TRIA Orthopaedic Center Your Cycling Blog

Denise Ramsden is a student/cyclist from the part of Canada where there really are igloos and polar bears AKA the Northwest Territories. She currently spends the winter studying Cell Biology and Genetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and the summer riding bikes with Team Kenda and the Canadian National Team.

Being from Canada, I’ve always tended to support the home town crowd and race the Canadian UCI races instead of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. With those races off the calendar, I’m up to toe the line at the Nature Valley Grand Prix for the first time in 2010. I’ve heard a lot about the race from fellow cyclists, particularly about the challenge of the courses (I want to see this Stillwater climb) and the amazing support they’ve given women’s cycling over the years. I’m looking forward to experiencing the race for the first time, aiming for a decent general classification (GC) result and trying to give the young riders’ classification a go.

Racing the Nature Valley Grand Prix isn’t the only thing that has been different about my race calendar this year. While usually I’ll have gotten in at least two or three stage races by mid June, this year the Nature Valley Grand Prix will only be my second of the season having completed the Redlands Bicycle Classic all the way back in March. Hopefully one-day racing can transfer over into stage racing fitness. Why the difference? Well this year I decided to play hooky from school for the last month of classes and head over to Europe with the Canadian National Team. We made our way through a 10 event racing block over the month of April that included two World Cups, four UCI 1.1s and four UCI 1.2s around Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Then I was back off for a touchdown in Vancouver to fly through and exam, before heading down to Aguascalientes, Mexico for the Pan Am Road and Track Championships. I figure that the traveling induced tiredness, plus enough racing has got to mimic stage racing to some extent!! And experience in the European peloton and the full bore racing should transfer over well to North America. Although, I have to admit: I am looking forward to a bit of tactical racing rather than just going cross-eyed in the gutter for four hours a day.

Back in Canada now for a few weeks, it’s time to put in some training hours to get ready for another busy month in June. I’m looking forward to the challenge the Nature Valley Grand Prix is guaranteed to provide, getting in some fun racing with the team mates and a final racing push into Canadian Nationals the week after the Nature Valley Grand Prix!

About Team Kenda Women’s Cycling
Team Kenda began in 1999 as Team Ameritech with nine riders who excelled at bicycle racing. Over the years, the team has steadily grown in size and now boasts NRC Elite and Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and West Regional Teams. The team competes in the United States focusing on the National Race Calendar. (http://www.teamkenda.com)

Uncategorized   Tags: cell biology, Denise Ramsden, genetics, nature valley, Nature Valley Grand Prix, Team Kenda, Women's Cycling,   Comments Off