germany (T-Mobile). Other Canadian riders: Audrey Lemieux (Colivita/ Cooking Light) in 17th, Betina Hold (Webcor) in 28th, Leigh Hobson (Victory Brewing) in 41st, Felicia Gomez (Webcor) in 43rd, Errine Willock (Webcor) in 44th and Sue Palmar-Komar (Colivita/ Cooking Light) in 49th. There were 58 finishers and according to my speedo we averaged just under 40km/hr.

The hotel: Now, to think that only a few days ago I had been worried about what a Motel 6 would be like…. Well, I hadn’t made reservations and the Merced Motel 6 was at capacity, full of fellow smelly-spandex-wearing cyclists. So, I went in search of something in a comparable price range. I found something all right, and lets just say I wore my flip-flops in the shower, slept in my own sleeping bag (on-top of the sheets, not on the dreaded comforter!), drew the blinds tight and kept the deadbolt and door chain in position! After an hour or so locked away in my room I had a headache and had become completely stuffed up from the smoke fumes seeping out of the carpet and blinds, but honestly, there was no way I was stepping foot outside that room in the dark. This was the kind of place where people live: the young girl who checked me in through a slot in a plexi-glass window (hint #1) told me that they only had one room left as “it’s the beginning of the month and everybody still has money” (hint #2); there was a big sign on the side of the office that in big red letters read “in case of emergency call 911” (hello, I should’ve been running by now!); and the guy next door had house plants in his window. Over the course of the evening there were multiple knocks at my door, I made it policy not to answer. Between that, the distinct sounds of Snoop Dog throbbing out of the passing low-rider cars and one of my neighbours, or possibly a visitor, belting out free-form “rap” in the middle of the parking lot with enough enthusiasm to stop your breath, I did somehow manage to get some sleep. **Note to self: make reservations, or pay the extra 20-bucks to stay somewhere reputable next time!

Sunday March 5th – McLane Road Race, Race day #2: I have to say, I was pretty thankful to wake up and find that my car was actually still there and un-vandalized! In fact, I ended up being one of the first to the race start area I was so glad to be outta my motel room!

Our road race was scheduled to start at 9:15am and would be 3 laps of a fairly flat 24-mile course. Strong winds and severely broken pavement giving portions of the course a roubaix-feel would prove to be factors. The field was full at the max limit of 100 for pro, 1, 2 women with a few sets of fresh legs. With the low temperature and wind I was cold to start despite wearing arm and knee warmers!

The first lap was fairly slow taking us just over an hour; Webcor, Lipton, Victory Brewing and McGuire initiated a few attacks none of which stuck. It wasn’t until the beginning of second lap that things started to heat up with small breaks going off, getting absorbed, and one decent crash. I was comfortable sitting in the top 20 and staying out of the wind and keeping track of what was going on. I considered, and resisted, going with the attack that would prove to create the sticking break; hindsight is always 20-20 and I admit, I just read the race wrong. I didn’t think it was going to stick, but with all the major teams represented in the break and their remaining team-mates working to shut down attacks from the peleton, the top 11 had been decided. As the race continued to play out, often stretched into single or double file, fighting for position on the sheltered side of a wheel, mere inches from the leeward side of the road, positioning was critical. The peleton continued to shrink, as girls got popped off the back into the wind. With about 15 miles to go we got within 700 metres or so of the break; the teammates of the girls in the break became frantic about slowing the peleton down. My gut was to attack and try to bridge across, but I refrained. Again, in hindsight I would’ve approached that situation less conservatively.

Things heated up again with 10 km to go – the engines were roaring and the hammer-fest was on! I can’t really describe it as anything but full-on fun! Keeping position in the front 10 to 15 of the peleton was challenging; anticipating, keeping on top of the gear and staying as sheltered as possible. The final kilometer was an all out drag race over the crest of a roller and down to the finish line. Getting a clean line over the crest, through traffic, proved challenging; I did my best to get around a couple over geared girls and let ‘er rip over the top. Not a money finish (I didn’t stick around for results and they’re still not posted), but getting closer and definitely a weekend to build on!

Congrats to Canadian’s Errine Willock (Webcor), Lisa Sweeney (CPT) and Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing) for making the break and finishing in the top 10. Top step of the podium was earned by Dotsie Bausch (Colavita Cooking Light), followed by Laura Van Guilder (Lipton) and Kim Anderson (T-Mobile).

Central Valley Classic, NRC Race Weekend #2

March 10th – The Tollhouse Time Trial (TT) that never was: Today was to start early; 5am to allow time to get to the TT location in the foothills east of Freso, a 4ish hour drive. The race website had been warning us to check back frequently for course updates as the weather was scheduled to be uncharacteristically cold and there was a chance that the TT would be relocated! Yeah right, I thought; “like it’s going to be so miserable and cold that they’ll have to change the course”. Well, at 8am the morning of they moved to course to a location some 30 miles southwest as the roads near Tollhouse were “impassable”! Apparently the uphill TT course was covered in ice and snow – how crazy is that!? Impressive job on the race organizers part for successfully coming up with an alternate course in short order! Despite the fact that they weren’t certain of the exact distance until after we’d raced the course they really managed to pull the whole thing off quite well.

Although I had been looking forward to what was advertised as a brutal 6.5 mile suffer-fest with grades up to 22%, I didn’t complain about the switch to an essentially flat 17.1 mile course. Now that’s a Moriah style TT! With weather including rain, sun, hail and wind warming up on rollers was a blast (hint of sarcasm)!

First off were the cat 2 men, then the pro 1 / 2 women at 1 minute intervals; I was the 4th woman off. Excited to be testing out the 2006 engine on my first real TT of the year I immediately realized that my TT position was all wrong – not such a good plan to slap a pair of new bars onto a new bike the morning of. Oops! Things I know better than… But, at that point there was no changing it so with motivation from Clara Hughes’ post Gold performance quote: “What I think is most satisfying is to have overcome that pain. That pain that’s so intense that you feel like you’re going to die. That’s what it was, that’s what I wanted, and that’s what I got.” I went to work. I caught my 1 minute girl in 13 minutes. The girl 2 minutes ahead of me had missed her start so the next gap was another 2 minutes. Things didn’t feel particularly fast, but the heart rate and pain markers were pretty good. The course began to twist a little and undulate; I was pretty stoked to come around a corner and see my 3-minute girl ahead. There’s nothing quite like that to bring you into the next level of pain. I made short work of passing her and pressed on for what proved to be a wickedly painful uphill finish. I didn’t have much left at the end, but then sometimes its hard to really feel just what’s going on in the legs when they’re so cold. I checked my time and was off what I’d targeted for what had been advertised to be a 16 km TT.

Back at the start area I did my cool down and awaited the results. There’s a special kind of anticipation that comes with awaiting one’s TT results. Although you know your own time and make your assessments of the race based on that, the competitive part of you wants to know how you size up.

First out were the Cat 2 men’s results; out of curiosity and for lack of something better to do I checked to see where I would’ve placed in their field. OK, I realize that they’re not my competition, but still.… My time set me at 32nd place for the men cat 2… And translated into 18th place of 60 some starters for the Women Pro 1 / 2 field. No complaints here. My first top 20 NRC finish for 06 and lots of days ahead. Christine Thorburn (Webcor) posted the fastest time, 39:55, followed by Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) at 40:47, and Errine Willock (Webcor) at 41:20. Places 5th through 9th were in the 42’s and 10th through 18th in the 43’s; I was 43:47. And, just for kicks, in comparison to the Pro men’s field – that would set me at 100th position out of a field of 122.

Saturday March 11th – Kearney Circuit Race, Damn Cali is Cold! An afternoon start to a 154 km circuit race through Kearney Park and the surrounding orchards proved to be my coldest California experience yet! Consensus seemed to be that staying in the car with the heater on rather than out in the rain was the best warm up for this race. Grossly unprepared for the weather I ended up getting a pair of plastic gloves from the medical tent to wear as an extra layer under a pair of borrowed long-fingered gloves (I had only packed short fingered gloves!). Thanks to the McGuire Team for lending me an extra pair of long-fingers!

The race start was delayed, oh joy, and they shortened it by a lap from 6 to 5. 130 kms would be just fine for a day like today. Our first lap was extremely slow taking over 50 minutes; I actually started to worry about how long this race was going to take! The next laps set my mind at ease though as we got things down to a lap pace of 30-some minutes. Webcor made most of the moves with Lipton also putting in some efforts to bust things up. With little to break up the field other that a few narrow sections with pave-style fractured pavement and a few pile-ups, things were slated to stay together; a day for the sprinters. I spent my time in the front 1/4 watching the moves, rolling with it when I had an easy line in. Without team-mates in team sport it isn’t possible to cover every move. One has to watch, wait and see whether a break looks like it could stick. Continually assessing who’s in the move, how the big teams are represented? If it looks like it may stick, who near you is likely to go next? And before the split grows too big, you bridge. And if you’re lucky you have another rider to bridge with you and share the work. Well, this was the strategy I was playing by today anyway.

Over half way through there was a pretty good pile-up towards the front of the pack on the pave-style single lane road section that I’d been pretending was Belgium. I busted out some quick cyclocross moves and scooted around things through a sandy ditch. I was one of the last riders to make the split. At last things were thinning out! I soon came to realize that several of the teams sprinters had been caught up, meaning that the job of the team-mates in the split was to keep everything together and slow enough to get the sprinters back on. Argh!

Over the course of the day few rain jackets were removed as it rained and hailed through half of the course, and was sunny on the other half. Go figure!? The Shimano boys were busy (neutral wheel support that patiently follow us around and around in circles waiting to replace flatted wheels and in some cases will replace a riders whole bike) as there were numerous flats.

Finally the last lap was underway; with 8 kms to go I came way too close to rolling my front wheel. I had a flat and an incrediblely inopportune time! I considered trying to ride it in as it was a slow leaker, but with a super technical finish – 5 corners in the last 500 metres with enough standing water to grow rice – I decided not to risk it. Left hand up, keep pedaling, get to the back of the pack, right hand side of the road and keep moving until the Shimano truck is right there. The change went super smooth although my hands were so numb from the cold that there was no way I was loosening that skewer with any kind of speed; the Shimano guy was prepared for it though and had me on my way in moments. I immediately stepped back into yesterday’s TT mode! TT like a bandit! Get it over with as fast as possible and just get back on a wheel – I was back onto the peleton before long, moved up and tried to get into position for the final sprint.

Now this is where things really get going; the race would be decided before we got into the final 500m as there wouldn’t be much opportunity for position changing after that. The final stretch was fenced, narrow and there would be risks taken for certain. Going into the last 3 kms I could see that Victory Brewing was well organized and ready to take over with their lead out train. I was on the left side of the peleton - 2 girls basically got ejected out into the ditch just ahead of me and I could hear the same happening over on the right side. We were down to 50 some riders from over 70 starters. The final 500 metres was upon us and the final sprint was quick, but not actually all out due to the conditions. Although rolling through in 37th place really constitutes pack fill, I can say that today was a good learning experience. I am satisfied to have been able to TT back onto the peleton within the last minutes of the race and was out there ‘taking notes’ today.

Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing) earned top spot on the podium and Lisa Sweeney (CPT) got her first NRC podium finishing 3rd.

Other Canadian’s: 15th Felicia Gomez (Webcor); 16th Audrey Lemieux (Colavita/Cooking Light); 29th Betina Hold (Webcor); 37th Moriah MacGregor (Dizzy Chicks); 39th Kirsten Robbins (Victory Brewing); & 47th Sue Palmer-Komar (Colavita/Cooking Light).

March 12th – Tower District Criterium: Now who thought up the great idea of putting a 180 degree turn into a crit course?! Fortunately I wasn’t as worried about it as I would have been a year ago as I had to opportunity to try out my first 180 degree turn on a crit course at the Bermuda Grand Prix last September. The crit today was a long course, 1.45 kms, and flat as a pancake. I wriggled my way into the second line at the start, directly behind the call up (the top riders get called up to the line and the announcer does a little spiel on each of them, you know, Olympians and the sort). I had a slow clip-in and lost a couple spots before the 180 which was the first corner – basically the race starts as a drag race as the first riders through the corner will be able to take the best lines and reduce their chances of being caught up with someone who doesn’t hold or take a good line. Also, as one gets further to the back of the peleton the yo-yo effect increases making the riders at the back have to work much, much harder to stay with the peleton. And this is where I found myself for much too much of the race, not dead at the back, but in the back half. Way too much work for way too little reward back there I tell ya!

Our 45 minute crit went by before I knew it – we were down to 5 laps to go and there would be no more free laps (for a mishap/mechanical). Being a little too far from the action at the front I didn’t get to see the Victory Brewing train line up, but that’s what was happening. The pace was blistering and girls were snapping off the back like peas!

I hung in a rolled across in a big ol’ 38th position. I seem to be in a bit of a 30-something rut here! Victory Brewing took the top 3 spots on the podium; Lauren Franges, Laura Yoisten, and Laura Bowles respectively! Some strong team work demonstrated by the Victory Brewing gals this weekend for certain!Laura Yoisten gathered enough points during the criterium to win the overall omnium, just one point ahead of Christine Thornburn (Webcor). Lauren Franges also gained enough points to move her into third place for the overall omnium.

Good luck to Errine Willock and Sue Palmar-Komar, Canadian National Team Members, who will be representing Canada at the Commonwealth Games at the end of the month; they’re departing Monday this week!

Thanks for reading!

San Dimas Stage Race: California Race Weekend # 3

Mid-week I made the trek from northern CA to southern CA where I was hoping for warmer weather and less rain. Thursday teased with the first day of “shorts weather” of the month but that would prove to be short-lived. I was looking forward to my first actual stage race of the season, where the cumulative time over a number of days determines placing. The courses for the next two weekends are far hillier than the previous weekends, changing race dynamics. For this weekend several of the top NRC teams would be elsewhere or have reduced squads competing at San Dimas. However, T-Mobile, the only true professional women’s team (i.e. these women get the same support as the men’s T-mobile Team that competes in the Tour de France, albeit lesser salaries!), would bolster their team, competing with 4-riders, in preparation for Redlands Classic, the last weekend of March. Team Lipton would also present with a strong 7-rider squad for San Dimas.

Friday March 17th– Glendora Chevrolet Mtn Time Trial, stage 1: Now who invented the up hill time trial I’m not sure, but they were definitely a wee bit twisted! Generally with cycling the shorter the race the more intense the effort; starting a stage race with a 3.8 mile/ 7.1 km time trial up a mountain is a sure leg and lung buster. Our course would be just that, point-to-point switchbacking up a sage covered post-card California slope with an overall elevation gain of over a thousand feet. As the weather gods would have it the skies began to belch out cold rain about half an hour before my start time. Just like home! With a vivid image of the course fresh in my mind from my pre-race ride the day prior, I set to work. My start was good and I could see within the first of the straighter stretches that I was gaining on one of the CPT girls, my 30-second girl (today’s starts were at 30-second intervals). With the course being quite twisty she would fall in and out of sight. I was unfortunately unable to use the gear that I would have normally selected as it was skipping, forcing me to spin at a higher cadence than normal. Coming out of a switchback there were suddenly 2 girls in sight, the CPT rider and a Polish National Team girl; I overtook her at 7:24 and the CPT girl at 7:28. Feeling good, I continued up the mountain semi-aware of the brightly coloured yellow Mavic tents marking each kilometer. Each tent has neutral wheels and bikes in case of mishap and is staffed with a mechanic, patiently waiting for some work. The last kilometer was quite possibly the longest kilometer of my life! But I did have enough to get out of the saddle for the last 50 feet (oops, a sign I could have gone harder) and cross the line in 18minutes 23seconds. Content with my performance, I grabbed some water and made my way back down the mountain. By the time I reached the bottom I was an ice-cube and spent over an hour with the car’s heat cranked to bring my temperature back to normal. In a field of 65 starters, US Olympian Kristin Armstrong (no relation to Lance!) set down the fastest pace for the day at 15:24.21 riding for Lipton. She was followed by Kimberly Baldwin (T-Mobile) at 15:37.50 and Alisha Lion (Velo Bella-Kona) at 15:53.20. Anne Samponius (Team Bioval) was the top Canadian at 16:36.75 for 7th place and I was the second Canadian, hanging onto 22nd spot. Other Canadians: Lisa Sweeney (CPT) at 19:19.70 and Jenny Trew (Team Kenda Tire) at 20:11.06.

A great way to spend St. Patty’s Day!!

Saturday March 18th – San Dimas Hospital Road Race, stage 2: A dry morning start was welcome by all! Today’s 7.8 mile course would circle the Puddingstone Reservoir 8 times, including 2 climbs per lap and finishing on a nice wide open flat section in an industrial park. The first of the climbs was primarily gradual while the second was more of a power-climb gaining 170 feet in half a mile with QOM (queen of the mountain) points up for grabs at the top. Today’s race would be fairly active with sprinter points on odd laps at the start/finish line and QOM points on even laps. Everything stuck together the first lap, the second being the start of the action. The first attack quickly brought back in, the second being initiated by Anne Samponius (Team Bioval). I went with Anne and 2 others on the second move, but our efforts were short lived. The second time up the QOM climb was a world of hurt, but I kept with the front girls and settled into the draft to recover. The third time up was actually when the break went – 7 riders including 3 Lipton riders, 2 T-Mobile, a Velo Bella and a Ford rider. With their teams working to keep the peleton slowed the break quickly put over 2 minutes on us. Without representation in the break, the 5 CPT girls attempted to get a work train together to bring them back, but it was too little too late. With all the QOM and sprint points to be taken by riders in the break the peleton was pretty tame – deciding to test things out I launched an attack going into the first climb on lap 6. I was off for about a kilometer before being pulled back in. Plan B – sit in for the bunch sprint. The peleton continued to shrink, girls getting popped off the back on the second climb; we would finish with a group of 20, over 4-minutes behind the break of 7. I managed to get across the line for a 16th place finish after losing contact with the group on the last climb, TT’ing back on just in time for the sprint. Lisa Sweeney was the top Canadian on the day finishing in 12th, Jenny Trew finishing in 19th and Anne Samponius finishing 25th. In the break Team Lipton took the top two spots in the sprint: Gracy Fleury followed by Kristin Armstrong. Kimberly Anderson and Kimberly Baldwin both of T-Mobile followed the up for 3rd and 4th. With my 16th place finish on the day I was bumped up to 15th in GC to start stage 3.

Happy Birthday Dylan!

March 19th – Cannondale Old Town San Dimas Classic Criterium, stage 3: Today’s backwards L-shaped criterium course looked pretty simple, however the false flat portion would prove to be a leg-burner after the past 2 days of racing. The race would be 50 minutes long with hot spot sprints 10 minutes and 30 minutes in. With temperatures in the mid 50’s and patchy sun during warm-up I don’t think anyone was really anticipating rain. However, 10 minutes in, just in time for the first hot spot sprint, the skies opened up and let loose with rain, and then of all things, hail. Hello, this is southern California!! Following the first hotspot sprint a break went which I regrettably missed. Notably containing neither of the two top GC contenders, and unfortunately for me containing riders behind me in GC, it would upset my placing at the end of the day. Working well together and with the weather conditions as they were it was a good move as the break was able to get through the corners faster than the larger peleton and therefore carry better speed through the course. The big surprise of the day was that T-mobile wasn’t represented in the break – at one point they launched a hurt-train which I was happy to sit behind, positioning myself close to the front and out of the yo-yo action at the back of the peleton. Surprisingly the pink pain train was short lived and the peleton stayed together for the duration. I rolled across in 32nd place gaining me the same time as the peleton. The break gained 59 seconds on us pushing me into 18th place in GC, 3rd Canadian. Anne Samponius (Team Bioval) and Lisa Sweeney (CPT) both made the break and finished as the top 2 Canadians in 8th and 16th GC spots, respectively. Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) hung onto top GC spot followed by Kimberly Baldwin (T-Mobile) and Alisha Lion (Velo Bella-Kona), Grace Flury (Team Lipton) and Kimberly Anderson (T-Mobile). Gracy Flury earned to QOM Jersey and Rebecca Larson (Cycle Science) the sprint jersey based on her performance in today’s criterium.

With temperatures now dipping into the low 40’s, I was once again an ice-cube, covered in grit and sand to finish off the day! Hey, some people pay the big bucks for spa exfoliation; I get mine through bike racing! Now for some good rest in preparation for the finally of my Tour de California, Redlands Classic, where I will be racing with Vitamin Cottage Women’s Team out of Colarado.

Sorry about the absence of pictures this week.

Thanks for reading!