note: Gina directs the Wines of Washington women’s team, organizes them into Bike Hugger- sponsored composites for the big National Calendar races, and has been racing in the Northwest for as long as anyone can remember. We asked Gina to report on the team’s progress and what’s next on the calendar — Byron
Whew — Mt Hood Cycling Classic is done. What a relief which is sort of hysterical when you realize I was sitting in my office every day while the rest of the Bike Hugger gals were out there baking their brains. Sitting in ones office knowing everyone else is racing is actually harder than you think it should be. Fortunately for me cell phone coverage was decent & I got semi regular road race updates from Eric when he wasn’t too busy coaxing the gals to work, catch on, to sit in & everything else that goes on in the team vehicle.
For those who haven’t looked the Wines of Washington/Team Bike Hugger gals held their own just fine and dandy against some stiff competition. Our results
Really — those aren’t shabby numbers when you realize everyone on this team is working full time and has a full family life. It’s pretty darn impressive to see local Washington and Oregon riders going head to head with a number of the National Big girls and see them do just fine.
So what’s next — well Nature Valley Grand Prix is next on the docket. This time the kits we’re wearing will be the familiar colors of Team Group Health of Seattle fame. For those who aren’t familiar with Team Group Health aka Sound Velo it’s a women’s only team in the Seattle area. They’ve been instrumental to the growth of women’s racing in the Pacific Northwest and have developed many riders of which 3 will be racing NVGP along with some of us semi-regular bike hugger gals. It’s truly a great partnership and great opportunity that Team Group Health has offered to us. Better yet I finally get to come out of my office and actually race versus coordinating race funding, mechanics and assorted sundry stuff that goes into getting a team to a bike race. Whew — racing my bike at NVGP almost sounds like a vacation versus what I’ve been doing while the gals have been racing.
I will be blogging on the team blog so stay tuned. Racing begins June 20th with a prologue crit. Not sure what a prologue crit feels like but my guess is 150 gals who are primed for a 5 day stage race will make it one heck of a fast crit.
After that we’ll be at Cascade (no I won’t be there, I avoid any race that has minimal oxygen in the air aka above 3,000 feet). From there — hopefully Tour De Toona the big momma of all women’s racing in the country. Toona is the only stage race where the women’s race is the premier event and the women race the exact same distance as the men do. It’s by far the hardest race I’ve ever done, but for some insane reason I hope to get back this year to settle up a score with a couple hills that really hurt last year.