Long time... no blog!

we had quite the weekend! i have been away from blogging since i have been either working, driving, riding, racing or watching racing! so, i apologize for my absence!

so, this weekend, liza, stacy and i raced down in santa clarita. originally, we had not focused too much on this race since most of the team would be doing snelling as a warmup for mclane (now called something else) next weekend... the NRC opener. but the promoters- bicycle john’s shops are friends of mine. john is the uncle of one of my good friends from ucsc and so i really wanted to support this race. john and his parner mike have been tireless advocates of women’s cycling and have really invested. they made this a women’s only race- a rarity- and really did it up right. it was very professional. a great job all around!

anyway, i digress. since it was far away and only an hour long race, most riders opted to stick north. stacy was down for a conference in la and so she popped up for the morning... and liza, after battling a cold for the last week, decided on friday that YES, she would race! on thursday night... linda decided to come on down too. a party in the making! it was a bit impromptu, but it was great to get so many people together to get on down there.

i have been fighting off a cold too... linda was leery about letting me race, but i begged. basically. i had finally stopped being woken up at night with a cough and felt that i could race a crit. it would not kill me and i really really really wanted to race! it is hard to say no to a rider who begs... she told me that if she heard me cough, she would pull the plug on my racing ambitions for the weekend... but a good night sleep on friday night and i woke up feeling like a rockstar on saturday morning. i like rest. my body responds well. so, after having a forced rest week due to my cold... i was definitely ready to get the legs pumping.

the course was a great one and i will leave it to the race reports for the details... it had a long gradual hill that i was honestly a bit nervous about. after being sick- i thought that the hill would really take it out of me more than i anticipated... and the field was big and strong! aarons was there with a good sized team, race radios and a director. cheerwine, t-mobile’s kim anderson... and a few liptons. it was great to see so many strong women at this race!

anyway, i will skip the details (see the race report link for the report) and just say that it was a great team effort!!!! it is amazing how great it is... and how different it is... to race with a team. stacy and liza were up covering everything and letting me sick back and save my energy. i just need to learn to shut the hell up in the peloton!!! i get so antsy when i am sitting in and not working hard enough that i get verbal diarrhea. i don’t shut up! i annoy MYSELF! blah blah blah blah... argh. that is my new goal... shut up and race brooke! anyway, so i blabed it up while stacy and liza did my hard work and allowed me to sit in and focus on the finish. i won the bunch sprint after some great leadouts from cheerwine and aarons formed. they kept it safe, fast and hard going into the final sprint. i had botched our leadout train a lap earlier on a tactical mistake. stacy was up there and finished 6th!

anyway, THEN i heard that back at snelling... one of my teammates, katie lambden (“scratch”) got into the winning break and took third!!! AND... our billy goat climber victoria took second in the field sprint behind amber rais!!! amber is no slouch at sprinting... in fact, she has taken many more sprints away from me at the line than i care to admit! so i was VERY excited for victoria!

i was really excited to hear that things went so well and it makes me even more excited for next weekend when the real NRC racing starts!

we also had a great time hanging with our sponsors... LOOK and SRAM were down south for the tour of california (special props to ben jacques-maynes... one of the first people who got me racing and threw it down in the tour for some awesome performances!!!). anyway, so we got to spend some more time with them. we are SOOOOO lucky to be working with such great companies that have done such a great job of supporting us... who also happen to be full of some really great people. the more time i spend with those guys, the more i like them. and that is saying a lot since i already like them a lot!

so, all and all... a great weekend. but i am tried! i am at my parent’s house and will ride tomorrow and then drive back home. thesis is a bit behind... will have to catch up! what is that about candles having two ends?!