Kenall Ryan-Race Reports: Grazia-Orlova and Spain

Hey Everyone,

Most of you know I was in Europe racing for the National Team. I was at the womens house in Lucca, Italy, then traveled to Czech Republic for a stage race, and finally a two day race in Costa Brava, Spain. I had an awesome experience racing and seeing the world. Enjoy, it's a bit of a long read.

Grazia-Orlova:

In this race our team was Coryn Rivera, Ally Stacher, Jessica Prinner, Kaitie Antonneau, and I, a young team, four juniors and a U23 rider. There were 120 starters in this four-day five-stage race. All were pro women, most were on national teams. Among us were two of the top women racers in the world, Marianne Vos with her strong team from Holland and Nicole Cooke with the elite Great Britain National Team.

The first day was rolling terrain that finished on a cobble stone climb, I finished in the pack in 54th. Second day was the hardest day of the whole stage race. There were three major climbs, the first was the hardest, it was 8km long with a sustained gradient of 8-9%. Vos and Cooke were just battling it out the whole time, which absolutely blew the field apart. I was in the 3rd chase group, finishing 55th. The TT the next day was in the early morning and it was raining really hard, I was really tired from the day before and I ended up 58th. Then the circuit race was later that day, I was on Coryn Rivera the last lap, since she was my lead out, and I kept getting hacked left and right by other riders because they knew I was setting up for the sprint. There was a round-about and then a 500 meter uphill finish, I almost got taken out at the round-about, and I lost Coryn's wheel and finished in 13th place just behind her.

On the last stage it was a circuit race that had a couple hard climbs in it. It was raining/freezing cold and there were crashes left and right every lap. I was in the group about a third of the way through the race, and then I got caught behind a crash and had to chase back on. I killed myself to get back in the group and then once a climb came up I popped and was stuck in the caravan for literally an hour. I finally got back into the group and when we hit the climb I tried to shift from the big to the small chain ring and my front derailleur was broken and I had to do a bike change. I got on a spare team bike and chased back to the field quickly. I road for half a lap with the field and my legs just cramped up really bad. I hadn't eaten any food the whole race because I was scared to take my hands off the bars. The two other junior girls racing on the national team, Kaitie Antonneau and Jessica Prinner, crashed 10 times between the two of them throughout the four road stages. It was the squirrliest race I have ever done, combining a lot of different riding styles from all different countries and putting them together, in a pack on roads that have massive holes and where the weather was far from desirable just adds to the chaos. Manel Lacambra, the USA Womens National Team Coach, pulled up next to me in the car when I was cramped up and absolutely spent, asking me what I wanted to do. I wanted to keep going so I could get a GC finish, but I had absolutely no energy left. He told me to just go take a shower. He promised things would be different in Spain for me.

Spain:

Spain was definitely different. The people, the food, the beach, and the racing was much more enjoyable than CZ had been. We raced in a vacation spot.

The first day we got there we ate Paella and laid on the gorgeous beach of Costa Brava, Spain. Our team was Evelyn Stevens, Ally Stacher, Coryn Rivera, Jessica Prinner, Kaitie Antonneau, and I. Evelyn and Ally did the pro womens race and the rest of us were in the Junior category. The first day of racing was a rolling 10k time trial. USA absolutely dominated. Evelyn Stevens placed first in the pro womens category, beating the pro mens winning time by 30 seconds. Jessica Prinner won the time trial for the juniors, with Coryn in second place less than one second behind her, I took third place five seconds behind Coryn and Kaitie was in fourth just 12 seconds behind me. We signed autographs on shirts and bottles, took pictures with the locals, and did our awards ceremony.

It was our last day of racing. We were leading both the GC for the pro womens race and the GC for the Junior race. Our plan for the race was to get Evelyn Stevens and Coryn Rivera in a breakaway together and the rest of us would have to cover attacks from the field. The pro women started 30 minutes before our race did, because they had to do an extra loop. Before the womens race came through to start another loop, our race started. There were about 30 junior 17-18 girls. We rode for about 25 minutes in the pack, until Evelyn Stevens came flying by us saying "Americaaaa, f@#$ yeahh!!" Coryn Rivera and Jessica Prinner both jumped hard to get on Evelyn's wheel. They brought two other riders with them, but they soon popped off their wheels. They were now team time trialing away from everyone. Ally Stacher, Kaitie Antonneau, and I were all left to control the field and make sure that the breakaway, stayed away. We kept that race together like professionals, no one was getting away. We had word from the moto-ref that the leaders had finished. We had done our job. With only 7k to go, two of the teams attacked together. Ally Stacher ramped up the speed with me on her wheel and Kaitie right behind me. Right before we were about to go through a round about, I jumped across to the two riders in the chase group. They did the majority of the work and the work I did I only went 80%. We were about to make the last turn when I attacked the two riders into the corner. It was a 500 meter uphill finish. I had enough speed through that corner and enough energy for a sprint. I crossed the line in 4th place. Kaitie won the field sprint taking 7th, and Ally was 9th. USA owned that race!!

Thanks for reading,

Kendall Ryan