Sprint Finish: Colorado State Championship

By Jen Tilley

Boulder, Colorado

Jen Tilley, Colorado State Championships, Dec. 7th 2008.

The weather was sunny and warm, being a balmy 68 degrees for the last cross race of the season. All season this year the weather has been amazing, definitely not typical cross conditions…

It turned out to be a great race with a good turnout for the women. I ended up 4th with a sprint to the line. With it being one of my better races of the season, it was a great way to end the year. Now its time to relax, spend some time on the snowboard and eat some good food!

Snow Day!

By Amy Dombroski
Burlington, Vermont

Woke up to an overcast day with some frost on the windshield, but no white stuff on the ground. We packed the car up for day 2 of psychocross - this time out to Morrison at Bear Creek Lake Park. Dry roads until about 15 miles outside of Boulder, then I had the first bad weather test for my new little dunebuggy.

I suited up…

…and hopped on the course, and quickly fell off my steed, multiple times. It was like ice skating in Sorrel boots. I gave the course my middle finger and hunkered in the car, not wanting to race.

But who wouldn’t want their bike to look like this?!

It was pretty purdy. And who knows what Portland and Kansas will deliver for conditions?

The secret to having fun was low tire pressure, and staying all loosy-goosy like a noodle. It was definitely a good core workout!

And good to practice my skills - my running skills, bike handling skills, numb-chuck skills, and pitting skills.

Chellie was out cheering her lungs off and snapping these kicking pictures. Thanks!

Fame and Fortune: Kari Heads to the Midwest

By Kari Studley
Bothell, Washington

I can’t let my new almost celebrity status go to my head.

In checking my bike for my flight to Ohio, the TSA guy looked at the tag, looked at me, did a double-take and exclaimed, “You’re Kari Studley!  You took tenth at Cross Vegas!!!”  Completely dumbfounded that a stranger (who looked like he’d follow football more than cycling) knew cycling, the obscure sport of cyclocross, there’s a race called Cross Vegas and me!?!   As I was speechless, he continued, “ I knew you had to be a serious cyclocross racer when I inspected your bike last time [when I traveled to Cross Vegas].  So I looked you up and you did pretty good.”  (Turns out his dad used to own a bike shop and he sold Chris Horner “his first road bike”, so he likes to follow Chris and the cycling world.)

So my first trip to the midwest started out well.  It was an “unseasonably warm” (or really hot!!! For us west coasters) weekend with temps in the mid-high 80s.  I’m not complaining, it was just a shock to go somewhere where the lowest temp is your hopeful high temperature (of whappin’ 55 degrees) and it never even got that cold at night…   Saturday’s race sponsor, Java Johnny, graciously allowed me to stay in one of his furnished apartments less than a mile from Saturday’s race venue which I REALLY appreciated!

Friday’s race: Darkhorse Stampede in Birmingham, KY.  Aka: my cross nightmare come true.  Seemed like the course was 70% of my weakest types of corners – tight and off camber. <=/   Lesson learned from this race: know the start.  Duh.  But I forgot about that part until I was at the start line and realized I had no idea how/where the transition from pavement to unfriendly cornering would take place.   So I tried to hang on and think happy thoughts when going somewhat blind into that and missed my chance to be in the lead break.  When my race brain finally kicked in, someone crashed on one of the (many) off camber corners and I barely missed running her over.  When I settled into a grove again, I took myself out on one of the choice ditches at the bottom of a downhill.  Then that same girl (who passed me in my self destruction) crashed again.  I was done with her at that point and set my sights on putting as much distance between us.  Which brought 10^th place into sight….   I like 10^th place… so I managed to secure my lucky number to bring my UCI point total up to… (drum roll please)  2!  It’s a start.

Saturday: Java Johnny’s in Middleton, OH.  Anything could be more favorable for me than Friday’s course, and since this was so close to my lodging, I got to practice quite a bit on it.   Knew the start, and was pretty excited when I realized “I’m trying to catch Georgia Gould’s wheel!”  Never thought I’d ever think that (at least this season).   At least I felt like I was actually racing, and I got to follow Georgia’s wheel  when she was chasing back from a mechanical.  I even thought of passing her on the slight hill just because I knew I could, but decided to be nice as she already had enough stress in her race and didn’t need to worry about getting around me again.  But I enjoyed managing to stay on her wheel for a while.  After Georgia went her way I was able to work back to my lucky number: 10^th.  And although 9^th was dangling like bait for me, I never caught her.

Sunday: BioWheels in Cincy (Cincinnati) OH.   Aka:  being Barb Howe for a day.  Celebrity again!  I was told that a photo of me made cycling news from Saturday’s race!  The only catch, I was labeled as Barb Howe.  Guess it’s a start.  I’ll just make sure to wear a name tag next time.   The course was really cool and suited me well.   I thought I felt better, but 3 days of racing, travel, the HEAT, and a funky stomach caught up to me so I didn’t have the reserves that I had hoped to make the lead group.  Just when I was closing in on (take a guess on what place) 10^th, my celebrity photo twin, Barb Howe, my back tire went flat!  So I lost a lot of time trying to ride / run a half lap before I got Barb’s “B” bike in the pit.  At least my knees didn’t hit my elbows too much as I ride a frame one size bigger… and now I really knew what it was like to ride like Barb!  Amazingly, 11^th was still mine with 12^th no where in sight!

And I realized I’ve already surpassed what I set out to do this season: place top 15 at UCI races.  Now I want to crack top 10…. I’ve heard 7 is also lucky….

Cross Vegas: Top Ten for Kari!

By Kari Studley
Bothell, Washington

As I summed it up to co-workers who asked where I’d been the past week: “ I was sick, slept all Friday and Saturday, Got enough energy to race Starcrossed Saturday night, sick Sunday & Monday. Felt better Tuesday, went for a ride and felt okay, so I went to Vegas….to race!” I think I will forever remember their blank expressions –I’m sure Vegas is the LAST place they’d ever think I’d go, even when in perfect health. But I think I am addicted to Cross Vegas - I just love the excitement and energy of this race. Where else does Elvis sing the national anthem and help hand out awards? Love it! And this year there were BUSLOADS of people being brought from the strip to spectate – at least 4x as many people cheering and watching compared to last year.

But CrossVegas is totally worth it! And since I didn’t have anything to lose (last year I crashed 1^st lap, taco-ed my front wheel and got pulled second lap…and I only had the big ring as we hadn’t found a derailleur hanger that worked on the frame) I could only improve on last year if I finished the race. And with a start number of 35 (out of 39), hopefully the only way to go was up. They had also changed the course from last year which really favored me a lot better – it was now an even bigger time trial on grass >> just my thing!

Without any particular expectations, other than finishing and not getting lapped by Katie Compton, I took my place at the start line, got to meet fellow Bella Marian, and guess I was standing near Laura Van Gilder (HUGE professional road cyclist) among other big names in women’s cycling. I’m honestly still learning who’s who… but I at least now know who Laura is.

Photo copyright Lyne Lamoureux. Used with permission.

The start was hot! Literally as it was 81 degrees. Just when I had settled into what I thought was a good position, a surge of riders from behind swarmed past me, so back to work in moving back up through the pack– let the attrition begin! I saw Shannon & Tilley in the group ahead of me so I jumped across and joined them on the run up. Half a lap later and still feeling good, I pushed on to join Kathy Sherwin. A lap later, another bella came into sight – her racing greatness: Barb Howe! In total shock and still feeling good, I kept moving through to the front of the pack into 12^th with 10^th & 11^th in sight up ahead. A lap later, “black” and “green” (I nickname by kit colors when racing when I’m on the hunt) were mine (I was now 10^th!!!!!) and it was now 3 more painful laps of time trial solitude. It was awesome to hear people cheer for me and see Alex beside himself with excitement. On the last lap, Alex exclaimed: “You’re in front of Laura Van Gilder! One of the best road cyclists ever! Keep it up!” For all I was concerned, there was no way anyone – regardless of who - was going to take 10^th from me if I could help it.

When I crossed the finish line I had to resist sitting up and doing the pro arms-up victory pose as I rode through – I might as well won as far as I’m concerned. That was the best race of my life! With 10^th I also qualified for UCI points which means I will no longer start 4^th from last (which is based on registration order), so I’m very excited about that.

Alex just laughed when I asked in earnest if Laura was in the black or green kit. I now know she’s in a black kit. Hope to see her more in passing…

Vegas! Marian’s Suffering-est Race Ever

By Marian Jamison
Reno, Nevada

Alternate post titles:

How I lost my helmet in the Las Vegas Airport.
The longest day ever.
The suffering-est race ever.

Erm, yeah, Cross Vegas!

So, my whole Las Vegas trip (lasting all of 24 hours) was a bit of an adventure. Cody dropped me off at the Reno airport on Wednesday, the day of the race, at 7 AM. When I got to Vegas my bike was there at the luggage claim (no seriously alarming holes in my bike box!) and I stepped out of the terminal to figure out how the hell I was going to get to the convention center. Ah yes, airport shuttle. $12.00 round trip, and I just had to call them to schedule my return trip the next day. Not too hard. The guy driving the shuttle grumbled about loading my enourmous box into the van, repeatedly telling me that they wouldn’t allow it in the convention center. Um, it’s a bike expo, and this is my bike . . . huh? But then he was hella nice and drove me all the way to the doors of the convention center, even though they usually just drop people off at the Venetian and make them walk. And Milo and Otis was playing on the TV in the shuttle van and some foreign dude behind me was cracking up. All in all a good start to the day.

So, I walked into the convention center and immediately saw the coat/bag check office. I asked them if I could check my bike (box and all!) and, after some deliberation, they allowed it! Sweet, one less thing to worry about. I picked up my badge that my boss had arranged for me (it said I was a distributor from Belgium . . . haha) and wandered around the expo for awhile. Talk about sensory overload. I found my coworkers at the Ridley booth and verified that I could stay with them that night (3 dudes sleeping in a room together, one on a cot, and they offered me the couch. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!). Sampled some of Clif’s new offerings, tried to get some free stuff, and then took a nap in the lobby on the floor.

Ultimately I decided to take a cab to the race venue. It was a little pricey, but at least I could bring my bike and then build it at the venue. I was just putting my wheels on in the parking lot when I saw Alex from Velo Bella getting set up at the Kona tent. Yay! People I know! I walked over and said hi, met some new people, and set up camp. Lots of Bellas (really freaking fast ones!) racing. Anyway, the team support from Alex and Melanie was awesome!

Anyway, to get to the point (finally) the race started at 7:30. I felt decent - kinda tired from my early morning and my wanderings at Interbike, but ready for a thorough ass-whooping. They called everyone up, and it was pretty freaking cool hearing my name, “Marian Jamison, racing for Velo Bella, from Reno, Nevada!” - or something like that. My friend Harry was there at the start line (I think he’d had a couple beers at this point) and he yelled, pretty much right into Laura Van Gilder’s ear, I think, “This is Marian Jamison, people! Marian Jamison!” It made me smile.

Ready, set, hurt! The start of the race was sooo fast! LVG was right in front of me and she popped out of her pedals and almost went down. Holy crap, I almost ran over Laura Van Gilder. Anyway, we got going on the little parade lap and it was pain pain pain, hard hard hard from the very beginning. I was pretty far near the back, worked my way up past a couple of people, and then jockeyed back and forth with a couple of girls for most of the race. The course was mostly flat, with a couple little gnar up sections. Those little up sections made me feel like my brains were going to pop out of my eye-sockets. Seriously, pain. But there were lots of people around the course who knew me (I had no idea who they were at the time) and were cheering for me, and every time I went by Alex he told me to suffer more (that was essentially the gist) so I was pretty encouraged to flog myself for the whole race. Or, almost the whole race.

Photo copyright, Lyne Lamoureux. Used with permission.

My accomplishment for the evening was being the last girl to not get lapped and pulled. I was riding sooo hard going into my last lap so that Katie and Katerina wouldn’t catch me, and I think I went through the finish when they were maybe 100 feet back and closing in fast! So, there was no one behind me on my last lap, and the girl in front of me was pretty far away, so I backed off a little, since I was pretty sure I was dying at that point. But I did my last lap, and sat down on the grass to wait for death. Alex came by, congradulated me, and told me to cool down.

I took a spin and ran into a couple of the people who’d been cheering for me. Bella Marian (California Issue) was there. I hadn’t seen her since Kern, so that was pretty much rad, ’cause she’s pretty much rad. Also Maureen Kunz, Pro-MTBer extraordinair and collegiate rival (if you can be in a rivalry with someone who is hella faster than you) and maybe one of my favorite people to get beat by, was there offering congrats and catch up with. Plus Harry and his friend, were was pretty much awesome with the cheering. Ha! Even my old boss who I routinely avoid, and some fun ex-coworkers were there cheering for me like crazy. I felt like such a star coming in 5th from last that I can’t even imagine how those people who actually do well must feel. Golly.

So, thus ended the extremely fun and painful part of my adventure. I watched the men’s race, which was rad and hella exciting. There was some dude named Lance Armstrong racing? Anyway, people seemed pretty excited about him. It was so awesome to watch some of the fastest guys in the world (Frischknecht and Sauser were there) and they were all so fast. After the race there was a bit of a mass exodus from the venue to where they were shuttling people back to the strip. I was planning on taking the shuttle, but the line was like, a mile long, so I decided to ride. I strapped all my bags of crap on my back and got ready to depart. Some dudes from Boston offered to let me ride with them because they had lights, and we had a jolly nice ride back into Vegas. It was a pretty surreal experience, tho. I mean, I’m a Reno-ite, so I’m used to bright lights and tall casinos, but Vegas is on a whole other level. It was pretty weird riding towards all that through darkened neighborhoods at 11 o’clock at night.

My destination was the Rio - I was heading to the Sinclair party where my coworkers could supply me with a room key to get washed up and then go get drunk with Phil Liggett at the party (haha, only kidding). Long story short (too late), I was way too tired to enjoy the party much, but I hung out for a while because California Marian was there, as were my Bostonian riding buddies. So that was cool. Anyway, the pole dancers were a little much at the end of a very, very long day. So I headed to my couch at 2 AM, only to be woken up by a phone call from some number I didn’t know. See, in all the hustle and bustle to get back to the Rio, I’d forgotten to dispose of my cardboard bike box, and it had my name and phone number on it. Some dude was wicked pissed that I’d left it in the parking lot (totally on accident! I don’t litter!) and called me to tell me so. Sorry dude! It was an accident! Oops! Well, I felt like a jack ass. Oh well, moving on.

I got up at 5:45 the next morning to take the shuttle back to the airport. Ouch, 3:45 hrs of sleep. I left my bike with my coworkers (they would be driving back to Reno after Interbike). In my sleep deprived state I managed to leave my helmet somewhere in the Las Vegas airport. I realized I didn’t have it with me about 20 minutes before my plane left. D’oh! I checked, very quickly, with the lost and found folks at the Security check - the only placed I feel I could have left it - but it wasn’t there and if I waited any longer I was going to miss my plane. So that was a bummer of a way to end my trip.

Well, I’m still getting caught up on sleep from that trip, but I think it was worth it. I think next year I’ll go to Gloucester instead, tho . . . I know lots of people there, too, so I should have a good cheering section.

See more photos from Cross Vegas, by Lyne Lamoureux.

Cyclocross World Championships

By Amy Dombroski
Durango, Colorado

Hoogerheide World Cup

Editor’s note: If you are not an afficionado of techno, you might want to be muting the sound. Or, crank it up and dance around your living room. We’ll never tell!

Bella Italia!

 

USA Cycling has announced the first round of nominations to the U.S. national team for the 2008 UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Treviso, Italy, January 26-27. Sixteen athletes were nominated to the squad in the elite women’s, U23 men’s and junior men’s categories based on their competitive performance over the course of the last year.

…

Discretionary nominations to the elite women’s team went to Rachel Lloyd (Proman-Paradigm), Kerry Barnholt (Tokyo Joe’s-Van Dessel), Sue Butler (River City Bicycles) and Amy Dombroski (Velo Bella-Kona). See Velonews for the full story.

Crazy in Kansas

By Kari Studley
Bothell, Washington

It was hard to believe how fast the season flew by and that it was finally time for nationals. I have been the joke of my friends and family for the last month with my ambitions to go race my bike in circles…in Kansas…in the middle of December. My mom took it a step further in telling me the night before I traveled east, “ I thought it was funny until this week, but now I think you’re crazy!” (especially in light of the ice storm Kansas City experienced earlier that week – my game plan: bring a lot of knitting to be prepared for any flight delays). Always good to have parental support in such endeavors. I also remained undeterred in my national quest when my host family asked, “why Kansas in December?” You know it’s a good sign when even locals think you’re crazy….

Our flight to Kansas was unremarkable other than I woke up that morning with a faucet for a nose and congested sinuses – not fun, especially on a plane. We even managed to navigate correctly to our host family and discovered in unpacking the bikes that my seat clamp bolt had gone MIA in flight (I really did tighten it, but lesson learned in the importance of taping bolts as well). The time change suited me well because even though it was 6:30 in Seattle, I could still justify going to bed since it was now 8:30 in Kansas.

My head cold remained persistent through the weekend, but fortunately, I felt good on the bike. I had THE BEST start EVER for me. Going into the first slippery turn, I was right where I wanted to be and even stayed upright as everyone else went down around me. Since there was no space to ride around them effectively, I was forced to dismount and run up the slight hill. At the top, I remounted and pushed down the pedal only to have the other side smack me in the back of the calf with no resistance and no momentum gained – my chain had dropped! Always a first for everything, but what an unfortunate time & place – especially in this race. I really think I would have placed 20-30 had it happened anywhere else other than the first half lap, but that’s the way it goes. So back to working up from almost dead last…

This was my first (and only) experience of riding/racing on FROZEN mud. It wasn’t quite as bad as I anticipated, but certainly the most challenging technical riding I’ve done (I quickly figured out the concept of “tripoding” I overhead before the start of the race, now it made sense). I actually felt quite good once I got racing – I think I’m like Shannon Holden in that I do better the more adverse the conditions. I only took out one course barrier stick (with a spectacular summersault to accompany it) on lap two and slid down the last mud hill on the last lap (had to run back up the hill to get my bike!). With my season of mechanicals and crashes, it really could have been much worse, so I’m pleased with my 40th place. I know I can achieve better, but with all things considered with a dropped chain and head cold, that’s the way it goes. If anything, it has me super motivated to get next season started. My season of “experience” is completed and now I’m ready to RACE in 2008 & I can’t wait!!!!!

Thanks again to all our sponsors – especially Donn with Challenge Tires (who went out of his way to ship me a new tire just in time for this race and graciously helped us in the pits – that’s sponsorship!). I really have appreciated everything our combined sponsorship has helped me achieve this season. I also want to thank our gracious host family who had never heard of cross before our stay but are now hooked. Plus it’s great to see someone get as excited as I do in having their OWN cowbell. And HUGE thanks to Alex for all his coordination for this and throughout the season and our great crew of mechanics. I really appreciate it and look forward to crossin’ in 08 with everyone.

Snow Day

By Natasha Cowie
Boulder Colorado

Yesterday was the Colorado State Cross Championships in Lyons. It was essentially forty-five minutes of utter stupidity, plus warmup time, although it totally wasn’t warmup. It was more like, hey, I’m already dumb enough to be out here in fourteen degrees racing my bike, why don’t I ride around for another hour first in order to bring my core body temperature down about fifty degrees and make sure that I feel like I’ve been sitting in liquid nitrogen. And then I’ll claw my way across the frozen tundra to the start line and stand there for another five minutes so that hypothermia can fully set in before the announcer yells go and everybody immediately runs into each other.

The pictures tell everything. Thanks to Chellie and Jim (Tim) and Beth for taking them and for being great great cheerers and cow bell ringers. I would tag your blogs here as a token of my gratitude, except that as I mentioned last post, I do not know how to tag other people’s blogs in my own, and this probably makes me an inferior life form. I mean, Amy probably thinks it does, but then she’s always damaging my self-esteem anyway, and trying to steal my wheels and stuff. sniff. You’re so mean Amy.

It took approximately 52 minutes and two mugs of ovaltine (the classic chocolate malt flavour, in the orange container) to put all this on, and by the time I was finished dressing, I had to pee. It was a long morning.

Then the race was over, and Amy won some badass socks and a silver medal. Jen tried to steal the entire stack of gold medals, which is as good as winning them if you can get away with it. Everybody hallucinated the whole way home. And the best part! After the race we had snacktime!

Thanks again to everybody who cheered and took pictures. and way to represent Bellas. we had Shannon G, Mo, Amy, Jen, and me. The flair was taking over the field.

Hey, it totally wasn’t cold enough. Time to head to Kansas City for the nationals afterparty.

Oh, I think there’s a race there too.

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