Tour of Walla Walla

In past years, the Tour of Walla Walla has been a major season goal of mine. This year, I went into the race with a few primary objectives: to have fun, to get a good weekend of training, to ride a good time trial, and to finish as highly as my current fitness would allow. I thought I had a good chance of placing well in the time trial, but I was much less confident of my chances in the other stages and for the overall general classification. Afterall, I have followed no real training schedule in 2012, and had less than 1000 miles in my legs prior to last weekend.

This year has me seeking some new adventures, so while I will still be doing some bike races, I will also be doing some other things. I have done a couple 5km runs, a duathlon, and I am registered to run the Portland Marathon in October, alongside Ted and my brother. The three of us are also planning on doing Crusher in the Tushar in July. My training, therefore, has been a mixture of riding and running, with a touch of swimming thrown in for good measure. And, so far, this training approach appears to be working for me! Here are my race results for the year so far:

1st woman/8th overall at Freeze Your Fanny 5km run (20:04)
1st woman/6th overall at the For Love of Maui 5km run (20:48)
1st in the Wawawai Landing Time Trial (women 1-3)
2nd in the Wawawai Grade Hill Climb (women 1-3)
1st woman/9th overall at the Spring Sprint Duathlon (58:54)
1st in the Tour of Walla Walla Time Trial (women 1-2)
1st General Classification at the Tour of Walla Walla (women 1-2)

I was pretty shocked and happy with my Tour of Walla Walla win. Here's my quick recap of how the race played out:

Stage 1 - Waitsburg RR (42 miles)

The first lap of the race was pretty uneventful until we reached the finishing climb. There were QOM time bonuses/$ up for grabs at the top of the climb, so we all knew it was going to be a race to the top. I was feeling decent on the climb and a couple attacks went early. I saw a Canadian girl move to attack up the right side of the road, and before I knew what had happened, she had crashed herself out. She took the girl in front of me down with her, and I was forced to unclip and put my foot down. I felt someone else slam into my rear wheel, but I did not actually go down. How this silly crash happened is unbeknownst to me! I suddenly found myself gapped off from the back of the pack, putting me into chase mode. I chased hard and caught back on, only to be unable to react when the hard move went for the QOM. Again, I was gapped at the top of the climb, and I knew I had to catch back on ASAP. Thankfully, I looked back to see my teammate, Lisa, behind me. The two of us chased hard and caught back on. Meanwhile, I discovered that my shifting was screwed up from the girl hitting my bike in the crash. My derailleur hanger was bent, causing my chain to skip in the rear, and my chain was also shifting to the outside of the big ring. I fiddled with the cable successfully enough to get the chain to stay on the big ring. Our field ended up being neutralized with about 10km to the finish, as the 1-2 men's field caught us. This neutralization allowed the women off the back to catch back on, so we were all together when we reached the bottom of the final climb. I stayed with the leaders until we were within the final kilometer, but then found that my legs felt my earlier chase attempts, and I came across the line 10 seconds behind the leading group. Following this stage, I was in 13th place and 26 seconds down from 1st.

Stage 2 - Criterium

I just wanted to get the crit over and done. I primarily sat in the pack, only venturing to the front a couple times to chase some things down. I got pack time, and was content with that. With time bonuses offered in the crit, I remained in 13th place, but was 36 seconds down after the crit.

Stage 3 - Time Trial (9.3 miles)

I knew I would not be happy with myself if I did not have a good time trial, which meant I had to maintain focus and ride hard. I paced myself well in the TT, quickly beginning to gain on the women in front of me. When I hit the bottom of the hill, I could see two women in front of me: my 30 second girl and my minute girl, and I made it my goal to catch them both as quickly as possible. I caught them both and continued to push over the top of the hill. I could see some women up ahead, and I worked to chase them, catching my 1:30 girl and my 2:00 girl. I was close to catching the 2:30 girl when I hit the finish. I did not know my time or placing when I finished, but I felt that I had to be happy with my effort, as I had ridden hard and maintained my focus throughout. I was happy to see that I had won the time trial by 19+ seconds, which moved me up to 2nd place overall, and 0 seconds down. Yes, somehow, after 3 stages of racing, including time bonuses, two of us were tied, to the second, going into the final stage. The girl ahead of me was beating me by tenths of a second, giving her the leader's jersey.

Stage 4 - Kellogg Hollow RR (67 miles)

The race started fairly conservatively, with no real attacks going until we were on the loop portion of the course. I chased a couple attacks down myself, but then began letting some things go, as I knew I could not chase everything. I sat in for much of the first lap, staying out of the wind and trying to conserve. Upon entering the second loop of the course, a girl was off the front with a gap of 1:25, which meant it was time to start chasing. Several of us began rotating through, and we eventually pulled the girl back in. Over the top of the final climb, the yellow jersey was dropped. She managed to catch back on, but I knew she was having a hard time. Coming into the final 5km, I weighed my options. I could attack and hope to get away, or I could hope to gain time in the final sprint. I decided to wager on the final sprint, as I knew it was highly unlikely anyone would let me go in the last 5km. Plus, seconds separated the top 8 places, and I knew I could end up falling down the results if I blew up or someone counter-attacked. One woman in the race said to me, "Who cares about 2nd place? All that matters is 1st." Yes, 1st place is ideal, but personally, I'd rather be 2nd than 3rd or 4th. My bet paid off, as the yellow jersey couldn't hang on for the final charge to the line. While I got pack time, she finished 10 seconds off the back, giving me the overall win. I had only needed tenths of a second to beat her, so 10 seconds seemed like a large margin!

 I was very happy to have won, especially since the win had primarily come down to my own strength in the time trial. Time trials have always been my favorite discipline because there are no excuses and no hiding in time trials - there is only you, your own head, and your own strength.