Amanda Miller

Tour of the Gila Stage 2

After some much needed rest and recovery, I woke up feeling a lot better. There was something weird going on with me yesterday. I think it may be the water down here. There are a lot of minerals in the area, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what the case is. So I am trying an experiment and only drinking bottled water. Hopefully it helps. Anyway, our race started at 10:40 this morning. We got to sleep in some, which was nice. The race was 126km long. Here’s the profile:

After the neutral roll out, things were pretty mellow. The first sprint didn’t really shake things up either. Once we hit the first category 3 climb, things sort of blew apart. I think Kristin Armstrong was pushing the pace, trying to split things up. And well it sure did. About 15 riders got off the front and stayed that way for the next 50km or so. I was in the 2nd group with another 15 or so riders. I started to get a migraine on the sketchy descent. My eyes went blurry. Not the best thing to happen when you have to navigate your way down an unknown road. Oh well, it worked out and I made it down safely. The group split on the downhill, but we regrouped on the flats. I wasn’t able to pull through with the group. I was at the back, barely hanging on. My head was pounding and I just wasn’t feeling good. Eventually we caught back onto the lead group, which included my teammates Carla Swart and Anne Samplonius. My teammate Toni Bradshaw was in the group with me. Once we caught the lead group, people sat up and a ValueAct rider shot off the front. She stayed away for a long time. Webcor threw down some attacks to try and bridge, but there was never really an organized chase. I stuck with the lead group until the finish. I almost got dropped through the last feed zone. My legs started to cramp at about 30km to go. Everytime I stood up to pedal up a hill, my muscles siezed. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best day on the bike, but I kept going at it.

The final mile came and I held on as long as I could. Things split apart. Carla, Anne, and Toni were in front of me. We tried to attack but seemed like everyone was getting boxed in. Soon enough, my legs had had enough and I was stuck in the wind dangling off the back of the pack. I came across the line 22nd place. This moved me up to 25th in the G.C. 5min and 25seconds down from Kristin Armstrong.

Carla picked up a 7th place in the sprint today. Sweet! Anne was 16th and Toni was 18th. We are currently 4th in the team G.C. Anne is our highest rider, sitting in 11th still at 2:07 from the lead. Carla is 17th, 2:59 from 1st. Toni is 26th, 5:33 down from the lead. Hillary was not recorded so we are going to protest that in the morning. Kate is hanging in there and finishing each stage with a smile . Things are going well for the team and we are all seeming to race really well together.

You can keep up with results on www.tourofthegila.com. Also got some press time yesterday here.

Ok, enough blabber. Time for some sleep. Tomorrow is the 25.9km time trial. It’s a brutal course. Going to be tough, but I’m ready for it. Good night and thanks for stopping in!
-A

Tour of the Gila Stage 1

Well Stage 1 of the Tour of the Gila is officially over with. Today’s stage was 118km long. Here’s the course profile:
I don’t know how many official starters there were in our race, but Webcor, ValueAct, and Colavita had full squads. Not to mention, Kristin Armstrong was in our presence. It was a neutral 3.4k roll out. We did the first climb together. It wasn’t anything intense. After that, it was pretty much downhill for the next 40km. Our team started throwing out some attacks to try and split things up, hoping to get a small break going early. Nothing seemed to be sticking. I launched an attack and found myself off the front for almost 20km by myself. Not what I wanted to happen. I wasn’t giving it my all, just putting out a steady tempo. I couldn’t figure out what was going on back in the peloton. I was really hoping some people would bridge. Anyway, eventually I got caught. Then things got really mellow. Nothing too exciting happened until my teammate Hillary Billington threw down an attack. She put a lot of time on the group (like 1min 40 seconds). Eventually 2 riders bridged to her, and another one later on. The 4 kept away until the climb. The climb was the real race. Here’s the profile:

Ya…it was steap. So hard!

I came into it already tired. Kristin Armstrong picked up the pace on the climb and everything shattered. I got dropped like a bad habit. From that point on, it was damage control. I finished 33rd, 5minutes and 4 seconds down from Kristin Armstrong. My teammate Anne Samplonius was 11th, Carla Swart was 18th, Toni Bradshaw was 37th, Hillary Billington was 48th, and Kate Ross was 68th. It was a hard race, I felt like I gave it my all. Everyone on the team rode a very aggressive race. Now it’s time to rest up. Tomorrow is another brutal day in the saddle!

Here are some pictures from our pre-ride of the time trial course yesterday. We saw Lance Armstrong riding out as we were coming back.

Riding with Kristin Armstrong.

Don’t ask.
Team van.

Team mechanic – Kyle.

I…am…THE BUTCHERER!
Toni and Hillary cooking some dinner.

Ok that’s all. Dinner time!
-A

Fort Collins to Silver City via Boulder

Just wanted to post a quick update. We made it to Silver City, NM this evening. It was a long day in the team van. We left Boulder at 5:30am in a snow storm. This put us back a few hours. We stopped in Albuquerque to pick up Hilary, Anne, and Carla from the airport. Then we hopped back in the van and rental car to drive the rest of the way. We are staying in host housing. This town is pretty weird as far as the lay out goes. More to come tomorrow (hopefully). I am tired and don’t feel like typing any more. I’ll try to get some cool pictures too! Bonne nuit!
-A

USAFA Road Race and Tour of the Gila

The weather here in Colorado has been nuts. Last week it rained and snowed for close to 72hours. Needless to say, things are turning green pretty fast now. The temperatures are supposed to be near 80 almost every day this week. I’m not complaining! Anyway, with the bad weather, they canceled the Team Time Trial on Saturday that I was planning on doing. I was stuck on the rollers for the 4th time in April. Not cool! Saturday afternoon I headed down to Colorado Springs with the CSU team. Sunday was the United States Air Force Academy road race. The road race course is part of the 1986 World Championships course. Here’s the profile:

Lots of climbing, that’s for sure!

I decided to sign up for the Men’s Pro/1/2/3 race. Why? Well the biggest reason was that the race started at 11:00, rather than 8:00. This meant it would be warmer by the time the men’s race took off. Also, the race was longer (64miles compared to 32miles). I didn’t know what I was getting myself into at the time though. When it got closer to the start of the race, I started noticing all the big names showing up. I saw riders from the Livestrong U23 team, Garmin, Ciclismo, Team Type 1, Ouch, etc. This was going to hurt. Needless to say, I got dropped on the first lap, probably at mile number 10.5 on the profile above. I rode the rest of the race with a group of guys. It started out at 5, but soon whittled down to myself and two others. We worked pretty well together. The course was grueling, but fun. And it was a beautiful day, so what else is there to ask for? We rode 4 of the 5 laps, and called it quits with one lap to go. The Cat 4’s, Collegiate Men’s A’s, and our race was finishing soon and we wanted to watch the finish. Anyway, it was a good experience. I had fun, but wish I would have stuck in longer. Maybe I should have done the Men’s cat 3/4 race instead. Oh well.

Fast forward to today. It’s been SUPER nice here in Fort Collins this week. I have ridden in shorts and a jersey everyday. Tuesday I did the New Belgium short track race. That was fun, but I haven’t been on my mountain bike since this winter some time. I can’t even remember when, actually. Today I rode with my coach Meredith and my teammate Toni Bradshaw. Toni just moved to Fort Collins from New Zealand. Other than working and riding, nothing much is new. I registered for classes this fall today. It’s going to be a tough semester, but I am just wanting to get it over with!

Monday we leave for Tour of the Gila down in Silver City, New Mexico. It’s going to be a BRUTAL race. Here’s the website —> http://www.tourofthegila.com/. I’ll try to update as much as possible while I’m there. I don’t know what our internet situation will be like though. Alright, enough talk. Here’s some pictures from the past week. Enjoy!

Mike excited to be climbing Rist Canyon in the nice weather.

The trees up the canyon were pretty droopy. The last snow was very wet and heavy.

James and Erick setting pace up the climb.

Yay for nice weather!

Toni climbing up Horsetooth Mountain climb.

Ok that’s all for now. Thanks for checking in!
-A

Christmas

Today I went to Boulder to pick up my LipSmacker gear. I got some new clothing and a sweet new bike. I already had my helmet and shoes, but now my attire is complete. Check out the pictures.
The stash.
Riding the dams at Horsetooth Reservoir.

My new kicks. Yes, I’m still riding my old bike. Didn’t have time to switch things over.

The new rig. Sweet!

Today it was nice in FoCo…something like 70 degrees. I could get used to this weather. Unfortunately, Colorado can’t! This weekend is some local racing action. April 29th is the start of the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, NM. Looking forward to it! Ok, that’s all I have for now. Bonne nuit!
-A

I’m BACK

Made it back to Fort Collins without any troubles. All flights went well and everything arrived in Denver on time. Now it’s time to unpack, relax, fight off jet-lag, pack for Durango (headed there this weekend), and go for a bike ride!

P.S. Colorado is nothing like France.

la Ronde de Bourgogne

Friday morning we headed to Dijon, France for a 3 stage, 2-day race. And yes, Dijon is the home of the mustard. It was a long drive from Limoux, about 7.5 hours. 7 of us squished into the van with all of our bikes and gear. Fortunately, I put some good tunes on my iPod and fell asleep for most of the drive. We were packed in the van like sardines though and it was a very uncomfortable ride. A good team bonding experience though! We arrived early enough to go for a ride. Megan’s team (ASPTT Dijon) took us out to pre-ride the team time trial course and the “criterium” course.

The team time trial course was 22km long. It was mostly flat, with some false-flat action. There were a few technical corners, but for the most part it was a great time trial course.

The criterium course was 3.7km in length. I definitely don’t consider it a criterium, but apparently the French do . It was a pretty fun course with almost everything in it. There were two technical corners, some uphill, a fast downhill, and a long straight away for the sprint.

The neat castle in the town we stayed in. The race promoter set something up with a dormitory in a town 18km from the race. The rooms had 6 beds in them. I am pretty sure all the teams stayed there. It was actually a very nice place. Each room had it’s own bathroom and shower.

Saturday was the road race. It was 106km long. Not sure how many people started the race. The highest number I saw was in the 120’s. We had a neutral 3km roll out to get us out of town. Our team had good starting positions and held it for quite a while. At one point in the first 20km, there was some wheel rubbing going on. I found myself way too far back in the pack and actually had to go off the road into the ditch to avoid people. Then I had to sprint back up to the group. Learned not to do that any more! It was then that I decided I needed to move up. So I sprinted up the side and positioned myself on Jeannie Longo’s wheel. Our team did an awesome job staying at the front of the race. It was amazing to see.

Things didn’t get too interesting until we hit the hills. During the race, there were 6 Queen of the Mountain points. The “hills” were pretty decent hills. Nothing too long, but long enough to hurt. They ranged from 1km to 3 or 4km (I am guessing). There was a 1km signed painted on the road for each hill. Sometimes the finish for the QOM would be over the top of the hill and on a straight away. Other times it would be at the top of the hill. Either way, they were hard. I decided to go for the points. The first hill I got 4th in the sprint. It was a long climb and things blew up. There was a small group of us off the front for a few kilometers. My teammate, Devon Haskell, was in the group with me. We all rotated, but it wasn’t super organized. It didn’t stick and we were soon swallowed by the field. The group started to dwindle down at this point. It was a lot smaller than what we originally started at. Everyone on our team did an awesome job at covering attacks and staying near the front. On the second QOM, I sat on wheels and watched. It was pretty tough from the base of the hill. Devon was killing it. Neither of us knew the lengths of the climbs. It would have been to our advantage if we knew the course. Oh well, it was still fun! Anyway, we reached the 1km to go mark and I stayed in the top 3. This sprint was on the flats at the top of a hill. I sprinted and took the points for 1st. Things really split up on this climb because it was long and we were going pretty hard up it.

I don’t remember when during the race the group split into 25 riders in the front group, but eventually this happened. Every time we hit a climb, people popped off. Usually they would catch back. I continued to go for the QOM points. Eventually Jeannie Longo and a FuturaScope rider got off the front. They put some time into us and no one really seemed to be worried. Some people tried to jump to them (myself included), but nothing worked. Jeannie stayed away the entire race and put 3 minutes on the field. She dropped her break-away partner. We caught her in the final 10km of the race. She was toasted.

My funny moment: We were descending a pretty steep downhill. I didn’t know the corners and came into one of them WAY too fast. Luckily, it was the first hair pin and I wasn’t carrying full speed. I was still going really fast though. Anyway, I over shot the corner. Tried to stop, but I was carrying too much speed. I locked up my breaks and skidded my tire. The only reason I stopped is because I ran into the bush/shrub/tree in front of me. I didn’t fall off my bike though. Just unclipped, turned around and sprinted back onto the group. Fortunately it was a small group and everyone was already spread out. Did I mention that this was at the front of the group too? So yes, everyone saw it. A moto passed me as I was getting back up to speed. I thought the driver said “Nice save!”, but then again I am in France and really didn’t expect to hear those words from someone French. Who knows though. It was pretty commical and I’m glad I kept it upright. Come to think of it, I did a lot of off-roading in the road race this weekend. Hmmm.

Anyway, we came to the final 5km. I wasn’t sure of the finish. Didn’t know where it was, etc. We rounded the final corner and I saw the finish line. Fortunately I wasn’t sitting at the back of the pack. But I definitely was not in the best position. I sprinted as hard as I could and came out 6th in the sprint, 7th overall. Devon did an awesome job and finished 12th. I accumulated enough points in the QOM competition to get 2nd.

A shot of the caravan in the road race.

Bike maintenance by the moon light.

Sunday morning was the team time trial. We were off at 9:58am. Everyone worked really well together and it went really smooth. We didn’t have much in the form of aero gear. Just aero bars and one TT bike. There wasn’t a ton of wind, which was nice. Anyway, we rolled turns and put in an awesome time. Good enough for 3rd place.

Later in the afternoon was the “criterium”. I put that in quotations because the criterium was 72km. Yes, 20 laps of a 3.7km loop. It took 2 hours. That is not considered a criterium by U.S. standards. Anyway, it was a hard race. Everyone was tired (myself included).

There were sprint points on lap 5, 10, and 15. So there was some sprinting going on, but nothing stuck. In the last 5 laps or so, a rider got off the front. My teammate Lauren was on her wheel for a while. However, the rider had too much horse power and pulled away. She put quite a bit of time on the peloton. No one really seemed too concerned either. It was weird. I don’t think there was ever an organized effort to chase her down. Anyway, she won.

For a majority of the race I was sitting on Jeannie Longo’s wheel. It was pretty cool. I learned a lot from doing that. I actually talked to her during the road race and she knew who I was. How cool? Pretty sure she knew I was sitting on her wheel for most of the race too.

At some point in the last lap or two, another girl sprinted off the front. I didn’t realize this until after the race. So there were two girls off the front, which meant we were sprinting for 3rd. Coming into the last time up the hill, Devon, Lauren and I made our way to the front. Megan jumped on too. Check out her blog for her cool story too. Devon strung it out going down the hill and the last straight away. I took over coming out of the last corner (about 400 meters from the finish). I though Lauren was on my wheel, but she got bumped off coming down the hill. Megan was on my wheel though. I sprinted until the 200meter sign and then Megan jumped around me. She ended up taking 2nd in the field sprint, 4th place overall. I pulled off a 13th place. It was pretty sweet to be able to control the front and do a lead-out like we did. Too bad it didn’t work. Next time though!! Our team was very active in the race. It was fun. We would attack, counter attack, chase down breaks, all that fun stuff. Great learning experience! Not sure on how we finished as a team in the overall. I think I pulled off a top 10 individual result in the G.C. We will see though.

Well that’s all for now. My flight leaves tomorrow morning, really early. I’m sad to be leaving. This has been an amazing experience. I hope to come back soon though! Thanks for stopping in. I’ll try and post an update when I get back to the states.
-A
Group photo from left to right (Devon Haskell, me, Lauren Hecht, Chris Georgas, Jerika Hutchinson, Jo Markham, Ashley Dymond). (minus Einat and Megan)