After a winter of training and racing locally, finished up March with some travel to California to race San Dimas Stage Race and then Redlands Bicycle Classic.  Those 10 days were hard work, intense and overall very busy with travel, racing, team and the She Works documentary being shot.

View from the top of the TT course from San Dimas Stage Race

     I headed out with a great base of training and excited to race at San Dimas where I had a years experience on the course.  There were a couple unexpected surprises including an earthquake the first night that got my heart rate potentially higher then the TT earlier that day.  I had never been in an earthquake before, so when the blinds started shaking my first thought was that an airplane was landing/crashing on the house.  There was also the expected for this race, with a crash on the first lap of the road race to break up the field.  The crit was exciting, hard and I felt strong finishing 10^th and right behind the main sprint line.

Starla and I after the Crit from San Dimas Stage Race

After moving from our San Dimas host house to our Redlands one.  Not exactly a smooth move, as there was some misunderstanding on space for 9 women cyclist.  But we managed to relocate to a more suitable host house just outside Redlands.  Ill just say this was not the kind of stress I was looking for going into the 5 day race.  But once settled we rode the circuit and TT course to prep for racing.  It was expected to be a tough race with a high caliber range of teams and courses that would not disappoint, and it sure didn’t.  Redlands ended up being one of the hardest races I’ve been in, in terms of intensity, hard racing and constant battle.

Big Bear Lake, location of the TT for Redlands Bicycle Classic

The 14 lap circuit race was a fight each lap on a hill that even going up easy was rough on the legs and back.  The TT up at Big Bear Lake was beautiful but the cold made it difficult to breath and a hard effort after the circuit race was tough to pull out.  Beaumont Road Race was probably my favorite, 3 laps with a more gradual climb that allowed a power rider/all-arounder like me manage to stay in and finish hard.  The downtown crit was unrelenting and tested cornering, strength and sprinting every lap.  I worked near the front and around my teammate, Starla, for a while but with such a huge field and so many turns that with 8 to go being cut off which would normally not be a big deal put me back mid pack where I had to fight back to the near front.  Sunset Loop circuit race was practically decided before we even started.  As the uphill neutral pulled the heavy hitting teams to the front where the workers march their team leaders into the circuit for their best chance at making the break.  This was definitely a course for experience and either knowing where to place yourself in the midst of the strong riders, or be on one of those teams that could power their army in for the circuit battle.

I worked very hard at Redlands and after those 8 days of racing my body sure felt it.  Ideally, after this type of race its good to rest, relax, and recover.  But instead, I was in the car at 3:30am and driving 7 hours back to Tucson on Monday.  I got home and already had to start thinking about my next travel bout on Friday.  This time I was headed to Kansas City for a family event, then the Arkansas to prep for Joe Martin Stage Race.