Saturday, December 29, 2007


my dog Casey, trying to pick his way down the logs- he had already ran up and was coming back down to get us- apparently we were too slow for him...

So the other day tasha and i decided to go for a little hike with the dog to get some fresh air- as we started up the "gentle hike" it was apparent that we were in for more than just an easy stroll. the sun was setting, and the rocks and logs were covered with ice and snow- probably not the smartest thing to do with my messed up knee. i am finding that in colorado, its all or nothing- if you go on a hike or ride or anything, its gonna be epic and/or very dangerous. coming back down we squealed like little girls afraid of slipping. yeah, i swear we're pro mountain bike racers....

Saturday, December 22, 2007


the afterparty- nothing like a little gin n tonic and video games- whats better than that? maybe a mechanical bull....

while driving into kc on wednesday night through the icy abyss, amy insisted on licking a rock that she thought was sugar coated. wierdo- i told my dog casey to bite her ass, but he wouldn't. that would have been pretty funny.

ok, so i had to put this picture up- its the essence of what the whole weekend was about- crashing all twisted and contorted, bruises all over as if we had been beaten- badly. nice work, amy. thanks for the wicked grimace on your face as your about to create your 3rd knee. awesome.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Thursday, December 20, 2007


mmm, the stairs. it looks like i am
on a sunday stroll-

la de da, just walking up some stairs, in the
mud, la la la....

a little hotel trainer time....
by the way, those are all natasha's clothes.
everywhere.... hehehe
and, i am not sure why amy is hiding behind the curtain... she's a little crazy, that one.

friday's race
riding by the "no tilly zone"
i told them they spelled my name wrong...

hello again, kans-ass.

so this past weekend the boulderites of velo bella drove to kc- back to my roots, and where i started this crazy cult-like following calling cyclocross. amy dombroski, natasha cowie, casey klein (my dog) and i packed into my jetta wagon and headed towards the icy abyss.

we got a late start wednesday, and got into lawrence where we stayed with my coach and good friend adam mills. after sleeping in until about 1pm thursday we headed to the course which was a mud pit. not exactly what i was expecting, since the last time i rode this course it was fast and dry. after one lap i was pretty much done- wet cold and covered with mud. after a few sprints and feeling like total crap, we headed back to rest up and clean clothes- we were getting good at the mud cleaning thing- with plenty of experience from portland.
the next day i was racing the masters race- yeah i know- i am now a master! ha! it was nice to have such a big tent area set up for us, and with only anna milkowski, shannon gibson and i racing, we had plenty of space and support. it was fabulous. shannon raced before us, and won her race. awesome. as soon as i went to the start line, the sun went away and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. the mud and turned to peanut butter from previous races so it was a struggle to keep the pedals turning. after the start, i warmed up fast and felt really good- my legs felt strong but i had lost the front group. i hovered around top 10 for the whole race. at the end, i was with 2 other girls which made for a great last lap and hard sprint. my legs were tired, but i felt good about my 7th place finish. unfortunately anna had some mechanicals which set her back- i will later in the weekend be able to relate to her issues....
saturday morning i woke up early (well, not as early as natasha and amy who got to the venue before the sun came up- crazy u-23's) to watch our youngsters of the team tear it up in the snow and ice. there weren't many people out watching which was a shame, since amy dominated the race. natasha was not far behind, gritting her teeth to push through the rutted up icy course. i was so proud of them- i ran around the course cheering like crazy and taking pics. probably not the best thing to do before the elite race the next day...
we did a little trainer time in the hotel room saturday, which is always fun- nothing like sweating like crazy while inhaling burning rubber and watching bad tv. good times.
sunday came around fast- and before we knew it we were all on the trainers under the tent (all 12 of us) preparing for the biggest race of the season. all the traveling to chase points, all the intervals and training, all the time and money spent to get to this point in the season came down to this one race. no pressure- ha!
amy and i sneaked onto the course to get a quick preride in to see how it had changed since the day before- every day of the weekend the course was different. today, the sun was out which meant that the top surface had melted, but the icy ruts were still underneath. this made for some really technical riding, which i was fine with- time to pull out the mtb skillz.
i was lined up 3rd row, not too bad considering there were almost 100 girls. i had a great start, being in the top 15 or so. i crashed early on the dirt, trying to take a line that was a little risky. getting back going, i knew i could make up some time. i felt good, and i knew i had the potential to do well on this course. on the second lap, i flatted. but i knew that riding it to the pit and switching bikes wouldn't set me back too much. wrong. the pit crew wasn't ready for me, and although i appreciated the volunteers helping our team out, it would have been good to have them know who i was. so i spent some time in the pits. a lot of time. after rolling my tubular i went to switch bikes again, and the same story. i stood in the pit waiting for a bike. i crashed and bent my handle bar so i wanted to switch bikes. i came into the pit one last time, and again there was no bike- "give her a bike!' someone yelled as i stood there, watching girls pass by. they grabbed a bike off the rack- it was amy dombroski's bike. yeah, its size 45 or something. i jumped on it and i felt like i was in the circus- my knees were hitting the handle bars when i sat and pedaled, so i had to stand the last lap. thats not easy to do on ice. so, needless to say i placed horribly, and i was pretty upset about the whole thing. mechanicals happen, and bad bike changes happen, but not 4 times in one race. uhhh. next year i will do things different- i will take this as a learning experience, and know that things can go wrong- its part of racing. some things are preventable-and for next year i will make sure this doesn't happen again.
the season is over, and now its time to hang out without the bike, at least for a few weeks. it was a good first attempt at doing the bigger cross races, and my first time chasing points. i am hoping to get a little better for next year, and possibly accompany barb and wendy across the pond...
but for now its time to get the snowboard out, dust off the skate skis and enjoy all the snow and the mountains here in boulder...
ok, so this pic was from nationals this past weekend in kc, but i was just as muddy after friday's race as i was after portland. all the races are starting to blend together... cold, rain, mud...

saturday's race in portland-
coming up to the barriers. its early in the
race, as you can see i am pretty clean stil...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Portland usgp

i know its been a while since this race happened, but things have been a little crazy since then and now that i am warm and dry again i can finally try to remember some of the details of the portland weekend.
going into the race, i knew that it was going to be a sloppy mess. last year i came out to watch so i had some idea of what i was in for. i flew out with teammate amy dombroski and stayed with another teammate sara johnson who lives in portland. it was raining when we got there, and didn't stop until i left- i saw the sun the day i was flying away. i have no idea how people live there. seriously.
amy and i went to pick up anna milkowski at the airport and headed to the course for a preride friday, and it was muddy, just as expected. it was a different course than last year, but really fun with some good technical/off camber sections which made it interesting. so after riding until it was dark, we headed back to clean our stuff- which we will have down as a routine by the end of the weekend...
waking up saturday morning to snow was not what i was expecting in portland. but, i would rather have that than rain. sitting on the couch, amy and i decided that if we lived in portland, we were pretty sure we would never go outside, and just eat all day by the fire in front of the TV.
but a race was waiting for us- we bundled up and headed to the venue. unfortunately the snow turned to cold rain, and the conditions were just as muddy but the puddles were a lot colder as it splashed up onto you. ahhh, cross racing- a little snow, a little rain, and a lot of mud. what more could you ask for?
sara and her friends graciously came out the races to help us over the weekend- i think i will be forever in their debt- no amount of beer could repay them for standing out in the rain fixing our bikes and being in the pit- they did a fantastic job, and things couldn't have been smoother in and out of the pits. considering most of them had no idea how to hand off a bike, i would just like to say i would never had known- thanks guys if you are reading this. sara and the gang had things going like clockwork, and we really couldn't have raced without them.
i started ok, not great. after standing around waiting for call ups, i got really cold and by the time the race was on, i might as well had not warmed up. it wasn't a bad race, but not a great one either. i figured i had another day to get things going, so i left it up to sunday to try again. my knee was killing me, and i limped around afterward trying to loosen it while overdosing on ibuprofen.
waking up sunday morning was almost the same as the day before- only it was pouring rain instead of snow, and after a phone call from tim brennan telling me our kona tents had blown away during the night, i was a little worried about the day. we packed our bags full of every piece of clothing we owned (and borrowed some from sara too) and headed to the venue. it was true- no tents. so amy and i scouted around searching for another team to mooch off of- luckily ben turner was there with his trusty set of green clif tents and allowed us to use their space for warm up. i have no idea what we would have done if those guys weren't around- thanks again to another bunch of people who helped out the velo bellas.
in the pouring rain, we lined up waiting for the gun to go off. it was the longest 2 minutes of my life. i was shaking so hard from being cold and wet, and the race hadn't started. needless to say, i never got warm, only colder. the wind began to blow harder, and it was a constant 40 mph with gusts so hard it ripped up a tree on the side of the course. i wanted to quit after the first lap- my body was freezing up and i would never get warm throughout the race. i thought to myself there is no way in hell they will run the men after us, these conditions are too bad. after finishing horribly i rode straight back to the car and ripped off all my clothes. i didn't care if anyone saw me. i was so cold that i just wanted all things wet off of me. after putting dry clothes on over myself (and over all the mud still coating my body) i sat in the car with amy and we cranked the heat- i shivered uncontrollably for a good hour. i considered going to the hospital since i had never been that cold before-
it was over. my portland experience. i have to say that it was NOT epic, and i am not looking back and glad that i did it. i could have done without that weekend i think, although in between the racing was fun. i made it through but you could not pay me to ever live there, thats for sure.
i did realize one thing- if i could finish a race in those conditions, being that miserable and cold, i could do any race. nothing could ever be as mentally tough as getting through those races. at least i have that experience. oh and a lot of mud stained clothes.