Three weeks of training in Boston this summer paid off for Alijah Beatty, who brought home the green cow jersey from the Tour of America’s Dairyland (TOAD) 10-race series, finishing first in Category 2 and third overall. 

She finished 11th on day one, but made steady improvement throughout the 11-day event despite tough conditions at times. 

“As the week went on, I ended up doing better and better each day,” Beatty said. “I was racing myself into shape. My best performances were two (third-place) finishes on stages six and seven. Through the series there were days of rain and excessive heat, and even though these aren’t ideal, I was just happy to race my bike.”

Beatty earned the green cow Cat. 2 women’s omnium jersey and a wheel of gouda cheese with her performance in the cycling series held in Wisconsin. 

Each of the 10 races was 75-minutes long, held on courses called critierums that range between .5 and 1.5 miles. 

Beatty, who is studying nursing at Marian University, graduated from Iowa Mennonite school in 2017. 

She was the women’s individual pursuit and points race national champion in USA Cycling’s 2018 collegiate track national championships. 

Beatty said that the hardest part of the week was navigating the final lap of each race, because each one is so different. 

“Every lap, I am learning and analyzing how I want to position myself for the finish,” she said. 

“On the last lap everyone is trying to get into the perfect position to win the race. This can get pretty dicey and aggressive. In the past few years, I have learned how to hold my position and battle for where I want to be —this includes bumping other people and sometimes taking risky lines to keep my position or move up. TOAD was a great performance for me and I can’t wait till I get to be back racing in a pack.”

Beatty joined a new cycling team this season — New England Devo out of Boston, Massachusetts. She spent three weeks training in Boston before the series. 

“This preparation was vital to my results at TOAD,” Beatty said. “Starting out the week, the main goal was to get the omnium jersey for the Cat. 2 women but also for the overall women.”

In USA Cycling, riders start out in category 5 and advance towards category 1 by earning points and experience. 

After her performance,new teams have reached out to Beatty to represent them at other races.

Her next race will be in Boise, Idaho with the team Wolfpack on July 10. She’ll be back with New England Devo July 16-25 for Intelligentsia Cup Chicago.