2-4 Aug 2013 Tour of Elk Grove

Photos with fans. Bobke came out just to cheer me on!

 

After a painful and trying season, it’s hard to believe that the race that in February seemed so far away has come and gone. The Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove marks the final women’s tour on the USA road calendar and this year doubled as the National Race Calendar (NRC) finale. And an exciting finale it was!

This year’s Tour of Elk Grove was three days of racing: a prologue time trial and two circuit races based in residential Elk Grove, Illinois, near Chicago. Status as a NRC event for three years running guaranteed attendance by the top teams in the US. Elk Grove is also a special race for me since I’ve raced it every year since I started racing.

The tour started with a 4.5 mile (7.2 km) time trial. I had a great warm-up, really opening up my lungs. I felt pumped waiting at the start gate and gave it my all out on course—or, at least I thought I did. It hurt anyway! But a season of slow progress and careful attention to overtaxing my limits is poor preparation for a time trial. I found that in the last kilometer, I had a lot left, which means I didn’t go hard enough in the first 6.2 kms! The result—a much slower time than I was shooting for. Time trial-specialist and newly crowned US Crit Champion Alison Powers (NOW) took the honors with the fastest time followed by Amanda Miller and then Shelley Olds, both TIBCO. The results of the stage clearly demarcated the top teams at the tour with riders from three teams (NOW, TIBCO, and Optum) dominating the top 20 positions.  

Digging deep in the prologue, aided by my KASK Bambino TT Helmet.  Photo by Jeanette Vidmar
 

By the end of Saturday’s 80 km circuit  race, time bonuses throughout the stage resulted in three riders  from three different teams being tied for the lead: Powers (NOW), Olds (TIBCO), and Joëlle Numainville (Optum). What’s more, the NRC title was still up for grabs between three riders: Powers (NOW), Olds (TIBCO), and Claudia Häeusler (TIBCO). All this made for an extremely tactical race.

With so much riding on time bonuses, especially for the finish, Saturday’s race was highly controlled. The last 3 km was a real fight for position as the big teams lined up riders at the front. I found an excellent wheel in Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Fearless Femme), moving me up with 2 km to go. Things got pretty tight and another rider moving up squeezed me into the TIBCO rider to my left, who was already against the curb. Our handlebars were lined up in a row end to end, hands touching, me in the middle. A good time to remain calm. All I could do was stay where I was. Things opened up (relatively speaking) as we rounded the final corner for the sprint and I managed a top-10 finish in 9^th. The win went to Numainville (Optum), just barely edging out Olds (TIBCO) on the line, closely followed by kiwi Joanne Kiesanowski (TIBCO) in third.

Making up space in the finish. Always easy to find Vittoria Hora Evo shoes in the bunch. Photo by Jeanette Vidmar 

 

The resulting three-way tie on GC meant an exciting day on Sunday. Sunday’s stage was 7 laps around a 10-km circuit with lots of turns. Given my start position near the back, moving up was a real challenge and I spent most of the race mid bunch, too far back to know what was happening up front. The sprints for time bonuses every other lap were a real battle. On the second sprint lap with 3 laps to go, a break of 6 riders slipped up the road. Although favorable for NOW and TIBCO, the break did not suit Optum, who put the whole team on the front to shut it down. Olds was now the virtual winner on the road, so TIBCO launched further riders to soak up the bonus seconds available on the finish, forcing NOW and Optum to chase. Although TIBCO’s efforts were thwarted, they did have the effect of wearing out riders from Optum and NOW. The final catch was at 3 km to go, leaving the tour win to be determined by the result on the line. Great work by the powerhouse  Fearless Femme team put Aussie Kimberly Wells in perfect position for the win, followed by Olds second and Nomainville third. The result secured Olds as the overall winner and moved Powers to third behind Numainville. I benefited once again from the steady wheels of Fearless Femme to help me one-up my result from Saturday for 8^th. Although I was shooting for top 5, given the struggles I’ve had through the season, I’m really happy to get two 10-top results in such a high quality field.

Cool photo of Stage 2 from Ali Engin.

 

In an interesting swap, Powers traded in her yellow jersey in the tour for the NRC jersey while TIBCO exchanged the NRC lead for the tour win, settling for second and third in the NRC—at the same time earning the title of strongest team by taking the NRC team win not to mention top team in the tour. Not sure if any of that was negotiated between the two teams, although that would be pretty challenging to orchestrate... Regardless, pretty exciting to have so much come down to the final sprint on the final stage of the final race of the series. No one can say women’s racing is boring with action like this!

Awesome job to Chicago riders Kelli Richter (PSIMET), Janette Rho (LPV), Cady Chintis (LPV), and especially newly upgraded  Ellen Ryan (xXx Racing) and Daphne Karagianis (Chicago Cuttin Crew) for excellent performances. Also, a special farewell to amazing and accomplished rider Meredith Miller (TIBCO) who used this tour to announce her retirement after 11 years of professional racing. With the yellow jersey win and team victory as part of the 2013 top US team, what a great way to end your tour racing career!

Thank you to the Alexian Brothers and Special Events Management for building the women’s tour into a better and better event each year. These guys are listening and they’re working hard towards supporting women. Thanks also to PSIMET Wheels and ENZO’s Buttonhole for being huge supporters of women’s cycling and personal sponsors and a personal thank you to Leah Sanda for host housing and to my parents for coming out to cheer me on.