The Giant Show

Despite losing a few members at the last minute, I think it's safe to say that the Giant team came away with a successful weekend of racing down in Walla Walla, Washington. I won't lie, I'm tired and I would totally prefer to be out on my bike, but instead I'm at work (procrastinating) and thinking about the weekend. We originally thought that we were going to be heading down with a beefy team, but lost Claire on Wednesday (luckily we found her - ha ha, I'm funny - and tired can't you tell?) as she had a work commitment, and poor Leah came all the way down (8 hour drive) only to come down with a yucky tummy flu and become well acquainted with various sleeping areas (we missed her out on the road) - so we were down to the trio of Alena, Lisa and myself. That having been said, despite the smaller numbers, we definitely made an impression on the race.
So I've chosen to give a quick recap of Saturday's Roadrace. The course was 100km in length and started out with a 3km neutral climb. But let's be honest, a climb's a climb - Lisa even pointed out that her heart rate was 172 going up it - so it wasn't all that easy. The next climb was of similiar length at about km 20, but it rolled easier (and we stopped for a pee break near the bottom which made the ascent generally easier - unless you are me and the very last person to get the bibs back up and have to chase a little). The pack stayed in tact and the three of us did a little animation, but nothing really stuck. There was a sprint in town for a $25 dollar prime that I took going into the base of the climb - so that was fun.
The second time up the big hill (first time racing) was at tempo until the final few hundred meters when the QOM points factored in. At this point, I would like to mention that I, Jenny Trew, ended up 5th in the QOM competition - rather happy with myself ;) I digress, but the group made it back together and Lisa decided that it was time to make it a race. She attacked and despite multiple NRC podiums last year - everyone just let her go. She was away for 30km or so and when she got back Alena and I took at stab at it, before Lisa went again and I heard a girl in the pack mutter "REALLY?", but this time she was pulled back and on the next rotation of attacks, Alena got away. Again, the pack didn't really react and she was out front for the next 35 minutes - we put the radios to good use trying to motivate her, but alas the pack was too eager to get to the base of the climb in a clump and we gobbled her up about 200m up the pitch.
With both of the other girls having had their cracks at long breakaways, the 3km finishing climb was all me - talk about responsibility! :P We started hard, but manageable as the pack dwindled with attrition up to about the halfway mark when the attacks started. It was stop and start and I managed to stay with the front group until about 1200m to go. At that point, Mara Abbot of Webcor Builders (of Oak Glen fame) attacked and took a few girls with her, I was able to close the gap with about 1km to go, but at that point it was all I could do to hold the pace I was going. Note: 200m going up a climb is much longer than say, on the track. That having been said, I was able to hold on to 5th place, only 28 seconds behind Mara - not so shabby if I do say so myself. The ride bumped me up to 8th in the GC after a somewhat lacklustre TT performance - it's an interesting world where I come 13th in the TT and 5th in the summit finish...I just don't know... But the Giant girls definitely put on a show!