final euro race…

…and it all ended on a high note.  literally, in fact, as we were racing near the Alps in a town called Chambery.

  The course was to be 10 laps of an 8k circuit, with a legbreaker 600M climb to the finish each time.  I was actually hoping for a nice long hilly race after last weekend’s flat, stormy, sprinterfest.  So the course was not ideal, but I liked it anyway.  Not that I am the strongest climber out there, but hills make it interesting, they split it up, they add some factor of attrition.  As I told my teammate Megan, I was in no mood to sit in the bunch – I wanted to either be off the front or out the back (preferably front, of course).  I wanted it to be hard.  I wanted it to be dynamic for the whole 80k (yep, a shorter race this time).  That being said, I downed a bunch of caffeine on the start line and got ready to make my mark.  This was to be my last Euro race, and I would be damned if I was pack fodder this time around.

  Soooooo…..I attacked on the 2nd lap.  It was one of those totally unplanned, spur of the moment attacks.  I knew I wanted to be aggressive, but attacking riders like Jeannie Longo and Edwige Patel (sp? French Natl. Champion) so early on was definately risky.  Especially when there were several teams fielding 8-10 riders.  But, there I was, moving up to the front along the side of the group when I realized “hey, this would be a pretty good place to put some heat on”.  On a short downhill, into a little power roller (love those!) and then a 180 turn.  So I went.  And kept going.

  I brought 8 others with me, including Megan, so that was great.  Initially we all worked well together, and all the teams were represented.  After a couple laps we had 1:45….and things fell apart.  The group began to disorganize, and Jeannie’s 2 teammates that were up there with us started to suffer.  Damn!  Jeannie was called up, and dragged another 10 or so women with her.  My “guaranteed” top-10 placing was no longer “guaranteed”.  But like I say, there are no guarantees in this sport, which, while frustrating at times, makes it great.

  So, I ended up 14th.  I am moderately happy with that, and tremendously happy with the race overall.  20/20 hindsight sees me doing a lot of things differently, but that is usually the case.  I am simply happy that I met my goal of being aggressive and proactive.

  After the race, Melissa and I drove back through the mountains down to Lucca.  Today it is pouring rain, so I will rest, pack up, and get ready to come home tomorrow!  I am so excited to be back in Sausalito and see everyone.  Unfortunately, Scott is at Georgia, and we are looking at the possibility of not seeing each other until June!  In a word, that sucks.  But we both love what we are doing, so it makes it all a bit easier…

 

Pinarello and The Shore.

I am in Georgia, for…The Tour of Georgia, which starts on monday.

Before I left California, I got a chance to meet Fausto Pinarello, the maker of our sweet rides.  He flew into SF on his way to the Sea Otter bike show.  He was very nice and laid back.  Here is a photo of us at the Above Catergory Bike Shop in Mill Valley.

Of course a big thank you goes out to him and to Gita Sporting Goods for supporting our team with the best bike you can buy, the Pinarello Prince.

So the race this week starts on Tybee Island, GA.  And this is where i woke up today:

 

Not bad. 

 That is all for now. 

 

 

 

life in limoux

well, it’s been a typical couple of days in limoux.  after last sunday’s race – super flat, super fast, super stormy, super sketchy, super cold, super frustrating – we drove back home and spent monday sacked out and recovering.  i picked up megan, who had been racing with the national team in holland, at the airport and that was about the most active i was all day.

yesterday, i took megan on a recovery ride, except it turned out that my memory isn’t so hot and there was a lot more climbing than i had recalled.  poor thing was fried after a HARD weekend of racing in the north, so she turned back and i kept on for about 2 hours before calling it a day.  last night, melissa and i took megan to the town creperie for dinner.  anyone who knows me knows i live on burritos, so the crepe is another ingeniuos way to eat in my mind.  anyway you can wrap up delicious food and add cheese is good by me.  some red wine and a little dessert and i was good to go…straight to bed.

today i headed off on my own for what turned into my best ride here yet.  maybe i just needed to be alone, but it was perfect.  i felt good, the scenery was typically amazing, it was a beautiful day…(i have pictures but it won’t let me post them!!!)  i saw hawks, plenty of cows and calfs, and even some goats roaming along one of the less populated roads.  i tried to snatch one of the babies to bring home, but she was too quick for me.

the big game plan now is to relax all afternoon, do laundry, make dinner with the girls, and watch a movie.  rough life, i know.  courtenay, i’m barely making it over here!

sooooo, that’s about it these days.  sounds pretty boring i guess, but it’s nice.  very slow pace of life over here.  i am trying to enjoy it as it is my last week before returning to reality…

 

April 15th.

Does the post office ever lose your electric bill, phone bill, or direct tv bills when you mail them? They have never lost any of mine. So why mail your tax return certified? Just throw on a few stamps and mail it.

I was at the post office to mail some ebay stuff today. I stood in a very long line for a while, but I wimped out, gave up, and i will wait til the morning to ship out the stuff.

To me its just another bill (a big one for some people). So i say, just mail it like another bill.

he really didn’t want a blog…

…but don’t you guys think scott should do another post?  otherwise, i’m changing the name of this blog to “the zzzzzz’s”.

  no pressure sweetie!  love you!

fun for all ages!

last night, our D.S. chris took us to a traditional french dinner out in the country.  we were joined by the canadian U23 boys team (god, was i ever that young?!) who were all the perfect gentlemen, and a group of older canadian women.  chris runs a hotel and touring company in limoux, catering to cyclists and artists.  this particular group calls themselves “the wheel women” and seem to be having a blast….especially with the under 23’s!

we were served so much food – most of it meat.  they had killed a wild boar that day, which was then roasted on a spit right at our table.  wild boar has always been a favorite of mine, and this particular time it was as delicious as ever.  we had been scheduled for lamb, but apparently they couldn’t find one ugly enough to sacrifice.  i had been assured by chris earlier that they only kill the mean, ugly little lambs with fangs instead of the ADORABLE ones i keep seeing on my rides.  boar, duck, pig, rabbit…all delicious.  wine, muscat, and amazing desserts.  we rolled home happy and full, and i was thankful i had ridden 5 hours earlier!

and what a ride it was – absolutely beautiful.  we went through so many different climates, from high moutains to deep gorges.  in one of said gorges, jasmine (our kiwi teammate) showed us an ancient hermitage chisled out of the rock.  it was bizarre….so remote (which i guess is the point afterall), so isolated.  it was about halfway between the road we were on and the bottom of the gorge, which is a gorgeous river that apparently people “canyon” up all the time.  if it were hot enough i couldn’t think of anything better – it is crystal clear, with waterfalls and swimming holes.  the gorge was so deep, there was no way for me to get a picture that shows the bottom, the hermitage, and the top, but hopefully you get the idea.

today there was a dramatic shift in the weather – it is absolutely freezing!  we are all huddled inside, nice and cozy, waiting for the rain to be unleashed.  we race again on sunday, and hopefully the weather will be a bit more forgiving…and there won’t be so much damn white paint.

the hermitagea catalan traditiontypical check out the tiny road throught he gorge!  literally tucked in under the rock…and no safety rail to speak of!

fighting in france, part 2

wow, ok.  so i guess scott changed our settings and now i can only hope to learn about pictures all over again.  hopefully it works…

anyway, sorry for the delay in writing.  things have been out of sorts here lately but hopefully a return to normalcy is on the horizon.  i’ll back up a bit…

melissa and i drove up to france last thursday in our bond car (the Bmer)  i was nervous at first but quickly got the hang of it and zipped around loving it!  ann, wearing my sunglasses and driving that car in the south of france is all i need!

 the French Cup race was on sunday, about 6 hours from our home base in limoux, so we took the van up and were able to pre-ride the course a bit.  the race itself was good and bad.  good because i hung with the first group for a top-20 finish (16th) bad beacuse i missed the break of 3 that went pretty early on.  i also had a stupid crash at 75k in a very wet intersection.  we had a left turn to make and i swear, you could NOT avoid the white paint, which as you cyclists know, might as well be ice when it is raining/hailing, as it was that day.  one other girl on my outside went down, and just as i was thinking “bummer for her, that sucks”….WHOOMP!  done i went.  stupid, stupid, stupid.  in all fairness though, i would have had to slow to 2mph if i wanted to avoid the paint, plus take a horrible line midturn, and then endure the wrath of the frenchies in the group with me.  i opted for the pavement i guess.

  anyway, there was no way on god’s green earth that i was going to have another DNF, so i gritted my teeth, used the caravan as much as i could (with the official shadowing me every inch of the way – damn!) and made it back to the group.  they don’t like the USA over here too much, so i think they were a tad suprised to have me back, and maybe a bit dissapointed.  but let me tell you, they did not mess with me after that.  if i hadn’t earned my spot in the group yet, making it back on alone certainly did.

 unfortunately, my left side was pretty useless for the remaining 60k, which included 5 circuits with lots of turns and 2 180’s.  i basically had to tailgun those, due to the pain of accelerating out of the saddle.  and again, as you cyclists know, tailgunning is not the optimal place to be when going through 180’s.  especially when the finish is about 300 meters after one of them.  i was able to come around one of the girls to finish 16th.  bittersweet, but i’ll take it!

  back in limoux now and still a bit sick.  haven’t made it outside yet and it is almost noon.  limoux is a tiny, quiant town surrounded by vineyards.  the riding is spectacular and we can see the snow-covered pyrenees on almost every ride.  yesterday we went to neighboring carcasonne (sp?) which is where these pics are from.  except for the little alley….that’s our street, just up from the town square!

 

Fighting in France, part1

i will expand on this tomorrow, but a quick update: raced the french cup today. jeannie longo won out of a break of 3. she is about to turn 50. i was in the chase group. usa wasn’t the most popular member of the chase group – i was not allowed to bridge at any point. or maybe it was the headwind and hail. 1 group led off course (in the finishing circiuts!), 1 unclip for a near miss, 1 wet crash, 1 seated 60k because of pain when out of saddle, 1 standing sprint attempt, 1 14th-17th place of 130 starters.

i was a participant in all of the above. off to take a painful but needed shower. i’ll fill this out tomorrow…i can’t wait to hear about the girls in flanders. all i heard was it was dry for them – we got all the wind and hail down here! but i guess they had the tougher course.

For Ted

Alright, so a couple people have been bugging me to write on the blog and “ENTERTAIN” them.

Well i have writers block. Sorry Teddy.

I did watch 2 good movies in the last 2 nights. So how about some short movie reviews.

Tonight I watched 28 Weeks Later. I thought it was pretty good, especially for a sequel. I saw 28 Days Later quite a while ago, so i dont remember exactly how entertained i was by it, but i think this one was better.

And last night i watched Invincible, twice. If you like Rocky I (one of my favorites of all time) then i think you will like Invincible. For those of you who don’t know what it’s about it, the gist is, a regular 30yr old philly guy goes through an open tryout for the Eagles and makes the team. And its a true story. Maybe i just enjoyed it so much because i am an Eagles fan but it was good. That’s it.

Oh, and the Sixers AND the Flyers clinched a playoff berth tonight! Oh yeh!

Who’s Nuts

last 2 days in italy

so, i was supposed to leave today for france, but i just can’t tear myself away from these girls!  so i’ll drive tomorrow…in a BMW sportscar!!! (thank you, jim, for having the best taste in rental cars and definately overestimating my driving prowess!)  brooke arrived the night before last, so on tuesday we all headed out for a liesurely ride to the coast.  it was an absolutely beautiful day, and so great to ride with the whole team, jim, and lise.

after the ride we headed into old lucca, within the old wall, to wander the old streets, look at the old churches, and buy new things.  i, being me, kept my purchase to a single bottle of wonderful wine to bring home.  the city is beautiful, reminding me of a smaller version of siena, where i was about 5 years ago.  we wandered and shopped for a couple hours, then returned home for dinner and a particularly long session of facebook – led by carmen and lauren of course.

  today we were scheduled to drive 8 hours to limoux, but opted to postpone the trip when we heard about the local group ride.  a good workout with a bunch of italian men?  what’s not to love???  carmen, megan, melissa and i headed out and had a fantastic time!  it was a great blend of throwing down, riding hard, and chilling out.  soooo different from the group rides i’m used to…or maybe it was just the italian men…

  at any rate, brooke just made us a fabulous dinner and now we are hanging out at the house, chatting and packing up.  i leave tomorrow for france, them for belgium.  i follow the sun….they head to snow! (but they get to do flanders, so i guess it evens out)

  here are all the pictures from the last two days.  next time you here from me, i’ll be driving a BMer around the south of france!

riding-from-the-coast.jpg