Winterized bike...

Had another day out in the cold- somewhere in the low 30's, I think.
I stopped to pee and had my bike leaned up against the sign- it made
me laugh that it was a no bike sign since I was SORELY tempted to
just go riding down that road, skinny tires and all! It was not a
beautiful day today- grey again- but the snow made up for it. Still
beautiful. And just in case you are wondering... YES, there is
coffee in one of those thermoses! The other is hot drink mix...
Makes a huge difference! I feel like it is a bit sacrilegious to
dress Zuli up in her winter clothing... those big bottle cages,
thermoses and a FENDER! (GASP!)... but it really is a must here when
riding in conditions like this. Fortunately, not a lot of snow or
rain falling, so I had a good ride!

Winter Riding

I am defrosting my feet after a long, cold ride- before I hop into
the shower. My feet are a bit cold and they will hurt if I warm them
up too fast, something I have recently learned. Better to warm up by
doing my abs, putting on my slippers and drinking a hot drink before
showering. I am bummed that my pics did not turn out better... it
was SPECTACULAR out today! I just got back from about 3:45 in the
freezing cold and really, I loved every minute. It was magical out
in the Chagrin valley, after a fresh layer of snow- but the good
thing was that the roads were dried out and so I didn't have to worry
too much about salt water on my bike or slipping on ice. Just could
enjoy the ride! And I did too! I can hardly type since my hands are
still a bit frozen, but the feet are warming up nicely. Time to hop
into the shower... bye!

Sound of Silence- post Interbike, post-Europe, post-Season. Wow. I am done for now.

I wrote my last blog on the plane, leaving Italy- so it did not get posted until I got back to Cleveland where I got online for the first time in a while. WHEW! I am now, finally, at this exact moment (not saying that it will last beyond this cup of coffee) NOT tired! But it has been a while in the making...

I finished my little Grand Tour on Sunday and hopped on a plane on Monday morning, heading straight to Las Vegas for the big industry convention, Interbike. I got in at 10:30PM that night after 20+ hours of travel and nearly missing my connecting flight since it took me about 1.5 hours to get through customs in New York. All par for the course... I got to my hotel in Vegas at 11-11:30 only to find that they lost my reservation. Linda was not there yet and fortunately, I had a friend with an extra room at Treasure Island, so I just went there. Ended up going to bed at around 1:30 in the morning and not sleeping all that well. Wake up call at 5:30AM to head out to Boulder City to meet up with the SRAM folks for demo days. Good cure for jet lag! I ended up having a blast, leading rides with dealers and such on the new Red Group (AWESOME, by the way!) all day long. I really enjoyed it too. Tiring, but it was fun to get to meet people who were all jazzed on SRAM and tell them about my experience racing and training on it all season. I have been getting to ride some of the prototype and pre-production Red components all season, so I got to tell them how much I love it. And I do! But long day... only to get longer since from the moment the plane touches down in Vegas, it is non-stop, so once Linda got there, we met up with some of our sponsors and headed out to a late dinner. Fun, but late night #2.

The next day, the show opened and Linda and I spent the entire day running around to all our current and potential sponsors to say hi, tell them about how the team is doing and just to touch base. It was a big difference from last year: last year, the two of us went to Interbike and did not have any sponsors yet and only had three riders on the roster. Typically, by the show, teams have all their sponsors lined up already, so we were long shots. And no one knew who I was or what I could possibly do. We worked hard and were so thrilled to have gained the trust of our sponsors: LOOK, Ritchey, HED, SRAM, Champion System all saw what we were trying to build and saw our vision and backed us. It meant so much to us and enabled us to move on with what we built last year.

Well, this year, it was totally different. People knew who I was and had followed my results. “Hey Brooke! Great job over in Europe!” It was crazy! I had some people ask for autographs when they recognized me on the floor- not even in a kit. That was really flattering! It was great to get to see our sponsors and tell them how much we appreciate all that they have done for us- they really have made all this possible and I don’t forget it for a minute! We are so lucky to work with companies that make such great products (our equipment is the tops, without question), but are also staffed by some really great people. I can honestly say that the companies that we work with are far more than just bike companies. I really like all the people there too. Good people. We are fortunate.

The next two days of the show were like that: non-stop. On your feet... constantly bombarded with noise and “Vegas”. It is sensory overload, to put it mildly.

Thursday night, after spending the last few days on my feet, working the floor and still recovering from traveling- we had a crit. It was not exactly a race that we had focused on, since the show was our focus. I figured that I would either race phenomenally well or horribly! One or the other! In the end, I guess it was somewhere in between.

The race was in the parking lot of the Mandalay Bay- and it was a fun layout, but I was not a big fan of the course: there was a layer of dust and parking lot scum on the road that kept me from taking the corners as fast as I would have liked. The last corner, I had slipped a couple times without crashing, but it was a clear warning to me that I could not take it hot. The race was strung out and pretty fast the whole night. I had a lot of fun out there and although my legs did not feel great- so I could not attack and play around as much as I would have liked- I felt good enough to keep good position and have a decent race. Yukie and Liza were also there, despite their late nights in Bermuda and in Vegas- they did a great job! They got up there and helped keep the race fast, what I wanted... I guess winning the drinking stage in Bermuda and for the first few nights of Vegas is good for crit racing!

Cheerwine was there with Laura and the field was really quite strong: lots of sprinters. Teresa Cliff-Ryan was there, Nicki Wainsgard, Caravella, Carroll, Shelly Olds, humm... can’t even remember who all was there, but a lot of sprinters. Rochelle Gilmore was there and it was fun to see her on American soil.

For the final few laps (no breaks would stick since you could see the riders the whole time and it was not technical enough- meaning that it was just too easy to chase things down), Cheerwine did a fantastic job of setting up a great lead out train and Rochelle was sitting on Laura’s wheel. I was on Rochelle and actually had a lot of fun fighting off riders who were encroaching in on that wheel. (**If you are a racer and reading this... don’t try and get a wheel from me when we are heading to the line. I will warn you now- I am all nice and everything until there is a line and a sprint.... I actually enjoy being physical on the bike and am probably bigger than you... :-) best bet is to just let me do my thing and don’t fight me for a wheel...). I do have fun shoving people in sprints. It is funny since I am so jovial and nice all other times- but when it is go time... it is bike racing!

So, with the last few laps, Cheerwine did a fantastic job leading out Laura and I sat on Rochelle. I did not have a lot of confidence that I could pull out a great finish since the last corner was less than 200m from the line and I knew that I had to be conservative since my rear wheel had not been sticking on it. In the end, I could not take it fast enough and ended up 4th. Not a bad finish, but not what I would have liked either. All and all- it was a fun race.

Now, I am finally home. The first night back, I slept over 13 hours. This morning, slept about 12. I am not sure what to do with myself. It is a strange sensation to be done for a bit. I am on vacation...

As I write this- I am starting to reflect on it all. This season has been amazing. I got through it. Last year, I had such a great year that I felt that there was simply no way that it could possibly be as good this year. I was expecting to just do my best but I figured that it would just be hard to top 2006. There was a little part of me that worried that last year was a fluke- I had won the races I did because no one knew who I was. Or, that I won by luck- no one can deny that Luck is not important in cycling and I am a very lucky person. Maybe I had a run of good luck in ’06. Heading into this year, I saw it as my first real test. People knew who I was (or, with my mouth flapping, figured it out right away!) and I could not get lucky too much. I knew that I would not be given a lot of slack to sneak off into breaks up the road or to jump early on sprints and catch people off-guard. I had thought that if things went really really well... that maybe... just maybe I might be able to get a chance to do a race or two in Europe. Linda had told me that I should not race in Europe until I was ready to make an impact. She said, “You don’t want to go over there to hang on to the back of the pack. You want to go over there when you are ready to be a contender”. That really stuck with me. And here was this year- not only did I have a great team and great success on our home turf, but I DID get a chance to race in Europe. And I won a race over there. I finished 2nd in one, 3rd in another... and I ended up with 7 other top 10 UCI finishes. How did that even happen? This is one of those “pinch me” moments where it is just hard to believe it is all true.

Above it all- I am a lucky person.

Thank you to every single person who has helped to get me here. Thank you to all those, stranger and friend alike who read my blog and give me the support to get on my bike on days when I simply don’t want to. I always do. I don’t think of it as discipline... I think of it as responsibility. I am doing my job because I love it and because I can sit here and write this blog and know that out there, somewhere, you are reading it. It may sound cliche, but I don’t just ride my bike for me. I want to share it with you. I get on my bike when I am sad, tired, sore, broken down, mentally and physically fatigued... because I don’t want to let you down- not just because I won’t want to let myself down. Thank you. It really means a lot to me. It really does.

Leaving... on a jet plane... Toscana Recap... LONG!

I was not really able to write much in the last few days that I was racing in Italy, since truth be told- I was too tired to!

My Grand Tour caught up to me in different ways. Ardeche was harder physically, by Toscana, I was starting to feel strong again. But mentally, it started to get taxing. It was hard to write when I got home, especially since we had so many double days, where you would get up in the morning, race, then go home to nap, eat, shower and then start over again in the evening. But here is a bit of my thoughts on another crazy week of racing my bike!

The picture above is from the finish in the hardest stage: the third day we raced to Voltera. It is a gorgeous old city perched atop a hill. The race finished on a climb and our team just so happened to have one of THE best climbers in the world: up and coming super star Mara Abbott. We also had Amber Neben, who is a phenomenal climber as well. Then there was me... uh, so guess what my job was? Water bottles and hang on, make the time cut and do what you can.

The race started out with two little blips on the profile, then a long stretch of mostly straight, flat roads heading into the first 10k climb, then down around and back up for another finishing 10k climb. Our team plan was for Amber to prep for worlds by doing her thing and for Ali and Lauren to get Mara to the climb and unleash her to do what she does best- go uphill fast!

The short story is that the stage turned out really well. I helped a bit in getting Mara to the climb, but it was mostly Ali and Lauren who were the real work horses- I was supposed to save my legs for the sprint, but it was still fun to have all three of us rotating on the front, Mara sitting in great position as we hit the climb before I said bye to my teammates as I dropped back with the sprinter crew. Mara did a great job and finished 7th and Amber finished 5th. I trudged up the mountain and enjoyed the view... it was spectacular!

The next day was a double day- our second and last. It was a cruel joke to have it come right after Voltera! We had two short, flat road races. The morning race was 60k and had a 1.5 (ish) but super steep little climb 13k before the finish. Ali attacked hard right after the first sprint and the pack sat up enough right away for her to sail up the road. She soon had a 1 minute time gap and was holding it. It was thrilling to think that she would hold it to the line! I know how good she is at racing like that and it was great practice for the time trial at Worlds- she was flying and racing her heart out. I really believed that she would take it and hoped that she would! She would have too, if it were not for the Safi Pasta team drilling it hard and stringing out the field as we headed into the climb!

It was funny: this climb was the only thing that stood in the way of what should be a sprint finish, so all the teams with sprinters were working hard to get their sprinters into position for the hill, so that they could bring them to the line. It was like a lead out for a sprint finish- Safi had their whole team up there and they were riding hard! I had moved up and was fighting for position, knowing that I had to fight hard if I had any chance of staying with the group when the race split on this hill, as I knew that it would. I maneuvered into good position and worked to hang on. We caught Ali on the hill, sadly, her bold move was ended by the Safi-train. I was slipping away from the lead riders in front of me, but Lauren and Amber were there and were keeping an eye on me, pacing me up the hills. When we crested and I was behind the leaders, the two of them worked hard to bring me up to the front group, which we caught with 5k to go. We then went straight to the front and the two of them started to get into position to help me with a leadout. Amber was there from 2k on, Lauren taking over at 1k. I had gotten swarmed but Lauren attacked to help open up the road for me. I was trying to be patient and was looking for my moment, but the sprint was very narrow and lined with barricades. I had a hard time moving forward and was not able to fully open up my sprint. I managed to place 5th and was happy about getting to the line in the first place (thanks to some great help by my teammates) and happy that I am learning more and more on my finishes. It was crazy: Italian Crazy, but I got up there. Jim keeps telling me how I will keep finishing 5th, 6th, 5th, 4th... then I will start to win. I believe that. I know that these sprints are not all about speed... there is a lot to learn and I am learning when I am up there.

The super exciting thing about that stage was that Ali won her first Euro jersey: she won the most aggressive rider award!!! I was so happy for her: she has worked so hard for all her teammates and it is not always recognized. People may look at the results and see her time-gapped at the finish, not knowing that she was not dropped, but brought back a break, lead me out, moved me up, covered a bazillion attacks. The results don’t tell the story of the race. That is why I like to write these reports. I want my teammates who help me onto the podium and into the lime light to get the credit that they deserve. This IS a team sport. To see Ali in her jersey made me happy beyond measure! I don’t have a picture, I meant to get it from her blog to post on my site, but I am on a plane right now and not online. But I was really happy for her- she deserved it!

We then headed back to Lucca for a bite of food, nap and shower only to turn back around and head out for race #2. It starts to feel like it is two days and not just two races. I had to chug a redbull to get the fog to lift from my brain before the race. Our numbers dwindled again: Ali did not start since she had pretty much cooked her legs medium-well in the morning and needed to work on recovering for Worlds. It was down to Mara, Lauren and myself.

With these crazy races, Mara is working on moving in the pack and positioning herself, so she is not called upon for leadout duty and this stage was a sprint finish. Lauren and I were to team up and do what we could. We had a plan- I was going to lead Lauren out instead of vice versa. I was really excited about this since, as I just mentioned, I like to see my unsung hero teammates in the spotlight and also because I think that it was good for both of us. You learn a lot about sprinting by trying to lead out (IT IS HARD!) and I think that you learn a lot about leading out by sprinting. And... Lauren had a great sprint and so I felt that she could really get up there.

Originally, I was going to jump at the 1k to go mark and lead her to the small rise just before the finish, launching her to the finishing stretch. Plans changed though- there was a small break of 5 (?) off the front and at the 3k to go sign, I had seen Lauren move to the front and she was taking the wind. So, I moved up and decided to try and set a tempo to try and keep her safe and keep her from getting swarmed, knowing that if I could get her to the 1k, she could fight it out to the finish. With the riders off the front, we were not going for a win, but a sprint win. I was chipping away at their gap, but did not have the power to really pull the break back. I saw the 2k to go marker and felt the peloton easing up around the sides, bad news for Lauren, so I stepped it up a bit. There was a 90* right hand corner at 1k to go and I figured that I would pull to that corner and pull off (or, rather, to before the corner so that I could get out of the way!). I did and as I pulled off, I saw Lauren tucked in with great position as they hit the corner. Unfortunately, around the corner, she got pinched on the inside and lost her position. She made up a few places on the finish, but you cna’t make up too much ground when you lose position in the last k. We were happy that they had shortened the race, so it was less than an hour and then we go to go home... yay.

The next day, there was a light at the end of the tunnel- only two more days of races. We raced at 2pm, so we have the morning to loll around. I woke up without an alarm, ate, drank some coffee and enjoyed the morning. Then though, I needed nap! Apparently, eating breakfast was too hard for me and I needed to nap. THAT should have probably tipped me off that I was starting to get a bit tired from the Grand Tour...

The saturday stage was a hard one: we have four circuits with a 2k (ish) hard little climb and then a bit 5k climb then a decent into the finish. From the first time up the hill, it was a hard day! My legs were dying and I barely held on. We had thought that the race would be easy for the first few times up the hill, but they went hard from the gun. When we were not climbing, it felt like we were racing in Holland- it was single file and we were powering HARD on the flats. The peloton would only regroup and bunch up in time for me to have to fight my way to the front as we would head to the hellish little baby hill for yet another time. The second time, I was dropped and chased back on. Thankfully, the third and fourth times were easier- I have to confess that I was scared that I would get dropped and time cut!

Fortunately, I hung on to the final climb where I knew that I was to save my legs for the final race and just ride home. I did. Even riding easy though was hard for me. I was tired. Really, really tired.

We got back to the cars to find that Mara had once again had a great race, finishing 8th! She hung on over the crazy downhill (woah- seriously crazy) and had done well on the climb.

The funny thing for me was that night- I was beyond tired. I could barely speak. I sort of sat there numb, laughing inside but too tired to move! I sat on a chair outside after my massage since it was closer than my room! The Grand Tour was winding down and I was cooked! I went to bed at around 9 that night and just fell dead onto my pillow.

I woke up the next morning and the rest had done me well. I focused a lot on my eating: food can save you in more ways than one! I rested, ate and felt ready to race another day! In fact, I felt really ready to race!

We started with a big of a panic though- as all the material that we had: the website, the printed out race bible, the small maps/course descriptions that they handed out... all said that the race started at 2:00PM. We got there at 12:30 and noticed that everyone was dressed and signing in! HOLY COW! “What time do we race?!” “2!!!” “Why is everyone dressed?” “I don’t know! We race at 2!!” We all checked: yes. We raced at 2. It was plain as day. We saw a rider we knew and asked what time we raced... 12:45. WHAT?!?! They had sent out a communique in the morning, changing the start time and we did not get it since we were not staying in the race hotel... typical Italian racing. Thankfully, 12:45 turned into 1 and we had time to get dressed, sign in, take the prerequisite bathroom breaks and get to the line.

The last stage turned out to be a crazy and super fun race. So many people had dropped out- many were going to worlds, some were probably tired- that the field was nearly half of what we stared with. Now only 70-80 riders left and a jovial vibe in the air, the race started out with 7 circuits around a town and then headed to Florence for another crazy Italian sprint finish: this time winding into the breath-taking, beautiful city and crossing over bridges with a few crazy tight corners, cobbles stones and narrow streets packed with cheering masses.

I had expected the 7 initial circuits to be pretty mellow, thinking that a break would be unlikely to stick and that we would sort of tick off miles before the finish. I could not have been more wrong! From the gun, riders were attacking and the field was strung out. Lauren and I were up front and taking turns covering moves. It was only on the second or third lap when Lauren was in a break that looked good: I watched as all the teams sent low GC rider up and the peloton sat, waiting to chase. It became pretty clear that the teams would be happy with a break. Lauren’s break came back and Georgia Bronzini went off the front with Andri Visser (DBS) and the two were solo for a lap before being caught as the peloton came over a little rise on an overpass. I had been up front and followed the wheels in front of me, when I radioed to Lauren to hop on the counter attack. She radioed back, “Uh, Brooke? You are in a break. You have a gap”. “Oh, how nice.” I had not realized that we had broken free. When I looked back, I saw a single file line of riders- not seeing that there was a big gap behind them.

Chantel Beltman from T-Mobile was in the break and that woman is a diesel engine. She is VERY strong and right away, it became clear that she wanted the break to stick. We had 11 riders at first, and I sensed that it was a good break from the get-go. I pulled through and so did about 5 of us. Chantel working hard. It turned out that Chantel was only 1:47 down on the GC and she was going to race for the overall win. I wanted the break to stick since I realized that there were not a whole lot of sprinters there. My legs were feeling great! Bigla had their rider, Noemi Cantele, in the jersey and they had their sprinter in our break. We were rolling the break well- all working together smoothly and everyone doing their job. The Bigla sprinter dropped back to help chase and still our break was putting on time. Soon, we had over 2 minutes on the peloton and even with the entire Bigla team chasing, it was clear that it would stick.

I was excited. I was the only sprinter left and I felt great! I had the legs and I had been handed a gift: the gift of the perfect break! We were leaving the finishing circuits and heading out of town to Florence.

Then it happened: the bad luck. Racing has a huge element of luck- sometimes you are on the good end of it (got into the right break) and sometimes you are on the bad end of it... my tire blew. I can say now, in hindsight, that I am clearly aware that I am a lucky person in general and if luck is a commodity that is limited, then it is only fair that I can hand off my good luck from time to time. That race, I most certainly passed along my luck- as it was not just a flat that foiled what could have been the biggest win of my career...

As it happened, Chris, our mechanic was directing as Jim had already left for Germany. He was doing a great job, but the race radio was not. I had radioed to Chris and told him that I had a flat, but he could not hear me. He had not been called up to the break and was still stuck behind the peloton, despite us having now over 2 minutes on the pack, the team cars had not moved up yet. Typically, when a rider has a mechanical, the race radio will alert the director. Nope. They did not tell him. I raised my hand, shifted into the 11 on my rear and calmly pulled aside for the neutral wheel change.

Without going into TOO much detail... let me just say that it was a nightmare. The guy did not know how to change my wheel. I have a SRAM rear derailleur so it is a little different- but it is not that hard. It is not rocket science. They say that for every second you are on the side of the road, you have 20 seconds of all out chasing to get back on. I stood, calmly at first as the guy walked (YES, walked, not ran as all mechanics do, but walked) to change my wheel. He bobbled it and had no idea what he was doing. So I tried to do it. He would not let me and continued to fail. I would try again and he would push me back. I watched as he dropped my bike, bobbled time and time again and finally tried to push me back into the race with the chain UNDER the cassette! I finally succeeded in pushing him off my bike and fixed my wheel myself. He then pushed me back into the race with the peloton right behind me (and my rear break rubbing)- it had taken him nearly 2 minutes to do something that should have taken less than 20 seconds. Better yet- they tried to motorpace me back to the break and kept dropping me and my bike would not shift since the wheel he put on was not compatible. Argh.

At this point, Chris had finally heard that there was something wrong from the race radio and moved up next to me. My bike was not shifting well and I just could not do it anymore. Chris brought me into the car, knowing how upset I was and I sat in the back, trying to calm down and let it all go.

In the end, the break did stay away. And it stayed together. The woman that won is a woman who I can out-sprint. That is not to say that I would have won. I am sure that the finish was a crazy game of cat and mouse- where I would had to be smarter than fast to win- but still. It wrenched my gut all over again when the race finished and I knew that I would have had the chance. I had the legs. I had the break. I had it. I know that it was not the incompetent mechanic who lost me the race- it was the flat. Even with the best change in the world, it would have been hard to catch back onto that break. But still- it hurts. It really hurts.

I was not only one upset after the race though- Chantel was racing to win the whole thing. She was 1:47 down in the GC and the break was up to 2 minutes. There was a hill, just before the finish, and I watched from the car as the race leader sat on the front and drilled it as hard as she could. We watched riders dropping off the pack like spilt popcorn.... in the end, Cantele held on to her win by a mere 2 seconds. Chantel took second, but tasted victory as I had before my flat. Had I not flatted: perhaps the race would have been different for both of us. I was certainly motivated to stay away and would have worked hard. 2 seconds... another strong, motivated rider... that was 2 seconds.

That is bike racing... some highs and some lows. All and all- it has been an incredible trip and I am keenly aware of it. It has been, as always, an honor to race with these women and it has been fun. I am sad that I am not going to be at Worlds since I really would love to get to cheer them all on. Good luck girls! I know that you are going to do great!

Insanity. Simply insane.

Today we had a double day- a 50ish k race in the AM with hills, and a pancake flat race tonight for about 60k this evening. I want to keep this a bit short (HA!) since I am tired and need to get to bed.

We started today with some bad news- Chrissy was not allowed to race. Long story short... refer back to my blog entry about the clusterf*&% of racing in Italy... well, bit of a confusion and Katheryn had signed in but not raced and they just flipped a lid. So, Chrissy was not allowed to race. We had started this adventure with 7 riders planning on racing, now we were down to 5. Big bummer... not just because Chrissy rules- but also because she was my grand tour buddy. Sigh. At least I get to race “Worlds” in Vegas with her! (I did not make the final World’s team this year and so I am going to be racing in Vegas the “Crit World Championships”, so we have been joking about that)

This morning was kind of sane- my job was to get dropped on the climbs. Well- kind of. Since it was a flat stage in the evening, my job was to save my legs for the sprint that night. The course in the morning was beautiful- we finished on a hill and I just enjoyed the ride. I dropped on the last 4k and took in the beautiful scenery. We had raced through the madness that is Italy- i.e. potholes and cars everywhere, near death experiences (well- slightly dramatic) and a lot of yelling in the pack. This race also has a soundtrack provided by the thumping of the television helicopter, spectator and rider yells (sometimes shrieks) and the occasional blare of car horns.

I made it through the morning, as did the whole team. Mara and Amber were up there, but there was not much to write home about.

This afternoon though... holy cow. To keep it relatively short: it was THE most insane race that I can remember doing (ok... well, with the exception of Collegiate Track National Championship Points Race, where I swore that I would die). The race was not hard enough to split the field, so we had 144 people all trying to get to the front of the field and the streets were lined with cars and trucks that were pulled over in our rolling enclosure. Since we were all trying to move up, we move up on the side, swerving around those cars and waiting for someone to smack one. Thankfully, no one did. The roads were also narrow in some places and riddled with ruts and potholes. At one point, I almost slipped off my bars when I hit a bump that I was not expecting. The finish was crazy too- when I saw the finish map, I though for sure that they must have made a mistake! NO WAY could we possibly have a sharp (slightly downhill) 90* right hand corner at 800m from the finish! NO WAY would we THEN go through a round-about! And they were kidding (SURELY) that there was a 110* (or more) left hand corner with 150m to go! It was some kind of joke- their would be a massive pile up! SURELY! These riders are just crazy- it would not be possible to do this without hitting pavement, barricades or parked automobiles.

NOPE. That was the finish. And it was crazy. I told myself to race it as if I just did not know enough to be scared. Just do it- don’t think. DO.

We did 4 laps around a 9k finishing circuit and so we got a chance to check out the madness a few times. Ali got up front on the first lap and I sat behind her, taking it at speed to test the water. I figured out where I needed to be at “go time” on the last lap and realized that it was not so bad after all. I just had to fight HARD for position and just trust myself. I realized after the first lap that I was not afraid, I was excited. This is a tough sprinter field with a TON of go-fast riders and I would not be given anything for free.

On the last lap, Ali did a great job of moving me up so that I could start floating around the front with the other sprinters. I had wanted to be top 15 at 5k. I was. I had wanted to be top 5-10 at 3k, but I had lost a few spots. Then Lauren moved up beside me and moved me to exactly where I wanted to be with 2k to go. Perfect! Ali was on the front working hard to string it out, but then we slowed. I got swarmed and was able to push forward once, but the second time, I got pushed back when a couple riders muscled in on me from both sides and I got popped like an angry pimple. With 1.5k to go, I lost my position and was not able to make it up. In the end, I sprinted from probably 20th back and don’t have anything spectacular to report. It was a bummer that I could not get up there- but I am actually proud that I was not afraid and did get up there for a lot of the race. I did lose position, but it is still a learning experience. I am sure that I will get a couple more shots at the finish before this race is done and I will keep working on chipping my way up to the front. Next time!

Racing in Italy... ClusterF&^%$!

WOW! Italy is great. I absolutely love it here- but I have always heard that racing here is a bit, uh, well, Italian. Chaos. Organized? Well, lets just call it chaos and leave it at that. The race starts at 3? That means that it can start at 3, 3:30, 4:00, 7, or 2. Today, I got to witness, firsthand, the cluster that is bike racing in Italy.

The Giro Toscana started today with a 5.5k team time trial along the beach. Our team is a very strong one, stacked with riders who will be racing Worlds at the end of the month and we are using it as a prep. But, despite having a really strong team, our focus on this race is as prep for Worlds and so we are not racing for the GC. We have Amber Neben, Ali Powers, Chrissy Ruiter (my partner in my “Grand Tour” here- she is the only other person doing Holland, Ardeche & Toscana), Mara Abbott, Lauren Franges and myself. Kristin and Katheryn are here, but not racing.

While we were back at our gorgeous Toscan Villa (i.e. the Team House where Joe Millionaire could be filmed), we were sipping on our Italian coffees and having a nice relaxing morning as Jim set off to pick up our race numbers and get things set for the afternoon. As we relaxed and leisurely chatted away the day, Jim was starting Stage 0: trying to get the race numbers. Although he had checked online the night before and there was no mention of the location of the managers meeting/race number pickup changing- it is Italy. So, after years of having it in one hotel, curve-ball number 1 had the meeting in another hotel. Long story short: chaos. He finally gets to the right place... only to find out that instead of allowing 8-10 riders to register (as they have in the past and as they had said online), they decided to change it to 6 riders. Hence, Katheryn not racing. OK, so now that he finally had the numbers and all was good to go, he headed back to the house to meet up with us.

We were to leave and ride about an hour to the race. Leave at 2:30. OOPS... 2:15 and we get notice from Jim that time table had changed and we needed to leave at 2:15. We got the message late and hurried to get there: riding hard at times to make up some ground.

We arrive and are told that the first riders are off at 4pm and that we are going off at 4:30 (or something like that). We went promptly to sign-in/team presentation and waved to our adoring fans (it is funny to wave to no one on those presentation days when no one is there but a photographer and some passing strangers who don’t look up- that was our sign in today). We had scarcely stepped off the presentation stage when we were informed that our start time was now at 3:50 and it was 3:35! THIS is racing in Italy. OOPS! No warm-up. No numbers pinned. No game plan (uh, lets just go as hard as we can). No food. We had to laugh about it since we were not too concerned about our times, but still!

We frantically chamoised up into our skin suits and pinned our numbers as quickly as we could. We mounted our bikes with no TT equipment of any sort and rolled past the teams on rollers, displaying their TT bikes, wheels and helmets. We got to the start gate, not even sure who would pull where or what order- really or anything at all. We did not know that the course had three turns until Jim told us. No one knew anything- this is racing in Italy.

We took it all in stride and knew that it would most likely not be our prettiest time trial. There was a horrendous wind coming from the side and the race was out along the ocean, turn around 180, come back, turn around 180- go out again and then come back for the finish.

Another long story short: we were pure clusterfuck! Lauren started with me on her wheel, but we had gapped the rest of the riders by several bike lengths. We can’t hear over the wind so we don’t slow quickly enough. That was basically it- we would try and get it together, but it was chaos! It felt good to go hard and open up the legs- but it was not exactly an image of a well-oiled machine! I took my last pull and then dropped back from the group in the last 1k and rode in with Ali. As much as it was total chaos- it really was almost amusing.

We still don’t know what the results are... they were still racing long into the night (AFTER the wind died down, by the way!), but we do know that T-Mobile only beat us by 30seconds or so and they had their full TT rigs. I know that it would have made a huge difference... not to mention, they had done it before. Us... well, it was our first time.

Tomorrow, we have a double day. A 57k race in the morning and then a second 66k race in the evening. Why they couldn’t just combine the two and do a 123k day, I do not know. But it should be fun. Today was an opener. Tomorrow... we race. We will race.

Exciting Ardeche! (Summary)

We arrived in Lucca last night around midnight- after leaving Ardeche from the last stage and driving 7 hours. I slept in this morning and am exhausted. I finished reading my crappy book and took a nap. I now feel like I can FINALLY write a little about the experience! We had horrible internet and I had to write up a report on Holland (look for it as a rider diary on Cycling News), so did not have much energy before to even attempt to fight the connection problems and get to my blog.

Ardeche was another huge race for us. The team did great... again. We have been joking about how the National Team is riding so strong, people are going to start thinking that we are all dopers! HARDLY! Jim has done a great job with this program and we have some great talent that is coming together really well. Here is my version of Ardeche...

Stage one: it was mostly flat with a couple of climbs. We were going to try and get Kat to go for the sprint jersey and hope that I would make it for the finish. The race was all together still on the first climb when one of the motorcycles lost control and came crashing into our peloton. I was right behind it and so was Chrissy. It was terrifying to have the bike’s engine rev as it went sliding all the way across the peloton, cutting a swath of carnage as it took down probably a dozen riders. The sound was the worst: crashing motorcycle, bikes and a high pitched whine as the engine gunned. Seconds later, screams. Chrissy and Alison had both crashed and I stopped just in time. We were not going fast, thankfully, so it was not as bad as it could have been. I stopped and was making sure that Chrissy and Ali were OK, they were, and telling myself that the screams from other downed riders were just dramatic. I find that it is much easier on the psyche to not look and to just tell yourself that everyone is OK. Thankfully they all were OK. It scared us all. The crash was bad enough that the entire peloton stopped to make sure that everyone was not hurt and taken care of. We sat there in the middle of the road, drinking, peeing in the bushes and talking about how crazy that was and cursing the wreck-less driving of the motorbikes (that was not the only one that had caused problems of sorts). Shaken, but all in one piece, the peloton resumed after a 10-15 minute delay and finished the course in a bunch. Kat had taken the lead in the sprints and so the team shifted gears to working for me on the lead out. They did a great job- Kat taking over on the last 1k when one of the Raligh-Life Force riders attacked. I jumped hard to get on her wheel and dragged Dianne Zilute (Safi Pasta) behind me. I was feeling good and being patient when Zilute attacked at about 300m. I got on her wheel and was waiting to jump around her and waited too long. I did not see the finish line and did not see the finishing markers ticking down the meters. I was so bummed to have missed a win when the team had set me up so perfectly on the finish. They really did. The whole team was up there on the finish and we were driving it. We took control of the finish and out horse-powered the other lead-out trains that were struggling to assemble. I knew that I messed up the finish and was bummed- despite it being my best finish in Europe so far and I was pretty excited... it was still a bit of a bummer to not deliver when the team did such a good job. We did have a podium though- as Kat had taken the sprint jersey (purple and neon-pink diamonds) and I was in the point leader jersey as Zilute was in the leader jersey and so I was the second in line.

The next day was a double-day with a hill climb time trial in the morning and a road race with two cat 3 climbs and a cat 1 climb. I was really happy with how I did in the hill climb- it was a SUPER hard, steep and windy, climb of about 4 k, then 4 k of fast, very technical downhill. I am sure that the downhill saved me more than anything- I finished 24th- a really good finish for me in any time trial, especially one that goes uphill.

Later on that day, we headed out to the road race. Priority number one was to get Kat a bigger lead in the sprints. To do so, she needed to make it over the first two climbs. The team was to keep me in good position and I had to make it over the climbs to the finish, which Jim suspected would come back together. My sprint would come at 100k. I knew that the climbers were going to work for me and that it was my job to heft myself over that last 15k long climb in good position so that I did not let them down. I also had the first two climbs to contend with- I won’t lie... I was nervous.

Thankfully for me, the climbs were narrow roads which make it hard to move around. I am able to get good position in most pelotons, so I got up front so that I would be able to have the luxury of drifting back through the pack if need be and not get dropped. I was climbing strong and feeling good- especially at the pace that they set, so I did not slip back much at all. All of us made it over the first two climbs and I got to watch (saving for the finish) as Kat soundly won the sprints on the heals of another great lead-out by the team! They made it look easy to get up there and Kat made it look easy to deliver.

I fought hard to move up again and was psyching myself up for the big Cat 1 climb of 15k. I was expecting to be in a world of hurt and fighting to make my teammates sacrifices worthwhile. I moved up into good position and was once again saved by narrow roads that prevented a lot of attacks. Katheryn was up front and covered the first flurries of attacks at the base of the climb, but everyone sat up when one of the Spanish riders broke free and started riding solo up the road. There were 26k of downhill to the finish and it was windy. The climbers sat up and let her burn matches and ride alone. That was a blessing for me as I thanked the Spanish rider for each kilometer that I made it up the hill, feeling good and feeling like it was almost easy. The pace was not hard and I was in good position, so I did not have much work to do.

We hit the blistering fast downhill (strung out single-file the entire way down the mountain) and caught the Spaniard right away. There was a sprint at 96k and the finish at 100k (or thereabouts). Kat was not there. I saw her competitors for the sprint jersey moving into position and I started to worry. I heard the radio crackle looking for her and then some crackled reply. Turns out that on the downhill, her chain had dropped and she and Chrissy had stopped and were chasing. We were getting close to the sprint line- 1k to go, when all the sudden, Kat and Chrissy came up the left side of the pack, moved into position and Ali and Katheryn moved forward... Kat took the last sprint! I moved up and now we had our lead-out set. It was windy, that mysterious kind of wind that is somehow always in your face no matter how the road turns, and we set up a bit early. It was hard work to even sit on the wheels of my teammates as they wound up the pace. I saw 3k to go and we were already going hard. “OK guys, 3k to go” “NO, that was 5k!”... “5k?”... “Yes, 5k”... “uh, OK guys, 5k to go. You are doing great!” SHIT. I had misread the marker and was already working hard. The team was working much harder. Naturally, with the wind, the pace and the length of the lead-out, we could not stay up there all day. I watched heroic pull after heroic pull by my teammates, who would then drift back, catch their breath and get up there again. Kat was our last wheel and I saw the 2k mark and a small hill, felt the head wind and yelled up to her to hang on, to hold it steady- that she was the last. The radio crackled and Kat called for reserves. Next thing I knew, Alison mustered up another rush of energy and came up front for her last effort. We were approaching the 1k to go mark and Kat and Alison were both done- doing a great job and keeping me safe and now officially blown. Now it was my turn to fight for myself in the last stretch and the field was starting to swarm since the speed came down. Not good. Then, I heard my name and saw Katheryn come flying up on the right. I did not hesitate and got on her wheel. She mustered her last pull after two hard, red-lined efforts several kilometers earlier. She brought the pace back up, kept me safe and lead me through the last corner 600m before the finish exactly where I wanted to be. I was patient and looking at the markers- when I saw 200m, I gave it everything and dug hard to keep Zilute from coming around me. In the end I won- my first European win. Kat was again the sprinter jersey. (Side note: you should read Kat’s diary about the race when it is published on Cycling news and she will tell you about me accidentally taking her sprint jersey in the podium... I had already taken my stage win jersey and was sitting and nursing my fizzy water to the side of the podium. I heard them blabbing in incomprehensible french and heard “blah blah blah MEEEEELLAAAARRRRRR!!!” (That is Miller in French- or so I have come to learn) They were pointing at me, and I had heard my name. I gestured and looked puzzled. They again pointed and so I rushed out there, wondering what the purple and pink jersey was for. I pulled the jersey on, confused, but waving emphatically in the thrill of the moment- only as I walked back to Kat did I realize that I had made a mistake! They had called “Kathrine MEEEELLLLLLAAARRRRR” and had pointed at me... Kat took it in stride and has been making a lot of fun of me. She does a great job impersonating me waving at “my adoring fans”... A fan even came up to me the next day with a picture of me in the wrong jersey, asking for an autograph!)

Stage 4 we knew would be hard- it was the GC climber stage and Katheryn was our girl for the day. We started with 26 k of flat, including a sprint to set up Kat and then it was pure climbing hell from then on out. For a change, since I was not saving energy for the finish, I got to be part of the lead-out. Chrissy got up front at the 1k to go mark and went hard. At 500m, I jumped and was going as hard as I could and reveled when Kat jumped around around me and soundly won yet another sprint! What was even more fun was looking back at how much we had blown apart the field with our fast lead out into the sprint- they were way back there! It was fun.

Ali had been attacking hard on the flats, hoping to get a break off, but the whole peloton seemed to have that same plan and so the pace was blistering and nothing would stick. Riders were constantly attacking and attacking hard- only to be caught time and time again. As we headed into the climb, we heard bad news on the radio- Ali’s leg was hurting and she pulled out. When she had crashed with the motorcycle, she had hurt her leg and it was catching up to her.

My story from that stage is of me bonking and cracking on that first climb. Kat was taking care of me and leading me up the climb. I had not eaten enough (forgot, as I was not hungry on the flat part) and had chills. And it was a HELLISH hill. I kept looking up and thinking that we were at the top when I would see another steep pitch. I had first thought that we were at the top when we still had 3k left. Chrissy rode most of the race with me after I could not longer stay with Kat and in the end, we regrouped- beaten, hurt, fatigued, and just dead to the world. We limped back to the car and found Katheryn... “how’d it go?”... “uh it went OK. I got fourth” “FOURTH?!?!?!?!!!?” It was SO exciting! How Katheryn did it, I can only shutter to imagine- Fabiana Luperini (Italian National Champ) and this Spanish vapor of a woman, Maribel Moreno Allue (the Spanish National Champ) had attacked on that brutal and purely hellish climb-- while I was back trying hard to remember that there is no crying in bike racing, Katheryn was attacking the chase group and in no man’s land, chasing two of the top climbers in the world. She was in a solo chase for a long time until she was joined by two other riders on the Chirio team. (I am not fond of this team: I had watched earlier as one of their riders heard a crash, looked back and then attacked. I don’t like racing like that and don’t respect that). Katheryn battled the two of them all race, in the end, taking fourth behind Clemilda Fernandes of Chirio and moving to fourth in the GC.

Stage 5 was another hellish hilly day and this time, I was prepared. Our plan was for Katheryn to do her job and for the three of us to stick together. The race started out on a Cat 1 climb- we could barely clip in because it was so steep where we started- and so we just were racing for the time cut while Katheryn was to race to keep her spot in the GC and keep her eyes open for any opportunities. For the three of us, we were doing a looonnnnggg (117k) recreational ride and had packed a “picnic”. Instead of just race food, we had sandwiches stowed away in our jersey pockets! NO BONKING this time! It was gorgeous- really beyond description and we did enjoy the day, despite being utterly exhausted by the end from 4 hours in the saddle.

Katheryn had a rather un-eventful race. The two race leaders had attacked and Erin Willock from the Canadian National team jumped up to them. Katheryn did not go since she did not want to drag riders to Erin. The pack did not race hard and Katheryn tried hard to stay awake. There were no changes in the GC that day for us and nothing too exciting to report. Except that I was officially really, really tired.

Stage 6 was a circuit: we were doing 6 laps and we knew that there were two climbs on each lap. None of us had done this course before and we had originally thought that it would come down to a field sprint since the finish was windy and technical and we expected the race to regroup.

Our thoughts changed quickly when we went up the climb for the first time... holy hell! It was 2k of super steep and (to be redundant in describing this race in general) hellish. There was a lot of wind out there too and it was clear that there would definitely not be a bunch sprint finish. I joked to Zilute (super cool rider and another friendly face in the peloton) that we were not getting our bunch finish that we had toasted to at a BBQ the night before. She is a good climber, so she managed to get to the finish anyway.

It was an epic day though- we headed into the day with Kat already a lock for the sprint jersey. Her biggest threat to it had been time-cut the day before. (Made me realize that I have gotten a whole lot stronger on my climbing that I was not worried about being time cut... baby steps). Katheryn was in fourth in the GC and that alone was exciting. We were hoping that I could get to the finish to pick up another stage win, but that was our big goal. When we saw the hill, that goal was altered a bit... it would have been very hard for me to make the final selection. On the first lap- Kat saw a great opportunity and attacked as we headed into the windy roads of the town. She was quickly out of sight and had a great gap right away, after catching people off guard and attacking on the downhill. It was a brilliant move- early, with 72k left in the race, but a brilliant move. I was up front and saw two riders trying to bridge, then a flurry of other riders trying to make the cut. I saw everyone else come back and heard Jim radio to Kat that the two were right behind her. She had a minute.

We headed into the third lap and she had two minutes on the field. I knew my job... I got to the front to set the pace on the climb! Two jobs in one: 1. slowed the field way down- it was about as wide as a bike path and hard to get past me and 2. put me in position to make it over the hills. First time in my life that it was good that I am not a fast climber- the gap went from 2 minutes to 3! I was proud! And I felt good too, since I climbed nice and easy up the hill. Piano, piano!

Kat continued to hammer away and get a bigger and bigger gap as the field was trying to decide what to do. They were not going to chase. Luperini had tried to go, but was brought back. A flurry of other riders tried to go and were brought back. I hung on and was dropped on the fourth climb, clawed my way back only to be dropped again on the fifth. Clawed my way back to be dropped a final time on the second hill on the fifth lap. Meanwhile, going into the last climb on the last lap, the field split. The Canadians helped Katheryn when they realized that Clemilda was caught behind the split and they worked with her to help put time on the Chirio rider currently sitting in third place in the GC. All the while, I heard Jim on the radio telling Kat that she was doing great and past the hardest part. I was picturing her sprinting against her two break-mates and beating them to the line.

As soon as I crossed the finish, I turned to find out if Kat won... knowing that she was on the podium- finishing no less than third, but believing that she should have won, and probably did. Right away, I found Laura (our soignier) and she said that Kat won... by over 3 minutes! I had figured that she attacked the group she was with... until I found out that they had never made it to her! She was solo the entire time!!!!! It was amazing. I could hardly believe it! The two riders could not make it to her and she kept pushing and pushing hard. I was thrilled!!!! Then the next big news.... Kathryn had pushed Clemilda off the podium! She had taken over third place after putting enough time on her with the finish!!! Especially given how I felt about that team and their racing ethics- I could not have been more thrilled! WOW! Here, our scrappy little team of 5 went into this race, had a second place, two stage wins, a sprint jersey AND third overall! Talk about exceeding expectations!