Speeding to Speedweek

Today Kat and I are journeying to the deep south today to start a 9-day adventure that will take us through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. During Speedweek, we’ll stop in seven different towns and cities for downtown criterium racing….several are at night. Our first stop is tomorrow night in Athens, Georgia in their bar district literally across the street from campus.

We're excited to also visit our host families again this year as well as one of our sponsors, Outback Bikes! Also there we have our new carbon clinchers from State Wheels eagerly awaiting to be raced on our ninja black Veloformas...check 'em out:

That's right...red decals. Won't they look sweet on our ninja Veloforma bikes?

At least personally, I'm also pretty pumped to spend a week in truly warm weather...granted Fort Collins now has nice weather the day I leave. Good thing we have lots of mineral sunscreen from our title sponsor to save my very pale, untanned skin :)

Here is the event website where you can also stream all the races live: http://usacrits.com/speed-week/

FULL SCHEDULE

4/27 – Terrapin Twilight Criterium
4/28 – Historic Roswell Criterium
4/30 – Coastal Empire Cycle Fest
5/1 – Downtown Walterboro Criterium
5/3 – Spartanburg Regional Classic
5/4 – Belmont Criterium presented by Carolinas HealthCare System
5/5 – Global BMW Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge

We’ll try to keep our blog as up-to-date as possible!

Whitney 2nd at Weld County Road Race!

Last week the Front Range in Colorado was hit with a freakish 22 inches of snow in a couple of days. With a dirt road race on tap for that Saturday, I was a little worried that our race would resemble more of a cyclocross mud pit. Somehow, somehow, we were lucky enough to have two glorious days of sunshine that mostly dried up the course for what turned out to be a hard and fast day of racing!

The course was a solid 12-mile rolling loop in the middle of farmland in Johnstown, Colorado. With the P12 women and P12 35+ women combined, we had a pretty big 40 person field. I hung out in the back for most of the first lap to check out the course and the competition (Epic Fail: I totally didn't check out the course map beforehand so I had no clue where I was going). Just before we hit the dirt again, I put in a monster attack and never looked back until after the 1-mile dirt section (happy to say, my State Wheels were stellar in the dirt!).

The start of the break- going through the dirt

A couple miles later, we had the winning break...not without a lot of work though. With some pretty fast ladies not making that break, we had to work super hard over the next two laps to secure the break.

Photo by Dejan Smaic

With one very windy kilometer to go, Gwen (Kenda) and I sat on Angela (Primal)'s wheel watching each other. The remaining lady, Heather, was in the Master's category. Eventually Heather jumped then Gwen and I were side-by-side sprinting. I watched her just pull away. Eek! I finished second. It was such a fun day with great competitors and solid, hard racing. I'll get you next time, Gwen! :)

As I sit here typing this, it's 30 degrees and the ground is covered in snow from another freak snow storm. It's going to be weird to pack for hot Speedweek when we're still getting the fluffy white stuff :) I'm so ready to play crits this weekend!