USA Women’s National Team Trip – Just recently I raced with the USA Women’s National Team for racing in GP Liberazione, Gracia-Orlova, and Spanish Cup. During this block contained 4 juniors, including myself, and 2 elite riders: Kaitie Antonneau, Jessica Prinner, Kendall Ryan, Ally Stacher, Amber Rais, and Evelyn Stevens. The trip was originally supposed to be 3 weeks long, but due to the volcanic ash in the sky, the trip decreased to a smudge over 2 weeks. It was going to have to be concentrated fun and learning!

The first race was GP Liberazione in Crema, Italy. It was comprised with the current elite road world champion, Tatiana Guderzo, junior road world champion, Rosella Cavolli, Italian road champion, Monia Bacaille, and super sprinter, Georgia Bronzini. This race was a little rough. When we arrived to Florence, Italy we went directly to the National Team house in Lucca, unpacked and built our bikes, went for a swift ride, then packed a small bag and was off to Crema, Italy to race the next day. The race was 120km long and dead flat with the finishing straight being 500m long and very wide. European racing is very different from American racing for sure. The Italians are very talkative and say ‘Cazzo!’ a lot! They are also really bad at cornering. Throughout the race I had really good positioning and so did the rest of the team. I’m not sure if the jet lag caught up to me or I was dehydrated, but when it came down to the final 2 laps, I started to cramp a lot. At the finish Kendall got 9th and I got 50th. Unfortunately, Amber crashed and broke her wrist.

After GP Liberazione we headed ‘home’ which is Lucca. We had Monday to do a nice ride to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, then we took off all day Tuesday to drive to Czech Republic for Gracia-Orlova Tour. We race with the names of Marianne Vos and Nicole Cooke. It was incredible to race with riders you look up to. The first stage was 100km with a very nice steep pave finish, I placed 12th. The second stage was the hardest of the whole tour, 125km and very very hilly, I finished in 31st. The third stage was an rainy 18km Time Trial in Poland where I finished in 24th. The fourth stage was also in poland and was a 60km circuit race where I finished 10th. And the fifth and final stage was right past our hotel and was a rainy 100km circuit through Orlova and finished uphill, I placed 14th. In the General Classification I place in 19th. Throughout the whole tour we raced extremely well together for only having 5 girls in the race. Kaitie just bounces back up from the ground. Ally is the super teammate, Kendall is our mighty sprinter. And Jessica is a time trialist. It was the first time we all raced together as one team and we really put on a show.

After the last stage we hit the road back ‘home’ and had to stop in Austria for the night and finished the rest of the travel back to Lucca Monday morning. On Tuesday the juniors traveled to Offida to recon the Junior World Championship course. On Wednesday we had a very special visit from a friend of mine who used to live in Wisconsin and is now living in Italy with her husband and son, shout out to Whitney and Luciano!!! And I also experienced the finiest Italian gelato that day. Then Thursday the staff made their way to Spain in the morning with our bikes and luggage and we flew to Girona later that night.

Friday morning we did a recon of the Spanish Cup Road Race. Then in the afternoon we got to eat Paella, a local seafood dish, right on the beach. Girona is amazingly beautiful. I cannot explain how awesome Girona is. Someday I hope to live there.

Saturday was a 10km flat and windy time trial, but it wasnt until the later afternoon, so we rode to Costa Brava. After our morning easy ride I realized I had fallen in love with Spain. When we got back from our easy ride our extra-hard working support staff, Rob Love got to work on our bikes and Nadia Zucherelli made delicious lunch for us. I ended up getting 2nd in the time trial by .7 of a second. My teammate Jessica won! Kendall got 3rd and Kaitie got 4th. During the elite time trial Evelyn won and set a new course record!

Sunday was domination day. It was the last race of the trip and we wanted to end it on a good note and in dominating fashion. Evelyn, Jessica, and I cracked the field and team time trialed away for the top 3 spots while the other 3 girls, Kaitie, Ally, and Kendall, covered the peloton like bosses. We had a maximum gap of 6 minutes on the field! We rolled across the finishline 3 in row and had our arms up like a big V for ‘victory’. It was an awesome way to finish the trip but I was so sad that we all had to pack our belongings afterwards. Nadia and Rob took us to Barcelona where we had to fly home the next morning. The trip went by so fast. I didnt know I could learn so much in such little time, thanks to Manel, Rob, Nadia and the rest of the team and the experiences we went through. So many more memories were made that will never be forgotten. And most importantly I have the greatest time of my life. Time really does fly when you’re having fun.