The yellow jersey followed by the green jersey

A week after Team TIBCO won two stages in New Mexico it was off to the mountains again.  This time we flew north to Portland, Oregon to race the Mt Hood Cycling Classic.

The TIBCO team consisted of 5 riders including Lauren Franges, Helen Kelly, Rachel Heal, Victoria Bastide and Jo Kiesanaski.  The stage race consisted of a prologue, a circuit race, 2 road stages, a time trial and a criterium.  Here is what happened.

Prologue 2km

This course was short and super fast.  The only technical section was the U-turn at the half way point.  Jo Kiesanaski, a former track sprinter, realised that coming out of the u turn fast would be critical to getting a fast time.  She practised the u-turn at speed, several times, until she had it nailed.  Her practice paid off as she posted the fastest time and pulled on the yellow jersey at the end of the day.  It was smiles all around as we travelled back to our host family that evening.

Stage 1 – Mt Tabor 1hr circuit race

With Jo Kiesanowski leading the Mt Hood Cycling classic after an impressive prologue, Team TIBCO worked hard to control stage 1.  It was a tough hilly circuit race with an uphill finish.  The pace of the circuit remained high and any dangerous moves were shut down by one of us.

With 200m to go, Jo launched from the bunch, however multi national criterium champion, Tina Pic (Colavita) pipped Jo at the finish to take the stage win. With bonus seconds for the win, Pic was awarded the leader’s jersey from Jo by 1 second.  We were not disheartened though, as there were still several stages remaining and we had a strong team to win back the yellow jersey.

Stage 2 – Cooper Spur Road Race

Today’s course was a 30km loop with a 16km climb.  The first 13km of the climb was a 4% gradient on an open highway with a strong headwind whilst the final 3km was on a narrower steeper road to the summit finish.  After the first time over the climb, Team TIBCO started attacking on the technical descent.  It was so much fun and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as we flew down the road, one after another.  Eventually, I got a gap and headed out on a hard solo break.  Up the climb for the second time into the headwind was difficult and with 5km to go, 3 riders bridged to me.  The pace they set was too fast for me and I dropped back to the peloton.  Lauren, Victoria and Rach worked hard to control any dangerous looking attacks until the final ascent.  As the race approached the mountain top finish, they positioned Jo perfectly where she out sprinted multi world champion, Jeannie Longo, and gave Team TIBCO another stage win and reclaimed the yellow jersey.

Stage 3 – Individual time trial

The time trial was a point-to-point race along the Hood River.  With temperatures hovering at 98F, Jo rode to her limit and finished a credible 8^th.  Rachel also rode well to finish in 10^th.  Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) rode well enough to take over the lead and will be wearing the yellow jersey tomorrow.

Stage 4 – Mt Hood road race

Determined to reclaim the leader’s jersey, we approached stage 4 with some aggressive riding by Lauren, Victoria and Helen.  With all the GC contenders eyeing each other as we approached the final 10 mile climb to the summit of Mt Hood, Rachel launched an attack and almost succeeded in winning the stage, only to be caught with ½ mile to go.  Jo finished 2^nd, behind US National Road race champion, Mara Abbott.  Julie Beveridge retained her yellow jersey by finishing in the same time as Jo.  With the accumulation of intermediate and finish line sprint points earned by Jo, she was awarded the green sprint jersey today.

Stage 5 – Hood River Criterium

The final stage was a technical criterium in downtown Hood River.  If we succeeded in getting Jo or Rach in a break, the possibility of winning the stage race was still within reach.  Team TIBCO launched one rider after another up the road which dwindled the field down to 25 riders by the finish.  Aarons cycling team, who were protecting Julie Beveridge’s yellow jersey quickly shut down any dangerous moves.

In the final lap, Jeannie Longo (France) attacked hard and got a gap.  However, Tina Pic (Colavita) proved her sprinting prowess to win the stage, whilst Jo finished 2nd and retained her green sprint jersey.  In final general classification, Jo finished 5^th overall whilst Rach was 10^th. And although we didn’t win the overall stage race, coming home with the two stage wins and the green sprint jersey was very satisfying.

Stay tuned to hear about more racing news soon.

Helen.