NV Pics

Team pic taken during our pre-race ride of the TT course. Italian dinner family-style in the motel room. Missing from photo: Ryan, Dana, Gina.
Nicky's award-winning sprint against Laura van Gilder.
Nicky on the podium for her 2nd place finish at Friday's crit in Minneapolis. Next to her is Laura van Gilder and Brooke Miller.

Survived Nature Valley

I didn't expect a race without a super long climb in it to be so challenging. The power hills and simply length of the race made for very intense racing. It was a great race, Minnesota was welcoming (shockingly mild weather as compared with previous years) and the team couldn't have been better. I'm very, very happy to have the experience and even though I'm so tired I can hardly move right now, I feel better having done it.

http://team.bikehugger.com has been updated with details from each stage.

There's so much to be learned and gained from this kind of experience. It also keeps your ego in check. Being threatened with a time cut each day is scary, but then again, it adds to the drama.

Huge thanks to Team Group Health for paying for the team to go to Nature Valley. This is a very expensive race to go to and it was so nice to have a bed every night (we stayed in the race hotel, the Holiday Inn...at the center of everything).

As compared with Redlands--it was much faster, more furious, there were more crashes and it was, by far, the harder of the two races.

What did I learn from this race? Every day I had personal victories (aside from the not-so-great results) and learned a ton...

Day 1 Success: Leading the kiddie race with my teammates and getting a kiddie medal.
Learned: Positioning is key and if you don't have the right position to start, take every opportunity to move up before the pack splits (they did callups for at least 30 people making the rest of us not called up start really far back). Time cuts are soooo scary.

Day 2 Success: Figuring out how to position in a road race. I entered the small dirt road next to Kristen Armstrong. Success part B: Not taking her out when we turned onto that little dirt road.

Learned (or yet to learn): How to ride on dirt and wet-ish pavement. I was so freaked out, I slowed waaaay down, basically making me lose the leaders. Grrrrr.

Day 3 Success: Being able to hold back and ride slowly in the TT. It was hard to hold back when slow girls were passing me, but I needed to save my legs.

Learned: How to race a time trial, by watching Kristen Armstrong (the world TT champ). It was obvious she was going to win based on the lack of her upper body movement and very straight line that she took.

Day 4 Success: Playing in the front with the big girls. Chasing down attacks and covering most of the moves up there...Dropping back to the team car to pick up bottles. This had totally freaked me out before (at Redlands), but I did it twice during this stage.

Learned: I need a new seat. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has seen my seat (it's all ripped up from extended periods of trainer sessions)...but using another seat saved that race since the old was was so uncomfortable. Learned #2: How to motorpace. Never done it before, but I can see why it's valuable for training.

Day 5 Success: Making the time cut and not being "DNF'd" from the race. Not a huge accomplishment, but with 118 starters, it was nice to be among the ~84 who finished.

Day 5 Learned: Need to do lots of hill repeats up brutal climbs so it's not so shocking to see such a grade in a race.

And, after doing Redlands and Nature Valley, I just cannot fathom doing any stage race without a solid team, without a super supportive manager, an A+ mechanic and totally self-less soigneur.

I'll be racing locally for the rest of the season and focusing on each weekend. But, for now, I'm resting, sleeping, working, eating...my bike will stay packed for a few more days.

Team Group Health in Action

Racing started yesterday with a downtown St. Paul, MN crit. It ended up being a crit of attrition...and there was more of a hill in it than I had expected. The course was technical, 108 women started and positioning was key. With two call-ups per team plus a few more (this is when they introduce riders who are national champions or have some other notable accomplishments...then those riders go to the front of the pack prior to the start), there's no way to start at the front of the pack. The start was hairy with everyone shoving for position and with the number of corners and speed we were going, any sketchy cornering (and there was lots) really made it easy to lose positioning and make the effort necessary to stay in contact with the pack higher.

I survived the race for 20 minutes and it's the hardest 20 minutes of racing I've ever done. My hr was completely maxed out (higher than in Colorado because there is oxygen here) and my legs were blown when I got pulled. Unbelieveable! And I went into the race fully rested and feeling good. That makes it obvious that racing smart, keeping the right position and simply being extremely strong are keys to surviving this kind of pack, one that includes almost all of the best riders in the country.

That being said, most of the rest of the team did a fabulous job yesterday! We have tons of fire power and our two GC riders (the girls we're riding to support) are outstanding. Nicky is a fantastic racer, playing at the front of the race almost the whole time & finishing 12th and she gives us tons of useful advice from her experiences. Leah is 26 and insanely strong. She's got a great attitude and it's obvious that she will be someone to watch in the very near future. The rest of the team, Jadine, Lisa, Dana and Gina and Trisha, are very talented and are from Seattle. I'm having a great time getting to know them and hearing the fun stories of their racing in Seattle. It sounds like they, along with Suz (who I raced with at Redlands), consistently win every Seattle race. Most race for Team Group Health in Seattle, but there are two who race for their main rivals...but all of the girls get along great.

The highlight of my day yesterday was being a "moto" for the kids' race. Dana, Gina and I were the professional riders (as we were introduced) designated to escort the kids on their 1-lap race. My kids were 7-8 years old and they go fast! I rode in front of the kids, so they went the right direction and to clear the path in case anyone was on the course. The girl who was in front of the other kids and going really fast through corner #5. To put this in perspective, corner #5 is the one that we all had issues with during the race. It's a fast downhill, a slightly off-camber to the right. She ended up not being able to make the turn and popped up onto the sidewalk. There were lots of people there to catch her, so I'm assuming all was well. At the finish line, I got a kiddie medal with all of the kids who finished their race. Whew, my ego needed that pick-me-up. So, I finished one race yesterday and got a medal. I'll take what I can get out there!

Getting ready now for a 65-mile road race with lots of wind and there's a good chance it'll rain, too. Yesterday was a good opener so my legs shouldn't feel tired today. My main concern for the day is my throat--it was burned yesterday with the extreme intensity, breathing the hot, humid air really hard. It makes talking a little harder and last night my throat really hurt. It's feeling better today. There's no way today will be as intense as yesterday, though I'm expecting it to hurt at least as badly. Today my goal is to support my teammates and help the team GC ranking. Stay tuned!

Time for Nature Valley

I can't wait...absolutely can't wait for this race!!! Unable to withhold my enthusiasm, I'm turning to blogging so I don't start jumping up and down. It's almost time to go! Yippee.

Blog updates by me and my teammates (Team Group Health) will be found at http://team.bikehugger.com. Buy a t-shirt, help support the team.

Racing begins Wednesday (June 20th) with an early evening crit, around 130 women will be starting, from all of the best teams in the US. (A very similar line-up as was seen at Redlands due to this race being part of the Women's Prestige Series.)

http://www.minnbikefestival.com/

Weekend of No Racing

Not racing is almost as fun as racing, but it's still hard to watch racers do a perfectly flat crit course --yeah, if I hadn't had specific directions not to race, I would have been out there today. Pretty exciting racing happened this weekend, mainly involving DQs, strange crashing, and what sounds like an attack during a pee break. I'll withhold my opinions on these and other weekend events from this blog since I wasn't there to see what happened. My rides were awesome this weekend, especially since they were both concluded with a dip in the Platte River.
Watching the cat 4 women's race this morning took me back to my cat 4 days...the early morning race, the small pack, the unknown girls out there who have been doing something active their whole lives, but just turned to bike racing. It's a bit upsetting to see this perfectly good race go unused by so, so many women who could be out there. Why are women so terrified of crits? Women cat 4 crits are a completely different sport than cat 1-4 men's racing (and women 1-3 racing, too, generally). I am so impressed by the cat 4 women who embrace racing and say outloud that they want to race and go after their goals...this is very cool and you've got a lot to teach other women about just doing it.

Bike path bugs

Are little swarming bugs organic? One thing is for sure, they are free range, and, arguably, have a very nice, happy existence. I hope they qualify as healthy cuisine since my ride tonight involved eating quite a few of them. It has been such a moist spring that everything is alive and thriving.

Prepping for Nature Valley full time this weekend, so that means no racing. I'm oh so disappointed to not have to drive 2 1/2 hours to the middle of freaking-nowhere Colorado for a road race (it's a great race & it has been fun to go in the past). However, I'm not missing the long drive or very, very intense heat all that much. Twin Peaks has 11 women out there representing and quite a few men, very exciting! I'll live vicariously this weekend...and it'll be a serious challenge watching the crits on Sunday, but I can't wait to be a spectator for once in such a long, long time.

Summer's Here

I'm just now finally downloading pictures from a couple of weeks ago...this was taken from my office window, early afternoon a week or two ago. The road below was a swampy mess of hail floating on an inch or two of rain. It's so much fun to get to watch this kind of weather (and it didn't do any major damage except for take out some pretty flowers).

Twin Peaks Group Shots

The men all got into the spray tan stuff just before this pic was taken...

Look at these women, to be seen in future pictures as simply a blur of blue as we fly past...

Ft. Collins Vacation

Here's a short & sweet version of the weekend:

Brutal road race Saturday, but beautiful and very nice all-in-all. I enjoyed all of the descending and the happy power hills and the scenery...

The rest of Saturday was spend recovering. Eating, sleeping, drinking... it was oh so relaxing and since I didn't have my computer with me, I actually did these things.

Sunday was the downtown Ft. Collins crit--wow, was it exciting! There were attacks constantly throughout the race...finally, I have the jump I've been in search of all season (yes, after the brutal road race)...I attacked a few times and tried to jump on all of the attacks I was near. I spent half a lap on the front trying for one prime that I missed by an inch, but at least it didn't mean getting spat out as has happened before.

The finish left me in 10th & with $20 (the field was close to 40-large), but after having such an exciting race, it left me feeling pretty good. I headed back to my host family's house for a quick shower & then got back home to hang out with Rebecca who had come up from Durango for the weekend...finally getting to enjoy Denver and some quality off-the-bike time.

Picture of the weekend to come if I can collect enough energy to unpack my car and find the camera (yeah, I took one picture...hope it turned out!)

Now for this weekend

This weekend involved some seriously fun time on the bike. 95 miles yesterday, maybe 9,000 feet of climbing, oh yeah, with LT intervals thrown in for good measure. It was a fabulous ride. Basically, it involved riding to Estes Park from Boulder, so much of the ride was at fairly high altitude. Then this morning, I did a TT (on my own), in order to prep for Nature Valley...coming soon! Afterwards, a power nap was necessary as well as a shower and fresh clothes, so as to be able to race City Park tonight.

What's wrong with me? -I really like going into races tired. I think it helps me deal with the pressure to do well (so I'm the only one putting that pressure on, but it's real, no matter its source). Also, all of this training will hopefully make Nature Valley a fuller experience. I'd like to dedicate yesterday's ride to my Bike Hugger (aka Wines of Washington) teammates who had to race that distance and feet of climbing at Mt. Hood. I'm really impressed with what they've done this week (http://team.bikehugger.com).

Speaking of teammates, it's great to be back on Twin Peaks locally. They have the team tent set up at the races and they never tire of cheering. Hopefully one of these days my race is earlier in the day so I can hang out and cheer afterwards.