I love starting my season with a Stage race. Not only is the stage race format a great way to see achieve fitness and training from racing, but it’s like a crash course in remember all the ins and outs of performance. 

Across the 4 day race I am testing out new warm ups that I hope to use all season long, as well as race nutrition, fuel, recovery, equipment prep and more! I love that on Stage 1 things feel a bit clunky and by Stage 4 it feels like we have it down to a science and we’re back rolling like a well-oiled machine. 

Stage 1: 28 KM Time Trial 

A short and spicy time trial is a rude awakening to the season, but it’s exactly what’s needed. At this point, the hour-long effort nearly feels like a sprint and that’s exactly how I started out the start.

Full gas down the boardwalk by the beach and across the twisty-turny rocky path by the ocean. Having not felt “race-pace” yet this season and with all those off-season jitters coming out in full force, I may have over paced it just a hair. Half way through the time trial I was over a minute ahead of my pace from last year, about 45 minutes in the alarm bells were ringing. I finished up the hour-long TT in 6^th place. It wasn’t the position I hoped for, but the times were tight and less than a minute from the podium meant that I was still very much in the fight for the overall. 

Stage 2: 61 KM

Stage 2 I arrived on a mission. I knew I belonged at the front, and now, with the first marathon stage on the docket, it was time to prove it. 

The race started fast, but I felt calm. I felt ready for anything. Sometimes you can just tell when you have “it” and it was one of those days. 

I entered the first singletrack leading the group and about 20 minutes into the race, I heard the dreaded noise. *Hsssss* I had hit a rock and blown my tire. It went flat nearly immediately and I pulled over to the side of the trail. Hands shaking, and speaking out loud to myself, I said, “I can do this. I can still catch the group. Here we go.” The camera man was filming me as I plugged my tire once and aired it up only for it to go flat again right away. Another plug, another shot of Co2. No luck. Now the men who started behind us were starting to pass and through the noise of their wheels and hubs, I carefully plugged my tired one more time and pushed my ear to the hole only to hear it escaping bit by bit. 

Now I was at a loss. Debating putting a tube in, I looked at my COROS DURA. It said 8 miles to the tech zone. I decided to go. I rode the next 8 miles through rocks, singletrack, 20 percent gradients and everything in between on a flat tire with just an insert cushioning the rim. The language barrier felt the highest at this moment as people went flying by me, saying something in Spanish, and pointing at my wheel. I just keep nodding with a bit of a broken smile. 

By the time I reached the tech zone I had mentally prepared for the chase. In stage racing, it’s not just about your result on that day, it’s about minimizing damages so you can come back tomorrow. I raced the next 3 hours in an all-out do or die fashion. I picked off as many people as I could and I crossed the line in 11^th. I had my work cut out for me tomorrow. 

Stage 3: 82 KM (Queen Stage)

I felt pretty restless after stage 2. I had a lot to prove now in Stage 3. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. 

When the trail started to kick upward in Stage 3, the fight was on. Rosa, the current GC leader, and I immediately took the lead. However, at the same time, we all got swarmed by the amateur men overtaking us right as the trail turned into a technical and shale-rock double track climb. It was absolute chao as we navigated through the groups, as I fixed my eyes on the bright yellow leader’s jersey just up ahead. 

We rode together for quite some time until we attempted to pass a man and he came back over across the trail before I made it by. He caught my bars and sent me off the trail. I had to pull my bike back onto the trail, reclip in, and accelerate again. It didn’t cost me a ton of time, but it was enough. The race was split. 

From there it was a game of chase. I kept Rosa in my sights for over an hour as I questioned how such a small amount of distance could seem so vast to jump across. 

I pulled inward as I remembered that every second I gained on those behind me would count toward my comeback in the overall GC. It was a relentless pursuit and I finished the day in a hard-fought 2^nd place. I was back and I felt like I had proved to myself what I needed. Now all eyes were on the final day. 

Stage 4: 56 KM

Lining up for the final day, nerves were high. I knew that in pursuit of moving up in the GC, the pace was up to me to set. I had to make it hard from the start. 

I let the initial attacks fly, and as things started to settle in, I took a deep breath and went to the front. Time to turn the screws.

By the top of the first 5 mile climb, it was once again just Rosa and me entering the descent together. The rocky and technical descent was an absolute blast. The SCOTT Spark performed flawlessly as it skipped over the big boulders with ease. I had to hold myself back on several occasions from yelling “Weeeee” as we flew down the trail together!

After the major descent, Rosa and I exited the trail together and I took a look back. No one else in sight. I sat on the front for a long time thinking that it was up to me to set that pace because I was the one who needed the time in the GC. Before the next major descent, however, Rosa sent an attack. Game on! 

It was an absolutely blast over the next 15 miles attacking and counter attacking each other. It felt like competition at its finest. Full respect for each other’s strengths and a desire to push each other to the limit to see who would fold first. To me, this is racing at it’s best. 

The final attack was with less than a mile to go when Rosa burst around me. I immediately hopped on her wheel. To be honest, I thought in that moment that I would win it, because now she was stuck leading the sprint. 

In the final meters of the race, I wound up for an attack, started to come around the side, and was greeted by about a 12-inch log that we needed to jump. We both did without issue, but I was way over-geared coming out of it since I had just dumped the cassette to attack. I stomped on the pedals to get back up to speed, but we were so well matched that even the smallest mistake would be the deciding factor. I finished 2^nd, just a second behind. 

Rosa and I hugged at the finish and congratulated each other. I heard her tell her crew how hard the day was. It put a smile on my face. We made each other better and I think we’ll both be better all season because of it. 

After stage 2, I thought my hopes of any GC result were pretty dashed but my strong performance in Stage 3 and 4 elevated me back to 4^th in the overall. 

I’m happy with the result, but more than anything I am so very happy with all that we accomplished in the last 4 days. We overcame nerves, jitters, and mechanicals in Stage 1 and 2 to find my flow and fight in Stage 3 and 4. That is exactly what I came here for. Mission accomplished!