Giro De Cielo

ITT

This was my first race as a Raddie and it was so much fun to be at a race with teammates! The first day was the time trial. It was mostly uphill, but I think the TT bike would have helped quite a bit. I rode without aero bars or anything fancy. Next year I would do it with my TT bike for sure!

There was plenty of climbing and I paced myself well for the most part. I thought the race was a bit longer, so was surprised when I saw the finish line tent. The course was beautiful, mostly shaded by trees and the road surface was quite nice.

I passed one lady within a couple minutes. Cecelia had gone off 30 secs ahead of me but she was nowhere to be seen. She was cranking at the start of the TT and was out of sight within seconds. About 1/2 through the course we started to play a game of yo yo. I would get close to catching her on the climbs and on the flats she would speed away. Eventually I passed her and she gave a little cheer. I couldn't understand it, but it was sweet nonetheless. I then gave it everything I had to get to the top.

At the top, I threw up. Good ITT effort.

I ended up in 4th with Cecelia not far behind me in 6th. Shelley beat me by about a minute. She rode the TT bike and was smart to do so. She was in 1st place.

CRIT

The crit was in the afternoon. It was pretty uneventful. Kristy S. tried to put in a couple attacks, but they were all chased down pretty quick. Cecelia stayed at the front and took many of the primes. On the final lap a girl attacked and then sat up in the turn. It caused a few of us to swerve around her and a couple girls went down. Her teammate Shelley counter-attacked and Cecelia wasn't far behind her. She was smart and in a great place for the finish. I think she took 4th or 5th and I believe I took 8th or 9th.

CIRCUIT RACE

Sunday was the circuit race. Cecelia was now ahead of me in the GC so I was going to try to work to slow the field down if she got off the front. Fun! No attacks were successful, but when C. and the stronger girls up front created a gap on the hill each lap, I tried to get to the front of the women chasing and slowly decrease my pace to increase the gap. It worked and then the women had to work harder to catch the group. By the last lap, I was exhausted. I didn't realize how tiring it would be to slow down and then stay with the girls catching back on to the front. We got to the final 200 m and I was toast. I managed to pass a few women, but think I got 8th or something. I didn't even check. I didn't really care. Cecelia has won the crit, so that was all that mattered!!

In the GC Cecelia ended up in 3rd and I got 5th.

We celebrated at a diner with Key Lime Pie. Although C only had a couple bite before she flipped the plate and it ended up upsidedown between the two of us on the vinyl bench. Oops.