Benefield: Petaluma cyclist in Amgen Tour of California has a mind to ride

Alison Tetrick acknowledges the irony.

Tetrick, a professional rider with Cylance Pro Cycling, sustained a traumatic brain injury six years ago at the Cascade Classic in Oregon. Within a year of that crash, she suffered a concussion in another crash at the Pan American Games in Mexico. Since then, Tetrick, 31, has become an advocate for better brain injury awareness in cycling.

And yet still she rides.

She’ll ride into Santa Rosa on Saturday in stage three of the Women’s Amgen Tour of California, the premier cycling race in the nation, as part of the eighth-ranked team in the world. The four-day race, starting Thursday in Lake Tahoe, will run close to the same routes as the men’s race.

“For me, riding a bike is a release of anxiety and emotions,” Tetrick said. “It’s a way to express myself and stay calm.”

But Tetrick, who has lived in Petaluma since 2012, is no dummy. She knows the risk of her chosen profession, her chosen passion. Especially for someone with a history of brain injuries.

The valedictorian of her high school class, she has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Abilene Christian University in Texas, where she was a collegiate tennis player and is now working on her doctorate in neuropsychology.

She knows the dangers of bike racing. And still she rides.

“I so sense the irony with that,” she said.

Cycling is more than her job; it is part of Tetrick’s identity. She wasn’t ready to give it up, despite the risks.

“Unfortunately, crashing is part of cycling,” she said.

“You have to balance risk and reward. You have to be willing to take that risk to be a cyclist,” she said.

Tetrick is still willing to take risks, but she also wants to bring attention to better safety protocols for cyclists who suffer a head injury, such as proper diagnosis and recovery time.

“Head injuries are so hard to diagnose and treat. They are not like a broken bone, where you can watch and see the progress in an X-ray,” she said. “A lot of the symptoms are hidden and come up later.”

Case in point: When Tetrick crashed hard in 2010, she was immediately diagnosed with a broken pelvis. Despite losing consciousness and suffering seizures, it wasn’t until months later that doctors realized she had also suffered a traumatic brain injury, or TBI.

“I couldn’t walk,” she said. “I had all these other issues going on, so I didn’t notice really about the head until my parents starting pointing things out: ‘Why aren’t you reading? Why are you so volatile? Why are you depressed?’”

It was hard for her to untangle the blues she felt not being able to ride from the effects of the brain injury. Still, after three months, she started riding again.

And then she crashed again.

“I went over the handlebars,” she said. “I couldn’t function. The way I describe it was, ‘lights out.’”

But Tetrick needed cycling. She was good at it, and being a strong athlete was part of who she is.

And there was something else.

“I was angry,” she said. “I came back almost out of spite. The bike owes me something.”

When the anger wore off, Tetrick was left with just her love for riding.

“I have a profound love for the sport,” she said.

And her love for it inspires her to speak out to make it better and safer. She wants people talking about the dangers - not to make people scared but to make the sport safer.

“I love it. It challenges me,” she said. “I can use this platform to make this world a better place and myself a better person.”

It wasn’t easy, coming to terms with vulnerability.

“Coming to acceptance with your status and what is going on, it’s challenging,” she said. “You have wrapped yourself, and you have formed your days and your routines, and someone takes that away from you; you have to grasp other things.”

Tetrick wasn’t sure what to grasp at first. Eventually she decided to test her brain power in a different way. She enrolled in a doctoral program studying neuropsychology.

“I was valedictorian in high school and now I’m struggling with a TBI? Part of me wanted to prove I could learn again,” she said.

One thing she doesn’t have to prove is her prowess on the bike.

Omer Kem, owner of the Cylance cycling team, calls Tetrick an all-around rider who will be a crucial piece of his squad’s efforts in the Amgen Tour of California.

“She is really the road captain,” Kem said. “She is really the one who can go out and be a leader for the riders, someone who has inside knowledge of the roads, coming from having lived in the area.”

Tetrick said she can’t wait to show off Sonoma County to teammates, other riders and cycling fans. She is particularly keen on the pain that will be wrought by the climb up Coleman Valley Road.

“If you have to go up a wall, you might as well go up Coleman Valley,” she said last week. “My team will be here this weekend. I’m really excited to show them.

“I feel an advantage. I can give them full intel of the race, knowing the Santa Rosa course like the back of my hand. I know every pothole and every turn,” she said.

The Sonoma County stage is “going to be where the race is completely decided,” she said.

Althought the Coleman Valley climb is brutal, what makes the Sonoma County stage even more intriguing is that there could be enough time between the top of the hill and the circuit finish downtown for sprinters’ teams to catch up with the leading cyclists and make it a bunch sprint downtown.

Kem called Coleman Valley “a defining moment in the women’s race,” so Tetrick’s understanding of the route could prove crucial to Cylance.

But the team will have to outmaneuver some of the best cyclists in the world to get stage wins or put a rider in the chase for the overall title.

Best teams in the world? They’ll all be here, seeking to better their points standing in the international cycling rankings.

“They are all here because they are all chasing not only the (UCI) points, but the best are preparing for the Olympics,” Kem said.

This summer’s Olympics are not likely on the table for Tetrick, but that doesn’t mean she won’t go for a strong showing this week.

Even so, Tetrick has a firm understanding and appreciation for what she calls “life balance.”

She’ll get after it on the bike, but she’s got a life waiting for her when she gets off.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”