Gila Recap

Emily Zell, Kristin Armstrong, Mara Abbott, Lauren Tamayo, Kristin McGrath, Kat Carroll, Olivia Dillon, Alisha Welsh

My dad came to the finish of stage 1. It was so cool to have him there. He even got recruited to help direct traffic because of his bright yellow shirt!

Peanut Butter on the front

In the crit

Alisha says: The Gila was a sweet week of racing with an awesome team along with some crazy weather thrown in to spice things up. Dave already blogged about stage 1 and 2. We worked well as a team and Mara used her amazing climbing skills to win stage 1 by a significant margin. In stage 2 the team had to do some hard work in the wild wind to keep a breakaway in check and keep Mara in the red leader's jersey. At this level cycling truly is a team sport and everyone was focused on helping Mara win the overall for Peanut Butter & Co. against all of the best teams in the US.

Stage 3 - Time Trial: With the team focused on keeping Mara in the lead everyone except for her used the time trial as a recovery day. We got to ride our new Fuji time trial bikes that look sweet and fast. Allison Powers (VBF) took the win and moved into second place overall but Mara was still in the lead by just over one minute.

Stage 4 - Crit: Like before, the goal of the team was to control the race and keep Mara in the lead. However, the team got a bonus win with Shelley timing her sprint to perfection. The crit was fast and hard. My confidence in the corners is improving and I was able to even be on the front for a little while. There were lots of attacks throughout the race and Powers went off the front with 1 to go but Kat and Kristin shut it down.

Stage 5 - The Gila Monster Road Race: It was chilly chilly at the start as many of the women started with arm/leg warmers and vests. A break went early and the Peanut Butter crew was on the front controlling things in order to set Mara up for the final climb of the race. Right before the base of the climb things got fast and mixed up. Mara quickly made it to the front and was off with Katherine Cheatly (Colavita). I was in the a small chase group of about 10 that contained the other overall contenders. It was a hard final day after four other intense stages and it even started snowing as the race was finishing. Mara finished 2nd on the stage and was the overall winner!! I finished 11th in the stage and 20th in the general classification.

It was so exciting and fun to be part of the team at this race. It's hard to believe that only a year ago the Gila was my very first pro race.