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FEATURES: BEING THERE - IN SPAIN FORTHE EMAKUMEEN BIRA
Raelynn Milley
June 20, 2011
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I recently joined eight other female journalists from around the world in Bilbao, Spain for the Specialized Women’s Product Launch. It was very exciting to be there, however, upon arrival we learned we would be under an “embargo”…so we couldn’t publish anything until June 19th—seriously? Me—keep a secret? Wow this would be hard, since I love gear, love testing gear and love telling the world about women’s products and I basically never stop talking or tweeting.
However, the good news is that we were also going to be able to watch the HTC-Highroad Women’s professional team race at the Emakumeen Bira Women’s stage race. This race is held in the Basque region of Spain which is well known for its cycling. The race considered one of the most difficult in Europe embodies the very essence of being a women: beauty, power and pain. Started in 1992 the race has grown from three stages to five grueling stages with day 3 being a double stage of time trial and circuit race.
Day one’s weather was overcast grey skies, but we dragged our tired, jet-lagged legs to a room where we were fit on our super secret bikes, put on our rain gear and headed out to ride to ride Stage one. We finished at the start line where tanned quad goddesses in brightly colored kits lined up for the Stage, an 80 kilometer route of the Emakumeen Bira race.
It’s hard to imagine why women’s racing isn’t televised or more full of spectators when you see the racers. Their legs are pure sculpted muscle, arms lean and tight, attitudes confident and nerves of steel ready to inflict pain on anyone who gets in the way of their victory.
Determination loomed above the peloton so strong even the rain couldn’t penetrate it. We moved in and out of the peloton, taking pictures and asking the occasional questions of those racers not deep in pre-race ZEN.
I
noticed that powerful and pretty go together—Diamonds are a girls’ best friend
even at the bike race
Spiuk
made a big appearance at the race providing neutral support.
Mariann Vos of Nederland Bloeit took the stage and went on to win
the overall. There were jerseys for Stage win, overall, queen of mountain,
sprinter and young rider…personally I, of course, loved the pink jersey. Each
winner also received a teddy bear.
On day 2 we rode to the TT course from our hotel in
Durango. This day was absolutely beautiful and sunny and we enjoyed
riding and seeing all of the local cycling club rides on the same route.
Euros love brightly colored kits and we happily noticed that most all
the riders had helmets on. The course was a flat, quiet, narrow road
with a hilltop finish, so we rode to the top of the hill then parked
ourselves on a bench along the course to cheer on the racers. It was
sort of funny that some of the follow cars had Gramma and Papa with two
children and a bike in the back seat….probably doesn’t happen much at
men’s Pro races.
I think Team HTC Highroad and Swedish National TT Champion Emilia Fahlin liked our cheering. Emma Pooley of Garmin-Cervelo won the individual time trial this day; she was so fast I missed the photo!
Team HTC women ((L to R) Emilia Fahlin, Katie Colclough,Charlotte Becker, Ellen VanDijk, Ina-Yoko TeutenBerg) seem relaxed before the start of the next stage—a mountainous 112 k route including one Cat.2 and three Cat. 3 climbs.
Judith Arndt Team HTC went on to take 3rd in the overall at Emakumeen Bira. I sat next to Judith at dinner the night before the race start and I was a bit nervous about riding the race courses over the next 4 days—even more so when I asked her about the race routes and her reply was “every race here is hard".
Oh yeah, she wasn’t kidding. The average race pace for the racers on that stage was 30mph…we went slightly slower and not so far. I definitely realized that the California weather has made me “soft”, with 6 layers of clothes on I was shivering on the glacial descents. A coffee stop at one of the summits was most welcome and here we found an interesting vending machine…you could get a can of pistachios or a tattoo for just 1 Euro…I opted for two espressos. I suspect Team HTC never saw the coffee shop.
Eye candy of the week had me thinking that Manolo Blahnik’s got nothing compared to the Team HTC Highroad Specialized “Podium” Shoe. I’m putting these on my MUST HAVE list. Just make sure you don’t mix them up with your cleated shoes on race day.
I would be remiss not to mention our night out in Bilbao where we took in a spectacular site; the Guggenheim Museum, a structure that is art in and of itself. Whether you choose to be inside contemplating the meaning of the collections or outside the Guggenheim is a meeting place for the Basque community joined by a love of art, music and people.
I’m super ready to share with you all of the other details of the week with Specialized, but for now it’s duct tape on my lips and handcuffs to keep me from Tweeting…stay tuned.
Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira 2011: Final overall classification
1. Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit in 10:56.42
2. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products at 1:00
3. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Highroad at 1:12
4. Emma Pooley (GB) Garmin-Cervelo at 1:20
5. Trixi Worrack (Ger) AA Drink-Leontien.nl at 1:58
6. Ashleigh Moolman (Rsa) Lotto Honda at 2:30
7. Christel Ferrier-Bruneau (Fra) Gauss at 2:34
8. Polona Batagelj (Slo) Bizkaia-Durango at 2-39
9. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Diadora-Pasta Zara at 2:57
10. Elena Berlato (Ita) Top Girls Fassa Bortolo at 3:17
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