Syracuse Grand Prix Cross 2010
October 19, 2010
NY Bellas were sporting the winter whites for the Syracuse Grand Prix - though it was the PERFECT weather, and I’m not saying “real cross weather” is “perfect”…
Our own Sue Atwood was the Big Cheese Organizer and Promoter of this race. Her first ever in this position and she and her team of volunteers did a fantastic job of setting up, prizes, break down and scoring. She had some real help from the gods with the weather too.
The course is a ball buster - Not a moment of rest - soggy, muddy grass made for slow going on the back stretch, a sandy run/ride up, rollercoaster bumps and barriers as high as legally possible, which for shorties can be a real pain in the butt.
Angela rips it up!
Cynthia shows intensity (and fluff on her headset.)
(Photos courtesy of James Pitarresi)
Results:
Open Women
Cynthia Schneideker 9th
Angela Ott 11th
Masters Women:
LiLynn Graves 1st
Kate Stewart 3rd
Bellas Pink Flair dazzles at Ride for Hope - Syracuse, NY October 9
October 18, 2010
Kim and Erik (He rode 25 miles on a tag-a-long!)
Kim, Jano in blinding sun and Kristen
Critz Kermis: Kim’s first ‘Cross Race - Chicks, Dicks, Cigars?
September 20, 2010
Critz Farm, Cazenovia, NY
September 18, 2010
The start of the women’s race at the Critz Farm, an “Agri-tourist” destination in Central New York….it’s a Christmas tree farm, pumpkin patch, corn maze, blueberry farm, kids’ playground, maple sugaring shack and they have the most amazing, hot, crispy, tiny doughnuts.
Here’s the race report, from LiLynn who channeled Kim….
This is how the day started with most of the women’s field grouped together looking at bloody wounds and scars and I said “Chicks dig scars.” When you “cross” over, I guess the mind just gets all dirty too! They all thought I said, “Chicks, dicks, cigars…”
After about 5 minutes we got this topic cleared up and started discussing how too sabatoge Ruthless’s bike so we might keep her in sight for at least the first 50 yards. We then realized the faster she went, the less laps we would have to do, so we put the air back in her tires to the perfect pressure to assure full speed ahead. We also tightened her derailier back to where it originally was so she could shift gears. Just kidding. We aren’t that bad. But we did leave the rocks her in back pocket jersey. Ha.
This was my first race on a cross bike in a cross race with crossed over crazy chicks. So looking around made me very nervous. I’m a born again Mnt biker, I come from a strong line of Mountain bikers. My grand daddy crossed the Rocky Mountains on a makeshift bike that he carried a lot of the way and put these big tires on that he filled with rubber cement (the first tubeless). He was a little ahead of his time. I look at some of those old photos and he has that shoulder carry down pat.
Well he built me my first mnt bike when I was just a youngun and this cross course was like riding in my back yard. Here I didn’t think I would do very good with these seasoned roadies and old crossies but go figure. We took off and I was on the farm with my grand daddy in my head saying “ride like a bull in heat hunny.”
First I was chasing LiLynn the dog with Kate the Kat hot on my tail, and then LiLynn blew through a turn and got her baggy assed shorts stuck on the front of her saddle and couldn’t remount. So I blew past her because I was after my heffer. She eventually got her shorts back on and on her saddle and was riding behind me. What she didn’t know was I had my grand daddy in my head and was riding like a possessed crossed eyed bull in heat. This was my course and that rubber cement in my tires was working so perfectly that I didn’t even slow down through the turns.
LiLynn just started cheering me on to go harder and faster and harder and faster. Made me wonder what she had on her mind. Turned out she just wanted me to close the gap to Ruthless, who had been in China for over a week and was totally sleep deprived and untrained and maybe, just maybe there was a glimmer of hope that we could… Oh crap, she road by a half lap ahead. Coming into the final stretch I came up on Cynthia finishing her 2nd cross race and going for 3rd masters!
Well I just road for my grand daddy and gave it all I had and found my inner cross wild bull in heat. No stopping me now. LiLynn asked me where the hell that came from and I just smiled. Thanks grand dad. Now where’s that heffer?
Results:
Open Women:
Kim Behrman 2nd
Master Women:
LiLynn Graves 1st
Kate Stewart 2nd
Cynthia Schneideker 3rd
Cross Season in Central NY has begun!
September 18, 2010
The season has begun! First cross race this year was Sunday, September 12th - Kirkland Cross, put on by the Mohawk Valley Bicycling Club and it was CLASSIC CROSS conditions: rain, cold, super muddy. Some like it that way! (not me…) Anyway, we had a terrific NY Bella showing with 5 racing.
Cynthia mid-run-up.
Sue slogging up the sandy climb….
The course is in a lovely setting with a generous variety of conditions: straight up run up followed by more climbing in sand (which makes for impossible reentry into pedals), slow grass, off-camber turns with the added element of greasy mud, narrow, bumpy, completely rutted, shear mud on the back stretch, and my favorite the Sand Pit From Hell.
While some managed to stay upright for the entire race, I had lots of quality time with the mud. (Like 7 chances for a mud facial…) Others, like LiLynn, made it look easy:
Fastest Bella on two wheels, LL.Dawg Graves shows her barrier bounding skilz.
Kapitän Kate, da Kat, wins awards for bike/kit matchie-matching.
Cynthia looks oddly content. Good race, girlie!
Sue on the run up, is obviously enjoying the climb. That’s just not right..
Newest New York Bella, Taliet - after her first ever cross race (she’s known as a fierce athlete so, we can expect general awesomeness.)
Results:
Women 4:
Cynthia Schneideker 5th
Women 1-2-3-4
LiLynn Graves 7th
Kate Stewart 9th
Sue Atwood 11th
Taliet Gerretsen 12th
Jano’s Report: Delta Lake Tri, August 22
August 23, 2010
Kristen M and Jano posing at the start.
Jano
Canal Classic - New New York Bellas!
August 16, 2010
August 15, Little Falls, NY
Rockin’ the white version of the VB Jersey!
New NY Bella Kathleen Rutishauer, newest NY Bella Angela Ott and Cynthia Schnedeker completed the Canal Classic Sunday in Little Falls, NY. Kathleen just got her jersey about 2 weeks ago and had already recruited Angela in time for race day.
They had great weather, cool and cloudy. Fortunately, rain held off until AFTER the race. Despite an effort to stay together, the three got separated due to the climbs (the second climb is 4 miles long!) but Cynthia teamed up with a woman from the Catskills at the bottom of Bardow - the 4 mile climb- and they rode together to the end. She is interested in joining and forming a group of VB’s in her area - our NY group is ever growing!!
Cynthia was clever enough to work out the NY Bella Flair and managed to bring some pink fluff for Kathleen and Angela-notice the pink fluff on Kathleen’s bike- and both swore it helped. The view at the top of Bardow is priceless-you can see the tops of the Adirondack mountains!
For those of you who were unable to ride in this year’s race-next year will be the 20th and possibly the last, so mark your calendars!!
Results to yet to be posted!
NY Bellas bring home hardware from Syracuse Irongirl!
August 13, 2010
Check out the video below for Janet’s TV debut and her passion behind this particular triathlon:
Bellas Jano and Kristen both had fantastic results in the Syracuse Irongirl last weekend. Out of 733 enthusiastic participants, both our grrrls had podium finishes in their age groups:
Kristen Mullaly was 2nd in the 30-34 age group, with 94 in her group.
Janet Ohlsen was 3rd in the 50-54 age group, with 79 in her group.
You guys make us proud!
2010 Owasco Flyer!
June 28, 2010
NY Bellas Kim Behrman and Linda Tersegno duke it out for the finish line!
Hot, humid and hilly. Those are my three main adjectives to describe this year’s Owasco Flyer, a beloved citizens’ race in Auburn, New York. Of course, it’s hilly every year, but some years those climbs are more painful than others…and obviously heat and humidity contribute to the perceived elevation of the last “Three Bears”, the finishing hills, which annoyingly are really FOUR climbs, not three. The worst is, that while you know you’ve got those four last grinds to get up to the finish line, you forget that there are about 87 other hills to climb BEFORE them! (Ok, maybe not 87, maybe really 12…10? ok, how about 8 pain in the *ss climbs?)
This year, there were somewhere around 250 racers, which made for a CRAZY “controlled start” with people jockeying for position before even a mile had passed. (The course is 36 miles.) Survival includes suffering the usual terrifying shouts of “braking! Braking!! Braking!!!!”, the SMELL of braking and the knowledge that lots of people in this massive pack possessed neither skills nor the understanding of how squirrely riding can have a dangerously domino effect. Nonetheless, all participating Bellas made it unscathed - we were treated to shrieks of enthusiasm from the lead car, carrying none other than our distinctly vocal LiLynn, who was sitting in on account of her injuries from an awful crash in last week’s citizens’ race, the Giro de Otisco.
Kate whistling a little ditty as she finishes.
Everybody has a different story of the outcome - mine was of being dropped on the first hill, but working with a splendid crew to miraculously catch back up to the “pack” at about mile 12 - the pack still being in the range of 100 people! Then on yet another climb, an unexplained pile up (I looked up and saw bodies somersaulting into the ditch - and a dog shooting out of the pack, but no one else seems to have seen the pooch..) broke up the pack again, and from then on it was, for me, various small groups of fellow suffering non-hill climbers. Thumbs up from a corner marshall that I was “3rd woman!” which turned out to be off by two, rats! Oh, well, I’ll take it.
Excellent to see Linda and Kim mounting the last hill side by side, then a sudden burst as they tried to out sprint one another for the final stretch. You can see from the photo proof above who got it, sorry Linda! Meanwhile, Sue Kahler devoted her race to assisting newer racers by hanging back and being encouraging. I had chatted in the bathroom with a woman who said it was her first race ever and that she’d “never even ridden more than 24 miles before” - Sue had her work cut out for her. This was also the first race for NEW NY Bella, Kelly Bulkely - who has ridden her bike something like 483 days in a row, and who raced, as far as I can tell, with PLATFORM PEDALS and NO clips?!? (But WITH, mind you, a 4 tiered black mini-skirt over her bike shorts. Gotta flaunt the flair, baby, flair. And she’s working on getting a jersey…at least her handlebars are pink.)
All in all, we had a decent showing (thanks to LiLynn’s berating email urging everyone to race because we were “lame” this year. It worked!) and the NY Bellas are BACK!
Bellas in Repose:
Front: Honorary Bella Ruth (2nd woman overall), Sue A, Kelly, Kate, Ellie
Back: Kim, LiLynn, Sue K, Linda
Kristin (and her brother-in-law, Mr. Clean) who missed our group pic.
Results:
Overall 3rd place woman, former NY Bella, Gaetane Perreault
Women 19-29:
- 3rd Kristin Mullally
Women 30-39
- 4th Kim Behrman
- 7th Kelly Bulkelly
Women 40-49:
- 1st Kate Stewart
- 5th Sue Atwood
Women 50-59:
- 2nd Linda Tersegno
- 5th Sue Kahler
Tandem:
- 7th Ellie and Ernie Bayles
Sarah Against the Watch at Sattley
June 23, 2010
I definitely felt ready for Sattley, the NorCal/Nevada district championship race, this year. I wasn’t sure I was going to be ready, as I came back from Germany so sick just about a month ago. But, as I ground into my final tune-up workout on Thursday, I was definitely ready. My intervals were strong and smooth, and my perception of the effort was comfortable.
Early Saturday, we got up and did my pre-race ride - mostly easy with a few speed efforts thrown in. Then, we packed up Kermit the Toaster and headed east. We made a small diversion in Ripon for my cousin’s wedding at my aunt and uncle’s house. It was about 95 degrees out at noon, and a challenge not to over-bake in the sun. The ceremony was short and sweet. We drank lots of water, carbo loaded on the cake, wished them well, and headed on for Truckee. This year, we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites, which was quite nice, and breakfast started at 6….perfect! We dined at a brewing company for dinner, which was good. I went for the 8 oz beer, as I didn’t want to overdo it before my race. Rick compensated for my lack of beer with 2 pints of a Belgian style ale.
Sunday, we rolled out of bed at 5:30 after a marginal night’s sleep. There had been some drunken revelers in the hallway around 2 am. Ugh! But, I felt relatively good. I had a shower and headed down to tank up on the breakfast. I also took a yogurt and banana for a 2nd breakfast, as my race was after 11 am.
I got a full, 1 hour warmup in and felt good. The weather was warm, but not too warm, and the winds were light. Also, I’d heard the expansion cracks in the highway had been re-paved, so that was cause for celebration.
I got a good start, and the first half of the race was pretty fast, with a light, quartering tailwind. There were still some expansion cracks in the middle of the course, but nothing like last year. I turned around about a minute slower than I wanted, but well ahead of last year’s pace. The second half of the race was purely mental, as I tried to block out some chafing on my saddle. I probably lost some focus with my constant re-adjustment. But, I definitely was putting it all out there, with copious snool developing in the last 1/4 of the race.
In the end, I rolled through in 3rd place, about 2:27 better than last year. I was happy with my result, and met my goals for the race. My next TT will be Benicia, and I will be making the debut of my new TT rig - the Ellsworth Coefficient and also a skinsuit for the first time in 2 years. Look out! I’ll be tearing it up out there.
—Sarah Clatterbuck
California
Kim does the Black Fly Challenge!
June 19, 2010
June 12, 2010 Indian Lake, New York
Let’s see…
It was pouring buckets and a balmy 52 degrees as we headed to Indian Lake to
drop off the pick-up car on this point to point race. I had many colorful
comments for my lovely husband, who thought this race would be a “great
training ride” to prepare us for our upcoming trip to Moab UT. So… I fell
for it.
It was hard to decide what to wear as the rain let-up as we picked up our
packet and chip in Inlet. As we lined up for the race I abort the rain coat
(yes, I am that much of a sissy) and opted for a vest.
The race started off up the paved road in town and turned onto another paved
road for a while - a mile or two. Then, here we go - Dirt! Lovely dirt. Wait
- it this uphill? Ok, so a little at the start, get it out of the way. As it
turns out, it climbs pretty much for the first 20 miles - when it wasn’t
climbing, it was sand. Sand, not the fun stuff at the beach, but wet sand
that wanted to suck you in and hold you back - sure, the flat part even had
to be hard.
At about mile 20 (just before it started to descend) I had a bit of a hissy
fit. I was bonking and hotter than heck - wishing for some of that rain I
dreaded earlier. So as I watched this chick pass me, I pulled over and had a
little quality time to myself.
Near 8 miles left, the road turned to pavement and stayed that way until the
finish. Which, for me was somewhat lackluster, as I rolled in, thankful to
finish at last.
So, insight? Not really, hard race, good time, I hear its pretty there -
can’t really testify to that - lots of dirt road - there is a nice Mexican
restaurant in town for post-race grub.
Editor’s note: Kim finished 4th of 26 in her category, Beginner Master Women!
