Ryan's Collegiate All Stars

For a second year in a row, a University of Arizona rider has qualified for the Ryan's Collegiate All-Star Team. The selections for the Ryan's team occur at Collegiate Road Nationals where the top riders in the women's individual omniums are invited to race the Nature Valley Grand Prix fully supported. This year, Erica Zaveta made the trip along with the nation's best collegiate racers. Here's what she has to say about the experience:

"After collegiate road nationals I was contacted by John Barron to race with a composite team of collegiate women racers. I was so excited when I read this email; I couldn’t believe that anyone would seek me out to ride for them! I raced the Liberty Classic in Philadelphia, packed my bike up on the sidewalk in Philly after the race, grabbed my bag, and got on a plane to Minnesota! The Nature Valley stage race had 6 stages over 5 days. There were 2 road races, 1 time trail, and 3 criterums. My favorite stage was the 91 mile road race. This road race was relatively flat up until the end circuit, which was four laps containing a super steep climb. I felt great coming into the circuit and was climbing well. This stage was my best finish with 42^nd. The criteriums were so fast. Kristin Armstrong rode on the front driving the pace, she didn’t even look tired!

The team was great; it was a lot of fun hanging out with the girls on the team. We drove to the stages together in the team van, cooked dinner together, and worked through each stage together. All the girls on the team were amazing cyclists; everyone seemed to have different cycling strengths. It was so cool that we all came from different schools from all over the country and so quickly became good friends and teammates."