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!

Good Old Roubaix

Harris that is. Alena pointed out to me earlier this week that this was the first year in 6 years that she hasn't taken the line for this event. I missed having her out there - but I will also use this opportunity to give a shout out of congratulations to Alena and Dean on their recent engagement. So I took to the line without my perrenial teammate - or any teammate for that matter...and it was a little frustrating to say the least.

I ended the day in 2nd by winning the field sprint after some good strong teamwork from Giant placed Steph Roorda off the front solo. There was an absence of horsepower in the pack and so a good deal of the chasing was left to yours truly. I have found a few fun pics - but I'm giving super props to Jono's mom for this super pro looking photo.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to hooking up with the rest of the VKats down in Georgia next week - SE crits here we come!

Jenny 1, Redlands 1

K, so I'm lame and I'm TOTALLY reusing team camp pictures (pirated from MJ's Facebook) but I wanted a picture - it makes the blog more exciting :P

But onto last weekend - I won't lie - it wasn't pretty folks - but I did come out on top of the Redlands Classic this time! Three stages (plus the prologue) and I got a finish...in with all the sprinters at the bottom of the list - but no DNF - and I'm holding on to that!

On the upside I now have a killer set of wheels on my BH courtesy of Spinergy. They are HAWT - nice white spokes and all - I'm liking. And for another shameless plug - my Specialized helmet. Chris has noted that he can see my entire head through the helmet - but it's the comfiest thing I have ever had on my head - partially because it's nice and light and ACTUALLY FITS my head. Neat concept I know - but it does!!!

Now I'm chillin and getting ready to defend my title at Harris Roubaix tomorrow morning. I'm up against a tough contingent of my old team :( the Giant girls and the other strong women of BC cycling - notably Sarah Stewart and her Total Restauration team and the Trek team AND a great number of other girls whom I'm sure will make things rather difficult for me tomorrow. But I've had a lovely dinner of spaghetti and homemade pesto (made by yours truly and I'm quite positive I will never be able to have store bought pesto ever again!). Should be a good one.

And for now I'm off to bed - hoping that my legs recover that little bit more from the evil hills of southern California by tomorrow's race!

REST WEEK!

Yay - I made it!

Now I have less than a week before I conquer my race nemisis - the REDLANDS CLASSIC.

Mind you, this time I am WAY more prepared, but I'm still a little frightened and I'm readying myself to battle my demons from two years ago when I was time cut on the 5km "Stage 1". Good times!

In the last week I've made important discoveries - like - since I purchased my car last June, I have ridden more kms than I have driven. So the next time I'm trying desperately to "integrated with regular society" and someone asks how much I ride - I can tell them that in a year I ride more than I drive...and I drive enough to own a 2007 Versa.

The real question at this point is whether it costs more to fuel my car at $1.20/litre or to provide me with food...

That gave me a something to ponder while training with a great group of Junior+ athletes (the official age was U20) put together by Jeremy, last week. It was a fun to train with a different group and it was good motivation for the end of a build. The boys were entertained by my Driven shifters - I love it! It's so much fun to have a product that people aren't used to seeing - it gets lots of attention. Plus I like that I can shift down with my pinky finger when I'm on the hoods!

I'm chilling out this morning as part of my "makeshift" weekend as I am usually more busy on Saturday and Sunday with my "real job - ie bikin'" and so every now and then I need to relax during the week. Going to head out later this am (it's supposed to rain this aft, so I better get out before that!) for some power intervals. Yeee haw!

Here's to the start of 2008 - GO VANDERKITTEN!

SO CLOSE!

This here photo in the Langley Times was SO CLOSE to being SO COOL - it's from the first weekend of racing where I won! - check it out

This weekend went okay. Snake roadrace was AWFUL - but I made it through...in order to go chill out on Bradner road on Sunday - I ended up 5th...wish I had done better, but you win some you lose some. :)

The kittens had a go of things down in CA this weekend, but were the victims of bad luck - especially Lizzer who has a multi-coloured face and bottom - feel better soon!!!

Ahhh, if only I were insightful

The days when I am looking to procrastinate (much like today...) I spend WAY too much time surfing the net. Actually that is likely a true statement without any qualifications - I get up in the morning and check my email, Pedal, Cyclingnews, Canadian Cyclist, The Weather Network, and when I'm feeling intelligent, CBC.ca. Then I trundle into work and turn on the computer - where I intermittantly check those same websites throughout my 5-9 hour tenure (depending on my training load and my ability to stay focused on the task at hand...) When I really don't feel like doing anything I start checking out people's blogs. In all honestly, it's a pretty scary world the internet - you can learn a good deal about people you've never met.

All this being said, the number one thing that strikes me when I read other people's posts is - I'm boring. I can give race reports most weekends and beyond that...well...I could give tax tips? Although I'm fairly sure that would scare off anyone who wastes their time checking out what I have to say.... That, and I never have poignant, insightful rants. I guess some people have it - and well, I don't. Not to say that I don't have strong opinions (which I do), that I am more than willing to share (which I will!), but I just don't see myself sitting down to record my whitty banter.

So now that I've shared my inadequacies - this last weekend was the first full weekend of Spring Series. The best news of the weekend: Armstrong is over! It's a good time...it's actually hill repeats that someone decided to disguise as a race - maybe I'll like it more when I remove half my torso to lose 25lbs - until then...I'm stoked that it's over - and that I survived - and that I rode quite well! YIPPPEEEE. Props to Kika Pendrel who stayed with the front group of the Bs!

In all honesty - the day before was more my cup of tea with the roller Zero Ave course. In the end I was 4th in the sprint which is better than a kick in the pants. I came around the final corner (about 300m from the line) too early in the group and had to lead it out up a 3% rise from 250m. I gave it, but was punked at 50m and 10m to go by the rounding out of the podium - but I guess I'll live ;) On to next weekend of Snake Hill...because Armstrong's not hard enough!

The Most Elusive and Lucrative Win of My Career

Each spring, up here in Vancouver, BC the largest development team in the area - dEVo - puts on a lovely set of 10 races held over each and every weekend in March called the Spring Series. Generally the weather is a little off of nice (read torrential downpour) and hypothermia is not unheard of...okay, well now I'm being a little melodramatic, but they do tend to provide true Canadian tough conditions.

This morning close to 300 riders congregated for the first roadrace of 2008 - River Road - Spring Series #1. I went in with a little bit of apprehension as last year I made the break with about 30km to go and was dragged along to the finish (with some moral support from both Cody Campbell and Jonathan Page) to finish up 3rd (thank you yellow line violator!). So last year's success haunted me a little as I REALLY wanted to upshow myself from 2007 - what with this being my first representation of the Vanderkittens on home turf. The race itself was fairly uneventful. Or perhaps that is not the word as there were more crashes than I could count (Laura get better fast!) and people were trying to attack, but in good cat 3/4 form, EVERYTHING was brought back. Oh - as an aside, at the Spring Series there are only 3 categories for everyone - A, B, C - I take part in the B category with all my buddies in cat 3/4 men, the juniors, the majority of the women, and often anyone else who wants to show ;).

Coming into the last 2km the pack was really very close together, thereby making it rather difficult to move around. On this course the finish line sits about 800m out of the final turn and today we had a good headwind rushing the straight. Consequently, I wasn't too concerned about my positioning out of the final corner as I knew that this one was a sprint of patience. Rounding the corner I was in the top 15-20 and I continued to move up. First to the lefthand side of the road, then I saw it open up to my right and I swooped to that side (doesn't that make me sound like a superhero) - then things seemed to go into slow motion as I realized that I was going to win. I jumped around my last two competitors in the last 50m to take it at the line... by at least 2 inches!

Bruce Denis was a great sport about losing to a girl ;) and Chris was impressed as he has difficulty beating Bruce on the track this winter! Speaking of which - huge props to Chris who was in a 2 man breakaway with 10km to go before his race was called due to a crash victim in the middle of the road.

And with the race report out of the way, why was this the most elusive and lucrative win of my career you ask? Well elusive - come on now - who doesn't want to ROCK the world in March - many people would agree that the Spring Series are the be all and end all of the season (please note the irony!) And for lucrative - well today kids, for my first place finish I took home a big 25 bones! That's right baby, making my net income for the day $(1). I'm not actually complaining as I really enjoy these training races and it's nice to have an opportunity to get some good, cheap racing in!

So now that win #1 of the season on my fancy new BH is under my belt, we up the training and prep for more success!!! PS - I am hoping that maybe there are a few pics online from today - and I will post one later if a suitable one is found.

New Season Resolutions

I'm gonna reach for the stars here. Sure I would really be proud to eat perfectly and lose those pesky pounds, and I would really love to win a few big races - but what am I REALLY aspiring for this season? I'm going to start blogging more regularly. Yup - I am going to be a blog-o-holic! Luckily the bar from 2007 was set rather low...

The last month or so has been wikked. I had a wonderful week down in the Bay Area meeting all my fellow Vanderkittens - and I am pleased to announce that the team is fabulous. In the 8 days we were down there, I don't know if I've laughed so hard in a REALLY long time (good abs training)! And to top it all off - we came, we saw, and we made noise at the first NRC of the season! I finished up with a prime and a 9th place finish, which ain't so bad for the first time out - and it leaves plenty of room for improvement. Liz matched my prime and Leah sprinted to a respectible 14th place for a GC rider - plus we were good and aggressive - it was a BLAST!

But all that excitement sure took it out of me - and so here I am 10 days later FINALLY getting around to my "report". Mind you, in that time I've really enjoyed getting to know my new beautiful BH bike! So much NEW - so EXCITING! And now MJ is across the pond in France and I have no one to obssess about stuff and food - it's hard to make it through so maybe I will use the blog as an outlet... I am in particular love with my saddle. Dude, I said it before and again - the Specialized saddles are 'da bomb! Hot looking and pleasant to spend hours and hours upon - next week is the real test...riding it for 3 hours around the 200m Burnaby track...I'll let you know how it goes - but I have faith - PLUS I managed to get my old Powertap up and running as a track PT - so that should be fun all around...I just need to make sure I don't become preoccupied with watching the wattage and do something unbelievably dumb/dorky.

So I PROMISE I will keep on top of this here blog - if for no other reason than to share the dorky pictures that get taken of me on the bike (although for the first time out, I'm going to stick to the one of me putting the HURT on!)- but at least our kits are the hottest thing going - so that balances my weird faces out!

If I take away a 1 from 11 that's FIRST...right?

My bike all pretty and good to go in our stall (pre-flat) Vanderkitten stickers and all!

Steph in the most comfy bed in the world and me in front of one of the stranger signs to have up in a restaurant (Chilli's in case you were curious!)

So here I sit in the hallway of a hotel (the internet doesn't work in the rooms) just after midnight on the evening after my very first TRACK WORLD CUP! It's been a fun week hanging out in what is possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in for riding (and I've been sleeping really well - shall I go so far as to say there is a correlation???) The track here in LA is fun - fast and not bumpy (for which certain parts of my anatomy are pleased after the 6-day) and I'm enjoying seeing all the other teams and nations.

The most interesting part for me has been to see how I react to being in this environment. After a few class A meltdowns in my career I was a little concerned that I would freak out and compromise any chance of racing well. So in the week leading up I waited to feel out of control, I got on the plane and waited, I rode the track for the first time, packed my bag the night before, loaded the car to go to the track, weighed my bike to make sure it wasn't too light, jumped on my rollers to warm up, flatted my rear disk while warming up, watched while Bob (mechanic from the land Down Unda') and Mike saved my life by looking for an alternate wheel, and took my bike to be inspected for the final time - and I still had complete control...it was an amazing feeling - like I finally understood that I am at this level and that I belong here. It hasn't been the slightest bit intimidating - only really exciting! I've been waiting for years to race at this level and I'd built it up to be this unfathomable experience - but it was just another bike race. A bike race that I was 100% ready to do and so excited to be a part of the process.

After rolling a few laps of the apron, we all went to the rail and soon enough we were on our neutral lap. In all honesty - the 20 laps of the race were a bit of a blur. I fought for the wheel a couple of times, and I was pleased that I didn't really get pushed around. In retrospect I probably needed to be a "rung" of girls up the whole time, but you live and you learn. With 2 laps to go it was fully on and as I came round with 1 to go, I felt gased, but kept going. Two girls came around me in the final 100m and as I crossed the line I looked up to count heads - to see 10 in front of me...being 3 too many...

All that being said - I was really quite happy with the race. I would have preferred to make the final - I won't lie, but for my first shot - I felt like I did things well. I was SUPER happy with my preparation and the process and I have taken a few lessons with me for the next time out. I really wish I could race the points race tomorrow to test out my lessons, but instead I'm going to be a super cheer section for my teammates Steph and Julia. Being a spectator has its advantages as well (like not being stressed out when I'm still up at 12:26 from a Red Bull induced stupor) and I can learn as much as possible for my next World Cup - because there will be another!

Now I just need to start looking for a track team for the 2008-2009 season....