Cascade Classic Recap

Team Wines of Washington (Ally, Alisha, Annie, Amity, Leah, Gillian, Trisha, Lindsay)

Alisha says: This is going to be one of the longest posts ever (and is really late getting on our blog because of internet problems and I've been super busy), suffer through it if you want but mostly it is for my own memories so I'll give a quick rundown followed by the real deal!!

Cascade Classic, 6 stages, Rode on a composite team Wines of Washington with Michael Engleman directing, Tough competition, 114 of the best female riders registered, all of the pro teams represented, Best finish 9th, GC 27th, Good times, Tough times.

Stage 1: 71 mile road race. This one was a flat stage for the sprinters. The first half of the race was rather mellow and then it was as if someone flipped the switch and it was game on. My game was hang on. It was so hot, the ladies in the peloton were going through H2O like you wouldn't believe. It came down to a huge field sprint the top 74 women all got the same time. I was happy with same time and was 55th.

Stage 2: 80 mile road race. This profile was looking more like my style with a 10 mile climb to a summit finish. Once again it was hot!! About half way through the race a break got away that had all the big teams represented, unfortunately Wines of Washington was not in it. The gap got up to as much as three minutes before our director told us to work like a pro team and bring it back a little bit. My team worked awesome and went to the front and drove the pace to bring the break within one minute at the start of the climb. I was told to sit in and then go for it on the climb. I was up at the front and then there was an attack that I just didn't have the legs or pop to follow so then I was kind of in no mans land for a little bit. It was so cool having the radio though as Michael kept on telling me to ride at my own pace and keep going. I bridged up to two TIBCO girls and then passed them. I was gaining on the break but the finish came a little too soon. I was excited with my 9th place finish (this would be my best finish of the week). I was only 36 seconds off the winner and only 9 seconds off a group of five that finished just in front of me.

Stage 3: 16 mile Time Trial. Gentle climb on the way out and slight downhill on the way back. This was one of the best learning experiences of the whole week. I was sitting 9th in GC because of my finish the day before so Michael was able to follow me in the vehicle. Dave got to ride with him. They had spare wheels ready and another bike ready just in case I had any mechanicals. I had a radio so that he could talk to me. I loved it, I have struggled with time trials and although the end result wasn't anything special (42:22, 40th place, 3:27 behind winner) I thought that it was a good time trial for me. Michael kept on telling me to keep my cadence up, ride smooth, stay focused, when to stand, keep the momentum going. It was a cool experience.

Stage 4: 71 mile Cascade Lakes Road Race. This race started out with a long descent that I had been nervous about the whole week. Luckily it was no problemo, I felt comfortable and stayed with the group. This was a very active race with tons of attacks. It ended by climbing up to a ski resort that split the field to pieces. I was feeling tired and sadly watched at the leaders cruised away. I finished a semi-disappointing 23rd.

Stage 5: Worst stage ever!! Even Tiff P. who is a crit superstar said that it was one of the fastest crits she has done all year. Well, I was in big trouble from the start (yes, I was in the back). It was a flat rectangle with long straights. It went so hard from the start, we would be flying down the long straighaways, break jam into the tight corners and then accelerate like mad. I couldn't handle the hard accelerations. It was my own fault I had bad position and got gapped. Game over. I was super embarrassed to get dropped and then pulled. It was a total confidence crusher, I even got the pitty clap. This pretty much screwed my hopes of being top 20 in GC.

Stage 6: 3 Laps of a 17 mile loop with some steep climbs and fast descents. Another hot hard day. I felt so good the first lap, I had good position and rocked it up the climb. The second lap I drifted back in the pack a little and made it up the climb. I refocused on the last lap and was doing okay. I made one big mistake and slowed to pick up a bottle in the feed zone because I was parched!! I lost quite a few places. I finished 26th, 48 seconds off the winner. Overall I was 27th in GC.

Racing on the composite team was such a neat experience. I learned a lot and got to meet a bunch of fun girls and work with an awesome director. Everyone worked hard and did a lot of work for me which I totally appreciated. We enjoyed many days floating and icing our legs in the river after the stages. I have to give a big huge thanks to Trisha and Michael for organizing our team and for all that they did during the week.

Bend was a super fun place to visit and we stayed at the super cool Roy household. They were super nice to let us crash at their place for a whole week. The entertainment was great and the food was awesome.

MTB State Championships

Dave says: I am not the fastest mountain biker in Utah, but on Saturday I had an unexpected result that is certainly my cycling career highlight to date. It was the state championship race at Solitude Ski Resort and the sun was out for one of the hottest and hardest courses of the year. It started fast and it was Greg Gibson who led up the first long climb at a blistering pace. I was like, "who is this dude?" since apparently Greg has been rocking it back east. Half a lap in, the field was gone and I had a bit of a lead on the technical descent but Greg showed off his skills every time by putting time into me on the downhills.

Despite the heat, I felt pretty good and when we came around for the last climb, I knew that I had to do something big or risk losing the race on the final descent. I cranked that last climb as hard as I could and dug deep. It was enough and I held it together down the rocky slopes for the win. It was an exciting battle that has also temporarily put me into the ICUP lead over other more talented but more absent pro racers. Thanks to Alisha who came to hand me bottles and cheer me on and to Kuhl for being a great team. Check out MTBRaceNews for the full report

Racing the Cottonwoods

Alisha Says: This weekend in racing news the Welshs went their seperate ways so that each could raced their specialty with Dave racing the mountain bike race at Snowbird and me racing the Porcupine Hill Climb up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Luckily with both races being close by each other and the timing working out just right Dave was able to see the start of my race and I made it to the finish of his. I was excited and nervous for the hill climb as I have just had two hard training weeks and then I bruised my knee bad earlier this week.

I didn't feel the greatest but hung on to be the first woman to the top (14.7 miles, 3,800 ft. climbing)!!! I really wanted to beat my time from last year and hopefully finish in under 1:10. Both goals were accomplished as I was one minute faster than last year and my time was 1:09.47!! I won some cool prizes including, a carbon water bottle cage, gift certificate to Porcupine Grill, big jug of beer (that I donated to Chantel and Aaron), and some JetBlue plane tickets. A couple of hours after the race I figured out why I might not have felt the greatest as I came down with a nasty case of the stomach flu. Not fun!! After not eating for 24 hours and sleeping about the same I'm feeling much better.

Dave says: The rain rolled in just as I was starting to warm up at Snowbird. It turned out to be a decent but predictable race as 4th seems to be my specialty this year (thanks this week to MonaVie + Rob). DMV crit was fun on Wednesday as it's always fun to be in a break and drilling it. Dave H. took us to town though with a strong attack.

I submitted my procedural justice article to a journal for review. Now I get to wait for 2-3 months to see if they like it.

My new fav for the week is Tour de France live coverage on the internet through Versus. I'm not sure Lance can pull it off but it would be pretty exciting if he did.

Thanks USWCDP!

(Link)

Cherries

Alisha says: Our cherry trees, that's right trees, are bursting to the seams with big delicious red cherries. I have picked and picked but you can't even tell. After I had picked three buckets today I told Dave that it was his turn and after about five minutes he saw a big tree spider that he poked with a stick and then it jumped at him and so he was done picking cherries for the night.

We also raced the tax day grind circuit race in Inkom, ID last weekend. It must be the mid season slump or something because at all of the races so far this year the women's field has been unusually large but at the start line there were only six of us. We were to do 5.5 laps of the circuit and after 2.5 laps I decided to try the solo breakaway and it actually worked. I was able to stay away until the finish for the win!

Dave says: This was my first road race in the Pro 1-2 field as I'm now a Cat 2 on the road. These are the roadies you hear about in the weekly gossip at your local shop and the race went pretty quick right from the gun. It was a great circuit course with some punchy climbing that is just my style. A break of two was off the road and my buddy Tyler went off the final climb and soloed for third. I took the group sprint for fourth and was happy with how the race played out. I finished just in time to drive back up to the top of the hill where everyone was cheering Alisha as she raced up the final climb for the solo win.

Elkhorn Classic (In the rain)

Alisha says: To recap weekend #9 in a row of racing Dave and I traveled to Baker City, Oregon to race the 3 day 4 stage Elkhorn Classic. Day #1 consisted of the 73 mile Oregon Trail road race. The crazy thing about this race is that the womens field was broken down into three categories, the 1-2's, 3's, and the 4's, but then they raced us all together at the same time making for a field of 80+ women from pro's to beginners. The race started out fast, then it started to rain and rained on us for about 30 miles. It was a little sketch with the big group in the rain. On a minor climb I was able to get in a breakaway with two other girls. We worked hard to stay away but the chase group of about 7 caught us after a long descent. There was another little climb that the same 3 of us were able to breakaway again on. The three of us came into the final 1K together. I goofed up and ended up leading out the sprint so right at the end Teri came around me for the win. I finished 2nd and we put a minute on the rest of the field.

Day 2 was the TT in the morning and the crit in the afternoon. I finished 9th in the time trial and then finished with the group in a big field sprint in the crit. Going into the final stage I was sitting 4th in GC. The last stage was supposed to be an epic 102 miles but when we woke up it was pouring rain. We suited up and went to the starting line anyways where the officials had decided to shorten the race to 20 miles. So we took off in the rain. The stage ended with a nice 7 mile climb. I attacked and one other girl went with me. We duked it out up the mountain and unfortunately I ended up second in the sprint AGAIN!! With the time that we put on the rest of the field I moved to 2nd in GC, only 5 seconds out of first. It was in the time trial that I lost the 5 seconds, gotta work on that.

State Champion (kind of)

Alisha says: Yesterday was the Utah State Championship Road Race. It has been raining everyday this week and the forecast for yesterday was no different. I really thought that we were going to get soaked during the race but luckily the weather held off and we had really nice racing conditions. The drive home was a different story though as we drove through a crazy storm. This race was full of breakaways and attacks. I attacked on the second time up the hill and a break of 6 formed but slowly more people caught us until the group was together again on the last lap. My teamies (KK, Nisie, Tayler) were awesome and worked a lot for me. I went for it on the last hill and had a good gap at the top of the hill but still had a ways to go until the finish line. Kris Walker caught me with 1K to go and then sprinted around me right before the finish. So actually I was 2nd but Kris is an Idaho resident so they gave me the title. Tayler finished 3rd!!

Dave says: I was tired this entire week from Mt. Hood but by Friday I thought I was back in form and ready to race. I had a great two laps at Deer Valley riding off the front with BG and throwing down some attacks that ultimately I couldn't back up with my legs. By lap three I was toast and I watched myself slip from first to fourth as I cracked pretty good for the first time in a mtb race this season. As usual, MTB Race News provided some great coverage of how the race went down. Today's easy ride felt like I had bonked before the ride even began but we made it through nearly two hours of questionable weather before the rain started to pick up a bit and we headed home.