Nature Valley Grand Prix

Race Report: Nature Valley Grand Prix

Stage 1: TT (short, fast -for some- and Merckx style
I definitely liked doing this on a TT bike last year. I think I ride faster with that set-up. Must be something mental. I had an ok ride. These types of efforts are definitely specialized and I have NO practice.

Stage 2: Downtown St. Paul Crit (bricks and a massive corner pile up)
Wow. I have so much respect for professional female cyclists. I just cannot believe how fast these women are. The big teams (Columbia HTC, Peanut Butter and Tibco) hit it from the gun. Honestly I cannot even tell you what happened at the front because the field was so stretched out. There was a MASSIVE pile-up in turn 1 sometime in the first half of the race. I was so blundered I didn’t have the intelligence to take a free lap and ended up chasing. That ended my race. I still managed to make time to cut and live another day...

Stage 3: Canon Falls Road Race (Tornado sirens)
Record number of touch-downs (of tornadoes, that is) in a single day for Minnesota. Good thing they called our race AFTER we warmed up and sat on the start line for 20 minutes. Glad I wasn’t out there to see those funnels...

Stage 4: Downtown Minneapolis Crit (turn R, turn R, turn L, turn R, turn R, turn R <1km)
Tough day. Very fast. Some bad positioning on my part got me stuck behind a rider who decided to quit just at time cut. I chased for a bit but to no avail. Began to think that making it 75% of these stages is all I can manage and yet I keep moving on to the next stage... ?

Stage 5: Monomonie Road Race (ouch)
The newest addition to NVGP. About 6 kickers. I was all prepared with my tape notes on my top-tube. So much good it did. Come the second QOM (a 900 meter 20ish% grade straight up climb) the lower screw of my rear water bottle cage decides it doesn’t want to be a part of the pain-fest anymore and dislodges sending the LARGE water bottle (still in the cage) swinging sideways as I stood up to suffer the climb. My legs actually got STOPPED by the bottle and I had to sit down, ditch the bottle (in front of the com car which had made it very clear that water bottle ditchage was strictly prohibited) and then attempt to catch everyone 100 meters ahead of me with the bottle cage swinging to and fro. No luck. Turns out the QOM line wasn’t the end of the climb...

Stage 6: Stillwater Crit (kind of...)
And the fun continues. I caught a cold from a certain unnamed teammate : ) and went into Stillwater just hoping to last longer than last year. Goal accomplished. I lasted 7 laps (over half-way) and finished the day sniffling and sneezing by the van. Tough week. Would have been tough no matter what... but luck definitely was not on my side. Great learning, fantastic teammates and an even better sponsor and team of staff!

--Lauren



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