Giro Rosa

Team USA-Winners of Giro Rosa 2013
D.S. Jack Seehafer
Lauren Tamayo
Mara Abbott
Lauren Hall
Janel Holcomb
Brianna Walle
Andrea Dvorak
Kristin McGrath
Ruth Winder

Before stage one.

It's now been over two weeks since the end of the Giro, and still, every time someone asks me how it was, I break out in a huge smile and get very excited to tell the story again. It's one of those things that you know has happened, you are quite aware of how big it is, and that you did actually did it. But yet, saying, "I was on the winning team of the Giro Rosa with Mara Abbott and Team USA," still seems strange and unreal.


At the beginning of the year I was just hoping to get invited on the Spring block again. I never dreamed of being asked to join USA Cycling for a race as big as the Giro Rosa.

The first few stages feel like a year ago, but I'll do my best to recall all the exciting bits. We (all the great girls on the Team USA) had no obligation to control any of the race in the beginning. We sat pretty and waited to do our job. The first two days we were leading Lauren Hall out for the sprint finish. For me this was one of the coolest parts. To be at the front of a race at the end and not hanging on the back for dear life is a big improvement for me. We started our lead-out train too early on both days but managed to achieve getting Lauren up there. She placed 8th the first day and 4th the second! Just missing the podium the second day is always disappointing, but in a stage race it's very important to keep a good attitude and look to the next day.

Day three was the first day with some proper climbing. Right from the start we were going up hill. I did my best to climb and stay near the front, knowing I would need to be there to help on the descent. I crested the climb about thirty back and made up some ground on the descent to get to the front. At this point there was a break off the front with Marianna Vos, a few others, and Lauren Hall. Lauren did a great job of doing what she could to take the time sprints from Vos. Mara ended up 9th on the day, now 1 minute 32 seconds back.

Day four we were back on flat ground with the exception of the one "wall" and the finish. On the profile it looked like a wall, literally, it was in the first part of the race. That wall, which we knew wasn't possible because of the calculations we did, would have been around 54% or something stupid like that. Well anyway,  we marked said wall on our stem tape just in case. It turned out to be a collection of 9 tunnels! phew! Our job for this day was to attack and attack making it as hard as possible for the other teams. That way they didn't get to go into the mountains off essentially a rest day. I even heard some girls talking to each other saying, "Just take it easy and rest for tomorrow." We had other plans. I love racing hard like this. Attack, stop, attack, follow attack, attack, die, die, die! The finish was up a steep climb. I was right on Vos's wheel going into the left hand turn before the climb. Andrea was on my wheel, when I went straight into the center divide for the round about. I felt bad then stopping up Andrea who would have done well with her climbing legs. I'd been watching Chris Froome too much. Head up Ruth! Head up!  It was a fun day and I was so dead at the end!

Now into the mountains and on the 4th of July too! Mara had plans to set off her own form of fireworks that day. We still didn't have the Maglia Rosa by this point so had no real reason to spend more time than needed on the front. I just helped how I could keeping our climbers at the front and out the wind. Mara climbed amazingly, putting 5 minuntes into Vos, and finishing the day in pink by 1 minute 27 seconds to Tatiana Guderzo. I arrived at the top 25ish minutes later with Janel and Kristin after riding just hard enough to make time cut.

Maglia Rosa! Time for some real work. The mountain we started on had  gorgeous views and water falls. The first few kilometers were all up hill. First mission of the day: get over the climb in good position. Once we got down the descent of that climb it was Team USA to the front. Vos was in a break up the road. We chased and brought her back over about 30k. Then just rotated through. I was suffering terribly but it was awesome to be apart of it. When the road started going up again I was out, job done. The girls got Mara well placed then Lauren Hall, Lauren Tamayo, Brianna, Janel, and myself had a USA groupeto up to the top. Mara won again. Putting more time into 2nd now with a 2 minute 38 second lead.

Day 7. For me, in my mind, the last day. We did 8 laps of a dead flat loop. The first few laps were a little crazy, tons of attacks going. If memory serves me correctly, Team USA went to the front and rotated from lap 3 to lap 7. Letting the sprint teams do their thing the last lap. This stage was pretty cool. Every time someone attacked we just picked up the pace and brought them back no problem. Mara lost a few seconds that day at the very finish but nothing to be to worried about.

The last and final day was the 16k TT. After I finished my TT (there is nothing to say about that. Ha) I went and stood with Bri at 5k into the course so we could give Mara split times and cheer her on! It was nerve racking for me so I can't even imagine how Mara felt. She is a great character though and was always very cool and relaxed, or so she made it look. After Mara had gone past me and Bri, my throat was sore from shouting. We hopped on our bikes and did our best to make it to the finish line without getting lost. All the arrows had been taken down after Mara had gone through. We made it to the finish after only one wrong turn! I was proud of us for not getting lost. We arrived at the finish line to find Mara and the other girls with massive smiles. I did all I could to hold back my tears but I couldn't totally help it. It was unbelievable. We won. Mara rode a great TT, she lost a minute, but with her 2 minute 28 second lead (or something close to that time) she still had a good cushion. We celebrated by singing and dancing in the van for the whole 2 hour drive to the Milan Airport.

The whole experience was amazing. We were a great team. I can't thank all the girls enough for the great experience. I need to also thank Jack Seehafer for being an amazing director, USA Cycling for giving me this wonderful opportunity, and for their support in the women's program.

Who doesn't love pink!

I absolutely love racing in Europe and can't wait to go back. But now I am looking forward to getting my track legs back and turning left for awhile!