End of the Season

The racing season is officially over. I think I'm happy about that, right now...but my legs are still tired from the season...as soon as that wears off, my tune will change. The last race was yesterday so the off-season has only just begun. The bike is hanging on the wall (it won't be touched for two weeks) and it's time to do everything I didn't have time for during the past 6 1/2 months (when racing began).

Yeah, so this is a look in my modified closet--bikes take precedence over the clothes. It is possible to have 4 bikes in a tiny loft that has no storage space.

Cruising Saratoga

Steph and I met up Friday morning to ride. Here we are at the Saratoga Battlefield. It was a fun ride and nice chance to catch up!

Friday afternoon, I met up with another friend, Keirsa, and we also had a fun ride. It was great to spend the day on the bike with friends.

Saturday morning was a century bike ride...once again, a perfect day to be on the bike & it was a good group of people. A stomach bug got me, though, so I couldn't do 100 miles. Still, it was a good ride and the best way to spend the last day in town.

Sitting high atop Saratoga

My apologies, I haven't hit this pic with photoshop yet. Tonight I met up with Greg, Eric & Katia for drinks and dinner. I used to work with Greg and Katia, Eric used to work with Greg's wife. It was awesome to see them (it's been 3 years) and hear stories of what's happening at the Lab. Not much has changed. That isn't surprising, knowing the culture of the place, but that's also one of the best parts about it. Funny, I didn't appreciate that as much as I should have when I was working there.

Back to Saratoga

The entire drive from Montreal to Saratoga is just about this beautiful. Between being happy with the scenery and jamming to music, the time passed quite easily.

With shopping out of the way...

...there was plenty of quality time this moring to ride the bike. I got out just after 8 am, had a Cliff Bar breakfast, tooled along on the bike path (see pic), and then came back through Old Montreal, stopped for a mocha and crossaint, then continued up to Mt. Royal (where I am in this picture). It was a perfect day for a ride.

You think American tv is bad

Who knows what was happening in this cartoon since it was all in french, but it couldn't have been rated "G."

Watching the Simpsons dubbed over was an experience. Homer's voice was much too deep, it changes the character!

Vive le Montreal Fashion

Montreal is the best place to shop for clothes. It's worth the trip, trust me. The jeans actually fit. This is where I was blogging from last night. It's an interesting town. The second floor of most of the shops are seedy. Walking up the stairs to use the internet, I'm feeling a bit self-conscious since it appears that I could very well be walking to a peep show.

I didn't learn any new french words on this trip, but I did try to pick up on their accented English.

Burlington Crit

And, finally, the Burlington crit, to top off the weekend. The course was tight and fairly technical, with some brick tossed in just to make it more interesting. There was a fair amount of climbing. Downtown Burlington is nearly the same as Pearl St in Boulder, to get an idea of what it's like. There were thousands of spectators (I think) lining the course.

I finished the race 15th GC, which was fine. This was such a good vacation, placement just didn't concern me much. Also, hopefully this experience will carry over for the Parker Omnium coming up soon!

Tour de Vermont

The road race portion of the Green Mountain Stage Race was epic. That's the only way to describe it. The race began in the rain, a steady downpour. I got to the race a little too late to sign in. I was sure this would mean a huge penalty to my GC placement (really, I wasn't too concerned about GC, but still, it's not fun thinking about how I might be penalized). The course had a little of everything a road race should have: climbs, descents, dirt, riding through town, cruising the countryside. The last 4 km of the course was brutal--a steady 18% grade with harsh wind and rain. I could hear the announcer probably half an hour prior to finishing. That helped to keep going, but still. The last 100 meters felt like a couple of miles of pain, it didn't seem worth continuing. (This is what it looked like, though this is of the pro's race.) The crowd, however, that lined those last meters, made it possible. The officials were right there to roll people off of the course. We were all going that slowly at the top that it made sense to have this assistance. The feeling of accomplishment afterwards was the best. Eric was smiling, he had a very successful race & enjoyed it, too. To see that we had both survived was pretty cool. (I was worried that morning.) The pic shown is of a pre-drive of the course, this is part of the 4 km steep section.

Green Mountain Stage Race

Surviving a stage race is the equivalent of winning in my distorted perspective. The Green Mountain Stage race was *awesome.* Each day was dramatically different in the way of course, pace, etc. The strongest racer on the first day wasn't necessarily the winner the next. There was some insane climbing, but even though I'm not a climber per se, it was all fun. The first day was a hill climb. The picture to the left is where everyone parked for the prolog. It was a beautiful day and evening. The drive into Vermont was picture-perfect.

Stage 1 (the second day of racing) was a circuit (each lap was 20 miles, my race was 1 3/4 laps). There was one big climb and a few power hills. Perfect course for sprinters because the climbers couldn't get away. (Whew.) This is me and my friend, Eric. (Forgive me being cheesy.) We traveled to the race together and it was enjoyable to meet his teammates. One girl on his team was in my field (she was very sweet and a good racer) so it was comforting knowing someone else out there. Most of the other women weren't as friendly as they are in Colorado. I think that could be because they don't know each other that well. They traveled to this race from all over the East Coast. In Colorado, we all see each other each week at every single race.

Stage 2 was INSANE but up there amongst the best races/rides I've ever done. Oops...5 minutes left at this internet terminal. If I get cut off, more later! Shoot--can't get the picture up! It'll be here soon, you gotta see this insane 18%-grade road.