Eugene Stage Race Day 1: Bathwater

I left Seattle late Friday night bound for Eugene, OR. The Eugene Celebration Stage Race kicked off today with a 52.4-mi road race stage. The temperatures for this race were soaring into the 90s so I made sure to take TONS of water and accelerade with me. I had water stuffed everywhere. I knew there was a neutral feed zone but I don't like to take my chances.

20 women lined up for the start: 12 Cat 4s and 8 Cat 1/2/3s. The women's race is combined but scored separately. Michelle Conrad from Ti-Cycles and Martha Walsh are both here racing, so there were a few Seattle faces in the crowd. The race consisted of 2 laps around a 26.2-mi course. As expected no one was really interested in pushing the pace much the first lap and the pack pretty much stuck together. One or two ladies were dropped pretty early on a hill climb about 5 miles into the course. Halfway through the first lap a rider careened off the road, down into tall grasses and across gravel, but somehow managed to stay upright and get back on the road. I have no idea what happened but everyone cheered when she made it back on the road. She said she thanked her cross training.

I knew as soon as we hit the hill the second time around everyone was going to surge and sure enough, the pack picked it up a bit. I was doing fine and hanging right there until all of a sudden about 200 ft from the top I started feeling REALLY sick. I had goosebumps all over me and was getting the chills and a bit of nausea. I knew I was starting to suffer from the heat and I just couldn't push myself so I dropped off the back a bit. I very nearly pulled off at the top of the hill but I couldn't concede driving 4-hrs to do only one stage in this race. "Just finish!" I told myself. I grabbed some water in the feed zone and dumped it all over me to try to cool down.

As the pack slipped down the hill I tried and tried to get going but my body was just not working for me and I continued to feel really sick. Thank goodness for this rider behind me, Monica. She asked me how I was feeling and told me to grab her wheel for a bit and recover. She pulled me a good mile or two before I finally started to shake it off. It took me 8 miles to shake the goosebumps and nausea but I finally started to feel better.

Monica and I never caught the pack again but managed to tough it out together to the finish and lost 10 minutes overall. The heat took it's toll and only 8 of the 12 Cat 4 riders finished. One problem with riding in heat like this is that your water becomes bathwater after about 30 minutes of riding. It seemed that no matter how much water I kept drinking I just could not cool down. 10 miles from the finish I finally ran out. Not soon after that a support car came along handing out water and boy was that the happiest moment of my life. Not only was it water...it was ICE COLD water! I dumped half of it all over me and instantly felt refreshed.

The support for this ride was awesome! Without all of the extra water I'm not sure I would have finished. When I got back to the hotel I soaked all the bath towels in cold water and layed on the bed with them all over me. That was the best feeling in the world...ahhhhhh!

Tomorrow is the 3-mi time trial and crit. The next few days will still be hot but not quite as bad as today. Time trialing isn't my forte, so I'm hoping I can just stick in there and not lose too much more time and put in a good effort in the crit. If I can outlast a few riders in the crit maybe I can bump up a few spots.