Anne Guzman Racing in the Tuscon Bicycle Classic

Anne Guzman, riding for Team Nanoblur-Gears is currently racing in the Tuscon Bicycle Classic. This three day stage race started on Friday March 12 with a time trial, followed by a road race on Saturday and ending today on Sunday March 14 with a circuit race.

Guzman, 34, is the only member of her team racing in the Tuscon Bicycle Classic. On Friday in the 4.8 kilometer time trial, she finished in 18th position, 52 seconds down on the winner Susannah Gordon. The Saturday 96 kilometer road race ended in a field sprint with Guzman finishing in 22nd position and Cara Bussell taking the win.

We caught up with Guzman to hear how this first race of the season is going for her, “The time trial was a learning experience. I haven’t raced for almost nine months so one of my goals coming here was to get used to race day preparation – the warm up and getting my race head back, being at the line calm and ready. Although at the end of the day outcome matters, in this first race I had to make sure I focused on the process, and staying present. As well as not caring who was or wasn’t here in the race.”

Guzman emphasized that she did take away some valuable lessons from the opening time trial, “I learned that right now I don’t know my limits. I can push harder than I thought. It was over too fast. You shouldn’t feel good in a time trial, you should be in pain, but that is why we do early season races. It’s a measuring stick for yourself.”

The second day road race, says Guzman was rather slow with not a lot of action happening. Guzman says she attacked a few times but was brought back. Guzman is looking forwards to the closing stage today on Sunday, a 62 kilometer circuit race. For today’s stage, Guzman is planning, “To be active, attentive and get in or try to initiate a winning break. I want to help create sustained pain in the legs. This is a training race and I need it to be hard.”