After the Wheels of Thunder race last Saturday we reached out to women cyclists and Lori Emerson was kind enough to answer and share her experience with 303Cycling. We asked her a few questions and here are her answers.

[303Cycling] How did you get into cycling and how did you make the jump to racing?
[Lori] I long wanted to get into cycling - nothing matches the feeling of freedom you get from riding a bike. I started out by buying touring bikes with my husband about eight years ago and I just used mine to take long bike rides around Grand Island and Buffalo, NY. In my mind, I was training for a mythical bike tour across the US that we wanted to take.

I then moved to Atlanta, GA and decided that I would try triathlon, partly to stay fit and partly to meet people. I did a couple triathlons on the touring bike, all the while knowing that that I just wanted to save up some money, buy a road bike, and focus my energies on cycling.

There is a new event on the bike calendar this summer and it looks very interesting. With three distances offered there is something for everyone but make sure you bring your climbing legs. We had a few questions about the event and here are the answers. Dont forget the price goes up May 1st!

[303Cycling] With a higher elevation gain than the Triple Bypass at over 12,000 ft and 20 less miles, who came up with the course? Do you recommend any special gearing?
[Deer Creek] The final course design is the product of a collaborative effort among the event owner, Pat Downing of Downing Events, and two local cyclists - Tim Balfe and Randy Williams.

Our goal was to create a centrally located ride that is both challenging and convenient. This is why the course starts and finishes at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. We created a full loop with limited overlap to eliminate bike transport fees for our participants. The result is a spectacular course that is a challenging yet convenient one-day event for cyclists.

To be specific, the total elevation gain of the century course is 12,751 feet over 106 miles. That's 120.3 feet per mile - greater than any other century in the US and a greater elevation gain than any one day on the Tour de France. For gearing, we recommend 39 on front and 28 on back, triple or compact.

Photo from cyclingtechblog.com/

The Haystack TT is just around the corner this April 17th. While the course may be different this year due to road construction on Neva road, the pain and suffering of a TT will not go away... but won't happen as long this year at least -;)

Riding a TT is difficult, besides maybe doing the 1km on the track it is one of the more difficult events in cycling especially for those who rarely train just for it.

To successfully compete in a TT you have to do them, weekly time trial events are your best way to get faster by pushing yourself to go faster every week and learning how much pain your body and mostly mind can really take is key to being fast. But there is also training in that strange position which is very important.