Numainville hammers it home. (Picture by Lisa Lardy)

With sunny skies and great racing weather Monica Soriano, Sue Adkins , Liz Merritt and Joelle Numainville decided to test their legs at the Tucson Bicycle Classic. The Tucson Bicycle Classic is a three stage event comprised of a TT (Stage 1), road race (Stage 2) and a circuit race (Stage 3) held March 6th through March 8th.

Numainville, a Quebecois rider on the Elite NRC team took the opportunity to escape the tundra weather of the Province of Quebec and head to visit her teammates in the dessert state. The purpose of the visit was to get in some much needed outdoor miles and jump into a race.

I caught up with Numainville on the way to the airport and she said, “I did not know what to expect, however, there were some strong women riders there.” She added that she did not have a great TT; however, was extremely happy to have won both the road race (Stage 2) and the circuit race (Stage 3) of which landed her 5th place in the GC.

In the Women ’s 35+, both Monica Suriano and Sue Adkins  achieved the first two spots in the TT.  This was followed by Suriano’s 2nd and Adkins’ 3rd in the road race.  The relentless women swept the first two spots again in the circuit race on the last day of the event.

In the women’s category 4, Liz enjoyed the stages and narrowly missed the top ten in the GC.