http://norcalcyclingnews.com/2012/05/15/general-classification-for-mariposa-womens-stage-race/

Day 1 – after a 3-hour drive from the bay area, Sara and I were excited to get on our bikes and pre-ride the 10 mile TT course.  A country road, mostly flat with a couple of hills.  We rolled out around noon in alphabetical order.  I went second and passed the woman in front of me within the first 3 miles. This gave me the impression that I was having a good ride.  Sara had a fast ride, but mentioned that some pro with a tricked out bike passed her as though she was standing still.  We later learned that this was a cat 3 woman, Amy Thornquist, an accomplished triathlete who is new to bike racing (she ended up winning the GC 19 minutes ahead of 2nd place).  Sara and I were giving each other hi-fives for our great race, but we were abruptly brought back to reality when we saw the results – 11th (Sara) and 14th (me).  Yikes, these women are fast!

Day 2 – We were fired up, ready to redeem ourselves in the 6.9 mile hill climb (average grade, 6%, with the steepest sections at the bottom and top).  There was a promenade to the bottom of the mountain.

Sara and I headed out early to get a feel for the climb and identify landmarks for the painful ascent.  We started at the bottom of a canyon on a bridge above a lake.  There was a move within the first

1/2 mile of the climb with about 3 women.  Sara decided to ride aggressively and made the second move at around 1 mile on a steep section.  She took 4 (?) girls with her.  I road at a steady, tempo pace until about mile 3 and then went all out.  I eventually caught and passed 2 women.  Sara got 6th in a sprint finish and I came in 7th, 48 seconds later.

We packed up and drove to the CR course and took a nap under a tree.

Our race didn’t start until 2pm.  The course was 9 times around a 5 mile loop that included a 1mi, 140 ft climb. There were time bonuses on the 2nd – 8th laps, as well as for 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall.  I decided that I would have to ride aggressively and go after the time bonuses in order to try and make up some time that I lost in the TT.

On the second lap I accelerated with about 500 meters to go and crossed the line first.  At the top of the hill we made a turn that led to a 2 mile fast descent.  I was thinking that this would be a good place to try and get away.  This is exactly what happened on the 3rd lap.  Erin Lamb from Helen’s cycles made a huge acceleration on the climb, I followed, and we got 1st and 2nd, as well as a gap from the field.  At the bottom of the descent, Amy Thornquist joined us, and the three of us began working together.  It was clear that these women were in a different league from me and they pulled away by the time we reached the hill on the 4th lap.  I was joined by a woman (Christina Hughes) who had left the field, and the two of us worked together (kind of) in order to keep ahead of the field.  I had a hard time getting her to work, so we slowed quite a bit, but I was able to out sprint her for the time bonuses on every lap.  I finished 3rd with a total of 37 seconds of time bonuses.  Sara won the field sprint and came in 5th.  Sara was frustrated by the slow pace of the field and the fact that she missed the break because she was blocked in.  She swore this was not going to happen to her in the RR the next day!

Day 3 – we were excited to make it to this last day, a 60 mile RR (5 times around a 12 mile hilly loop, about 5000 ft of climbing). We studied the GC order.  Sara was 6th, just 1 second behind 5th (#63), and I was 7th, 11 seconds behind Sara.  8th was over a minute behind me, so basically #63 was our mark in order to move up in the GC.

There was a 4 mile fast descent at the start, followed by a sharp righthand turn that started the climbing portion of the loop. The first 2 laps were at a comfortable pace.  At the start of the climbing section on the 3rd lap, Christina Hughes (4th in GC) made an acceleration that was matched by about 8 women, including Sara (she was well positioned and had no problem staying with the break).  I was at the back of the breakaway and fell off shortly after, worried that I wouldn’t be able to hold their pace for the remaining 35 miles.

Sara will have to fill us in on what happened in the break – in short, Amy Thornquist road away finishing something like 8 minutes ahead.

The remaining women in the break worked well together and didn’t drop anyone (there was one flat, though).  After I was dropped from the lead group, two women from the field caught me (including #63).  They seemed tired and were breathing heavy.  I knew that I could not lead

#63 around the course, so I accelerated on a roller and was able to drop the two woman fairly easily.  I ended up time trialing the remaining 25 miles of the race (a little anti-climatic, but at least the course was beautiful and had almost no traffic).  Sara finished with the lead group (minus the GC leader, Amy) in a field sprint and I came in 7th, about 90 seconds ahead of #63, phew!

All in all, a fantastic weekend of competitive racing!  The weather was fabulous the entire weekend – in the low 80′s and sunny, only slightly breezy.  We clocked about 200 miles, including warm up/cool down miles.  Sara finished 5th and I finished 7th in the GC.  We are already thinking about next year and hope to get more of you out there with us!

Lesley

Photo coming soon!

Name:  Aaron Jeffrey

When did you become part of TRGR: Four hours prior to the TRGR party in March 2012

As a TRGR rider, what are your strengths/assets: I like to have fun with cycling and not take it too seriously. My best asset is, when I lose 25 lbs… you better hold my wheel or you will be riding home solo.

Favorite Rio dish: Chicken and steak nachos

How do you like your Rio Marg: Shaken not stirred

When did you become part of TRGR?

As a TRGR rider, what are your strengths/assets?

Favorite Rio dish?

How do you like your Rio Marg?

What’s your TRGR nickname?

Who’s your cycling idol?

St. Croix 70.3 is one of the toughest 70.3 triathlons on the planet, as it is characterized by very steep climbs (i.e. “The Beast” which is a relentless 1 mile climb that includes inclines as much as 23%!), fierce headwinds, and high humidity and brutal Caribbean heat!  It’s my favorite kind of race!  Little did we know…we would be tackled with additional challenges of heavy rains, flooded out streets, and mud and gravel all over the technically challenging roads.

The day started out nice with a nice 3-mile ride to the start with my hubby Dean and our roommate and fellow MAO athlete, Ian.  Not long after our arrival to the start, the rain started.  We got our transition gear set up and jumped in the water to head to the start on the little island off shore.  It was a brutal and cold 1 hour until the start of my wave, so I hovered in the warm bathroom most of the time until just before the start.  We were the very last wave and a pretty large group of all women 45 and up with a small start area, but everyone was pretty cordial and the contact was minimal.  I mostly swam solo the whole way and felt quite good throughout the swim.  When I arrived in transition, a few bikes had left ahead of me, but I was happy with my position.  I headed out of transition with my shoes attached to my pedals and ended up running through some soft mud, so was ecstatic that I didn’t have my shoes on yet as I know the cleats would be totally non-functional had I packed them with mud.  The bike was incredibly wet, rainy, and technical, so there were lots of minor casualties on the roads (i.e. lots of people with road rash and tons of flats!).  I pushed pretty hard on the bike and felt comfortable despite the brutal and wet conditions and ended up first off the bike for all master women.  It was my first experience putting running socks and shoes on over feet covered in mud!  I could only laugh as I tried to wipe my feet on the grass while putting on my socks in transition.

I got rolling on the run and felt pretty decent.  I pushed hard as I knew the competition wouldn’t be too far behind.  My first glimpse of them was at mile 6…the turnaround for loop 2 of the run.  I spotted a gal in my age group only 3 minutes behind me and was pretty worried that I would be caught by the end of the 13.1 miles.  My mantra was push as hard a possible on the downhills and stay out of site (and out of mind) for the girls chasing behind.  It was deceivingly hot despite the cloud cover and I spotted a girl ahead seize up with a leg cramp.  I decided to stop and give her some of my salt tabs as I had plenty and I thought a good deed might provide that little extra karma I needed!  In the final few miles I was so positive I would be caught (I was caught in this same race in 2008 with only 200 meters to go and lost my Kona slot), that I was pulling myself inside out to stay ahead.  Every woman I saw behind me I assumed was in my age group and I did everything in my power to stay ahead.  In the end it turns out I had a 3 minute lead on 2^nd place and I was able to cross the finish line in 1^st place, securing my spot to Kona this October.  Whew!  I can’t remember ever working so hard at the end of a race!  Well worth it on yet another fun and challenging day in St. Croix!

As lap four (three hours in) began I started to feel strange twitching and quivering sensations in my legs.  I started to worry about cramping, but tried to push the thought away.  By the middle/end of lap four the cramps were definitely coming on.  I thought I had been drinking enough, but clearly had not.  I had a hydration pack, and I was drinking as much as I could from water bottle hand-ups at the aid station each lap.  It was getting pretty hot, and the white sandy pebbles on the back side of the course were like the surface of Mars.  Somewhere at the end of lap four Julie overcooked a turn and washed out and I had to gap her.  In lap five my mantra was DRINK!  It was so hard because by this point my electrolyte mix and gels were like sickly sweet, salty liquid hot magma.  It was hard to balance the need to drink with the nausea it was causing.  The cramps were kind of coming in waves each time I made an effort up one of the climbs.  I focused on visualizing the electrolytes replenishing my muscles; being a scientist this was a pretty elaborate delirious fantasy involving transport of ions across cell walls, but it kept my mind occupied.  Would this race ever end? Near the end of lap five a poorly timed pass by another rider caused me to stall out and put a foot down.  Stopping caused me to completely seize up, not just one muscle group, but ALL of them, both legs.  Julie came by just then and saw me doubled over scream-moaning in agony.  She asked if she could help, and I told her to go on.  Getting back on my bike and spinning was the only thing that actually helped the cramps subside.  I didn’t think I could finish.  As I came through the start/finish area at the end of lap five, I saw Colin (he had DNF’d after 3 laps with back spasms) and told him I thought maybe I should quit.  He gave me a bottle and told me to do what I could, and I rolled on through.

As I started lap six I adopted a new mantra, JUST FINISH.  I didn’t think I could make it another 10 miles.  I was consoled by the thought that all the Pros would be finishing behind me and I would be able to ride relatively peacefully without being passed.  Not so—just then they started the XC and Half Marathoners and they rushed up on me.  It seemed like there were hundreds of them, and they were all twitchy and agro.  The bottlenecking was so frustrating.  At one point on the longest climb of the course a group of three riders in front of me got in each others way causing them all to stop and I swear a fist fight nearly ensued.  So many times as one of them executed a piss poor pass I wanted say “Dude, your in 53^rd place, you’re not going to win, so stop nearly taking people out with your lame passing skills”.  But that would have required too much extra energy expenditure, so I pedaled on.  JUST FINISH.  I have to say that the Pros were universally courteous (as well as extremely deft) when they passed, which is probably because they’re, well, professionals.

The cramps were subsiding somewhat, but I was completely delirious in lap six.  I was on a seemingly endless loop of torture.   2-3 more of my age groupers passed me.  I rode slowly, I spun. JUST FINISH.  I really wasn’t sure I was going to finish until I crested the steepest climb of the course about four miles from the end.  Then it was really an out of body experience.  When I came across the line I was simultaneously crying with pain and laughing with the joy of finishing.  Colin said he’s never seen me look that bad at the end of a race.  The mind is sometimes much stronger than the body.  I was pretty sick the rest of the day/night.  Anyway, I finished in 2^nd place of my age group (out of three) and just two minutes behind Julie.

At this point I’m pretty worried about how I’m gonna make it through Leadville (40 miles longer and higher elevation) in August….
Cheers,
Tracy

As for today…I had a decent day on the Koppenberg and wound up getting 4^th…which isn’t bad considering that as I was warming up, I thought I might be in a bit of trouble, because my legs felt like someone had flipped the switch to OFF.  It felt a little better when I lined up and saw Eric, Rich, and Chris would be there to suffer with me (even saving a spot…which I couldn’t get to…but thanks anyway guys).  For the first couple laps, I rode smart and stayed out of the wind, and on the back stretch was in the lead group with about 20+ guys.  I don’t know if he felt like he owed me something from last week or what, but several times throughout the race Eric Thompson looked back to make sure I was where I needed to be and even let me sit on his wheel through several long sections, protecting me from the wind.  With his help running damage control, we finished the climb for the final time, and I was in the front with 3 other guys.  I didn’t have anything left to contest the sprint at the end though…so 4^th was all there would be for today.

The biggest thing I took from today was this:  I can’t even begin to say how much it meant to have teammates racing with me (of which we had all 4 in the top 20…sick).  I never would have had the strength to finish as strong as I did if it weren’t for the efforts and attentiveness that came from Eric.  There is no doubt in my mind that knowing he was looking after me gave me just enough to hang on and make that last effort to stay in the front today.  It all made me realize how Trevor was right when he told us to make sure we don’t register under the name “Rio Grande”…and today I definitely knew I was racing for “Team Rio Grande”.

http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_20524295

In 1999, the Rio’s passion for the Colorado lifestyle, together with their commitment to “love thy community,”
led to the formation of Team Rio Grande Racing—

The Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant is a sanctuary from the everyday — where good things come in three… seriously good mexican food, fun and margaritas Everyone needs a healthy escape ever y now and then. The Rio was built on the simple promise of providing that little bit of sanctuary – any time you need it. It all began in 1986, when the town of Fort Collins was hungry for some good Mexican food and really thirsty for a decent margarita. Three guys from the Texas Gulf Coast served up something special, and that tradition continues today with six great Colorado locations – each having a flavor all its own. Throughout, our people have always been our secret ingredient. Treating each other well is our way of life. Delivering wholesome food and a wholesome workplace is the best way to ensure enthusiastically satisfied customers. And sharing the flavors we’ve experienced along the way is always the start of a good thing. So cheers. Enjoy our many adventures in Mexico, the recipes we’ve discovered, and of course, the legendary Rio Marg. We hope you’ll agree that it’s the best dang margaritas and Mexican food this side of the Rio Grande – together with an atmosphere that makes you forget why you needed a getaway in the first place.

Rio Food

There’s Mexican food. And there’s seriously good Mexican food – the kind that combines natural ingredients, the freshest produce, and unique flavors for a taste all its own. That’s what you get at The Rio. We make all of our food from scratch right in our own kitchens daily. Because who can have fun without seriously good food? We truly believe that good, natural ingredients make everything better. It’s why we use 100-percent Angus-certified steak and wholesome chicken raised on family farms in our tacos, burritos, and fajitas. Why our fresh-made tortillas have just three natural ingredients. And it’s why we use only good, healthy black beans – the perfect alternative to refried pinto beans. And there’s so much more. In fact, we get practically all our ingredients locally, because farm-freshness tastes way better than canned and frozen. We’re not just any Mexican restaurant. We’re The Rio, where good things always start with seriously good food.

Rio Margaritas
Some only need one, others two, but the limit is tres… At The Rio, we feel the last ingredient for making everything better is the perfect margarita – served frozen or on the rocks. That’s our tradition, and the secret recipe for our marg has become the stuff of legend. Maybe because we’ve found just the right combination of tequila, salt, and lime – and coupled that with the perfect scene for a memorably fun experience? Perhaps because three is the magic number? Whatever the reason, please kick back, escape from it all, and enjoy a deliciously legendary Rio margarita.

Visit the Rio Online:

World Class Care for All Athletes

The Boulder Center for Sports Medicine is a dream fulfilled for Andrew Pruitt, Ed.D., PA.  As an elite athlete and a medical professional, he realized that elite athletes were able to gain access to superior medical care.  As a result, they stayed healthier and recovered from injuries faster and easier than everyday athletes.

Andy’s dream was to build a center where elite athletes and active people of all ages and abilities could benefit from a multidisciplinary team of professionals working together to provide each patient with the best care available.

The Boulder Center for Sports Medicine is designed to emulate an Olympic Training Center.  It is a member of the US Olympic Committee’s Sports Medicine Rehabilitation Network.

Visit Boulder Center For Sports Medicine online:

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