San Dimas Stage 2 - Jo on the podium!

Whoah, my legs certainly didn't like that! Today was stage 2 of the San Dimas Stage Race, with about 70 women lining up for the 56mile road course (8 x 7mile lap). It was sunny and warm, about 27 degree Celsius. The course was a technical enough course around Bonelli Park, with one climb and kind of a long drag on the other side ends. Where the roads were wide they were bumpy, and on the climb they were narrower, but both nothing in comparison to Ireland. All big American teams had representation, including Lululemon, NOW & Novartis, Exergy, Optum, and of course Team TIBCO!

The speed wasn't too fast in the first lap, but then, on the descent of the drag, a crash happened on the bumpy roads, about 10 people down with yellow in it. All my teammates and I avoided it, but it essentially neutralized the race somewhat for teams waiting for their teammates and yellow to catch back on. This in turn meant that we were going to be caught by another group racing on the course, which delayed any decent action ever further as we had to let them pass. Finally, from about lap 3 there was a bit more action and attacks. Even I found myself off the front in a short-lived break one time. But for most of the race I was really just getting used to racing again, this being my first road race since July last year!

Then, on the 6th lap, my legs started cramping up, and calves and knees started locking up completely. There was nothing I could do but ease off and let the peloton go. I had 2 laps to go and the time cut was 5% of the winning time, so I just nursed myself to the finish as gingerly but as fast as possible to make the time cut. I made it, so I can race the crit tomorrow. But the real reason for celebration was for Jo: when I had finally finished, I was super happy to find out that my teammate Joanne had come 3rd on the stage! :) Go Team TIBCO!

First day of racing with my new team TIBCO!

Alright, so much has happened since my last update!

After the race debacle in Chambery my guest team returned back to Limoux, coinciding with the arrival of some of the European contingent of Team TIBCO. I was very happy to meet my new teammates Rushlee, Jasmin and Sam, who have been flying the flag high in the tough European Spring Classics. All the girls are super nice and still so young, but so experienced! It was great to spend some time with my teammates before I was flying to the US. The girls were stopping over in Limoux between races and my earliest flight back to Dublin was on Friday. I was lucky that Chris could give me a bike to train on, so at least I could keep training. The area around Limoux is absolutely beautiful, so I went exploring a bit. Unfortunately the weather turned from jersey and shorts to thermal gloves and shoe covers within a day and I found myself nearly blown off the top of a mountain in gale force winds and snow and when I started descending, the road turned into forest track, but I didn't really care as I was nearly dying of hypothermia at that stage...... I decided to go home the flat route instead of back over the mountain.....

Beautiful old stone houses in Limoux

Anyhow, after Limoux, I had a short stopover in Dublin, where I spend time washing and repacking and getting everything organized for my stay in the US. I even managed to squeeze in a mountain bike race in polar conditions on Paddy's Day, the last round of the Biking Blitz, which took place just on top of my mtb home training ground (it was the race or indoor threshold intervals, so the choice was easy). The weather was so bad that all road races around Dublin had been cancelled, and I didn't have a road bike anyway, so I was lucky this one still went ahead. I hadn't ridden my mtb in a long time, but I had a blast and really enjoyed the race. I was killing it on the climbs and taking it easy on the descents, as I had a flight to catch at 7am the next morning. And I nearly made it only the men's podium!

Having fun on the mtb before starting my road season with Team TIBCO (photo by Action Pictures Ireland)

On Monday morning I joined the long, hungover, post-paddy's day queues to get out of Dublin airport. One queue after another and they had already closed my flight after I had made it through snailpace security, but I wasn't the only one missing the flight, so they waited around for another few peeps to make it on. Same story in London, my Kindle got me into trouble at security and I nearly missed my connecting flight. After a long and uneventful flight I arrived in LAX, where the queues were just as crazy as I started with in Dublin. Finally I made it out, waiting outside for my husbands uncle, who was waiting inside.... we found each other eventually.

My new race machine is awesome! (It's got my training wheels on)

At his home my team bike was already awaiting me in a big box. I built it up the next day, eagerly wanting to try it out. It's my first Fuji bike and my first time with Ui2. What I didn't know is that for transport some of the cables of the electric shifting had been disconnected, so I couldn't shift and was stuck in one gear only! A trip to the bike shop and some explanation of how to use this cool piece of kit and I could finally go exploring on my cool new bike! I went to recce the TT stage of the San Dimas Stage Race, just up the hill on the Glendora Mountain Road, enjoying the weather and the amazing views over Los Angeles.

Grounding in the lake in Bonelli Park - until the coast guards told me off!

On Wednesday I went to do some more intervals up the TT course, to open up my legs after the long haul flight. On Thursday, I rode around the road stage of the SDSR, a nice technical course around Bonelli Park. The weather has been absolutely beautiful here and I've been cooling off my legs in the lake of Bonelli Park. And on Thursday I relocated to our host family who are kindly hosting me and my three teammates for the SDSR, in a beautiful house right beside the road course. So I finally met three more awesome teammates, Meredith, Amanda and Jo, all super experienced and decorated riders, so I knew I was in good hands.

I could imagine a worse workplace

Today was the first stage of the SDSR, the 6.84km uphill TT (384m of climb) up Glendora Mountain Road. The sun was beaming down, and here I was now, in this beautiful place, racing for one of the best pro-teams, living the dream, standing at the start line of my first race with the team this year. Wow, just a little overwhelming and I struggled to get into the right frame of mind for the pain of the TT. Well, I tried the best I could, staying conservative at the start, and probably a little too conservative as well at the end, I think I left too much in the tank, but hey, there's always room for improvement, right? I finished 13th, 0.3secs off 11th, 1min 50 off the winning time.

Tomorrow I have a 56mile road race, looking forward to it!

False start in the GP de Chambery

My first race as a "pro"..... didn't last long. And it all started so well. After a 7 hour drive from Limoux, the team who kindly allowed me to guest with (Languedoc-Roussillon) arrived in Chambery on Saturday, the day before the race. After 3 practice laps on the 8km course we were all set and settled down for a nice dinner in our road side hotel. A long and lazy morning followed, trying to delay breakfast in the hotel for as long as possible, as the race was only to start at 13:30. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny and the bunch lined up at the startline. However, only a couple of km into the neutral start we had the first crash in the bunch. I narrowly avoided going down, able to stop in time, unhook my bike from the melee and chase. Further down the hill we waited for everyone to get back on. The next bit I tried my best to get further towards the front, but then, on a corner, there was crash number two (or three), featuring me and another girl. I'm not quite sure what happened, there was a bit of a wobble, but somehow a girl got her foot stuck between my rear wheel and rear triangle, breaking the rear triangle in 3 places and a few spokes and bringing herself down. I didn't even fall, so there were no injuries on my part. The girl was screaming her lungs out in pain, so I thought oh god, hospital for her, but as soon as we freed her foot out of my bike she hopped back on her bike and carried on. And I was left standing stupid with a broken bike. That was it for me. Race over. Pretty bummed. I heard there were about 5 crashes in the race, with 4 in the first lap. What a start into my pro-cycling career. But what can I say, it can only get better, right?

J'ai arrive a la France!

Et oui! Et il fait beau, et j'ai mange de crepe, et j'ai vue les Pyrenees!

Well, my pro-cycling adventure has started today. After some frantic last minute packing last night, I took an early morning Ryanair flight into France (Carcassonne) today to take part in a French race, the GP de Chambery on Sunday. I'm staying in beautiful Limoux, in a beautiful house and I've already fallen in love with this place. I'm being taken care of really well by Chris, who picked me up at the airport and who brought me and a number of Lithuanian juniors on a little training ride today in the beautiful sunshine and warm air (no arm warmers!). Chris also runs a cycling holiday company here with his wife - definitely a place to be consider to go if you like the good French life, a huge network of quiet country roads, a great choice of hills, castles and lots of cute French stonehouse villages with central plazas and cafes, good cheese and wine..... Ryanair flies to Carcassonne, which is really close, and you can see the ancient walled stonetown from the airplane. Carcassonne airport is also probably the tiniest airport I've ever seen!

Training this winter had been going really well in Gran Canaria, one of my favourite winter training destinations, although I felt that I'd been training blind since November, as my powertap wheel had been sent off to get fixed and I only just got it back. (How do people train without one these days???) I haven't done any testing yet, but Ryan thinks I'm riding better than ever - I hope he's right, my legs today didn't feel great, but then they never do after a flight.

After super training in GC I went back to Ireland for two weeks to tidy up some loose ends (like printing and binding and handing in the final hardbound copy of my thesis) and of course I got floored by the flu (the "real" flu!). This somewhat derailed my perfect stretch of training, and I'm still trying to get rid of the cough now, but hey, in the big picture it's really just a minor hiccup.

I'm staying in France for the whole week (mainly because I couldn't find other cheap flights that worked), then 2 days in Ireland and then I'm off to the States, where I will take part in my first race with my new team, the San Dimas Stage race. Tomorrow is an early start to drive up to Chambery where we will stay overnight for the race on Sunday.

For now I say bon nuit as I'm tired after this long and exciting day!

It's official!

I'm really excited to be riding for Team TIBCO this year. Here's the press release: http://www.teamtibco.com/archives/3703

Chancing it at the CX Champs

I had just signed up to the CX Champs. I have no real CX experience or racing fitness, let alone a CX bike. But I thought I'd chance it anyway.

Step 1: Get CX bike.

Ryan has a CX bike. Not exactly the right fit (XL!), the cranks and bottom bracket need changing, the stem needs changing, wheels need to be set up with suitable cassette and CX tires. Ryan's in Gran Canaria. Mel has no idea of bottom brackets or cranks, or crank removal tools. 3hours of YouTube, manuals, rummaging in the bike room for the right tools and a few skype calls for remote mechanical advice from Ryan and I had a bike. Still a bit big (I can barely stand flat on the ground when standing over the top tube), but I got a working CX bike (and a proud Mel for having learned how to change cranks and BBs!). Done!

(I had also send out a tweet and some very kind people offered me their bikes (thanks guys!) on short notice, so I even had a 2nd bike, the correct size, which I picked up the night before the champs from Liam).

Step 2: Lean CX skills.

I took out Ryan's bike into Marley Park for an hour the day before the race and practiced hopping on and off and carrying the bike. Done!

Step 3: Race

It was a typical miserable Irish winter's day. Grey and wet and cold.

I just about managed to get in a practice lap before the course was closed. I had not arranged for a helper (until the night before I thought I would only have one bike) and the bike wash was busy, so I couldn't clean the bike before the race. My plan was to leave Ryan's bike in the tech zone and ride Liam's bike first. A good few women lined up and we were set off with the Vets and the juniors. My biggest competition was Fran Meehan, who was well prepared and well supported and had raced the CX league this winter. Our race was 5 laps. My mtb skills helped a lot on the technical corners and I was going hard, so I was leading for the first half of the race, but Fran was never far behind me. Then my bike got so clogged up I needed a bike change. Fran had just overtaken me before the tech zone and gotten a swift bike change herself from her helper. I went into the tech zone, but they had reorgnized the bikes and I couldn't see Ryan's bike at first. I lost time locating Ryan's bike, putting Liam's bike out of harms way and retrieving Ryan's bike from behind other bikes and changing over my Garmin. By the time I got going again, Fran had disappeared. I tried to make up the time, but it was tough going on the deteriorating ground. The racing effort also slowly took its toll on me and I was getting tired. Ryan's bike clogged up in no time on the grassy muddy ground and I had to stop a few times just freeing the crank and wheels of grass and mud. I felt I was fighting against the bike as much as against the ground, while Fran was increasing her gap. I knew in the last lap that I wouldn't be able to catch her again and saw no woman behind me, so I took it a bit easier on the last lap, rolling in for a good 2nd place.

Reflection:
Having a support person in the tech zone is a must. I wish I could have had another bike change for the last lap. Fran rode a good race. I had no idea what to expect, but I'm happy with the result considering the minimal preparation and my current form. And it's a good sign for the increasing level of competition in women's racing that I can't just turn up to a race like this and win.

OLH 17:45

OLH - only riders in Northern California commonly know the meaning of those three letters. OLH stands for Old La Honda, the most popular climb on Strava. Nearly 5000 Strava members have ridden this segment over 33,000 times, and over 500 of them are female. It's pretty cool then that both my husband and I are currently holding the male and female Strava records on this climb.

Climbing Tunitas

Here are some of its statistics:

Distance: 4.9km
Avg Grade: 8.1%
Elevation difference: 395m
Climb Category: 2

The first time I went up this climb was in 2010, when I visited California for the first time to get in a good block of winter training. Ryan convinced me to go for the QOM on OLH and on one of my last days over there I went for it. All I can remember was that it was very painful. My time was 19:24, I beat the record.

Then, last year, a Swedish ultra-cyclist (Catherina Berge) took the crown from me, improving the QOM by a full 20 seconds to 19:04. I was over in California again in 2011, but couldn't get myself into the right frame of mind to try to regain the crown (it hurts, you know!).

Now a tradition, I came over to the US again in November 2012. I had just submitted my PhD thesis two weeks before travelling. I had been three months off the bike to get the thesis finished before my submission deadline. I had become fat and unfit. And sick. I had been on a whirlwind trip involving four flights, a wedding in London, a gala dinner back in Dublin before taking an early morning flight back to London for a connecting long-haul to SFO, very little sleep and a bad cold before collapsing on a bed after arriving in California. I was determined to get my training in and suffered through it. I wasn't lucky with tropical storms making training very wet outside when I was just back in health and a 24hour stomach bug flooring me yet again. Finally, in the last week of my 3 week stay good health and good weather coincided and I could enjoy a super week of riding.

Still fat and only a little fitter, trying to regain my OLH crown this year was not really on my radar. I was also riding quite a lot in the last 2 days before we were due to fly back home (about 9 hours), so I just thought "another time". Instead I thought I might try to break the HWY 9 record - a rather long and shallow drag with the help of Ryan's draft. But then Ryan just said the night before we were due to fly: "Mel, you're not doing HWY9 tomorrow, you're doing Old la honda." And as soon as he had put that little voice in my head that I may actually be able to break the record, my mind was set. I had a good nights sleep and thought about OLH, visualizing the pain I'd have to endure to get up it. I have learned a lot the last few weeks about pain and suffering, not in an injury sense, but in a training sense (more on that in a future blog post), and was ready to take the suffering a record attempt would surely bring.

Tired, but happy

As soon as I opened my eyes the next morning I was focussed and in the zone. I had breakfast, got ready and rode to the base of OLH, doing my usual pre-race warm-up. The weather was beautiful and warm and the wind conditions favourable. I met Ryan at the bottom of the hill and purged my pockets and my bike of all unnecessary weight, leaving my bottles, saddle bag and extra clothing at the bottom of the hill. Ryan was going to be my pacer. Before we went off, he asked me if I wanted him to go conservatively or for a good time - I said as long as I see an 18 something, even 18:59, I'd be happy. And so we went off. Went off very, very easy. That easy that I was getting a bit worried after a couple of minutes: "Ryan, are you OK?" I asked, because I didn't think we were going fast enough to break the record, I didn't feel any pain! He just told me to trust him. And so we went on, slowly. I had prepared myself for all this sufferage, but none of it had manifested so far. About 9min and halfway into the climb, Ryan started to speed up. Finally a bit of pain! Now I was getting a bit more confident that I might be able to make it. But I didn't want to be distracted and only concentrated on Ryan's rear wheel. Slowly the pain was seeping into my body, but it was still very manageable. Slowly Ryan upped his pace, more and more the closer we came to the top. I was finally in a state of acceptable suffering and concentrated on being able to bear it. The meters went by and the speed kept going up and up and up. And before long we entered the last couple hundred meters and I flew past the mailboxes, just able to remember to stop my Garmin. 17:45! No way!

Got the Fred Tattoo to prove it!

I looked at my HR profile after and could see I went really high. I could not believe that I was able to go so hard and that I only needed to suffer really for the second half of the climb. Ryan later said he paced me on a really negative split, which seemed to work really well. I love being in the zone!

I was very happy with that time, especially considering my condition and recent time off the bike. Statistical estimates suggest that drafting counts for roughly 10-15 seconds. But what I think was the real advantage to having Ryan there was his pacing. It takes a lot of confidence and constraint to go into a record attempt with such a negatively paced split.

I just noticed that there's a new 2nd place on this segment - nice to see more riders testing themselves on this climb (and I'm glad Ryan paced me for a faster time than an 18:59)!