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ROAD CYCLING IN USA

After 25 hours of travelling and one nights rest Susie Wood and friend Nicky Solomon from Palmerston North started with 40 other women in the Elkhorn Classic three day stage cycling race based in Baker City, a mountain resort area in Oregon. Susie finished 2nd in the first stage and was lying 4th after three stages. Snow was falling on the summit of the first climb in the final 190 km stage when Susie, Nicky and a number of others in the lead bunch decided to turn back and save their health and legs for the prestigious HP Challenge race due to start several days later. This was a tough call for Susie who said later that the only other time she had withdrawn from a race was when she was taken away in an ambulance!

The HP Challenge is regarded as the pinnacle of women's road racing in USA. The course includes an individual time trial, criterium and seven road race stages. The total distance is 870 km with the course altitudes ranging from 600 to 2500 m (about the height of Mt Ngauruhoe!). Ninety women started in this year's race including many of the top professional European and North American teams. Susie competed in the New Zealand team, which included Sarah Ulmer, Nicky Solomon, Robyn Wong (Wellington), and Johanna Buick and Toni Bradshaw from the southern regions. Two members of the NZ Commonwealth Games team, Roz Reekie-May and Melissa Holt were riding for USA based professional teams. Susie finished 35th with a best stage place of 20th. She felt stoked just to complete the race and finish amongst the professionals. Sarah Ulmer crashed and withdrew giving Susie the top place in the NZ team. Roz Reiki-May, on current form the top NZ road racer, finished in 27th place indicating the depth of talent in the field. Sarah Ulmer was not badly shaken by her crash and headed to Europe for a build up to both the track pursuit and road races in Manchester.

Following the HP Challenge the top women's teams travel across USA to Boston then Ohio to follow the National Racing Circuit. Because of the logistics and costs of following the professionals Susie decided to stay in Idaho to recover from the hard racing and enjoy the local scene. Just as a "warm down" she competed in a criterium, short road race and a three-stage race in Idaho and then drove 250 miles to a criterium in Elko, Utah. In the four starts she ended with an impressive three wins and one fourth place. Main prizes in USA are cash so she managed to stack away enough green backs to pay for meals and accommodation for the rest of the trip!

In July Susie starts in a major four-stage road event based in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. She then travels to Vancouver to compete in a criterium and a short road race. Last up is a flight across USA to Pittsburgh where she competes in the Tour de Toona - a monster of a race with 10 stages and a total length of about 1200 km. Later in the year she will compete in the National Road Cycling Championship with the goal of putting to rest last years disappointment of watching the top group race away from her up the final hill as she struggled to release a chain jam and pedals that didn't rotate.