Today the US National Team took to the roads of New Zealand racing 115 kilometers from Masterton to Palmerston North with a yellow jersey on the back of Shelley Evans and determination within each of the five-women on our team.  The race started out with an intermediate sprint at kilometer ten.  From that point on, Jessica Phillips and I patrolled the front of the bunch watching for threatening riders.  It was a beautiful rolling road, but with those valley roads came fickle wind that changed direction and strength constantly.

After 30km, a two-rider break got up the road, and Jessica, Alison, and I began to set pace at the front.  With the honor of having the yellow jersey in our team came the responsibility of defending.  Defend we did.  Over the next 65km we faced wind, light rains, rolling hills, and a Queen of the Mountain sprint at kilometer 78.  We worked to keep the time gap to the breakaway at a manageable distance.  And, all of this we did without race radios because of the new UCI ban for stage races of the 2.2 ranking.

At kilometer 97 came the next big challenge of the race: a 2.5km climb that we would summit only 10-15km from the finish.  Alison, Jessica, and I brought Amber to the base of the climb where she got a gap on the field.  Ruth Corset (MB Team) jumped up to Amber and the two of them quickly climbed away from the field.  Behind, Shelley and I were in the fortunate position of being able to climb in the first chase group, letting others set pace and try to catch.  Over the top of the climb, we could see Amber & Ruth down the road, and as we descended, riders from the NZ and Australia National Teams took to the front to try and close the gap.

Amber was in the enviable position of being able to sit on Ruth’s wheel because our team was in the leader’s jersey.  With 8km to go, we caught them as the road rolled downhill. For the next few miles, teams attacked and tried to get away, but Amber, Shelley, and I were on the moves.  As we came into the final kilometer, Shelley appeared to be boxed-in near the front of the bunch, but as we tore down the straightaway, she found her way into tiny holes and took her sprint all the way to the line.  The finish was too close to call, but a few minutes later, we got the news: Shelley had won the stage and would stay in the yellow jersey for another day!

The word that defines today’s stage is teamwork.  It is incredibly rewarding to be able to ride hard with teammates who are willing to put it all on the line for each other.  We all worked hard, supported one another, and raced as a team.  And, to get the win and hold on to the yellow jersey for another day, is icing on the cake.  Did I mention we are also leading the team classification?

Day three?  Two stages.  In the morning, 87km of road racing and, in the evening, an 11km individual time trial.  More to come from New Zealand…