National Track Championships- Team Pursuit

Track Nationals 2013

I had looked forward to Track Nationals since January. You can imagine that I wanted to do well. First up was the Omnium on Friday and Saturday, then the Team Pursuit on Sunday. Now just because I'd been looking forward to track since January doesn't mean that I had actually done much track all year. The few weeks leading up to Nationals I was down at my home track, Hellyer, trying to get ready. I had my Vanderkitten team mate Jessica Culter come and stay for the few days before nationals so we could train together. We went and rode the Cannery Foundation Training Ride and also had two training sessions at the track the few days before leaving.

Choosing my Team Pursuit team wasn't so hard. It fell together nicely. After spending time with Jessica in some early season races she said she was inerested in track. I knew she hadn't done any Team Pursuit work but that was ok, she is quick and we really get along. I was trying to get a team together with some Hellyer girls but because of one reason or another that wasn't working out. I'd done one of Ben Sharp's camps in January where I met Jade Wilcoxson, I also met her at Hellyer after she raced the Tour of California TT.  I sent Jade an email and she was really interested. Yes! Jade, as everyone knows, is also rather quick and a really nice person. I knew with us three alone we would be pretty fast. After a few more emails, Colleen Hayduk got back to me and said she would love to ride with us. I had met Colleen at my very first track camp in 2009, she was just about to head off for Pan-Ams that year.

At this point I was pretty excited about our team. I was ready to race! There was some really good competition at Nationals and it was sure going to be a tough fight.

Arriving in LA we had two days of training together as a team. We worked on our exchanges and being comfortable. It wasn't a lot of time but we were jelling well and all was looking good. Now this was my first time being "Team Captain", and I'm not going to lie, it was a little stressful. Especially when I knew I wasn't the strongest. The girls all trusted me with the advice I gave. It was really awesome to be respected by such great athletes. The confidence I had in the girls to pull it off was high, each of us wanted it badly. Even though we only rode together twice before the day of the qualifier, I knew we were ready. We were really lucky to be seeded last in the qualifing heats. We only needed to go fast enough to get 2nd. My coach Harvey Nitz was there to help too. He has a lot of knowledge on the subject being a silver Olympic medalist in the event. At one point in the qualifier we were 2 seconds out of the final. We fought hard and brought it back. I couldn't believe it when we finished and had the fastest qualifying time. It was even more unbelievable when the moment we finished I knew, I absolutely knew, that we could go at least 2 seconds faster with a few tweaks. Whatever happened we were in the final, we were guaranteed 2nd place. This alone was making me happy, but of course we wanted the win. After our race debrief and getting the thoughts of everyone we made a few changes.

As we sat waiting to start we all knew how much we wanted it and we knew how close the race was going to be. We rode just how we intended to and went four seconds  faster than our qualifier! I knew we would go faster but I couldn't believe we'd won. Dream come true. It meant so much to me and I couldn't have done it without these people. Thank you to my teammates Jade, Colleen, and Jessica, for coming together and working hard for it. Thank you to my Mum, Dad, and siblings for coming down to cheer me on and just generally giving me so much support. Of course thank you to my coach, Harvey Nitz for giving me so much help over the last 4 years. Last but not least thanks to Boss Shelby Reynolds for helping me out.  

San Rafael Twilight

Vanderkitten Team for San Rafael Twilight
Elle Anderson
Emily Kachorek
Kate Chilcott
Starla Teddergreen
Ruth Winder

I arrived at San Rafael, happy and feeling ready to go and race with my Vanderkitten team mates. I unfortunately hadn't raced  with them much this year due to racing with the National Team in the spring and then again for the Giro Rosa. 

We had a strong team for SRT and I was excited about our chances. Break away or field sprint, I trusted that we had a strong enough team to be able to play it both ways. It's always such a nice feeling to go into a race with the ability to play that way. We love to race our bikes and race hard. The race was 75 minutes long, it is a slightly longer crit than we are used to. Knowing that, we spent the first part of the race following moves more than creating them to avoid killing ourselves and having nothing left for the end (something I am very talented at!). 

As I have been getting older I've been starting to notice things a little more. Maybe it's the fact that I am now strong enough to attack multiple times. Or maybe it's because I have a bit more experience and I pay more attention, opposed to just thinking "OMG ATTACKKKKK AGAIN!!!!" then coming away with 4th place or 6th (generally right off the podium). But I started to notice the difference in how my legs felt between attacks. Then it clicked in my head that if I continue to attack at full out sprint speed I probably won't have my best sprint for the end. Only took me 4 years to realise this, learn from me ladies, or laugh at me for being silly. 

My teammates were doing an awesome job attacking and following moves. Whenever I even thought "ok now is a time to go", one of my teammates would then attack. I had to shout "I'm on it!" just so I got a turn to follow moves! It was so awesome! You could tell after about three quarters of the way through the race nothing was going to stick. There were attacks going all the time, but sometimes breaks just always come back. I was aware of this and trying not to do too much so I could be as prepared for the sprint as possible. Then, I attacked...Why? I don't really remember. Probably felt like a good time and attacking is just what I do. This is with about 12 laps to go. A MetroMint rider (forgive me MetroMint I don't think I had met her and don't know her name!) came across to me and we had a few laps off the front together.  We got caught again with about 9 laps to go. "Alright now, time to save it Ruth." I said to myself as I got swallowed by the pack.

My teammates still did a great job of covering moves for the remaining laps. Ali Tetrick attacked with 3 to go Emily got right on it and brought her back. With 2 laps to go I found myself 2nd wheel behind Elle. Elle rode almost the whole last two laps on the front. It's safe to say our lead out train was a bit of a disaster or nonexistent, either word would work. Right before the second to last turn Martina Patella took up the roll of leading the field out. Martina, Flavia Oliveira, Olivia Dillion, and the winner Kimberly Wells came past me. I jumped to get into the mix with them. This is the part of a race I can never remember, at this point I'm just going, not thinking. If this is right, Olivia Dillion jumped first around the last turn, I jumped on her wheel, then pulled out from behind her when I wanted to start my sprint. My sprint felt uncomfortable, I think I shifted twice, it was an unfortunate feeling, I got out sprinted fair and square by Kimberly.  

Elle giving her one woman 2 lap lead out.

I needed a lesson on opening my first bottle of Champagne. Thanks Kimberly! 

It was a super fun race, it always is, and I love seeing progression! I first raced it in 2010 when Kat Carroll won solo, I was dropped. Last year I came 4th. This year and in my first actual sprint of the year to come away with 2nd isn't so bad! 1st would have been awesome and I wanted to win so badly, but the great thing about bike racing is there is always another one. Thank you Vanderkitten teammate for a great race! 

Congratulations to Kimberly Wells on the win!

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!