2009 Race Season in Photos

All photos by Velogrrl, Rusty, Superfly, Gary and Holly.

IOLA

A slow start....nerves danced around in my stomach...GOOOOO!!!!! and the pedal was missed.


Looking good on first quarter of the lap.....until I crunched my left hand between my bike and a tree. Writhing on the ground as all the Elite ladies passed me is not the way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Writhed a few more times on the ground that day.

Smokin Spoke

Drafting on the lead out. Had a decent race but my back was shredded by the second half and rode the singletrack slower than desired. Navagating the singletrack with the Comp men was tough....cut off and forced off my bike a few times.

Jumping on the Comp train. Thanks for the pull fellas.

Wausau

Fucking miserable - muddy, rainy, windy and cold. 40 degrees in June in Wisco. WTF. Back still shredded from Smokin Spoke and from churning 9 mile mud; pulled off to stretch the back and to DNF but got talked into finishing the race. Thanks Michelle.

Subaru Cup

Nothing like going from 40 degree temps to 85+. Heat exhaustion in the XC race. Took it easy in the Super D and had a respectable finish behind Lisa in the Short Track.

Getting the race done early in day has it benefits - kicking it friends.

Women's Dirt Retreat

Got to be an instructor at the Dirt camp.

And got instruction from the likes of Alison Dunlop. We will be seeing her shortly at the Wisco USGP races.

The Firecracker

Had a good ride...until I didn't. Took a spill the beginning of lap numero dos and had hydraulic brake fluid all over my left hand. Life as a chemist has taught me that brake fluid is not miscible in sports drink....but in the thick of it, that is how my hand got rinsed. Yard saled it two more times. Lost a handful of confidence and spots in the overall. Additionally a select few of the Comp and Junior X men created moderately frustrating situations.


These rocks can Suck It Trebek. It was this chica's last race as a Wisco resident. And I had good company for three hour ride home.

Levis Trow

More on this later. It's so beautiful there that it deserves its own post.

Alterra

Here you can see a Comp man who hit my wheel, pushed me off of my line which nearly forced me off my bike.... not the way you want to start this heart busting climb. Comp dude (whoever you are) I forgive you cause shit happens during racing.

I'm a pretty chill chick and try to be as smooth and gracious in the singletrack as I can be. I certainly forgive many of the stupidities that happen because I'm far from perfect also. And the majority of you are great guys who are generally skilled, safe and super polite. But if you happen to be the 25th Comp dude that day who bumped into me because you don't know how to pass, knocked me off my bike because you are riding outside your ability, shoved me off my line because you think you have the right to the best part of the singletrack or almost crashed me because you didn't think to call your pass....I may lose it and explode at your ass. So I apologize in advance for any unkind words that might fly out of my mouth during the rest of the summer.


Racing in singletrack is getting better as the summer progresses even when dehydrated and hungover. WORS 2009 to be continued.....

Two weeks of debauchery.

Riding and bike racing took a back seat for the last few weeks as I had a friend in town from California. We partied like rock stars, lived on junk food, got way too much sun and slept very little. After her better than two week stay in Sconnie, thankfully Brooke headed home last Friday.....cause my liver couldn't take anymore.

Alterra

Picture by Velogrrl

I can't seem to get my shit together this year with bikes, life or blogging. Somehow half a WORS season has passed me by and I have failed to get excited enough to blog about it. Maybe because the last few months of racing have consisted of mediocre results, face plants, crashes, hitting trees, smashing fingers, sore backs, poison oak and heat exhaustion.

My race at Alterra just was what it was. It began with an embarrassing start as my foot missed the pedal and I almost ate grass. You would have thought it was my first race ever. Lap one was spent expending my energy trying to make up for my slow start. Rode with the Comp men for the second and third laps. Nothing too exciting, but I was pleased that I was smooth in the singletrack for laps two and three. Not to mention that I stayed upright for the entire race. Mediocre result. Blah. That's what I get for partying for the last two weeks with my California pal, Brooke.


Picture by Velogrrl
Climbing never gets easier. You just go faster up the hill.

Thanks to the Alterra team for putting on a great race and also for lengthening the lap. My legs were very happy to only climb up that damn hill three times. Last year I remember climbing it four times. My head almost exploded, my legs hurt, I got the chills and realized I had my first case of heat exhaustion.

Easter Sunday and the Resurrection.....of my Blog.

It's time to wake this thing up!


My training officially started at the end of February (late, I know) but the miles have been piling on. This weekend was no exception. Friday night was a quick ride though Waunakee. Saturday I rolled from my home on Madison's northside to Poynette and back. This ride can be found in the Bombay Bicycle Club Routes and it's fantastic. The Pros - not too many hills, very little traffic, lots of farm animals/wildlife (including llamas), beautiful countryside and there is a gas station at the half way point for Ritz Bits and the restroom. Cons - lots of loose dogs who think cyclists are really snausages dressed in spandex.

Today I found myself heading to the kettles to ride 27 miles of Muir to Emma goodness with a few partners in crime. I'm certainly not where I want to be fitness wise, but I'm ahead of the curve compared to last year (with my first mountain bike ride of the year being the Expert Race in Iola....yikes.) The traffic in the parking lot was low due to the holiday but we still saw a few familiar faces. Unfortunately there were no pictures taken but it's always best to leave the camera in the car on the first mountain bike ride of the year...as the rider is a little sketchy.

27 miles of pure magic.

My off season in photos.

Clean bikes packed away for winter.

Uh Huh Her in Chicago with Amelia

New Toys

Riding in place.

X-mas at the folks.

My photogenic hubby; x-mas at the in-laws.

A little bit of this, but not too much.

Ryan's 30th Birthday Bash.

Wors finale.....SheVegas!

Sheboygan has always been a special course for me. A few years ago I gave up multi-sport at the doctor's urging (running was bad for my feet) and took up mountain biking. I wasn't sure I liked it very much at first. I wasn't good at it compared to my friends who had been mountain biking for years - my legs were always full of scrapes and bruises from falling. After trying a few races in 2003 & 2004, I attempted my first full WORS season in 2005. The highlight of that year was when I took the overall win at Sheboygan, one of the more technical courses on the WORS circuit. This victory was especially sweet because earlier in the summer, the doctors thought I had MS...which had derailed my training in July and August that year. After winning that race, I was hooked. I wanted to move up in class, I wanted to train, I wanted to rock the single track, I wanted to kick ass. More importantly, I was in love with this sport. Winning that race was a big deal to me. I'll never forget how it made me feel and how it motivated me over the winter to train for the next season.

Sheboygan 2005. That's me in the red and white jersey and red helmet with the tiny legs.


Fast forward to Sheboygan 2008. I warmed up with this girl and rolled to the start line just minutes before the race began. The nerves were dancing around in my stomach more than usual, even though I had a great pre-ride the day before. My technical riding hasn't been so hot and I don't think I'm alone in worrying about when and where the first Comp men are going to start passing me. Don said GO!!!! and the sprint for the hole shot was on. My start was better than normal and I was sitting right in the middle of the pack when we entered the single track. I rode my first lap smooth and fast, it was almost shocking and too good to be true....and it was... because on my second lap, I began to fall apart. Lap 2, I started off by sitting on April's wheel in the single track, almost feeling like I should pass her as she was a touch slower than me. Before I could act, we would hit the open sections and she would blow me freaking up (almost like it was the first time I had ever ridden a bike). That girl has a big motor on the flats and knows how to use it. I ate dirt a few times and subsequently watched April ride away. Patti and Christine passed me as I floundered. I was left to finish the lap by myself. My Sheboygan was slowly heading down the poop tube.

Picture courtesy of mountaingoat

On lap 3 I hunkered down and focused, which is hard to do when you have no carrot to chase. Ride it cleanly and keep pressing, I told myself. They have to be just up ahead. I obsessively eyeballed my heart rate monitor and made sure that my body was being pushed to its fullest. I ran up that bitch of a hill that SheVegans call the Equalizer for the 3rd time. (I have never attempted to ride the Equalizer during a race. In fact, it's just as fast for me to run it, if not faster. Though, it probably juices my legs more as I am not a runner). Shortly after I re-mounted my bike, I saw Christine in the quarry just ahead of me. In the past my approach would be to hammer up to her and try to immediately pass her. But my summer of getting schooled by road racers who were weaker than me has taught me to settle down and use my head. So I followed her at a bit of a distance. I needed to recover from running the Equalizer. I moved closer and was just a few feet behind her for the remainder of the lap. Lucky for me, Christine never looked back....she too was drinking her bottle and recovering in the single track. As we headed onto the service road for the beginning of lap 4, Christine turned and looked at me. Then I fucking punched it with all I had (the song "drop it like it's hot" kept running through my head as I told myself to "pedal RB, pedal".....at least I entertain myself during these excruciating physical activities or perhaps it's just the dehydration talking). I wanted a nice gap before I got into the single track and I thought it might deflate her a bit. The last lap was pretty uneventful other than I felt great and rode great which is very unfamiliar territory for me. My little tactic worked as Christine never passed me. I kept seeing Patti ahead of me, but I was too tapped out to catch her. So I rolled to 12th out of 18 starters. While not fantastic finish for some, it's a solid result for me.

Picture Courtesy of Velogrrl. The Equalizer run-up. Except my legs are less tiny these days.

At the end of another mountain bike season, I have to remind myself not to stress over how I finished. It's not always about what place you took or didn't take....or who you passed or couldn't pass....sometimes it's just about the journey.

Retro Blogging. UCI CX and Shawano Wors.

A few weeks ago I decided to race Day 1 of the UCI Planet Bike CX Cup on Saturday followed by the Shawano WORS race on Sunday. I learned some very interesting things at my first official UCI race....like there are no feed zones. So say it's 90 degrees outside and you don't have a water bottle cage on your bike, you'll just have to suck it up and pretend that you're a camel. Of course all this information was relayed to me as I was sitting at the start line, so suck it up was all I could do. In fact, I sucked it up all the way to 5th place out of 16 starters in the Women's Cat 3 race. WooHoo! Price to enter the race - 30 dollars. Prize money won - 31 dollars. Net gain - one dollar. Sweet.

With a dollar in my pocket and white dehyration spittle crusted on my lips, I headed to my parents home in Green Bay for a some dinner and a good night of sleep before the WORS race. While I didn't have high hopes for Shawano, I didn't realize how smoked out I was going to feel after racing CX. The race started and I was motoring with everyone on the lead out, then the singletrack, and through the tunnel. When I hit the flat horse pasture I watched almost everyone in the field ride away from me and I had no answer. And to top it off I rode singletrack like a beginner. Result - DFL....and actually, I believe this was my first DFL in a mountain bike race ever. So I left Shawano with a mildly bruised ego, a nasty cold that would cost me a few training days, a realization that I suck on flats and no confidence heading into Sheboygan. At least I had a dollar in my pocket.