killin it in crested butte...

absolutely amazing views... oh and the race was good too.... ha!
thanks to megan monroe for the pic (who unfortunately missed registration, but was on the sidelines cheering and snapping photos of everyone- thanks megan!)

i had another rough start, don't know why i can't seem to get the motor running as quick as i need to- but once i did, i ended up catching some of the girls- a solid 7th place. i did take a bit of a crash at the end of the 2nd lap- i blame it on trying to hard to get down to the bottom faster... nothing like crossing up the bars on a loose steep corner- fun stuff. but i was ok other than my embarrassment of coming through the start/finish covered in dirt...

i think the mountain states cups are more enjoyable than norbas for several reasons: 1. the venues are in the best places-the moutains! 2. the courses are more technical 3. everyone racing is out to do it for fun- no team pressure 4. the girls racing are crazy fast anyway, so its always a good race 5. the afterparties are better... 6. all the people i like to hang with are always there, and no matter how the race goes, i always know its going to be a good time- and isn't that what its all about? yep. it is.

i headed back to boulder right after the race to hang with my sister, kristin who flew in from SF for the weekend. it was a perfect few days of relaxing, racing, and bbqing...

yeah check it

check it out- as you can see, i know what wheel to suck- i was hanging out with Ina Yoko-Teutenburg from High Road- she was the favorite to win, and super smart about her moves-
so yeah thats me, back behind her with the pink helmet. :)

8am- Liberty Classic, Philly. warming up, and i have NOT had coffee yet...

Mix'en it with the roadies in Philly...

Oh man. what was i thinking? Vanderkitten dave calls me out of the blue 2 weeks before and asks if i want to ride at philly. umm, no way. i haven't been in a road race in years, and to go to the biggest one day race in the US and race? yeah funny joke. but after thinking about it, i figured it would be great training (haha) and it is a pretty big deal- i might not ever get the chance to do it again and just to race in it is awesome. so i said yes.
the team consisted of 5 other girls of whom i didn't really know (other than liz): melissa sandborn, flavia oliveira, liz hatch, leigh valletti and jen wilson. i think they were wondering why dave had picked me to be the 6th.. but they were all super nice and welcoming onto the team which was great- i know accepting a new teammate can be hard, especially since i had no experience racing with them- Mike hernadez was also there to keep things rolling with the team/media stuff- he was great and really supportive since i seemed a little out of my element all weekend- Vanderkitten dave and mark were also always there to make sure i was ok- it made the racing go a lot smoother-

ok on to the riding/racing- friday we prerode the course and i loved it- i thought the 'wall' was great, and excited to race it- but it turned out to be more of a sprint each time up it and not so much a 'climb' really... on saturday melissa, jen and i went for a spin around the host house and i felt good- rusty but good. so i was thinking everything would be ready for sunday. the race started at 9am so we were up at 5:30am eating. not hungry at 5:30am. eat anyway. uhh. thats the only part of racing that i don't like- stuffing food in because i have to- but i had bought a delicious crepe filled with egg and cheese the day before and it was mighty tasty...
we rode down to the course around 8am and i haven't had coffee yet- hopped on the trainer and started warming up- do you warm up for a road race? i dunno. so then i got off. hung out, drank coffee and put on my radio- which i had never wore before- don't laugh im a mtber- and it was soo cool! i wanted to talk in it the whole time but i figured the other girls would be pissed. just a few times :)
we rolled up to the start line behind the guys. wow what a crazy scene. sooo different from a mtb race. there were helicopters, news people, huge TV's with us on it, people everywhere! we basically shut down the middle of Philadelphia. this was way bigger than i expected- all i could think was, what the hell am i doing here? and then i laughed since there was no turning back- gotta do it. surprisingly the start wasn't as bad as i thought- even though we were supposed to protect melissa, my main goal was to keep moving up and tag my teammates- go where they go. and that was good. the thing that was hard was that i didn't know most of the girls, so who was protecting who, who were the girls that waste themselves for the team, who was trying to get off the front.. obviously i knew highroad had some major work to do, and aarons wanted to get off the front, and the only place to lay it down and split things up was on the hill. so that was wicked hard. but the thing that surprised me was how bad some of the girls descended- no cornering skillz at all! what the hell lines where they taking? not impressed. i almost got taken out once and skidded across the pavement, somehow i held it up- no idea how. my mad skillz i guess...
third lap, getting very very tired. came around for the hill, 3rd time, 1 more to go after this... umm, not shifting into the small ring- umm, going up in my big ring- not good-not good- going backwards- loosing the field- not good- chase, chase chase. nope. got dropped. i blew my legs out so bad going up that in the big ring- stupid shifter got stuck and couldn't do anything about it- i was really upset- i knew mike wanted us all to finish- and i did too. but the bike was an extra BH that they wanted me to race on and it wasn't adjusted properly- dang. but i am happy i stayed in and got to race with all those girls- yes i was very uncomfortable most of the time, but its a totally different race than what i do- its like in road you race other people's pace and the mtb you do a time trial basically- so that was the hardest part. going full blast, then cruising. full blast hard! then nothing. on off on off on on on off on-
sunday night was time to relax and have some drinks- we met up with a few of the other teams and it was really fun- the road scene isn't that bad i guess... in a roadie kind of way- ha! not sure if i will be doing any more road racing this season, but it is good to mix it up with some of my cross competitors on their turf-

get on the bus! woohoo!

ahh. the dale's pale ale bus. driving driving driving. we were on our way home from angel fire after the mountain states cup. chad was driving, mike, the 15 year old who acts like he's 25 and races like a manic on a singlespeed on the left, and the rest of us piled on the couches behind. such a fun trip...

Jen G. looking whipped on the drive home to boulder after the weekend of riding/racing. we were all a bit tired...

post race, post fun ride on sunday. heading back home on the bus to boulder. we stopped in Taos NM to ride the south boundary trail- we ended up climbing the downhill for 2 hours then flipping it and coming back down- fun but next time i would rather do the whole thing... we had heard from a small bird (ok andrew shepard) that there was snow on the top so it wasn't rideable. it was. oh well, next year!

The whole gang before a preride the day before the xc race- we all traveled down together in the dales pale ale bus behind us and one follow car- the spot team, eddie (taking the pic) and brian.

Jen Gersbach about to drop into the downhill on the course- as you can see, she has a big smile on her face- awesome. let the fun part begin! woohooo!

Brian Fuentes rock'en it out on the course- tall trees. tall brian. it was fun since the pro guys were on the course at the same time and i got to cheer them on as they passed me. ha- maybe i shouldn't admit that...

Angel Fire MSC

I was really excited about the downhill coming up-
it was pretty much my favorite one yet this season.

eddie did a great job taking pics! thanks eddie!

Lamo for not updating el blogo

ok so i know i need to keep up on this better- since the races keep happening and i am getting further and further behind on my posts...

i have lost my camera (well i left it in san fran and haven't seen it since) so no good pics either. i will just steal some from the intranets...

this is the start of the santa ynez NMBS race. notice how there's only like 30 women. huh. and here is a pic from the start (thanks to Dave McElwaine who takes the best pics http://www.trailwatch.net/) and how cool and calm Georgia looks... awesome. i am already suffering in the back with my head to one side- little did she realize what was gonna happen later in the race. i saw her on the trail laying down, and i stopped to ask if she was ok, she said yes- by that time there were medics there helping her in the shade. it was deathly hot that day- someone said it was 103F while we were racing. there were many casualties (girls cramping, swerving on the trail) that i saw during the race. it was like a war zone. when i saw Georgia on the ground i realized how hot it really was- it kinda scared me a little. but by that time i was close to the end, and after seeing my HR higher than i ever have, i was ready to finish that race.

i have to admit i was a little disappointed in the showing for the pro women- i have been doing the mountain states cups this year for the first time, and there are nearly the same amount of girls at these local races as there was at a national. perhaps we are lucky to have a local series that the top girls go to- kelli, katie, Georgia (when she's not racing the men :) jenny smith, etc who we get to race with close to home. but it is a shame that the numbers are dwindling at the bigger mtb races it seems...

i would say more about the race itself, but there is not much to tell- other than i had 2 great starts where i was in top 12-15 or so but melted and drifted back as the race went on. it was good to hang out with my teammate shannon gibson before she left for Hawaii for 6 weeks- we stayed in solvang and embraced the strange touristy town- i will say that they do have excellent pastries at the bakery, which fueled me every morning.. Mmm tasty. i did get to see the ocean too down in LA before we flew home- i wish i lived closer to the ocean sometimes. but the traffic and people in CA are too impossible to deal with. excluding all my friends and family that live there :)

Mountain states cup, Nathrop, CO

I had heard bad things about this race- super sandy, not a fun course, not worth the drive, etc. but hey, i figured it would be more fun than crashing in the Gila, so i chose the mtb race. i drove down with the spot girlz again- megan m. and jen g. which made the trip worth it, even if the race did end up sucking. i got up saturday morning, picked up the girlz and we headed down to nathrop. i didn't even know where it was- if you don't know either, its right by buena vista and about 20 min north of salida, where i would be staying-
so the xc for us started around 2pm, with the guys going off about 15 minutes before us- well, then it got delayed an hour- so we went off at 3pm instead, which allowed for an hour of socializing which was fine by me. until the race actually started, and then i was in the hurt box- i should have warmed up better- we went from zero to supersonic off the gun, and i was pretty much at the back. the race was almost like a road race- long, flat open sections that had mini-t0rnados (no joke). it was sooooo windy. so having a wheel to suck was important- good thing i didn't for 2 of the 4 laps. so on lap one, i was in the back. sweet. and didn't preride and crashed hard on the loose descent. supa sweet. but jen g. had a bad start too, and thankfully she pulled me up to the next group (i know, weird hearing that about a mtb race, but i am telling you, it was a road race) and got in with megan m. and lisa. the 3 of us duked it out for the next 2 laps, and finally on the 4th lap my legs came around and i surged passed lisa and was able to ride the technical section alone, which was nice since i was faster that way. i ended up 6th, coming in behind jen g. i was pretty happy about, since i had had such a rough start. so hopefully the fitness is coming around- i just need to warm up better i guess.
sunday was the short track, and i woke up in Salida to a beautiful sunny morning. i went down to the local coffee shop (beside absolut bikes) and enjoyed a very tasty breakfast burrito with chicken, eggs, potatoes, cheese, avocado and red peppers. i sat with a coffee and listened to the river behind the shop for a good hour, reading the sunday paper. i love salida. i could definitely live there-
back to the race. so my legs were really tired from the xc, but figured once i spin i would be fine. the course was pretty fun, it had part of the dual slalom in it so a few tall rollers that broke it up. overall though most of the course had one good line while the sides were thick sand which stopped the bike quick- i had a bad start again, and got stuck behind a line of girls that weren't going very fast- i gave up halfway through the race for a few laps waiting for it to be over. but then i figured i paid $40 for it, and i needed a workout, so i should start going. so i did, and passed a few girls in the last few laps. i ended up 9th. oh well.
overall the weekend was fun, with a reasonable finish for the xc, and as always great company- the next race is the Norba in CA- another fast rolling course. i had an ok race there last year, racing with teammate Barb but she won't be there this year unfortunately- sigh. but it should still be a good one, so i will let you know how that goes-

KU is the best school ever.... especially since our bball team is the best- yes it is. i stole this pic from adam mills too- thanks-

how amazing is this- Lawrence, KS after we won the Championships- KU ROCKS!!!!
thanks to adam mills who provided the great picture... i miss this place sometimes-

Me and Tash at camp in AZ- i know this pic was from last month, but just wanted to post it since i really miss having her around- cheers tash!

i figured i would post some pics from the last month or so to show what i have been up to with the traveling circus of 2008...

ahh the airport. waiting for a lost bike. i always enjoy this part of traveling the most-

Noth'in like a little wine to finish out the day...

A little halfwheeling is good, right? Rebecca and I riding up Mt. Lemmon in Tuscan