Stage 1 - It's official...

... my teammate Jo is a super stud! I mean total machine. What was a tough day for me seemed like a Sunday stroll for her.
Stage 1 was crazy. The start was two laps around Shawnigan Lake School. Both laps saw half the field pulling grass out of their derailleurs after each pass though an unmowed field. The Trek team broke two derailleurs. Because we were the lucky ones, Jo and I hit the single track ahead of a lot the top teams- ones that included Katie Compton, Tinker Juarez, Tim and AJ, and even Barry Wicks. It was crazy.
The single track was epic and challenging. So challenging that i endo'd and unknowingly lost my bottle of Accelerade and electrolyte pills. So much for my race nutrition plan. The day would get tougher as i struggled to properly hydrate and fight off cramps. It was ultra frustrating being such a weak link. The day was extremely hot. Jo was the hero today. After the screaming descent off the mountain unaffected by the heat she set tempo and pulled the final 20k. We or i should say she mowed down team after team. It was so impressive that a guy from a men's team hanging onto us asked her "who are you?" I was so hurting the last 5k just hanging on for dear life. I think i had the face of death. We finished respectably in 5:54. We think that might be top ten. Time to eat and recover. Tomorrow is a long day at 125k.


From CyclingNews.com, the caption read "Some riders chose to walk this section." And there is Jo and I walking among those "some riders." Call me a wuss, but it was actually lot steeper than it looks from the pic and there was no benefit to riding it -other than to show off - riders were off their bikes at the bottom and clogging the singletrack. Photo by David Silver.