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The Amber Rais diary 2009
Amber Rais made a name for herself during her second season of racing at the professional level for Webcor Builders in 2007. After spending 2008 with Team Tibco, 2009 will surely be another year of growth. A former collegiate swimmer, Rais found her passion in bike racing during graduate school, where she earned a Masters degree in Earth Systems.
Throughout the season, Amber will give an up & comer's perspective on racing, as well as some suggestions for becoming more environmentally conscious with her 'Blue Planet Tips'.
Whirlwind
Although it’s only May, I’ve passed through more than 18 airports in my travels since January, when long winter rides gave way to the hustle and bustle of race season travel.
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The deep freeze that took hold of the European continent this winter made for especially challenging training conditions, but I had prepared for a hard winter. Armed with new foot heaters (thanks to my friends at the Bicycle Warehouse in Reno), I could easily clock several hours outdoors in the subzero temperatures. I also had a new set of Kreitler rollers to help mix up my indoor training sessions (though we now have a handprint on our wall as a humbling reminder that I shouldn’t try to get too fancy).
Other new additions to my winter training regime included my first sessions on an indoor track (I don’t think I’ll be swapping disciplines anytime soon, as much as I did love the Madison slings). David and I also headed south for warmer weather, training for a couple of weeks in Italy, though we still found ourselves battling freezing temperatures and ice on the roads around Pisa.
Back in Graz, the temperatures hovered between -9 and -3 °C, and thankfully heated up to -3 °C by the time we returned home. Sure it’s cold, but this year I knew what to expect and had prepared myself mentally and, importantly, with the right equipment!
From the deep freeze of winter, I headed to California, where the sudden change from snowy Christmas markets to LA sunshine and beaches made me feel like I’d landed on the moon. From LA, I headed north for some early season racing with the team, starting with the San Jose Criterium and the Tour of California Women’s criterium in Santa Rosa.
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Our team worked well together right from the start, generating good momentum to carry us into the next races. We earned a podium finish at San Jose, the result of a great team effort and lead-out in strong winds. At the Tour of California criterium, we battled rain and bots-dots on the streets of Santa Rosa, where Lauren Tamayo finished second on the day out of the winning break. Not a bad way to get the season rolling!
We then headed to Fresno for the early season Velo Promo Classics. For those unfamiliar, Velo Promo’s dedicated organizers have been running bike races since 1978 and are responsible for a large portion of the Northern California race calendar. Thanks to their efforts, Californians can race nearly every weekend from January through September. Velo Promo continues to make a lasting and valuable contribution to the sport of cycling, and their races have become local classics in their own right.
My teammates and I spent a week training in Fresno, and racing around Merced. This time of year the California Central Valley is a paradise. My teammate Meredith described the green hills as fluorescent, and they were so lush they did seem to glow. The rolling hills, ragged outcroppings and blankets of wildflowers among gnarled oaks made for scenery that almost didn’t seem real.
At Velo Promo’s Snelling Road Race, we created a break of seven, including all six members of our own team. The ensuing team time trial took on the feel of a freight train hauling speed over the rolling hills and ensured a stacked finish. At the Merco Credit Union Criterium, we launched a nearly perfect lead out on the final lap for Brooke Miller, who came second to Ina Teutenberg in the sprint. (Mental note: don’t lead out the world’s fastest sprinter when leading out your own.)
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In the Merco Credit Union Road Race the next day, several breaks formed, but nothing stuck. Coming into the finish, we wanted to draw out the sprinters, so I attacked Columbia’s lead-out and opened a gap. Ina closed to my wheel, taking Brooke and Laura Charmeda with her. The three sprinters took the podium steps in that order, and I crossed the line in fourth, earning enough prize money for some celebratory burritos that evening.
From Fresno, I headed back to my hometown of Reno, Nevada for some good old fashioned altitude training. While there I connected with my pal Tim Healion, founder, director and Chief of Everything Officer for the Tour de Nez - Nevada’s longest-running road race. The Nez has recently fostered an outreach program working to better integrate cycling within the community, or as Tim puts it: changing the Truckee Meadows one bike at a time.
Tour de Nez Outreach is part of a long evolution of cycling culture in Reno. The first bicycle races took place in Reno at the Nevada State Fair in 1881, and the first women’s bike race in Reno took place only a few years later in 1886. Just this year, Reno’s Rolland Della Santa won Best Road Bicycle at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.
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Countless other cyclists have roots here as well: Greg Lemond, Inga Thompson, Bobby Julich, Clara Hughes, Tony Cruz and Alex Candelario, to name a few. The Reno Wheelmen racing club has been around since 1896, and the UNR cycling team was racing as early as 1901. Cycling culture has certainly enriched the Biggest Little City throughout its history.
I love being back in Reno. Growing up there, I was a competitive swimmer and didn’t ride at all, so now when I come back, I get to rediscover my hometown as a cyclist: from epic mountain climbs to anecdotes of bike races on the Comstock back in the 1800’s. The riding can’t be beat, and there is something especially energizing about the majestic Sierra Mountains.
From Reno, I was off to Team TIBCO’s training camp in Carpinteria, California, where we frolicked on beaches, toasted marshmallows and walloped one another on the climbs around Ojai in preparation for the Redlands Classic.
Redlands is a race I will take revenge upon one of these years. I’ve had bad luck there, though maybe it’s just getting bad bike karma out of the way for the rest of the season. This year, I went down on stage one, losing a lot of skin and dislocating a rib. So it goes. You heal and move forward. In my case, there is plenty to look forward to, as the season is just getting going!
Next up is a series of races with the US National Team in Europe. More on those soon!
Thanks for reading,
Amber
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Sabine Dukes
- The TIBCO lead-out train winds up on the final lap of the San Jose Criterium.
Images by Wil Matthews
- Training on the climbs outside of Ojai, California during team camp.
- Kat Carroll, Alison Starnes and me goofing around during a photoshoot at team camp.
Images by Tim Healion
- Posing for a photo at The Fort in Reno, headquarters for Tour de Nez. That’s a signed Eddy Merckx Faema jersey behind me.
- Addressing a group of sixth grade students at Jessie Beck Elementary School in Reno. We talked about bike safety, goal setting and all of the ways bikes make life more fun. The kids asked all the usual questions, (fastest you’ve gone on a bike? worst crash?) and got a kick out of lifting my LOOK 585 to feel how light it is.
Images by Kent Williams
- Racing through the rain in Santa Rosa at the Tour of California women’s criterium.
Images by Kurt Harvey
- Getting the lead-out going on the final lap of the Merco criterium in Merced, California.
