Stage 2 – Drake Road Race – 55 miles

I still wasn’t adjusted to the altitude and awoke to the familiar headache I’d had yesterday.  Just walking around, my legs felt like I had already 100 miles.

Today’s stage, starting and finishing in Estes Parks, consisted of xxxxxft of climbing.  I enjoyed the first 2km’s that was flat and then the climbing started.  At the 11km mark, the gradient, the altitude and bad legs was too much for me and I lost contact with the front group.  I rode at my own pace and joined a group of 8 riders as I went over the first 10,000ft peak.  I encouraged the girls to work and after 25km of further climbing and hard work, I rejoined the field.

Kori (Rio Grande) got into a two man break with Mari Holden (Tmobile) and had a 2 minute lead.  The course wound down a long canyon for nearly 20km and we cruised at 60km/hr without even pedalling.  The final 20km took us back to Estes Parks up an adjoining canyon at a gradient of 2-3%.  The final 1km had tight switchbacks that steepened to 12% with the finish line on the very crest of the mountain.

I couldn’t’ respond to the final surge and rode at a steady tempo to minimise my time loss.  Kori attacked Mari with 200m to go, took the win and the leaders jersey.  And for the record, we decided to wait until after the final stage before we started on the margarita’s.