Tour of the Gila Stage 2

After some much needed rest and recovery, I woke up feeling a lot better. There was something weird going on with me yesterday. I think it may be the water down here. There are a lot of minerals in the area, so it wouldn't surprise me if that's what the case is. So I am trying an experiment and only drinking bottled water. Hopefully it helps. Anyway, our race started at 10:40 this morning. We got to sleep in some, which was nice. The race was 126km long. Here's the profile:

After the neutral roll out, things were pretty mellow. The first sprint didn't really shake things up either. Once we hit the first category 3 climb, things sort of blew apart. I think Kristin Armstrong was pushing the pace, trying to split things up. And well it sure did. About 15 riders got off the front and stayed that way for the next 50km or so. I was in the 2nd group with another 15 or so riders. I started to get a migraine on the sketchy descent. My eyes went blurry. Not the best thing to happen when you have to navigate your way down an unknown road. Oh well, it worked out and I made it down safely. The group split on the downhill, but we regrouped on the flats. I wasn't able to pull through with the group. I was at the back, barely hanging on. My head was pounding and I just wasn't feeling good. Eventually we caught back onto the lead group, which included my teammates Carla Swart and Anne Samplonius. My teammate Toni Bradshaw was in the group with me. Once we caught the lead group, people sat up and a ValueAct rider shot off the front. She stayed away for a long time. Webcor threw down some attacks to try and bridge, but there was never really an organized chase. I stuck with the lead group until the finish. I almost got dropped through the last feed zone. My legs started to cramp at about 30km to go. Everytime I stood up to pedal up a hill, my muscles siezed. Needless to say, it wasn't the best day on the bike, but I kept going at it.

The final mile came and I held on as long as I could. Things split apart. Carla, Anne, and Toni were in front of me. We tried to attack but seemed like everyone was getting boxed in. Soon enough, my legs had had enough and I was stuck in the wind dangling off the back of the pack. I came across the line 22nd place. This moved me up to 25th in the G.C. 5min and 25seconds down from Kristin Armstrong.

Carla picked up a 7th place in the sprint today. Sweet! Anne was 16th and Toni was 18th. We are currently 4th in the team G.C. Anne is our highest rider, sitting in 11th still at 2:07 from the lead. Carla is 17th, 2:59 from 1st. Toni is 26th, 5:33 down from the lead. Hillary was not recorded so we are going to protest that in the morning. Kate is hanging in there and finishing each stage with a smile :). Things are going well for the team and we are all seeming to race really well together.

You can keep up with results on www.tourofthegila.com. Also got some press time yesterday here.

Ok, enough blabber. Time for some sleep. Tomorrow is the 25.9km time trial. It's a brutal course. Going to be tough, but I'm ready for it. Good night and thanks for stopping in!
-A