5-7 Aug Tour of Elk Grove

The Tour of Elk Grove is another special race for me as the only race I’ve done every year since I started racing. When I raced it for the first time in 2007 as an entry-level rider, I got a taste of my first bunch sprint. I’ve experienced a few more bunch sprints since then (!), but haven’t gotten all that much better at them! Every year I’ve raced it, Elk Grove has ended in a very long, leg busting, lung burning bunch sprint. This year was no different.

Over the past several years, Tour of Elk Grove has struggled with format for the women’s race, evolving from a one-day race to two successive one-day races two years ago to a three-day three-stage tour this year. 2011 National Race Calendar status and an attractive prize pool brought some of the country’s top pro teams. The tour began with a challenging 7 km, five-turn time trial Friday afternoon followed by two 50 min crits on Saturday and Sunday.

Stage Three finish. I am just about to cross the line.
Leadout rider Theresa Cliffe-Ryan (Colavita), to
my right, is celebrating her teammate's victory.

The tour itself was relatively unremarkable from the perspective of the ABD women. With the two top teams, TIBCO and Colavita, starting eight riders each, the race was a sea of TIBCO and Colavita jerseys dominated by the tactics of those two teams. Our best result came on Sunday when I was able to maintain good position going into the final sprint and held on for sixth place. And I do mean held on. Compared with raw power some of these girls can produce over a long sprint, the mediocrity of my sprinting ability was difficult to overlook. Nonetheless, sixth is not a bad result for me in a bunch sprint of that caliber.

 Canadian Anne Semplonius (NOW MS Society) won the Stage One time trial by 6 s over National Race Calendar leader Janel Holcomb (Colavita), but patience and teamwork earned Colavita the tour win with Canadian National Crit Champion Leah Kirchman (Colavita) taking the victory in both crits, giving her enough time bonuses to move from 7th place overall, 18 s back after Stage One, to 1st by narrow 2 s in a narrow, nail-biting final finish.

The real story of the weekend came off the bike, however. With Sarah not delivering on the drama front with the usual travel catastrophe, Stacy decided to pick up the slack and create a drama of her own—this one taking the cake, topping the high standard set by my emergency room visit at Nature Valley in June and one that I hope no one will attempt to outdo.

After the contrast of blitzing the field in a local time trial Saturday morning and then struggling through Stage Two on Saturday afternoon with stomach pains and various other general protests from an unhappy body, Stacy traded Stage 3 on Sunday for a visit to the hospital where a CT scan revealed a subdural haematoma on BOTH sides of her brain. How long the hematomas had been there and exactly what caused them is uncertain, but what is certain is that they had been causing increasing pressure on Stacy’s brain for months.

Stacy’s symptoms earned her priority status. She was immediately admitted to surgery where she was treated to not one but two holes drilled in EACH side of her skull to drain the fluid and relieve the pressure. Yikes. After four days in the hospital, Stacy is home recovering, banned from racing for quite some time. Get well very soon Stacy!