Redlands Rider Diary Stage 4: floundering through the field

The 32nd annual Redlands Bicycle Classic is underway in California. Held over the course of five days, it’s the first stage race of the 2016 USA Cycling Pro Road Tour. With its rich history and tough competition, the event certainly carries prestige in the US and the overall win is hotly contested. In this year’s event, 25 men’s teams and 19 women’s teams will battle for the yellow leader’s jersey and we’ve got exclusive coverage for you. We will host a live steam for the weekend events and highlights during the week. In addition, we’ll have rider diaries on Ella from Hagen Berman – Supermint’s Ivy Audrain, who’s making her pro debut this season, and the ladies of Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling have taken over our Ella instagram.

Now let’s hear from Ivy Audrain on how stage 4 went.

Stage 4: City of Redlands Criterium

1-mile course (60 minutes)
Race winner: Lauretta Hanson (Colavita – Bianchi), 2nd: Starla Teddergreen (Canyon Bicycles-Shimano), 3rd: Heather Fisher (Rally Cycling)
Race Report 
Video Highlights

I’m writing this from the massage table between yelps of pain…I don’t hate you, Davide. You’ve just been holding back until today and that’s not very nice.

Why the intense body work from our talented masseuse? Well…The hip flexor thing caught up with me, in a real bummer way. Was it the saddle sore making me favor one leg? Was it just climbing at a higher intensity than I’ve done in my entire life?! ARE ALIENS AMONG US?! All some of our great unsolved mysteries.

Either way, the first jump after the first corner of the first lap made me realize how messed up my hip flexor really was. Track folks: you know those one-legged drills we do pretty often? Imagine doing this for an entire 60 minute crit! I may as well have un-clipped my right leg for the whole time. BUT, we have a job to do, we have a mission, I’ll just use my tact and trickiness to get to the front! The only problem is…this is truly one of the toughest crits of the year, there’s no faking it with just your craft.

Moving up a few spots between turns was easy, the problem was the accelerations out of each corner that my seemingly peg-leg couldn’t handle. Move up 8 spots, lose 10 after the corner. Here’s a clip from the live feed of my progress moving through the field:

Through my floundering through the field, trying to avoid crashes, and not being able to pedal hard enough to make myself tired, I felt like I was in some horrible nightmare…the type of nightmare where a woman working at the mall is trying to spray you with Victoria’s Secret perfume, and you CAN’T. RUN. AWAY. Your little legs are a kicking in your dream, but you aren’t moving anywhere. This nightmare was my reality during the crit.

Crits are my THANG (not to be confused with ‘my thing’), and I wanted so badly to be up there with my squad, but my little legs just wouldn’t kick as much as they do IRL (in real life).

The great news is, my Hagens Berman-Supermint teammies were SUPER spry, getting premes, taking flyers, and even three supermints finished in the top 15! The further great news is that as we speak, Davide is working out the kinks, and I’m already feeling a huge improvement in my peg-leg. It’s a tremendous honor to line up with my gals for the Sunset Circuit, but I better make sure I’m healthy for months to come.

Fingers crosses for healthy bodies during the Sunset Circuit!

What’s up next:

Sunday, April 10
Stage 5 – Beaver Medical Group Sunset Road Race: 9 laps, 68.1 miles  – LIVE STREAM ON ELLA

See you at stage 5, Redlands!

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Ivy Audrain is a member of the new UCI Hagens Berman – Supermint team, making her debut as a pro this season.
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