Genevieve Whitson Elite Road Cyclist

So I made to the States in one piece and after only 4.5 days in the country a fair amount of drama has already unfolded. I can’t even imagine thinking what sort of stories I‘ll have to tell after 10 weeks here.

Not the greatest plane journey across to New York. Heathrow tried to sting me with a 200 pound excess baggage bill and after a bit of negotiation I managed to whittle it down to 50 pound – thank goodness. I think the look on my face when they said 200 pounds made them reconsider..
Then the delightful news that the inflight entertainment system would not be available for the flight. I knew there was a good reason to pack 5 books with me. The only problem was that I was ¾ way through every book so after four hours I was pretty bored and hungry. Plane journeys just don’t really cater for the appetite of athletes.

When I got into JFK airport I was sent back and forwards from customs three times over after getting the wrong forms to complete and when I did finally get to the arrival area it was pitch black outside. I was thinking ‘hang on, I told our team director to pick me up at 12.30pm…this looks more like 12.30am..oh my goodness did I get the times totally wrong???’ After asking a local I felt pretty blonde when he was like ‘oh this is the underground terminal, next floor up it’s blue sky’s all around!’

Relieved to see Todd our race director/manager for MVP Healthcare Cycling we drove 2hours north to Sommerville for our first race the next day. I was a little bit jetlagged but I knew it would be very mild in comparison to flying out to NZ. I got quickly acquainted with my team mates; Natalie, Ryan, Geoff and Janel. Poor Janel had had a really serious crash on the bike on the Saturday and had just come back from knee surgery and looked like she was in a world of pain. Unfortunately this means that here season is over – So gutting for her as she has a great sprint and was just coming into good form.

Monday rolled around and Natalie and I prepared for our first race together with two team members missing. The Sommerville Criterium is apparently the oldest criterium race in the States and also one of the biggest men/women’s pro criteriums in the country so it was very exciting to be part of it, especially with 7500,00 in prize money for the first top 30 women. It was also a great chance to ride my new bike (Trek Madone) for the first time. I am so in love with this bike. I have spent the last month in Oxford training on what can only be described as the ‘Beast’ (very kindly lent to me by fellow Zappite Naomi) and I can assure you that riding up hills on a 12.5kg bike is not pretty, so to jump on a bike weighing just under 7kg’s with full dura-ace is absolutely awesome.

I was quite worried about my form for this race after producing one of the worst test results ever at the Oxford Brookes Sports Lab on the Friday before I left. I knew something was wrong as soon as I got on the watt bike as my heart rate was sitting 30 beats above normal for the same power output. As we got further into the test my nose started running, my stomach was aching and then I started feeling dizzy. I was told to go home and REST before flying out.

So despite such a negative forecast my body managed to get it together for Sommerville. The crit started pretty hard out and there were attacks all over the show with Colavita-Baci p/b Cooking Light and Verducci Breakaway Racing dominating. It was sizzling hot sitting at 35 degrees in the race and I was definitely suffering. It was a nice easy four corner circuit and luckily no one crashed. With three laps to go I started making my move up the pack and was relatively happy to come in 16th for the sprint finish. There were 3 other NZ riders also racing which was great to see. Emma Petterson managed a fantastic 6th place with Catherine Cheatley in 44th and Rushlee Buchanan in 53rd. I’m pretty sure they were working for their team mate Theresa Cliff- Ryan who won the race. Natalie also rode an impressive race for her first cat 1-2 criterium to finish with the main field.

Results can be found here: http://www.tourofsomerville.org/results/MonCat1-2Female.pdf

So convinced that my health was back on track I felt pretty calm on the journey up to Rochester where our team is based, but unfortunately at 3.30am I woke with what felt like an alien in my stomach and spent the next 48hours with one of the worst cases of food poisoning I have ever experienced. The only positive thing I can take out of it is that I’ve lost about 2-3kgs and should be super light up the climbs at Liberty Classic on Sunday, but it has really knocked my system about.

Rochester is a very nice laid back city on the border with Canada and on the edge of Great Lake Ontario. It is beautiful up here and I will definitely be taking advantage of all the great riding available. My housemate Kyle has also enlightened me to how much good mountain biking there is around this area so I will be able to get my dirt fix too. I got a little hyper when he mentioned that there was a world MTB cup in Windham, New York in August as well. I started thinking I could enter it, but then I reminded myself that my technical skills are nowhere near where they need to be right now to be considering world cups but hey it is something to keep in mind for the future.

Have to say a big thanks to TODD and the crew from MVP Healthcare Cycling/Full Moon Vista for helping me settle in here and also thanks to my awesome new housemates Kyle and John who have made feel so at home AND on a final intriguing note...Good luck to Kyle’s bearded mate John who is entering the National USA Beard Championships this weekend (I didn’t even know they had competitions for this type of thing!), looking for that National Title. John I certainly thought your beard looked long enough for a medal : )