Tour of Walla Walla - Stage Race

[SheFly]

I really need to work on my TT's, though with the course I think it will never be to my adavantage. I can climb great, but I'm too light to really rock the descents.

Nice job! Here, we are opposites - I don't climb well, but I am big, so descend really well. Were you on your TT bike? Did you stay in the aero position while climbing? I have found that sometimes, I need to come out onto the bullhorns going uphill to maintain a descent speed.

I think I probably did a lot of b!tchy sounding yelling during this race, but there were some really sketchy riders!!! One pushed me out over the center line when there was a car coming - I yelled at her a lot. Sure lines move around and its cool to try to hold the wheel of your team mate, but you should not do it if you are going to push someone over the center line!!!! Another gal was just an all around sketch ball and I wasn't the only one yelling at her, she nearly knocked me and most of me teammates over at some point in time. Someone said she was a cross racer and this might be her first road race - she was still riding as if it was cross....

Oh boy - can I relate to that! It seems that there is an inundation of new Cat 4 women this year, who don't have a CLUE about how to ride in a pack. We had a girl in my race yesterday that literally was ping-ponging off of us. She bumped me a minimum of two times! You and I should race together, Eden - sounds like we have the same approach with these types .

I finished the stage 6th and moved myself up from 18th to 9th overall. (must improve that TT!!!!)

Congrats! That is an awesome move!

We had an entriely safe race, yeah! and goal accomplished. Finished 11th in the crit and did not lose any time, so I kept my 9th overall! Top 10 in a stage race, not to bad. Now I just need to improve that darn TT....

What a GREAT finish! Congrats to you and your teammates on a great accomplishment.

SheFly

[Eden]

Nice job! Here, we are opposites - I don't climb well, but I am big, so descend really well. Were you on your TT bike? Did you stay in the aero position while climbing? I have found that sometimes, I need to come out onto the bullhorns going uphill to maintain a descent speed.
SheFly

I used my tt bike, but not the disc, since its only an 8 speed and has higher gearing than my other wheel. The TT course isn't a really steep climb - more of a steady 3-4% with a few bumps (I could almost wish for it to be steeper, better for me...). Only a few spots kick up enought to want to get out of the aeros - right around the turn around is one of the steepest spots. I was keeping an eye on my speed - a lot of the time I was up around 15-17 even on the climb - did up around 30 or better on the way back
I'd love to know what people's split times were - up to the turn around and then back down, to see if I was really losing much time on the way back. Last year it seemed pretty clear. One of the people I had caught and passed on the way up passed me back on the way down....

[mukluk]

Congratulations, I think you did really well. Sounds like so much fun!