First win of the year

So apparently it takes a podium to get me back on the blog - mostly I just like the pictures :P. I constantly resolve to myself that I'm going to start blogging more often - well you all know how well I've been keeping that promise! :P

Now that the preamble is out of the way - Sunday was a blast. It's always a blast when you win - especially when things don't work out exactly how you would have liked. The race was fun - I teamed up with Karol Ann (who is off to race with her team Vienne Futuroscope in France next week) for the Calabogie Classic. We worked together to cover all the attacks launched by the Stevens and 7th Groove teams (I was really impressed with the level of aggression!) and very quickly a break stuck. I was the lucky one up the road and my compatriots were Allison Lampi (7th Groove) who drove the initial split, Rachel O'Reilley (a VERY strong ex-triathlete) and upcoming Canadian track talent Krista Ruby. The four of us were working well together - which was good, seeings as we got away less that 15km into the race.



I was very happy with how things were shaping up. I had the feeling that we had broken the pack as our lead had been inching up towards a minute with about 25km to go when...man, this is getting tough...maybe I'm not as fit as I thought...15 seconds later: nope, I have a flat. So now things start getting interesting.

I rolled on the flat for most of a kilometer as I watched the three girls, and what I thought were my hopes of winning the race ride away from me. But as I came upon a cluster of spectators by the side of the road I called out saying that I had a flat. One incredibly generous man quickly jumped off his bike and took out the rear wheel while one of the support staff for 7th groove helped me get it into my frame and off and running again. But not before the pack had caught and past me.

To say that I wasn't in the best of moods might have been an understatement, but I put my head down and tried to catch as much of a draft off the race vehicles as possible. Within' 4km I was back on the main pack - which on one hand was great, on the other - I didn't want 4th. I rolled up to Karo and told her I had a flat (she looked almost as impressed as I felt) and so we started to up the pace and try to bridge back up to the girls up the road. The rest of the pack was restless and before long we had a good race going on - unfortunately to the detriment of my previous breakaway companions.

We brought the girls back with a few laps to go. The race remained quite aggressive and on the final lap Karo instructed me to sit in and rest up for the sprint. She covered the front for me and set tempo for the last few 2km. This made my job really easy as all I had to do was sprint. I knew that there was a good headwind coming down the homestraight, so I kept repeating to myself to be patient. I wasn't 100% that I knew how to do this sprinting thing anymore, but with 300m to go my instincts took over. Here is a picture:



As I said, it's always a blast to win - and congrats to Sarah Coney who took 2nd and Jen Stephenson who rounded out the podium - both of them worked really hard out there and deserved their successes.

So I've spared you all the excitement of getting back into the racing scene at San Dimas (it was SO much fun to race!) The subsequent soul sucking drive from L.A. to Ottawa (highlight was DEFINITELY Nebraska where I got pulled over for going 81 in a 75...then when I was trying to make the time pass as I could not speed anymore - I had only 4 radio stations available to me: 3 country, 1 pro-life = awesome). Chris and I then moved into our new digs in the Gatineau (first house buying experience also awesome) and now I've jetted off yet again down south to Georgia. I'm here for two and a half weeks and will have 7 days of Speedweek crit racing followed by 4 days of Joe Martin. Fun times ahead - I'm so stoked to be back on the scene!

Signing off from the Dancing Goats Coffee Bar in Decatur, GA (my life is AWESOME)...

Nothing like a little reprieve

So yup - I'm now right up there with the infamously BAD bloggers. I can say this with certainty as my life has changed a good deal since I last blogged.

First off - the biggest change in my life has got to be that I caved and moved across the country to be with Chris. Now I live here:



Okay - so you caught me...I do not live in the Canadian parliament - but I do now live in Ottawa - the Canadian Capital. That having been said, I'm busy wintering in Tucson (because apparently I'm acutally 75), but more on that later.

Chris and I are in the process of becoming real grown ups. We have purchased a house and will be moving in at the end of March - so very exciting. We will also be residents of Quebec - which fits in nicely as I will be racing for Specialized Mazda Samson next year - also a Quebec team!

My introduction to Ottawa was the CRAZY cyclocross series. Things that I learned:
a) Ottawa people (can someone help me out and let me know what people from Ottawa are actually called?) are fervently in love with cyclocross;
b) I am not in love with cyclocross;
c) The courses in this part of the world are more soggy, grassy and involved a good deal of running; and
d) I do not like this type of course. I miss South Surrey and being good at cyclocross.

So once my dreams of that pursuit were quashed I started to look forward to ski season. I got 1 week of skate skiing (on stellar new equipment which was an AWESOME Christmas present from Chris' parents) before heading back to Calgary to prep for the wedding.

Ahhh the wedding. It was awesomely epic. I'm really not sure that a picture can put it into words - in short it was the best day of my life to date. So much fun to dress up all pretty like and have everyone that I love in one place. And to marry such a man as Christopher...I'm a lucky, lucky girl. Okay, that's my sappy girl moment.



Despite my belief that no photo can represent this fantastic day - I needed to gratuitously put in a photo that shows off my dress. Because I am in love with it. Becca's shoe are also pretty fabulous. Becca makes the photo cut because she was a FANTASTIC maid of honour - I don't think I would have made it through the day without her. I am also really lucky to have such a wonderful sister in my life!

If you're iching to see more photos - which I'm sure you are - EVERYONE wants to look at me (HA!) check out our photographer's blog. Rachel is a friend of mine back from when I was a junior cyclist - she is awesome and it was fantastic to see her again - she also happens to be a fabulous photographer. Check it out here.

Which brings me to Tucson where I am trying to desperately rebuild my sad little body from last season's "mishap". So far so good - if nothing else I'm enjoying the sunshine! With all this extra time on my hands - here's to hoping I start being a better blogger... I do enjoy it when exciting things are happening. I might just have to start taking more pictures too...

So that's the update for now! Signing off from Tucson...man, I wish I had some chocolate...

Change of Pace

So it's official. My 2009 cycling season is complete...well except for my potential clandestine cyclocross season - but I haven't decided as of yet so we'll see. I'm a little sad to see the end of it - but at least it was super successful so that makes it easier.

It has also given me a little more time to concentrate on the other things in my life - like wedding planning! YAY! This picture is from the most wonderful "soiree" that Chris' parents put on for the two of us in honour of our engagement/wedding. It was fantastic and a blast - not to mention a ridiculous amount of wonderful food!

Life it treating me well and my body is slowly, but surely mending itself - and I'm getting a good deal of reading in - and I've been so lucky as to have time to re-read the Twilight series. I love it. So fantastic. Life is good! ;)

2 Wins in a Row :)

Since getting home from PEI I have been enjoying a great deal of time lazing about on Chris' couch here in Ottawa. I've been enjoying some good weather, some fantastic, uninterrupted internet time and of course some fun with the Christopher. I'm still a little brain dead from the fatigue of the last month - so I think I'll stick primarily to picture telling. Above was me chilling with some reporters post-PEI stage win. I think I was a little excited. There is a video of my talking to one reporter - but talking is an inaccurate statement as I believe that YELLING would more aptly describe what I was doing. The first time I watched it I was incredibly embarrased....so I'm not going to put the link on here - but know it's out there ;)

Anyways, yesterday I raced the Preston Street Criterium in the Little Italy area of Ottawa. The weather was CRAAAZY with some torrential downpours - but only in showers, and it cleared up quite nicely for the end of the race. Now, living in BC, we race in the rain a fair amount - but it still scares me a little - especially when I'm racing with a bunch of Ontarians (of which Chris' comment was that in his whole life he figures he raced in the rain in Ontario a grand total of 6 or 7 times). So I went to the front off the gun and didn't really let more than 2 or 3 people get in front of me. About 6 laps in there was a crash behind me and one of the masters racers I know pulled up beside me and said "don't worry - he'll get a free lap." At that point I figured out that we were in a break - which I was more than happy with. We kept working well together and built up a 20 second lead fairly quickly - and just before the end of the race we lapped the field.

Due to some confusion at the end (we caught the main field on the last lap), I got a little gapped at the finish and didn't manage to beat any of my breakaway companions in the sprint - but to be honest I was pretty fried in the last few laps anyway!

Honestly, I feel that the race wasn't as hard for the level of wrecked that I feel this morning - but I'll chalk it up to being a wee bit dehydrated (it was MUGGY here yesterday) and that being my first day of intensity on my bike since PEI.

Here's to Nats this weekend - TT on Friday, RR on Saturday - good times to come!

VICTORY!

I won in Charlottetown baby! Final stage of the Tour de PEI - good times :P

More to come...

One stage to go

To the tune of "Home for a Rest"

You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best

I've been gone for a month, I've been bonked since I left

These so-called vacations will soon be my death

I'm so sick from the bike I need home for a rest.

We arrived in late-April and Belgium was cold

We searched for the web on the side of the road

We never saw nothin' but curious townsfolk
Kept the wind at our backs with the speed of our spokes

CHORUS:

You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best

I've been gone for a week

I've been bonked since I left

And these so-called vacations

Will soon be my deathI'm so sick from the bike

I need home for a rest

Take me home....

Elsy Jacobs our first race to war
Julie’s break showed that she was surely hardcore
Next up was the Swiss, large mountains would yield
The beautiful lakes and wonderful meals

- CHORUS -

Bern World Cup brought us and the fans to the streets
The three k long hill proved to be quite a feat
Then next down to France with the poppies around
“So What I’m a Rock Star” was the common sound

You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best

I've been gone for a month

I've been bonked since I left

And these so-called vacations

Will soon be my death

I'm so sick from the bike

I need home for a rest

Take me home....

The gas tank is empty, L’Aude’ll be over soon
My legs are sore as I stare at the moon

I'm knackered again, come on sleep take me soon

And don't lift up my head 'till the the twelve bells at noon

You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best

I've been gone for a month

I've been bonked since I left

And these so-called vacations

Will soon be my death

I'm so sick from the bike

I need home for a rest

Take me home

Outdoor slippers

Now I was the first to condemn these as a fashion. Well if I'm honest, my sister was the FIRST person to condemn these as a fashion...but I will reluctantly admit (after being on the road for three weeks) that they are conveniant. They are in fact my outdoor slippers.

Outdoor slippers may not sound that exciting, nor helpful to some - but for those of us who are constantly on the lookout for free wireless - outdoor slippers are a key tool. Take right now for instance. After having travelled through Switzerland, down to the mediterranean area in the south of France, I am sitting at a trailer park, under a set of concrete steps...all to bring you this invaluable information.

I think I'm just excited to get online. Racing starts Friday...YIKES! Here goes nothin'!

Grazie Trek. Danke Trek. Merci Trek. Thank you Trek.

The view from my hotel window in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Trek is the best company in the world. And I have proof.

They have managed to find me a new frame and it's currently being shipped to my hotel in Switzerland from the Netherlands - go multinational company. I owe them a world of gratitude and I can't explain just how happy I am!

But the beautiful landscapes here in Switzerland might start to explain my fantastic mood. It's gorgeous. The coffee is exquisite and I'm sitting at an internet cafe. This is the life!

Our dutiful mechanic Michel getting one of the girls water before we head out on a ride.

For Lisa: SUR LE POUCE! HA!

Open casket memorial

Chocolate, Waffles and Beer

Welcome to Belgium!

I am reporting live from Sambreville, Namur, Belgium. It’s gorgeous – I’m loving every minute of the riding and also the hanging out.

Life has kept me on my toes as the airlines busted my frame on the way over here. Nothing like a little bit of adversity while you’re trying to get over jet lag. I haven’t yet had time to have a memorial service for my Trek frame as of yet as I’ve been too busy trying to manhandle the airlines (Lufthansa to be exact) to try to get some cash out of them – but in the meantime I’ve been riding the National team spare bike…very lucky they had it over here – whew!

Other than that we’ve been hanging out in our team apartment for the week (complete with internet poaching that requires us to sit on the curb across the street) before we head to Luxembourg to race on Friday. The riding has been picturesque – including our hill intervals up the Citadelle in Namur this afternoon. I haven’t been feeling terribly chirpy between the cold that I contracted just before I left and the jet lag – but it’s coming around!

The roads in Europe have proved to be everything I had dreamed of – plus a little wind (or a lot of wind as the case may be). I figure with the bike and such (oh yeah my matteress is actually patio furniture – not sure why I chose THAT bed!), I hope I’m getting my bad luck for the trip out of the way.

Tomorrow’s a recovery day and I think we’re going to venture into town to find us some world-famous Belgium chocolate…I’m sure that it won’t disappoint. I mean they have chocolate in EVERYTHING (especially if it’s a breakfast cereal) so it must be good chocolate!!!

Until next time!

Ahhh Redlands - I guess you're alright after all! ;)

Following my last capture all post - I decided to actually keep y'all updated on what's going on. As I believe I previously mentioned, after about 10 days in Tubac, I headed with the Canadian National team over yonder to California (where the temperature has been more moderate!) to take the line at the Redlands Bicycle Classic for the second year running and see if I could take a little dignity back after an excruciatingly painful race last year.

To say that I improved on last year's performance would be an understatement. I confuddled myself in the prologue by completing the 5km (uphill) prologue in a time 45 minutes faster than last year - and to be honest that was my first indication that I have brought a much stronger skill set out to play this season. Friday's roadrace was the race of my life. I believe I finished around 36th in a small group of stragglers just over a minute down from the winner. The day was hard with a couple of challenging climbs and some killer wind - but the conditions played to my strengths and I was stoked at the end of the day. Especially stoked as my major concern going into Friday's race was simply to make the time cut so that I could start the crit on Saturday!

Going into this race, I told myself that I was coming to Redlands to see what I had, but most importantly I was here to contest the crit. I had difficulty falling asleep on Friday night as I was so stoked on my performance from the day before, but I must have got enough sleep! The plan for the race was for me to help Joelle and give her a leadout at both the intermediate halfway sprint as well as the final (at this time I would like to give Joelle super props for her 10th place on Friday's Beaumont roadrace). Now, in the crit, I'm afraid I wasn't able to help her out, but she managed to place 6th regardless and I followed shortly behind her in 8th. All and all a great day at the office :)...which takes us to the Sunset Loop. But I mean really, what does one say about the Sunset Loop??? My first marker of accomplishment was when I was still with the group when the "neutral" car pulled off (after about 8km of climbing) as last year I wasn't able to hold on to the group for the start!

I managed to stay with the main pack until the 5th lap (with a good deal of chasing on the downhill I might add - thanks to the girls who helped me stay in contention for as long as I did!). But alas at the start of the steep pitch on the 5th lap I was completely toasted...I'm not sure if it had something to do with my lack of food consumption as I had been concentrating so hard to stay with the group (I will totally admit this is a rookie mistake!!!) Luckily enough I found a couple of super awesome girls who towed me around for the remainder of the 9 laps and we made our way down to the finish line. I will save EVERYONE my thoughts on the fact that we made it within about 250m of the line and then we were diverted off course for the boys to start (they were not pretty thoughts!), but I'm super stoked to have finished! Before today, I was okay with the thought that I may never finish the Sunset roadrace at any point in my cycling career! Also props out to Carrie and Sarah who rode likes STARS today - I'm so proud of you!

So yeah, it's been a week of surprises and pleasant ones at that! I'm stoked to start my season so strong (and it makes up for not getting to do the first Spring Series!!!) Thanks to Vince and Serge for taking care of the team for the last 2 weeks and also to my teammates for such an awesome experience. It was truly a fantastic group of girls full of positive energy and I will miss you when I get home :) But above all I would like to give a SUPER SHOUT out to Robert - the best host housing dude I have ever had. Not only was your house beautiful and welcoming - but you have made our time here that much better! Oh yeah and I will forever owe him for driving myself and a few fellow BCers to LAX really early tomorrow morning. Yes, he is da bomb!

But before I head back to the rain, I'm making a short wedding week trip back home to Calgary where I hope to get all sorts of wedding related tasks accomplished! I'm STOKED to see my family and really excited to get to check out the reception venue and hopefully find my dress! So the fun just keeps on rolling - hope all is fantastic with everyone!!!

Don't Forget Your Passport!

And the title of this blog is more than a TV show played on TLC...it's actually sage wisdom - but perhaps I should start with a wee update of what I've been up to for the last few months before I get into the nitty gritty.

My travels commenced in early December with a unplanned trip out to Hawaii to help my sister and Mum get ready for the Honolulu marathon. Yes, I took that bullet and hung out in Maui with my bike for a week - oh how difficult is my life! The day after I returned home the snow started to fall in Vancouver (and we ended up with CRAAAZY 2 foot snowbanks...where do I live again?), but luckily I was only home for 48 hours before jetting off to England for some family fun time!

The purpose of our sojourn in England was to attend the first marriage of one of mother's parent's offspring (read: cousins on my maternal side). There were plenty of jokes about the fact that Karen is the youngest of the seven of us and the first to really grow up! Below is a picture of us in chronological age from Karen to Rosie - there are a number of other photos floating around from over the years that are far cuter - but I don't have access to a scanner!!!

The ceremony was fantastic and the party afterwards was even better! So great to spend time with the fam and have Granny show us all how to party it up! However, for me, by far the most exciting part of the trip was when my dreamy then-boyfriend asked me to marry him! The night before Karen's wedding we went out for dinner and I came home with a beautiful ring!!! We shocked my Mum - it was quite entertaining!!! Unfortunately three days later Chris and I parted ways in a rushed goodbye in the Heathrow airport (so romantic!) as I returned home and he jetted off to start his new flashy job as a policy analyst with the federal government in Ottawa. :(

So back to Vancouver...full of snow...BLAH! Seriously - this winter has been spectacularly bad! Lucky for me this has been the winter of training camps and in early February I headed down south for a series of camps starting with Team BC in Palm Springs and then off to Santa Rosa with the Trek team. Santa Rosa was a DREAM!!! I loved it - definately a week to remember. We were treated like rock stars - we even had our own chefs! We sported the awesome new Trek kits (and I'm SUPER bad at taking pictures or else I would have a picture of them for ya!). Bottom line being that it's SO great to be with such a positive, well run organization - I can't wait for the rest of the season! Below is a pic of my perennial teammate Leah Guloien and I gunning for it at the Valley of the Sun criterium in early February. (We're sporting the fabulous Team BC jersey)

HOWEVER, the real great story from the past few months (I'm still working on distancing myself from it to find it funny...not sure if enough time has passed as of yet) comes from my journey between leaving the camp at Santa Rosa and returning home to Vancouver for my 1 week of home time before jetting back down to the National team camp in Tucson (well Tubac to be more precise!) where I am now.

As part of the aforementioned rock star treatment, the Trek Red Truck staff drove the team trailer 16 hours south of the border to Santa Rosa. For anyone who has had to travel with a bicycle, you understand the utter relief of having someone show up with your bicycle unharmed by the airlines (and your pocket isn't assulted either!) While I didn't send my bike home with the crew (I was staying a few extra days in Marin county), I did send my very large duffel bag home - hoping that the airlines would be less extravagent with their baggage fees if I only had a bike bag to load.

That evening as we were heading out in the team van for dinner we were contemplating whether or not we should have locked up the rental house. We had yet to have done so during the trip, but I decided to make a joke and point out that while the bikes were now gone, it was only the easy stuff to steal that was left - like laptops...and passports. Right, passports - OMG...NOOOO!!! At that very second I realized that I, being oh so brilliant had shipped my passport back to Canada in the Trek trailer.

At this point I would like to point out that in general, I like to think of myself as a responsible, organized and intelligent person. Shipping one's passport back home is not behaviour fitting of someone with ANY of those traits! Needless to say, the following 48 hours were on the stressful side. I called (and in this order): Steve (who was driving the trailer home), Chris (who had just landed in Vancouver to come visit me!), my Mum (who can fix EVERYTHING...right?), my Dad (who has similar magical powers to that of my mum), Air Canada, Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Border Services Authority, the Canadian Embassy in San Francisco and my coach Jeremy. There were a mixture of responses - mostly empathetic...and generally confused and landened with "how exactly did you do that?"

We tossed around a number of options on how to deal with the problem, but in the end Chris ended up scanning me a copy of my passport and my parents (who decided on a whim Friday evening to spend the weekend in Victoria) took my passport to the WONDERFUL folks at Air Canada who greeted me off the plane with it.

So in the end: no harm, no foul. However, I would still advise that you keep your passport with you while travelling!!!

And on that note, I bid you adieu from Tubac, Arizona with my passport in my purse!

National Challenge Champs

You are checking out the very first Canadian Women's Team Pursuit Champions! Yesterday Steph, Laura and I laid it down to win our first event of Track Nationals over the 3km distance. We qualified in a time of 3:49.3 with a few errors leaving room for improvement in the finals where we rode faster and smoother to take the gold and the snazzy Atac jerseys that you see us sporting above.

For reasons that I do not fully comprehend, our event wasn't a "real" National Championship - regardless of the fact that there were 5 teams in competition AND the event is run at both the World Cup circuit and the World Championships. Regardless, Steph Roorda, Laura Brown and myself are the Canadian National record holders in the event! HA! We caught our opponents in the gold medal final with 1.5 laps to go - it's too bad though, I would have loved to see the time that we were setting down!

It's a good start to the weekend - let's hope I can build from here!

Oh yeah - and for those who are aware that I'm a brutally bad blogger when it comes to consistency - not much has happened over the last few months - I swear...I've actually been at home and catching up on my sleep! Well I guess there was a little bike racing in there too.... ;)

2008 Canadian Criterium Silver Medallist

And here's a pic of the podium with my buddy Steph in 3rd! We raced hard and in the end Merryl took us on the uphill drag. Congrats Merryl - if I had to be beat by anyone - I'm glad it was you!

I'm hanging out in Quebec city with my Mum and sister (who arrives on Wednesday) for the next few days...mind you, I'm not all that much fun - I ride, sleep, eat and then waste time until it's socially acceptable to eat again! Today was a day exploring the hotel bed - now that I'm not in a crusty hotel room in Beauce I'm hoping to sleep a little better.

Next race: Saturday for the Nationals RR. It's a good course for me - so I just gotta rest up and get ready to go HAAAARD! Then I'm home for Superweek...it's been a great trip - now I'm looking to cap it off with a BANG!

Coupe de la Paix - Meneuse du Classement General (mais avec des accents aigus)

Coupe de la Paix - General Classification winner! Check out the MONSTER trophy I got for winning the overall! Here I am with the wonderful Lemieux family that has hosted me while I've been here in Montreal. Special thanks to Catherine who has graciously allowed me to take over her appartment (and internet connection) for the duration of my stay - it was also awesome to spend some time with her!

I brought me home some hardware on this one. Yesterday and today I finished second (yesterday first in the field sprint as Karol-Ann Canuel of the Specialized team broke away in the closing laps of the race and held it) and today Joelle Numainville nipped me at the line for first. Going home I'm bringing with me two trophies, three medals, two jerseys, some cash - and I left the beautiful flowers for the Lemieux family. Not a bad haul all in all - and it was a great race to attend to boot!

And as for picture captions: The first is me winning the field sprint in Montreal-Nord for 2nd place. The second picture is the podium from Montreal-Nord with myself, Karol-Ann Canuel and Audrey Lemieux. The third and fourth pictures are me with the Lemieux family - the first with Isabelle and Serge and the second with Catherine!

Check La!

This is BY FAR the biggest trophy I have ever won (it may be the only one that I personally have ever won).

I'm hanging out in Montreal at the moment and competing in La Coupe de la Paix. Let me tell you - they sure know how to put on a bike race here in Quebec. The first event was last night and it came down to a field sprint. On corner 3 a girl got herself tangled in my handlebars and crashed, giving a few girls a moment's head start. Joelle Numainville (ESGL 93 something) made the best of the situation and got a good 10m gap on me with about 500m to go. I chased hard and closed the gap, but I was unable to respond to her sprint, so she won the drag race up the final hill quite handily.

Today, going into the event, I really wanted to get me the yellow jersey (once you start on a jersey streak - you get greedy!). About 3/4 of the way through the race, after a particular active section where Specialized had attacked left, right and centre, Julie Marceau made the final decisive attack and I went with her. It became evident very quickly that the pack was out of fight and we worked together for the last 13km to hold of the field. In the end, I won by about a tire width as I misjudged my strength on the final sprint and had to count on a well-timed bike toss...but a win is a win! To quote Andrew Pinfold - you only have to be in the front for the final few meters...or centimeters in my case!

I'm pretty stoked as I think this is my first ever win in a breakaway AND I go into the third of four events in Montreal Nord on Sunday wearing the yellow jersey. Plus how could life not be great with that trophy (which weighs a ton BTW) and the flowers?

13 in 14 - A Success!

If you are curious - that's 13 races in 14 days...and I think I'm finally recovering!

The madness started in Tulsa, OK where I attended Tulsa Tough with my Vanderkitten teammates. Personally that leg of the journey is one I would prefer to forget, but you have to have the bad days to appreciate the good!

After three days of crits in Tulsa, I was off to Montreal for le Grand Tour de Montreal - and there is no rest for the wicked. I left Tulsa at 6pm on Sunday (arrived in Montreal at 3am - but that's another story - although it's a good 'un) and raced in Montreal at 5pm Monday. I joined up with the National team (including VK teammate Moriah) under the direction of Luc Arseneau for the 5 day, 4 stage, Stage Race. It took me a couple of days, but eventually my legs came around and I was able to come 18th in the crit - although I really think I could have done better...but come on man - that finish was worth a WOPPING $20.75...watch out - I am making the big bucks!

From Montreal we made the trek out to PEI by car (about 10 hours by car - 15 hours by bus I would find out on the way back) where we were given 1 travel day and 1 day of rest before starting the Tour of PEI. For me, this was the real highlight of the trip. It was super cool to be in PEI (even got to see Anne of Green Gable's house) and I rode the best I have all season. I started the tour with a 4th place finish behind Rochelle Gilmore (Menkini), Tanja Hennes (Specialized Designs for Women) and Sophie Creux (ESGL 93). However, the more exciting part was that in this case, 4th was NOT the worst spot as I got to sport the top Canadian jersey (as seen above) - lemme tell ya, it was a pretty special feeling.

The rest of the week continued to treat me well as I got another two top 10s (8th in the 3rd roadrace and 10th in the crit after taking myself out in corner 2) and as a team we got MJ into the top 10 on GC to finish 9th! Way to be MJ! It was a great group of girls to work with and I truly enjoyed my couple of weeks. My two requirements for bike racing: 1) to learn, and 2) to have fun - were fully met. A big thanks to Luc, Andrew, Nena and Sophie for keeping everything running smoothly - I was sad to move on back to Montreal.

Watch out PEI - I will be back!

Check out the article on me :)

It's HERE at Pedal Mag...

BC Cup win #2!

Yesterday's race ended with me winning the field sprint - only this time I got it right as it was for the WIN...which is WAY more fun than 2nd place :)

My lack of blogging over the last 3 weeks has coincided with a relaxing little break at home - which is rapidly come to an end. On Wednesday I'm heading out east for a 6 week stint that will end with Nationals in Beauce, Quebec. Due to my travels and my dad's exciting summer plans to go to England and Scotland, Dad decided to make the trip out to Vancouver this last weekend to watch me race. I was more than happy to oblige with my second win of the season (and first against a female field) on a flat to rolling course in the south eastern reaches of rural Surrey/Langley. I figure I'm now 2 for 2 for field sprints at the BC Cups I've attended...just gotta make sure that the rest of the race plays more to my advantage ;)

It was fun to race with the girls at home and Marni and Alison respectively represented ValueAct and Aarons on home turf. Dad got a sweet pic of us rolling into the finish where we ended up:
1. Me!
2. Marni Hambleton (ValueAct)
3. Sarah Stewart (Total Restoration)
4. Alison Testeroete (Aarons Pro Cycling)
5. Steph Roorda (Team Giant)

I had a good fun time out in the sun - only real complaint being that the prize money was LAME. I paid $55 (non-late day registration) and for first I only won $125...kinda a brutal return on investment...luckily I'm off down to Tulsa where over three days there is $39,000 in prizes for just the WOMEN - crazy eh? Also if you interested in money - the Banff Stage Race at the end of June is boasting some sick prize moola with $1,400 for the Race win and $400 per stage...too bad I'm out east!

In the South

Last Thursday, I flew into Atlanta and I'm not 100% sure I knew what I was getting in for. I've been having a bit of "culture shock" being down in the South and all - but in a good way. For instance, on Sunday I tasted grits for the first time and I keep throwing in a "y'all" just to keep it interesting.

Saturday night we raced Athens Twilight - and came away with a VERY impressive result - Jen Wilson took Vanderkitten's first podium of the year with a sprint to third out of an impressive breakaway group. Kele Murdin (who's guest riding for us) came 6th and I sprinted to 10th across the line in the group gallop...which wasn't too shabby considering that coming out of the first corner on the last lap I clipped a pedal (that's what happens when your heart rate has been 205 plus for the last two minutes - NO JOKE) and the bike did a cool maneouver (I learned it from Jenelle on the BMX!) and my wheel smacked the pavement pretty hard. I thought that I had put the thing out of true and I spent the next couple of corners praying that I didn't have a flat. Go figure, all I did was burp the tire so I made it across the line without any casualties...but I'm guessing that might have added a little to the rolling resistance.
Anyways - enough bike racing - I wanna talk about the SOUTH!

First off - this evening we are staying in Beaufort - sounds like a nice place...but remember prounounciation the A-merica way and it it B-U-ferd gorgeous eh? It's my second experience of this type as I was staying with Leigh in Decatur pronounced D-CA-ter...maybe I am not doing it justice...but I have found it entertaining at least!

The race description describes Beaufort as "surrounded by magestic marshland"...I find that to be a funny sentence...but hey, who am I to judge.

Bottom line is that I'm really enjoying the Southern hospitality (if poor pronounciation of French names) so far and I can't wait for the series of races we have coming up over the next 5 days!