KONA-USA office visit

A typical day at KONA-USA begins with a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheetohs. It is then quickly followed with a rowdy game of foosball that can get pretty intense. (The winner gets their very own bag of cheetohs.) After foosball, they refresh themselves with lattes from their fancy espresso machine. (I'm not sure who has the best lattes, KONA-USA or KONA-Canada.) The rest of their morning is filled with skateboarding through the offices, playing fetch with the dog inside the warehouse, and every once in a while answering the phone or writing an e-mail. For lunch, they always have scrumptious delights, such as tacos, caviar, linguine with prawns, escargot, cheetohs, and champagne. After lunch is another game of foosball. I learned that there are actual rules to foosball, who knew? If you are caught cheating, then you are shunned for the rest of the week and not allowed to get close to the foosball table. Afterwards, naps are next on the schedule. When everyone finally wakes up, the work day is over and it's time to go to the local brewery Chiribiri in downtown Bellingham.

Wow! What a dream place to work! Thanks to everyone from KONA for the great day and fun times! Also, thanks to Mark who took us all on a beautiful ride through Chuckanut and around the lake.

Canadaisms

Oh Canada, what great neighbors they are. Everything ends in "Eh". For example, "Going to ride your bike today? Eh?" or "The sun is sure bright today. Eh?" Also, instead of a "bag", it's "beg". "Pasta" becomes "Paista." Before the races, instead of "signing in", it's "sign on." All of the races were running on "shedule." They also consider 700 meters a long enough distance to have a time trial. Sheesh, I blinked my eyes once and I was finished with the race. I had a lot of fun in Canada and our host family, the DeVries were great! I would love to go back there when I wasn't doing 5 races.

WE LOVE KONA...ESPECIALLY MATT

Yesterday, Kona Canada treated us to a fabulous lunch ontop of their offices, which is right behind the port in Vancouver. Matt was the designated chef and he cooked us such a gourmet meal. We had roasted stuffed peppers with fancy ingredients inside them, some sort of caribbean chicken, grilled asparagus, grilled fish, and of course, cheese puffs. I don't remember the last time I ever ate that well. We also got to meet the names behind the bikes. For example Lisa from Kula Lisa and Jake from Jake the Snake. The office visit made me want to work in Canada because they not only eat well, but drink beer and have lattes at work too!

Gastown Crit

Vancouver is such a great city! It reminds me a little of San Francisco, only cleaner and the mountains are prettier. The gastown crit was Wednesday night in downtown Vancouver that we were to go around 30 times. I have never seen that many people cheering at a woman's race before. The course was packed and even the 3 story parking garage that was along the course was filled with spectators. I was very nervous standing at the start line with world class athletes such as Gina G. from Colavita in front of me. After all the hoopla that the announcer does before the race, the gun went off. Five seconds into the race, I found myself already in a crash on the ground. I taco'd both of my wheels, my fork broke in two places, my hoods were all twisted and so were my brakes. Also, the part on the frame that holds the cables on broke off as well. Basically, my race was over before it even finished. I also hit my head pretty hard on the pavement because I had a splitting headache afterwards and I still have a bruise on it. Well, I had a really great first five seconds, with a great spot on the start line. My gosh, it's kind of embarrasing to do all that damage to my bike ending my race going about 5mph. It would've made a better story if it happened on the sharp turn with the cobblestones going 25mph.
The rest of the VB gals did really great!

Oh Canada

Right now, we're staying in a gorgeous hotel in Vancouver, B.C. We drove into Canada yesterday afternoon around 4:00p.m. and raced a crit in White Rock at 6:00 p.m. I must say, it was really hard for me mentally to get into the race. I was exhausted from the week before and driving for two days, not sleeping enough, nor eating enough was getting to me. When the race started, I knew that my time was limited. At about lap 8, a Symetrix rider had about a 15-20 second gap and I wanted to speed up the peleton to catch her. That would require sneaking around the Symetrix riders that were in the front blocking us. I knew I probably had about a 2 minute all out effort in me left before I just died. So, I took off from the right side and rounded a corner super fast. I got the peleton back up to the Symetrix rider, but I myself could not keep up. So, I blew up. But, before I went off the back, I went off the front, which I would rather do than just getting dropped by doing nothing.

Tonight, we decided to give Kele some highlights. Umm....I don't think it worked because her hair turned orange. She just asked me what we should do to fix her hair. I really think there's no turning back, we should just shave it off.

Cascade Classic Stages 4-5

Stage 4 was in downtown Bend. It was a 1k loop that had a slight uphill that we were to go around for about 40 minutes. Like any crit, it started out with a big bang. There were a couple riders that attempted to get off the front, but they were chased down. As the GC rider for the team, my job was to sit in and rest, especially because I am not a crit rider nor a sprinter. Jen J. was my mother hen during the crit by yelling at me whenever I was out in the wind uncessesarily. Kele said that our plan of attack would be just for us all to sit in because we're more of a road team than a crit team. Next thing I knew, Kele was off the front (again) with 3 other riders. Because there was a Lipton, Victory Brewing, Velo Bella, Webcore, and a McGuire rider up front, the peleton slowed down to help our teammates get a bigger gap. All I could hear was the announcer yelling Kele's name about every other lap because she was winning all of the primes. Kele sprinted into 2nd place. Yeah!!! We all made fun of her because she was telling us all how tired she was and she was going to use the crit as a rest.

The last and final stage was on Sunday. It was about a 65 mile circuit race that had a QOM and a spring line for time in it. I have to say the hardest lap was the 2nd lap. A little more than halfway through it, a group of about 5 got about a 15 second gap and I went off the side to bridge up to it. Then, there was a counter attack that included my teammate Lieselot. That was really great to see her ready for the second attack. This is when we started climbing towards the feed zone. Then, a group of us sat behind two Touchstone riders that brought us up to the front group. Then, it seemed like there was attack after attack all the way up the QOM and even past it. My eyeballs were coming out of their sockets to stay up with the front group. Leiselot and I were in the front group with only 1 lap left to go. Amber from Webcore did one more attack and no one went after her. I heard on the radio that Kele and Hiroko were behind us, and I was hoping that they would catch back up with us. The more teammates, the better. Little did I know that even before the QOM, Kele was telling Hiroko that their job was over because the two climbers were up front already. They both had worked super hard earlier in the week for both of us to be in the front groups. The next thing I knew, I see Kele once again, attacking from the very back. Sheesh! How many times this week did I hear her say that she was just going to sit in, or she was needing to rest herself. Kele caught up to Amber and Martina from McGuire went with Kele. The peleton just let them go because the three of the front weren't going to affect GC outcome. When the short climb before the feed came, the peleton began to go faster and it began to break apart. Lieselot, Hiroko and I stayed with the group and it became a sprint finish at the end. Kele didn't get caught by the group and finished 3rd. Yeah!!!
Overall, it was a great week of racing and our team really worked well together!

Cascade Classic, Stages 1-3

The first stage was an 83 mile road race that began at the Middle School in Bend, OR and ended up at McKenzie Pass where there are all these old lava fields. The race was very exciting! The night before, we had a team meeting and talked about our personal goals and formed them into one big team goal. Our goal was to be active in the race, not just pack fodder. Kele, Jen C., Hiroko, and Jen J. were to attack as well as help chase down attacks, and Lieselot and I were to rest in the middle of the pack to save ourselves for the final climb. Kele attacked off the bat within the first 6 miles and Amber R. from Webcor took off with Kele. Then there were efforts to get with them that the other Bellas covered with great finese. I was sitting smack dab in the middle of the pack and next thing I saw was Hiroko following a Lipton (Kristen L.) and a Victory Brewing (Kirsten) rider attack and bridge the gap up to Kele and Amber. How thrilling to have two Velo Bellas off the front. Both Jens kept watch of the front to see what was going to happen next. After a couple of minutes, it was pretty apparent that no one was going to chase down the break away. At about mile 21, Kele had mechanical problems and came back with the Peleton. (Kele was using a rental bike because her bike was not here in time. That darn thing was so heavy AND it had a triple chain ring. So, she was doing all that attacking on a bike that wasn't fit right and that she had never ridden before.) It would've been great to have Kele in that group, but she also helped me immensly in the peleton. If I was ever in the wind she would ask me what the h#%# am I doing and move me back into the center of the pack. We laughed afterwards that she was like a mother hen keeping me in line. We were all talking to each other and checking up on each other, that I never felt like I was alone out there racing. Hiroko did awesome even without support in the feed zone, nor a caravan car to help her. Jon, Sami F.'s husband, saved her in the second feed zone by handing her a nice cold coke feed. When we hit the climb, everyone helped to move me up to the front where Kele told me to keep my eyes open and get ready. Kristen A. began the first attacks up the climb and I just kept looking at the wheels in front of me, never looking back. After a while, we passed the 10k mark and I just told myself to keep focused. I knew Hiroko was still ahead of us, my teammates had all done their jobs for the day and it was Lieselot's and my turn to do our jobs. There was a group of 10 of us and we came along Hiroko a little after the 5k mark. I yelled at her to stay with us and pushed her on the butt to keep with the group. At 1k to go, everyone started sprinting and I just held on for dear life!!! Velo Bella ended up getting two spots in the top 20 and everyone of us finished knowing that our plan had worked and that we accomplished what we set out to do. I also want to say great job to Ryan who is guest riding for us and doing her first NRC race as a Cat 3 with us.

The second stage was a little bit of a repeat of the first day. It was 75 miles that ended up on another 7 mile climb. The first Queen of Mountain point for the day was at mile 6, so the race started off at a hard tempo from the start. Victory Brewing went to the front and started the grueling pace. I ended up towards the front and once again just kept my eyes on the wheel in front of me. My job for the day was to keep on Kristen A.'s wheel like a fly on shit, and so that's what I was doing for those first 6 miles. The next thing I knew we were crossing the QOM line and I was the 5th rider to cross it, meaning I got 1 QOM point. Yeah! I've never ever had any QOM points! Oh man, it took so much out of me. After that it was a nice long descent of course being led by Kele. After the descent, attacks began one after the other. VB was watching the front and going on any attacks we thought would stick. Jen J. was being our moral support in the peleton on the radio for the day. (She had really bad stomach cramps from the day before and so was trying to recover from that.) After a while, the attacks died down and we all went through the feed zone grabbing as many bottles as we could. (Thanks for all of those that came out yesterday to feed us.) It felt like the peleton was getting into a good rhythm, when all of a sudden Kele attacked like a mad woman!! Her bike was rocking and she had a look on her face like she was out for the kill! It seemed like no one was going to follow her, then Amber R. from Webcor chased after her and bridged the gap. The idea was to get Lipton to chase after them to try to get them a little tired before the final climb. When the gap as at about 2:40, Lipton went to the front as planned and started chasing. At the final climb, we passed Kele and we all exchanged motivating cheers as we crossed paths. Right away, the peleton began to break up. Lieselot came up next to me and was making hysterical comments, but I was too far in the red zone to be able to laugh. I had slobber and snot all over my face at that point. I pointed to the group in front of us, and I told her to stick with them. Sheesh! If she could be cracking jokes at that point, I figured she should be up in the front group. I ended up getting dropped from the front group just 4 miles to the finish and got with another group. Once again, at then end of the day, we all knew that we had a great race as a team. We came out with two top 20 finishes and drove away with smiles on our faces.

This morning was the 6.6 mile time trial. It was fairly flat with some rollies in it. Kele was to go first and I was to go last for the Velo Bellas. I told her that she had to go extra fast because I wanted to use her tri-spoke when she was finished. As I was getting my position in line, I hear Kele screaming my name behind me from the finish. She hurried over and we switched out front wheels before it was my turn to go. I just went out as hard and as fast as I possibly could. The sun was shining, little wind and not too hot. I passed my 30 second girl, which is always a self-esteem booster and just kept telling myself to drill it. I finished up the last 200 meters with the rest of my teammtes at the finishing corner yelling my name, it sounded so great! I crossed the finished and came across Hiroko with her nose bleeding and blood all over her face. Her nose started bleeding profusly within the first mile of the race and was still bleeding afterwards. She had blood all over her body and bike! I told her that she should keep the blood on her bike to remind herself of how tough she is.

This evening we have the crit. Yikes! I'm still very nervous in crits and don't feel super comfortable in them.

A huge thanks to the Sunny Side bike shop for fixing our bikes and taking great care of us!!

Bend, Oregon

I arrived here in Bend, Oregon Monday evening after a long long day of travel which started at 4a.m. from Pittsburgh. I've never been to this part of Oregon, and it reminds me a little of Silver City, NM. Very gorgeous! Right now, I'm looking out the window of our host house eyeing the snow peak of Mt. Bachelor, knowing that we'll be racing out there starting tomorrow. Our host family is awesome! Thanks Barb, Lou, and Adam Becker!!!!
Last night, Hiroko, Kele, and myself made dinner for the team and the Beckers. The menu reminded me of eating out at Luby's where you can get anything and everything that you want. We made tacos, spaghetti and salad. Such a great combination, it was delightful!! Afterwards, we played UNO, commando style. Meaning, the rules changed just about every time we went around. Leiselot, kept throwing in these fangled Belgium rules that no one had ever heard of, and of course cheating was permitted just as long as you didn't get caught. Leiselot said the rule was if you get caught cheating, you had to pick up 7 cards. (Yeah right, we nixed her on that one.)

Seven Springs, PA Road Race Nationals

I have never raced or even been to a national championship, so I was pretty nervous what my first experience would be like. It was first so incredibly difficult to get to the race (see below) and plan for it without any sort of support, that I was just mentally exhausted before I even got to Seven Springs. However, I have such a great support system (my family, Azeen, Monica, Jannelle, Carrie, Anthony, Kele, my coach) that I went to the start line with a positive attitude.

However, Thursday (my travel day) ended up being such a disaster that some would say it was a sign that I shouldn't have even been here. First, my shuttle that was to pick me up at 4:00 a.m. bailed on me. I had no other way to get to the airport and I just started to panic. At 4:45, I drove like a mad woman over to a friend's house and pounded on his door with tears rolling down. Thankfully he is such a great person and agreed to take me to San Jose. (I totally owe him big time!) I just barely made it to my flight and once I was situated and calmed down, we sat on the runway for 1.5 hours because of mechanical problems. So, when I flew into Minneapolis, I booked it running as fast as I could to the next terminal for my flight to Pittsburgh. As they were closing the doors, I yelled "WAIT!!!" and I just made it. Needless to say, my luggage had not been able to make that mad dash. In Pittsburgh, I went to the luggage counter to see when my bike and bag would arrive. Well, my bag was to arrive a couple hours later, but my bike was lost. It had never been scanned anywhere so, they didn't know where it was. Oh my gosh!!!! Both my bag and bike ended up arriving at the host house in Pittsburgh at 2 am. Yeah!

As for the race, it was super tough! It started out hard right away. Once we started, my legs just went numb. (They have done this before and if anyone knows what causes this or how it can be prevented, advice would be appreciated.) I knew it was going to be a struggle to keep my legs moving from the start. The course was pretty, but with lots of undulating hills that were steep. On the second lap, I started feeling the cramping twitches in my legs. "Uh oh," I thought. I refused to give in, especially with all of the drama that went on to get to Seven Springs. So, I just kept concentrating on moving my legs. On the third and final lap is when I finally bonked. It was the last major climb with maybe about 6 or 8 miles left to go and everything in me just died. I kept peddling, though. When I went through the finish, all I could think about was getting a Coke, because my body was crashing quick and hard. (I was seeing the infamous black dots before you pass out.) I saw this woman with one in her hand and I asked her if she had another one. I must have looked really haggard because she gave me what she had left. Then, she commented on how much I was shaking, so she walked away and came back with another Coke. Right there, I just set my Kona bike down (she was tired as well and needed to rest) and sat on the gravel right next to her and chugged that Coke. I really wish I knew what I looked like because so many people were coming up to me asking me if I needed medical help. Even the announcer guy got off the stage and walked over to me to see how I was doing. After I finished the Coke and had some Cytomax Muscle Milk, I just felt sooo much better! Overall, I am really glad that I came here for the race. It was a great experience!
p.s. Thanks to Lydia and Gregg Davis for opening their house to a complete stranger for the weekend!

Reggae Singers

Last night I went to a Steel Pulse concert at the Catalyst in downtown Santa Cruz. It was a lot of fun! I kept watching the back up singers because they were movin' and groovin' and having so much fun. For my next career, I am going to become a backup reggae singer, wear colorful head wraps, and live somewhere down in the Caribbean.

Pajaro Valley

On Sunday, I talked my mountain biking house mate, Anthony, into going on a 3 hour road ride with me. He explained to me that this would be his first road ride of the year and as we rode our bikes out of the driveway, he showed me how he had to hit his cable in order for his bike to shift. Seeing its state of disrepair, I thought, "Oh my gosh, I wonder if that bike will make it even 30 minutes," but, it did. We went exploring on the bikes to unknown places that he nor I had ever been. We rode along the main thoroughfare of the beautiful town of Los Lomas. It was a tiny quaint town with cowboys on horses and chickens and mini goats running around. We then went riding through the luscious Pajaro Valley. The scent of strawberries tantalized my taste buds and I began to crave anything and everything. Anthony's mind was stuck on the idea of eating hot dogs and pretty soon that sounded tasty to me too. So, after crossing over the bridge to exit the Pajaro Valley, making our way back to Aptos, we got in the Jeep and headed to the Capitola mall where they have none other than a Hotdog on a Stick in their food court. Oh man, those two hotdogs and lemonade never tasted sooooo good. What a way to end a great ride!
p.s. Anthony's bike made it!!!