Terrapin Twilight Crit 2012

Whelp, we made it to Atlanta with all our luggage and equipment! Luckily our rental car juuuust fit the bike boxes, wheel box, our duffel bags, and our backpacks.  I'm mean just fit.

Full Car. 'Nuf said.

After driving through some torrential rain with a bit of a panic as we tried to locate the windshield wipers, we eventually arrived at the Wicker family house. I love getting to stay with this family as they are a hoot. Bunch of kids, a pony, a goat, a dog, a couple of cats and ultimate fun. In fact, Billy the goat offered to be our mechanic for the week but we politely declined.

Billy tried to eat the Celestial Seasonings tea

After assembling our bikes, we headed over to Outback Bikes for some odds and ends before our race...missing headset screws, getting cassettes switched out, etc. We were surprised to be treated to the awesome helmet-wearing mechanics, Mike & Hodge, there looking over our equipment pre-race. After a quick spin in the humid weather, we were off to Athens! 

We arrived to quite the crowds. The event is held next to the University of Georgia campus in a big bar district. Read: thousands of drunk college students watching the races. It was awesome. Sweet sign in- what does my signature look like again?

The race itself went pretty great! Coming from Colorado and Utah where the racing is just getting started, we were anxious to see if our legs had turned into racing legs. The race started at 7:45pm and no time was wasted to push forward at full-speed ahead. Breaks were going off time and time again and there were primes almost every lap. I was able to secure a prime as well as go with a few attacks. With 6 to go, I attacked and made a huge gap. Another woman bridged and we stayed away until 1 to go. I was pretty blown when we were caught but pulled off a 23rd. Kat was able to dodge the 2nd-to-last corner crash and come out with a 19th. Overall, we were very happy with the start of Speedweek and each accomplished our  individual goals. It can only get better from here. 

Tonight we're racing in Roswell, Georgia, in the Historic District at 3:55pm. Sounds like a good night for some aggressive racing to me!

Tune in...

For some Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma action Saturday evening!   Women's race goes off at 7:45pm local time.

http://www.uride.tv/live-stream/04/27/2012/Athens+Twilight+Criterium/

2012 Speedweek Preview

In just a couple of days, Kat and I will be journeying southeast to hit up our first team race: Speedweek. This race features seven criteriums throughout Georgia and South Carolina, a different city each day, from April 28th to May 6th. Speedweek offers some of the largest prize purses in North America- you'll find the competition to be...quite competitive! We'll kick off the week in Athens with the Terrapin Twilight Criterium. We'll be posting updates after each race, so please do follow along and also check out the Speedweek site! Whelp, I best go pack and practice my Southern drawl :)

Avenues Yoga Workshop to Benefit Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma- A huge success!

We had a great turnout today at Avenues Yoga for our Yoga For Cyclists Workshop!  A sweet group of folks with a wide range of yoga experience came to our event this afternoon, and Sammy and Paul led an awesome class.  True to Avenues Yoga's philosophy of making yoga accessible to all and encouraging the type of practice where everyone is welcome regardless of their abilities, Sammy and Paul co-taught a phenomenal class which spoke to the first-timers, as well as the more seasoned yoga enthusiasts among us.  Our 2 hour class was informative, fun, and challenging.  Pretty sure we were all sweaty, smelly, and shaking with the effort as we did all sorts of heart and hip openers, core strengthening, and balance work with smiles on our faces.  (I love classes during which I'm encouraged to laugh and enjoy being present!)

It truly was a great time, everyone left feeling wonderful and happy.  I feel very fortunate to have a place like Avenues Yoga in my life.  I am so thankful to Erin, Paul, and Sammy for their support in our team and a huge thanks to all of you who joined us today.  We raised over $150 to benefit and grow our women's team.  You all rock!

 

Tea Time with Celestial Seasonings

Colorado may not be a very large state, population-wise but it is chock-full of some really stupendous businesses. I was lucky enough to get a package on my doorstep about a month ago. The contents looked like this: 

Yup, that's right. A huge box full of delicious tea from Celestial Seasonings in Boulder. Score! Kat and I are very excited to be using some of this tea to keep us awake (Green Tea!), keep us cool on hot summer trips (Zinger Iced Teas!), and soothe us to sleep (Sleepytime, my childhood favorite!).  Unknowingly, our host houses will also be in for a little tea-treat :) 


Thank Celestial Seasonings for your generous support of women's cycling and Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma.


A side note: I was horribly sick a couple weeks ago and had the opportunity to consume copious amounts of the Sleepytime Throat-Tamer Wellness Tea. Licorice was really great for my sore throat! It definitely made my illness just a touch more bearable. 

Tour of The Depot Part II

Hello all!  First off, I owe a HUGE thank you to Arnicare.  Without the healing aid of Arnica Gel to relieve muscle soreness, I might have never made it off the couch and to today's final stage of Tour of the Depot.  I felt much better today as our field lined up for our 25 mile circuit race.  I started the day about 2 and half minutes back, so I made several attempts to get away.  I thought the field might let a couple of us who were quite a bit back on GC go, but that was wishful thinking.  I was going for the stage win today, so practiced for the finish on the intermediate sprint going for the line from about 400 meters.  I won a sweet pair of Smith Pivlock V90 glasses- neon green!  Excellent.  Although the sprint went well, realized I didn't have to jump quite so early for the finishing sprint.  On our last lap, I jumped closer to the 200 meter mark and had plenty of time to get my hands in the air for the victory salute.  Finished the race 4th on GC.

After my win today, "The Merckx" is officially on sabbatical.  I built my new Veloforma Strada SLR up this afternoon and holy cannoli.  Dreamy.  Seriously, THIS IS THE BEST BIKE I HAVE EVER RIDDEN.  Thank you to Mark and the Veloforma crew!!!

Whitney Wins Federal Center Crit In Denver

Saturday was the Federal Center Crit in Denver. The day started out nice, cool, and sunny for the morning races but by the time my race came around at 4:45pm, the windy had picked up, the weather dropped 20 degrees, the sun disappeared, and, on the start line it started really raining. Yowzas. The field was small with only 6 riders in the Women's Pro 1, 2. No matter, I was there to race no matter the size. This "crit" was really more of a circuit at 4 miles but with 14 turns a lap. Yeah, combine all those turns with some fresh rain and you have one slippery race. After getting a lap in so I could familiarize myself with the course, I launched my first hard attack on a straightaway. The field brought it back. I waited for the counter and none happened, so I launched another and another...after 12 attacks I finally got away with a lap and a half to go. One lady, Julie,  bridged this time instead of pulling me back and we put a huge gap on the field. Unfortunately, she took a corner too hot and crashed (she later ended up 3rd). The last lap and a half I drove the straightaways and opted for easier corners with ridiculous counter-steering to avoid the same fate. I crossed the rainy finish line with 35 seconds on the field. It was a good day on the bike!

Tour of the Depot Update...

I'm doing Utah's Tour of the Depot Stage Race this weekend.  This morning we had a TT and my race went fairly well for someone who thinks bike + ramp = cool BUT Kat + time trials < fun.  Spent the rest of the day waiting for our 60 + mile road race which started at 3PM.  Had a pretty good time racing, wanting to win the Smith Optics intermediate sprint.  That went well and hopefully I will be sporting some sweet new shades tomorrow.  Unfortunately, today wasn't quite my day.  The wind and the total mileage of the day got to me.  I cracked with about 3 miles to go before we hit the finishing climb.  Luckily, we receive some amazing support from Arnicare and I'm incredibly thankful for the healing aid of Arnica Gel and Sportine tonight!

Circuit Race tomorrow!

Whitney's Double-Podium at CSU Circuit & Crit

Howdy there! This past weekend was CSU's Race Weekend and, boy, it was a great but insanely busy one! In addition to racing, I was out volunteering with the CSU team from before sunrise and through the race day, taking a break to race. CSU put on such a great event and were able to make some good money for Collegiate Nationals in a couple of weeks! Woohoo!

Saturday was the Cobb Lake Circuit Race held a bit northeast of Fort Collins.  The weather was a bit chillier in the 60s with icy winds. The course was sweet: a 6-mile loop that started on top of a big hill, followed by a windy descent through the neighborhood, onto a flat tailwind section, then a few miles through some hard-packed dirt, and up the mile-long finishing climb. Our field was a bit dismal with the holiday weekend so we were thrown in with the Men's 3's. One of the officials told the women that none of us would be able to keep up with the men so we might as well have fun while we could. I reluctantly held my tongue and took it as a challenge. And keep up I did. The race ended up being last-women-standing, so I won by default. I was way more pumped though that I was able to not only stay with the men through the race, but be active and be one of the last 10 standing. Lady power, hi-yah!

A Happy Whitney Post-Circuit Race

Sunday was the infamous CSU Oval Criterium on campus. Unfortunately, this race was on Easter, so once again, the fields were smaller than usual (Side note: I hope CSU gets a better weekend next year!). There were only 6 women starters for our 70-something-degree, 4pm race. The course was a 7-turn course with a big lap around The Oval. I think aggressive racing is way more fun than timid racing, so I opted for a hard counter of a Rio Grande Lady who went for a prime and caused a two-lady break of Gwen from Kenda and I (after winning the prime). I was pretty tired from the weekend and being atrociously sick the week before and opted for a "throw-all-my-eggs-in-one-basket" approach to the finish: I attacked Gwen 100% with 2 to go. Unfortunately, it wasn't my day to shine and I was caught and couldn't catch her on the counter. I was second for the day. Thanks to CSU too for equal payout across top-categories!

In the break with Gwen from Kenda Sunday

Overall I was very happy with the weekend. This next weekend has promising turnout! Denver Federal Center Classic (a crit) on Saturday and The Air Force Road Race on Sunday. The road race is actually on an old Olympic Trials course and it's fun! On a side note, I've been having a great time running some crit clinics with the CSU women. It's been really fun watching them improve and watching them get more and more excited about racing each weekend.

Oh Hello Veloforma!

Check it out! Veloforma made a great post introducing our team last week! They also have a pretty great journal. Follow along their journeys here.

Whitney's Veloforma in Action!

Kat Wins SLC's Hell Of The North

Don't let the name fool you!  This year, SLC's version of Hell of the North was quite tame.  5 mile pancake flat loop with about a 2 mile dirt section.  Due to the amount of snow we received here Friday and the warm temps and sunshine leading into Saturday's race, the road was in great condition.  Unfortunately, turnout was low for the Women's Pro 1-2-3 race with 6 riders.  The Men's Pro race had 12.  Maybe folks here in SLC shy away from the word dirt unless mountain bikes are involved?   Maybe the race wasn't gnarly enough to bring out the Paris Roubaix fans and hard-ass riders? (You know who you are...you might love racing cross, or perhaps you look forward to races like Battenkill not because it marks the beginning of the road season, but because IT IS your favorite race.)  Regardless, the parking lot was pretty mellow and there was never a line for the porta-potty.  Our field raced for 40 miles with a number of attacks throughout.  4 of the other riders were from the Ski Utah Team, which resulted in an alliance between the two other solo riders and MA natives.  With two laps to go, I attacked before the dirt section and Sara Kaufmann countered when I was brought back.  She stayed away for about 4 miles with an increasing gap until I decided we were getting a little too close to the finish for my liking.  My attempts to bridge up to her solo were unsuccessful. So, those of us left chasing worked well together to bring her back.  Heading off the dirt towards the start-finish straight, 3 of us were left and I jumped early, confident I could get a pretty sizable gap and maintain it.  Turned out to be a good move and a nice start to the race season.

Post race bling and my new race recovery outfit thanks to Prana.  Our French friend asked if I was given a cobbler (meaning cobble) for my win.  Sadly, no.  

On a different note, I had an interesting botany lesson at the race.  As I was getting ready for my race, I couldn't help raise an eyebrow at all the racers carrying their bikes through the dirt parking lot.  I didn't see any glass.  Didn't they realize we were going to be racing on a dirt and gravel road?  The bike would get dirty.  Flats were going to happen.  As we rode back to the parking lot after the finish, Sara warned me about the "goatheads," a sharp two-spiked seed from the tribulus terrestris plant, in the parking lot.  I looked down at my tires to find them covered with these seeds, and began pulling the 6-10mm long spikes out of my tires.  I had never seen or heard of this plant in my life.  Several hours after my first encounter with it, I happen to come across a reference to the plant and its proposed medicinal properties in the book I'm reading.  Funny.

Thanks for reading :)

Avenues Yoga Workshop to Benefit Paceline Projects p/b Veloforma Team

A good friend and former teammate of mine Tiffany Pezzulo introduced me to Avenues Yoga last October.  As a former Division I soccer player, my body used to be flexible and dynamic.  Naturally, I was a bit taken aback during my first yoga class to realize just how limited I had become since taking up cycling.  Whether this unpleasant change was a result of my time on the bike, or aging (?!); I no longer had the ability to move with the ease and strength that I once had.  I signed up for their introductory one month unlimited card.  I went to as many different types of yoga class as I could fit into my schedule, and the effects have been amazing.  My flexibility and balance have improved quite a bit, I sleep well, I no longer have to use an inhaler for my asthma, and I'm strong!  Seriously.  Didn't you read my last post?

Erin and all the folks at Avenues Yoga have been incredibly supportive and jumped at the chance to be involved with our team.  We are very excited for our upcoming workshop which will specifically address challenges that riders face (neck and shoulder pain, etc), but of course will benefit anyone whether you ride or not!  So, spread the word to all riders, commuters, and folks who back women's athletics.  If you will be in the Salt Lake area on April 22nd, please consider coming to our workshop 1-3pm at Avenues Yoga.  All are welcome and your attendance will help our team compete at national events.  

More info can be found at http://www.avenuesyoga.com/?page_id=109