Speaking of race reports...

I'd like to see one from Monday's PSU Crit. Apparently I did quite well in the W3/4 race. Funny thing is I don't remember leaving my sofa that day.

Race report - Does it count?

Does it count if I write a race report and post it on another site? Janet O tasked me with writing a race report for the W3 race at RFK and I gotta do what the Captain says.

Race reports?

I’ve decided I’m not going to write race reports anymore. No, I not afraid of being So Faux’ed. I just have to wonder sometimes when I read other people’s race reports… “Were we at the same race?”

What I will say about the races this past weekend is this: I need to work on my head. I let some lady push me off my line at Union Grove coming out of the final turn before the sprint. She took the wheel I wanted and won. I should have fought for that wheel, instead I gave it to her without so much as a whimper. Kudos to her, she deserved it as she was one of the women animating the race all day. I wound up getting shuffled towards the back of the pack but pulled out a pretty good sprint for 8th.

As for Sunday’s crit in Southern Maryland, I was out of that race before it even began. I don’t mind riding in the rain. I do it on an almost weekly basis on my commute to work, but for some reason, I was scared to death of the two downhill corners and would hit the brakes every time, living up to my nickname (Chicken). My accordion is most likely responsible for 2 of my teammates getting dropped because they were on my wheel for a few laps, then nothing, just the motorcycle behind me. With 9 laps to go I sat up for a moment, but enough to let the pack get 10 seconds up the road. I kept that gap for 5 laps, then someone attacked hard and I never saw the pack again. I rolled in for 13th but I did take something away… practice.

Wow, for stating that I’m never going to write another race report, that sure does sound like a race report!

A New Bike Shop!!!

Chris and Chris are opening Arrow Bicycle this weekend.

Don't miss their grand opening. This is destined to be one of the finest shops around.

Triple Crown announce women's teams

The following article was stolen from cyclingnews.com.

Organisers of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling have announced the 20 professional women's teams that will contest a three-race battle in southeastern Pennsylvania in early June. At stake is a $34,000 prize purse that includes $5000 for the overall series winner.

Battling for the big payday will be a talented field of six-rider squads that includes three of Europe's top teams, plus the cream of the crop from the American racing scene. As usual the marquee event of the series will be June 8's Liberty Classic, which is celebrating its 15th running on the historic streets of downtown Philadelphia.

The overwhelming favourite to capture Liberty gold will be defending champion and two-time winner Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Team High Road). The German sprinting sensation is on fine form once again, already taking an impressive third at the season opening World Cup in Geelong, Australia. Teutenberg will be backed by the powerful Team High Road squad, sister outfit to the dominant men's team and No. 1 in the most recent World Cup rankings.

"Ina will definitely be our plan A," confirmed Kristy Scrymgeour, High Road's communications manager. "Our main concern is making sure no one gets away on the last trip up Lemon Hill. If we can keep the race together Ina will be hard to beat in a sprint."

High Road also boasts American stars Mara Abbott and Kim Anderson. A year ago, the 22-year-old Abbott was the revelation of pro peloton, winning a stage of the Redlands Classic, the national road race championship, and scoring a silver at the Montreal World Cup. All that happened while she was still devoting time to swimming and college. This year, the young American is fully focused on cycling, with her eyes trained on the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The biggest threat to High Road will be Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung, and its own fast finisher, Deutschland native Regina Schleicher. Schleicher was world champion on the road in 2005 and won the Liberty Classic a year later. Nürnberger was second in the most recent World Cup standings.

Swiss-based Cervelo-Lifeforce are the newcomers to the Liberty Classic, but that doesn't mean they're coming only for the experience. Led by 2006 world time trial champion Kristin Armstrong, Cervelo-Lifeforce has the best chance of derailing another German blitzkrieg.

Since 1996, only two non-Germans have won this prestigious women's event, the last coming in 2003 when Canadian Lyne Bessette snuck away during the final climb of Lemon Hill and held her advantage all the way to the finish. Armstrong, a non-sprinter who was second in this year's Tour of Flanders, will need a similar scenario to unfold if she's to become the first American to win the Liberty Classic.

Webcor Builders could also make some noise during the Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling. The California-based team started 2008 with a bang when team rider Katheryn Mattis scored a breakthrough win at the Geelong World Cup in late February. That victory celebration was muted a week later when Mattis broke her collarbone after crashing at the Tour of New Zealand. Nonetheless, Webcor's international aspirations remain. The 2007 National Racing Calendar team champion spent much of its spring campaign in Europe, helping team leader – and rheumatology doctor – Christine Thorburn pursue a spot on the U.S. Olympic Games team.

Women's teams for Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling: Team High Road - Women (GER), Cervelo Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team (SUI), Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung (GER), Webcor Builders Cycling Team (USA), Aaron's Women's Professional Cycling Team (USA), BMW-Bianchi (USA), C3-Sollay.com (USA), Cheerwine Cycling (USA), Colavita/Sutter Home p/b Cooking Light (USA), HPC Powered by Altarum (USA), Hub Racing (USA), Jazz Apple Cycling Team (NZL), Juice Plus+ Women's Cycling Team (USA), PROMAN Racing (USA), Team Advil/Chapstick (USA), Team Kenda Tire (USA), Team Tibco (USA), ValueAct Capital Cycling Team (USA) and Vanderkitten Racing (USA).

It's not my pooh-baby and other mid-week ramblings

The internets have been down at the "hen house" lately hence the lack of blogging. Thankfully, I spent my weekend with the Major and the other Chicks in Black so I can just point you here and here to see how the weekend races and rides went down.

Saturday night, though, deserves a special mention. The Goat (update your blog!) and I decided to head over to Sonoma for dinner to celebrate a good day at the races. We also want to give back to Eli Hengst, one of the greatest guys around, by patronizing his business as much as possible. I cannot say enough about his restaurant. The service was fantastic, the food "mucho rico", and made even better by the fact that I ran into my buddy Tom from the Juice Joint. He was on a "first date" and apparently trying to impress the lady by bringing her to such a fine establishment. Imagine my surprise when the waiter brought over the bottle of wine we had ordered and told us it was on the Juice Joint! Thanks Tom. And thanks again Eli for all you do. I expect Sonja and I will be fixtures at Sonoma from now on because that burger and risi e bisi was the best and your cheese selection is out of this world.

And on a sad note (at least for me, not for them), Monday was Poops' and Bud's last day at Capitol Hill Bikes. They are packing up and heading out west to Colorado. We had a little get-together last night to say our goodbyes and share stories and laugh about (or should I say with?) the Pooh-Baby Daddy. I wish you guys the best of everything and miss you already.

Greenbelt B Race 5/07

Some of you may have noticed a subtle change in my blog. It’s very slight… instead of green on black it’s now blue on black. Why? Because I’m on a new team!!! Not that my blog colors matched my kit colors before but I thought it would be kinda cool.

I’m very excited about my new team, C3-Sollay.com, and made my debut in the black and blue last night at the Greenbelt race. (A special thanks to Beth for bringing me a jersey.) I’ve stepped-up to the B race so I was not sure how long I could hold on, especially considering my legs were already burning on the ride up to Greenbelt trying to keep up with Sonja. Her easy pace seems to be my tempo these days. Thankfully, she would be racing the A’s tonight.

The first couple of laps were fast and a couple of the other women fell victim to the pace leaving Sara Z and Wendy, both from Cyclelife, and me to mix it up with the boys. I actually never saw Wendy during the race as she was pushing the pace at the front while Sara and I were mid-pack and working on our pack-riding skills :-). At one point I noticed we were riding 20-22 mph up “the hill” and I thought to myself, “I just want to hang on for 2 more laps.” Unfortunately, on the next lap on the long sweeping and very fast downhill, some dude hit a pothole and went down taking Sara with him. I know... never look back, but it was Sara, someone I consider a friend so I glanced over my shoulder to see if she was ok at which point I lost contact with the pack. It didn’t matter anyway, my head was out of the game after that but I had met my goal of hanging on for over half the race. Yipee! And Sara is fine… just a couple of scrapes and bruises. She didn’t even tear a hole in her kit.

So once again, a race ended prematurely for me because of a pothole! Oh, I guess I never wrote a Poolesville race report but if I had it would have been titled “Done in by a Pothole” and that’s pretty much Poolesville in a nutshell for me.

Wednesday morning commute

This is what happens when you take a turn at speed and hit oil.  Bike is fine, kit is covered in oil but can be salvaged, and I've just got a nasty hematoma.  I was not the only cyclist to go down... the guy behind me also hit the deck.  Thankfully it was slick or else I would probably have a nasty case of road rash right now.  (Note:  the tape is Kinesio tape otherwise know as Sonja's magic tape.  Hopefully it will help the pain and swelling.)

Greenbriar Mtb Race Report

What was I thinking!?! Greenbriar on a single speed? 735 feet of climbing per lap? Here it is straight from the website:

"The race course is 5 miles (8 km) long, with 735 feet of climbing each lap. Trails are heavily wooded, approximately 60% old narrow double track, 40% single track, with the start/finish alongside a beautiful lake. Climbs are moderate, except for one steep climb, and are typically loose and rocky. 80-90% of the trails are well drained and rocky and remain fairly solid in wet conditions, although some mud may be encountered on the newest single track and stream crossings during wet weather. Dry weather brings fast, rocky trails."

If I had read this before the race no way would I have ridden the single. I should have gotten a clue when I went to register and they told me I was the only one in the female ss category. Surely, I said, others would show up. They just laughed at me and said the "others" were too smart to ride a ss at Greenbriar. I have never ridden Greenbriar and was totally misled by Sonja that I would be fine. Oh well, I can't complain. I had the absolute best time out there and all I had to do was FINISH and be in the $$$. DCVeloBella has a fine description of the course and I will just add that there were 2 significant climbs, both of which I had to walk. The rock gardens were really bad especially so because I am used to riding my squishy Santa Cruz and not a hardtail. Today I feel as if I had a total body workout. One advantage to the ss was clearly the fact that I did not have to worry about shifting issues with all the mud.

And now for some pics...

Normally I am smiling in my mtb race pictures. Not so in this one.
Photo courtesy of j|d Galleries.

Podium shot. I borrowed Betsy's dog.

The women's pro podium. The dog was a fixture on the podium yesterday.

Spaznogle!

Weekend Full of Bikes and Dogs

The Goat and I were lucky enough to have the Best Dog Ever, aka Maya (sweet as apple pie-ya), for a couple of days while her people were up in NYC.  We throughly enjoy her company and take every opportunity to take her hiking and swimming.

The B.D.E.

But first things first, we had a charity ride to attend to Saturday morning.  Sonja and I had volunteered to be ride leaders for the Pedaling for Peace, a ride to support the William Penn House.  We were set to lead the 40-mile "spirited" ride leaving from Capitol Hill and riding out to Great Falls and back.

Gathering at the William Penn House

Poops got a kick out of the fact that Sonja and I were leading a "peace" ride.  In his own words... "Doesn't Sonja like to rip the legs off people?"

Poops is the man with a wrench and CHB's mechanic extraordinaire.

Our instructions were to keep the group together until McArthur, then let it rip and whoever went with us, went with us.  We had other ride leaders back in the pack to look after those that were not up to the pace.  It wound up being an extremely fun ride with a great group of people.

After the ride we took Maya hiking on the Potomac Heritage Trail and discovered several new swimming holes.
Maya is a funny dog.  Most retrievers will get the stick and bring it right back.  Maya, however, likes to swim just for swimming's sake.  She will intentionally circle around the stick several times before snatching it up in her jaws then take the long way back to the shore.

We had to return Maya Saturday evening.  We were sad to see her go but it did lead us to the grand idea of my racing the single speed category at Greenbriar on Sunday.  Initially I was going to race my normal category of sport (with my geared bike!) which started at 11:30.  Sonja's pro race was not until 2.  With the dog, having different race times is good because one of us can always be with her, but with no dog, the prospect of more sleep won out and I decided to race the SS category which went off at 2 as well.