Willamette 1

Thursday, 3 April

Welcome to the Willamette Stage Race. Now really, for the first day of a stage race, you couldn't ask for much more. It was warm and sunny (no arm or knee warmers warm). It was a cute little TT prologue: 6.6K of butter smooth farm roads, a bunch of bends that were a whole lot different when you hit them hot at race speed instead of warm-up speed, pretty much dead flat, wind dying down. Dinner was Laughing Planet (peanut sauce in a burrito--mmmmmm goood), followed by the post-prandial stroll to the Sweet Life. Balmy evening. What could be better? The race results. :)

Tomorrow is a different story. A 43-mile stage that apparently is nothing but uphill (the finish is 8 miles of screaming descent from the start). Snow along the road at the top of the climbs. Chance of showers. Hoping for the best. There's a new powerhouse women's team in Portland and it will be interesting to see how these riders work together.