Stage 2 – Oak Glen Road Race         129km

Today was a really hard day for team RONA.  There were a number of early crashes which saw a few riders abandon and after the first climb the peloton had split, with about 80 riders remaining in the front group out of a starting field of 140.

There were several solo breaks today, and to contain these, Anna, Andrea and I set a solid tempo on the front again, revolving turns in a team time trial fashion.  With a strong headwind, after 100km of pace setting I was starting to fatigue.

Being a domestic, my role also involved collecting water and powerade for my teammates from our team car.  Each time someone needed a bottle, I made my way to the back of the peloton, and signalled to the commissaire that I wanted to go back to the team car for feeding.  I put 4 bidons down the back of my jersey, 2 more in my bottle cages and then weaved back through the peloton to my RONA team mates.  After handing out the drinks I got back on the front and helped set tempo again.

In a similar fashion to yesterday, we picked up the speed in the final 20km and rode at threshold.  I was feeling really fried and was counting down each painful kilometre before we hit the base of the climb.  In typical character, Gen set a hard tempo at the start of the climb and the peloton quickly blew to pieces.  Only Bessette and Thornburn managed to stay on Gen’s wheel.  When the 3 reached a short descent 3km to the finish line, Bessette attacked but Gen was unable to follow.

Lyn Bessette won the Oak Glen stage, however Gen finished 40sec down to retain the yellow jersey by 16 seconds while American Christine Thornburn (Webcor) finished 2^nd.

Andrea, Anna and I were shattered as we pulled off at the base of the climb and let our GC riders “do their work”.  We must have looked like a potential meal because 3 buzzards circled above us as we rode at 8km/hr in our 27 gear ring, up the climb.  I ate an energy bar during the climb and drank a bidon of water, starting the recovery process for tomorrow’s anticipated day of hard work.

Tomorrow’s stage is a 67km stage, on a 15km circuit in Redlands with a nasty 20% climb likely to split the field and sting our legs.  In addition to the difficult climb, Gen was involved in a post race crash today while cooling down and has hurt her lower back.  We are hoping she will feel better in the morning and be able to successfully ascend the wall on this circuit race to retain the jersey.

General Classification after stage 2

1	Geneviève Jeanson (CAN, RONA)	6h 35’ 42’’
2	Lyne Bessette (CAN, Quark)	16’’
3	Christine Thorburn (USA, Webcor)	39’’
11	Katheryn Curi (USA, RONA)	5’ 29’’
13	Katrina Grove (USA, RONA)	5’ 37’’
69	Andrea Hannos (CAN, RONA)	24’ 20’’
72	Anna Milkowski (USA, RONA)	25’ 18’’
73	Helen Kelly (AUS, RONA)	25’ 40’’