After my Santa Fe Vacation for Christmas, Surgery and lots of trainer time, I am back in Tucson, and loving the warm weather (when it happens). It has been a weird winter. Usually I’m able to ride outside in just shorts and a shirt everyday except maybe 4 days. But this time, I’ve been wearing a jacket and leg warmers almost everyday. It sucks and isn’t so fun for training. I actually think it was warmer in December than it is now in February.

I have some great news!!! I can announce that I signed a contract with the Italian Team SERVETTO PIUMATE BELTRAMI TSA for this upcoming year!! I’m excited for the opportunity of racing in bigger UCI (international) races and to travel and really dive into European racing. In the past, I got a taste of it when I was racing there for about half the year and went to some bigger races with my team, SAS-macogep. But now, the team is fully Italian based and I’m happy to racing over there full time this year.  Below is a picture of me from the race today wearing my team uniform and holding my TT bike.

For this period of time training has been pretty difficult and demanding on me. High intensity and I am putting in lots of hours on the bike and lots of extra stuff when I am off the bike also. Like when I have some down time, the rest is taken up by making my recovery juice, meeting sponsors (which I am very happy about), updating online stuff, looking at plane tickets to Italy, and so much more. I like it, because it keeps me busy and my mind active, but it stacks up.

This weekend, (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), is the Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix! A Time Trial on Friday, Road Race on Saturday, and Criterium on Sunday. I’m excited to push myself and I feel like this is the really first bigger race and step of the year. I’m especially happy because I am actually trained for it and can push it too. Unlike last year where I was in Santa Fe at this time and just sitting on the trainer for exercises. And I struggled in races that I did later on and didn’t have the winter base that I needed. Now I am ready and can’t wait for the bigger races to come. This is just the first step forward.

Today, as it is Friday, I raced the 14 mile/ 22 km TT and didn’t like it one bit. I am not partial to Time Trials, and this out and back was not so fun for me. I placed 21^st out of 60 women, and it was a solid finish. Nothing amazing, but something solid to move forward with. I pushed myself and felt the intensity for all 34 minutes of it. I am happy with what I did and now onto my specialty , the road racing.