Well today was a shock to the system because it was cold and we have become accustomed to beautiful warm weather in the last few weeks!
Staci, Jenette and I all stayed at Kristy’s awesome big apartment in Baltimore last night (full of antiques and her hilarious cats Monkey and Turkey and dog Brooklyn), so we had the luxury of a sleep in this morning before heading to the race course, which was in Patterson Park in downtown Baltimore. We rode to the race the scenic route and I was really impressed with the beautiful old buildings and the awesome area down at the wharf……however, there was little time for looking round as we needed to catch up with Anna McLoon, Anna Kelso, Michele and Kate and suss out the plan for the race!
Anna Kelso had already raced that morning in the Women’s 3 / 4 race but was chomping at the bit to get out and help us out in the 1 / 2 race and we were happy for the extra pair of legs!
Anna McLoon, stitches in her chin and all, lined up for the race…..gutsy I tell you! She's my hero.
The race course around Paterson Park is a little technical, with a climb up to the finish line. The attacks began from the start and Jenette, still nursing her very bad back injury, was an animal mixing it up at the front and in the early breakaways. Michele was also up there launching off the front (and continued to race like a rockstar for the rest of the race!)and the rest of us were finding our legs a bit further back!
There was a horrible crash through the start finish area about a third of the way into the race which Jenette came down in very hard. She now has a bad shoulder to go with her back injury. So frustrating!
The whole race was stopped and restarted due to the crash, and with a sole Australian girl solo off the front and the big teams unable to make a dent into her lead, she rode away with the race win. The bunch sprint was a crazy affair, with Anna McLoon coming in 15th and the rest of us further back. The race was only 20 miles so felt like it was over before we started!
After the race debriefs and getting our recovery foods into us so our bodies are ready to train again next week (usually a recovery drink with protein in it an some carbs to go with it, such as a banana and/or muesli bar) and the swapping of race stories, we said our farewells and headed in our different directions home until next weekend, when we do it all over again in D.C and New Jersey!
Till then
D.T
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wilmington, Delaware
Today was another NRC race in the cool town of Wilmington, in Delaware.
It was our first race with a almost the full team racing so we were excited to all be together and looking forward to the adrenaline rush that comes with a big race!
It was a relatively short race at 25 miles, so the pace was fast from the start. The field split fairly early on with Kate V and Anna making the front group of 17 riders and Kristy and Dale in the chase group, Michelle and Staci in the group behind that.
Anna’s run of the worst luck EVER continued and she came down after riders crashed in front of her…..a visit to the emergency room and several stitches later, Anna is on the mend. We hope to have her back soon.
The race continued with two main groups of riders fighting for the top 23 places. The front group had 17 riders, including our own Kate V, who despite being outnumbered by the larger teams, made several great efforts to pull breakaways in. Kate is a super strong rider and she put in such an impressive ride to finish in 9th place. Job well done!
Kristy and Dale continued to work in the second group and their effort paid off as they finished in 21st and 22nd place. Good finishes considering there were over 80 women that lined up at the start of the race.
We headed down to Baltimore, Maryland to make some good dinner and rest up for the race tomorrow.
Jenette
It was our first race with a almost the full team racing so we were excited to all be together and looking forward to the adrenaline rush that comes with a big race!
It was a relatively short race at 25 miles, so the pace was fast from the start. The field split fairly early on with Kate V and Anna making the front group of 17 riders and Kristy and Dale in the chase group, Michelle and Staci in the group behind that.
Anna’s run of the worst luck EVER continued and she came down after riders crashed in front of her…..a visit to the emergency room and several stitches later, Anna is on the mend. We hope to have her back soon.
The race continued with two main groups of riders fighting for the top 23 places. The front group had 17 riders, including our own Kate V, who despite being outnumbered by the larger teams, made several great efforts to pull breakaways in. Kate is a super strong rider and she put in such an impressive ride to finish in 9th place. Job well done!
Kristy and Dale continued to work in the second group and their effort paid off as they finished in 21st and 22nd place. Good finishes considering there were over 80 women that lined up at the start of the race.
We headed down to Baltimore, Maryland to make some good dinner and rest up for the race tomorrow.
Jenette
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Maury Elementary School Visit
Yesterday was our second school visit, to the Maury Elementary School in Washington D.C – and what a great time we had!
We were so impressed with the kids at Maury– they were all so willing to learn and interested in what we had to say, taking full part in the activities we set. Coach Johnson is a fine ambassador for the school and a great leader for the children. We especially loved the fact that most of the kids had bikes, some rode to school and almost everyone played a sport or were part of a dance group – good work!!
We have a lot of enthusiasm for and belief in the message we are putting out there and are endlessly grateful for the help and support of our sponsor, Altarum Institute. We are on a mission to show kids how fun it is to live a healthy life - to eat healthy and to be fit! In the school sessions, we explained and demostrated to the kids what we do as bike riders and why, and taught them some of the in’s and out’s of bike racing and fitness and of course, talked about good nutrition! It’s Cycling Fitness 101!!
The day was structured along the same lines as the last school visit that Lorena wrote about, with four stations staffed by different members of the team. Kate Veronneau and I were on Bike Handling and Team Strategy – talking about how cycling is a team sport, even though there is only one person who wins, and letting the kids in on some of our ‘secrets’ for example, drafting, flicking your elbow when you have finished your turn at the front so the next person can take a turn on the front, forming a pace line when the wind is coming in different directions. We used a fan to demonstrate how much wind the person in front could block and the kids had a lot of fun with this.
We had a great time and I had all sorts of different questions about my accent, from “Why do you talk funny?” to “Are you from Texas?!”.
Kate Flore was on the Strength Training station where she put the kids through their paces with all sorts of exercises. This station was definitely a favorite and there were all sorts of yelps and laughter coming from her area as the kids held static strength poses – such as the plank or board (where you hold yourself on your forearms and toes with your back flat) and then stretched their muscles out afterwards.
Michele staffed the Nutrition and Recovery station, where she talked about healthy eating, foods to concentrate on eating most (fruit and vegetables and whole grains) the importance of a healthy breakfast, and foods to stay away from (junk foods and sugar). She borrowed some fruit snacks as props and the grapes sure didn’t last long!! Great that the kids have a good healthy appetite for fruit! All the kids got a bottle of water and a drink bottle at the end so they keep up their fluid intake, especially as the weather warms up!
Our mechanic Ryan (or GiGi) was on the technical station, where he showed the kids a road bike and a time trial bike, talking about the differences between these and why. He had all sorts of props – from an aero Time Trial helmet, a road helmet and some cycling clipless shoes. The kids loved trying on the helmets – some got lost inside them! And each child received some reflector stickers at the end of the lesson.
All up, it was another great day out at another great school! Thank you for having us!
Ciao
Dale
We were so impressed with the kids at Maury– they were all so willing to learn and interested in what we had to say, taking full part in the activities we set. Coach Johnson is a fine ambassador for the school and a great leader for the children. We especially loved the fact that most of the kids had bikes, some rode to school and almost everyone played a sport or were part of a dance group – good work!!
We have a lot of enthusiasm for and belief in the message we are putting out there and are endlessly grateful for the help and support of our sponsor, Altarum Institute. We are on a mission to show kids how fun it is to live a healthy life - to eat healthy and to be fit! In the school sessions, we explained and demostrated to the kids what we do as bike riders and why, and taught them some of the in’s and out’s of bike racing and fitness and of course, talked about good nutrition! It’s Cycling Fitness 101!!
The day was structured along the same lines as the last school visit that Lorena wrote about, with four stations staffed by different members of the team. Kate Veronneau and I were on Bike Handling and Team Strategy – talking about how cycling is a team sport, even though there is only one person who wins, and letting the kids in on some of our ‘secrets’ for example, drafting, flicking your elbow when you have finished your turn at the front so the next person can take a turn on the front, forming a pace line when the wind is coming in different directions. We used a fan to demonstrate how much wind the person in front could block and the kids had a lot of fun with this.
We had a great time and I had all sorts of different questions about my accent, from “Why do you talk funny?” to “Are you from Texas?!”.
Kate Flore was on the Strength Training station where she put the kids through their paces with all sorts of exercises. This station was definitely a favorite and there were all sorts of yelps and laughter coming from her area as the kids held static strength poses – such as the plank or board (where you hold yourself on your forearms and toes with your back flat) and then stretched their muscles out afterwards.
Michele staffed the Nutrition and Recovery station, where she talked about healthy eating, foods to concentrate on eating most (fruit and vegetables and whole grains) the importance of a healthy breakfast, and foods to stay away from (junk foods and sugar). She borrowed some fruit snacks as props and the grapes sure didn’t last long!! Great that the kids have a good healthy appetite for fruit! All the kids got a bottle of water and a drink bottle at the end so they keep up their fluid intake, especially as the weather warms up!
Our mechanic Ryan (or GiGi) was on the technical station, where he showed the kids a road bike and a time trial bike, talking about the differences between these and why. He had all sorts of props – from an aero Time Trial helmet, a road helmet and some cycling clipless shoes. The kids loved trying on the helmets – some got lost inside them! And each child received some reflector stickers at the end of the lesson.
All up, it was another great day out at another great school! Thank you for having us!
Ciao
Dale
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Sandy Springs, Georgia
Hi again!
This is the final blog from our Speed Week adventures!
The last race of the series was back in Georgia and while we were all looking forward to some rest and recovery at the end of this crazy bout of 9 days of racing and tripping round, we were also sad about saying goodbyes and ending such a super fun time.
We were up early (after a late night after the race and AAA episode) and on the road to Sandy Springs at 9am…White Lightening started first pop - YAH!
The course at Sandy Springs was fantastic – a little hilly, fast and technical. Anna rode brilliantly – taking out an early prime and ramping it up at the end, only to crash on the finishing straight……she was gutted and frustrated, but brave about it all and got on with packing up and heading off to the airport to fly home to Boston. Anna has collegiate Nationals in Colarado next weekend and we think she is going to ROCK! She has had a fantastic week of racing and really showed she is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming months.
Kate also had a really solid race, keeping well up with the best and rolled in for 16th place. I could really see our K.V improve in every area during the week after a rough start with such a hard crash in Athens…….for having only been riding for 2 years Kate is one outstanding athlete with a really exciting future in the world of bike racing.
Jenette is focusing this next while on getting her back fixed up – she went into the week nursing an injury and crashing in Roswell damaged it beyond what we could repair in a week. She stepped in, while in a really tough space and in a lot of pain, to support the rest of us for the week and really tried so hard to keep a positive outlook which I admire hugely. The rest of the team are behind our Jdub 100% in her comeback……Jenette is one of the most naturally talented riders you could ever come across so we can’t wait to have her back on board and firing on all cylinders!
I felt much better by the end of the week and am glad to have survived a pretty tough bout of racing for the start of my season here in the U.S. I always struggle at the start of the season and that can be really tough on my head, however I know that now I have a bit of speed in the legs I will be away….
I am so incredibly grateful I had the privilege of spending the last 9 days with 3 OUTSTANDING team mates, who supplied top notch company, humor and support. You couldn’t ask for more.
Add to that 5 super host families and that makes the best race series of all time!
Next up for the team are a bunch of road races and crits and we will keep the blog updated with reports from those.
Thanks for reading!!
Happy riding and healthy living
Dale
This is the final blog from our Speed Week adventures!
The last race of the series was back in Georgia and while we were all looking forward to some rest and recovery at the end of this crazy bout of 9 days of racing and tripping round, we were also sad about saying goodbyes and ending such a super fun time.
We were up early (after a late night after the race and AAA episode) and on the road to Sandy Springs at 9am…White Lightening started first pop - YAH!
The course at Sandy Springs was fantastic – a little hilly, fast and technical. Anna rode brilliantly – taking out an early prime and ramping it up at the end, only to crash on the finishing straight……she was gutted and frustrated, but brave about it all and got on with packing up and heading off to the airport to fly home to Boston. Anna has collegiate Nationals in Colarado next weekend and we think she is going to ROCK! She has had a fantastic week of racing and really showed she is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming months.
Kate also had a really solid race, keeping well up with the best and rolled in for 16th place. I could really see our K.V improve in every area during the week after a rough start with such a hard crash in Athens…….for having only been riding for 2 years Kate is one outstanding athlete with a really exciting future in the world of bike racing.
Jenette is focusing this next while on getting her back fixed up – she went into the week nursing an injury and crashing in Roswell damaged it beyond what we could repair in a week. She stepped in, while in a really tough space and in a lot of pain, to support the rest of us for the week and really tried so hard to keep a positive outlook which I admire hugely. The rest of the team are behind our Jdub 100% in her comeback……Jenette is one of the most naturally talented riders you could ever come across so we can’t wait to have her back on board and firing on all cylinders!
I felt much better by the end of the week and am glad to have survived a pretty tough bout of racing for the start of my season here in the U.S. I always struggle at the start of the season and that can be really tough on my head, however I know that now I have a bit of speed in the legs I will be away….
I am so incredibly grateful I had the privilege of spending the last 9 days with 3 OUTSTANDING team mates, who supplied top notch company, humor and support. You couldn’t ask for more.
Add to that 5 super host families and that makes the best race series of all time!
Next up for the team are a bunch of road races and crits and we will keep the blog updated with reports from those.
Thanks for reading!!
Happy riding and healthy living
Dale
Monday, May 4, 2009
Altarum Cycling Fitness 101
Our first school event was a great success at Payne Elementary School. We showed great teamwork this week in fulfilling both of our team’s main objectives - half the team was out racing strong at Speedweek in the Southeastern States, while the other half of us got to go to Payne Elementary School in Washington, D.C. to show kids just how cool and fun it is to bike and be healthy!
We loved working with these kids, and they seemed to love us right back. The natural energy and enthusiasm of these 7 – 10 year olds, along with our enthusiasm for the message we were bringing, combined into a high-energy afternoon that left me as exhausted at the end of the day as if I had done a full workout. Exactly what I was hoping for!
Our goal was to put on a fun program for elementary kids to promote exercise, proper nutrition, and cycling safety. The fact that each of us on the team feels so strongly about these things is what makes us such a perfect fit with our sponsor, Altarum Institute, whose focus is systems research for better health. We feel so lucky to be sponsored by an organization with a mission we believe in so strongly and love to spread.
The kids got stock card pictures of the team and Altarum Institute water bottles that they had fun taking around to the different stations to get autographed by team members (it was fun, they treated us like stars). They rotated around four different stations – Russ Langley, guest pro from the Harley Davidson Cycling Team, seemed to steal the show as he demonstrated his cool aerodynamic time trialing bike, skinsuit, and crazy TT helmet to get their attention for his message about bike safety. The kids were in awe!
With such a show stealer in the station next to me, I had to be quick on my feet to find interesting ways to engage the kids in my message on nutrition and hydration. Let’s just say I’m glad I packed plastic fruit for them to play with. Who knew that plastic grapes were so interesting? I discovered some interesting facts while thinking up engaging ways to illustrate some points. Guess how many apples you would have to eat in order to match the number of calories in just a medium sized Baskin Robins Heath Shake? About 27!!! Yikes. I showed them the size of the cup for the medium shake (24oz) next to a medium apple. It appeared that about 2 apples would physically fill the cup. Being smart kids, they knew that they would need more than those 2 apples to match the calories of a shake, but their guesses were generally around 3 – 6 apples (aside from the answers of a million and infinite from at least one kid in every group!).
The stations were rounded off with Kate Flore teaching about strength training, and Michele Bote and Kristy Scheffenacker teaching about bike racing tactics. The kids had a blast trying to meet Kate’s challenges with different core exercises on yoga mats. And peeking at the tactics station revealed kids laughing and engaging in interactive demonstrations and mini-competitions to learn about things involved in bike racing like pacelines, drafting, blocking, and breaking away.
Many of the kids asked if we will come back, and I hope we can again next year! Our next stop is this Friday at Maury Elementary School in D.C.
We loved working with these kids, and they seemed to love us right back. The natural energy and enthusiasm of these 7 – 10 year olds, along with our enthusiasm for the message we were bringing, combined into a high-energy afternoon that left me as exhausted at the end of the day as if I had done a full workout. Exactly what I was hoping for!
Our goal was to put on a fun program for elementary kids to promote exercise, proper nutrition, and cycling safety. The fact that each of us on the team feels so strongly about these things is what makes us such a perfect fit with our sponsor, Altarum Institute, whose focus is systems research for better health. We feel so lucky to be sponsored by an organization with a mission we believe in so strongly and love to spread.
The kids got stock card pictures of the team and Altarum Institute water bottles that they had fun taking around to the different stations to get autographed by team members (it was fun, they treated us like stars). They rotated around four different stations – Russ Langley, guest pro from the Harley Davidson Cycling Team, seemed to steal the show as he demonstrated his cool aerodynamic time trialing bike, skinsuit, and crazy TT helmet to get their attention for his message about bike safety. The kids were in awe!
With such a show stealer in the station next to me, I had to be quick on my feet to find interesting ways to engage the kids in my message on nutrition and hydration. Let’s just say I’m glad I packed plastic fruit for them to play with. Who knew that plastic grapes were so interesting? I discovered some interesting facts while thinking up engaging ways to illustrate some points. Guess how many apples you would have to eat in order to match the number of calories in just a medium sized Baskin Robins Heath Shake? About 27!!! Yikes. I showed them the size of the cup for the medium shake (24oz) next to a medium apple. It appeared that about 2 apples would physically fill the cup. Being smart kids, they knew that they would need more than those 2 apples to match the calories of a shake, but their guesses were generally around 3 – 6 apples (aside from the answers of a million and infinite from at least one kid in every group!).
The stations were rounded off with Kate Flore teaching about strength training, and Michele Bote and Kristy Scheffenacker teaching about bike racing tactics. The kids had a blast trying to meet Kate’s challenges with different core exercises on yoga mats. And peeking at the tactics station revealed kids laughing and engaging in interactive demonstrations and mini-competitions to learn about things involved in bike racing like pacelines, drafting, blocking, and breaking away.
Many of the kids asked if we will come back, and I hope we can again next year! Our next stop is this Friday at Maury Elementary School in D.C.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Anniston, Alabama
We love this place! Alabama is not only beautiful (green, lush with rolling hills and lots of beautiful forests), but it is also wins the Altarum Women's Cycling award for being super friendly....we had one of the most fun times you could possibly have at a bike race!
Anniston is a fairly small town (well, by NZ standards I would say it was quite big, but by American standards it is micro!) but turns on a full on carnival for the whole day of racing with all sorts of food and craft stands, music, air guitar competitions, fun and games! People were so friendly and genuinely interested in our racing and what we were doing - it was a pleasure to race here!
It rained most of the day but dried out into a perfect evening in time for our race - a bit of a relief since the course had a few tricky corners that would have caused immense carnage in the rain!
The course had a long uphill finish straight with a super fast downhill back straight and it was full on from the gun. I tried to go for a few of the early primes but burnt many matches in my unsuccessful attempt and HURT for the rest of the race, not quite lasting the distance. Gave my legs and lungs a good blow out though.....
The high pace meant the field was shredded, so it was fantastic to see Anna and Kate still right up there at the end mixing it up. Both had exceptional races, with Anna coming in for 7th and Kate 14th. It didn't look like many more than 20 women finished, so big ups for the girls!!
The race director had organised a post race meal for all the teams at a delicious local restaurant, and we stayed on to watch the mens race and soak up some more of the atmosphere - it was a really fun night - and little did we know, but the adventures were just beginning......
We discovered, at the end of the evenings festivities, that White Lightening, our trusty Chevvy van, was not at all keen on 'roaring into life' as is usually the case........
Our 'women in distress' signals were attended to by several groups of would be mechanics, but to no avail. Luckily Anna's parents are brainy (just like her - she is doing a phd at Harvard in Micro-Biology) and gave her an AAA membership for Christmas, so we made the call and waited for the eventual arrival of Vaughn the tow truck guy, who was our hero of the evening.
Vaughn arrival was not exactly speedy, however we used the time constructively and pulled out all sorts of yoga and stretching moves, made friends with the locals, and the Jelly Belly Cycling team left us with a few mini bags of jelly beans in case we were stuck doing an all-nighter in the parking lot and needed sustenance, so we selected the best flavours (I vote coconut)...luckily they didn't spring any of the Harry Potter vomit or snot jobbies on us as a mean trick!
Eventually, Vaughan managed to crank White Lightening back into action and we finally made it back to Doug and Brenda's place to find Brenda had prepared a fruit fiesta for us to snack on before bed....Super host number 5!
Ok, well past our bed time now. Tommorrow is the last race in this epic Southern journey -in Sandy Spring, Georgia. Anna flies back to Boston straight after the race and Kate, Jenette and I head back to West Virginia so the final race report will be hot off the press sometime on Monday!
Laters!!
Dale :-)
Spartanburg, North Carolina
Hi again!
I am all caught up on my school work and back on blog writing duty!
We are now in Anniston, Alabama gearing up for our race here later today. We arrived late last night after racing in Spartanburg, and we are once again are being hosted by another amazing family - Doug and Brenda Ghee, in their beautiful big home on the outskirts of Anniston.
Doug was up this morning first thing to cook us a traditional Southern Breakfast of corn grits, bacon, eggs and biscuits before we went for our morning spin! Lucky us!!
The race last night in Spartanburg was a little frustrating for us - we all seemed to struggle a little with positioning in the bunch and getting bossed round and really just need to be more aggressive about holding our space to stay up near the front of the peleton. No easy task when you are careering round the corners at 27 miles at hour! However, both Anna and Kate finished in the top 20 so it wasn't all bad! Every race we have learnt something from and this will hold us in good stead for the rest of the season.
It is raining here today and it looks like we may be racing in the rain tonight, so that will add a whole other factor into the race equation.
Anniston is an National Racing Calendar race and not actually part of the 'Speed Week' series we have been doing. The town puts on a real fesitval and we are excited to be part of it all!
After tonight we only have one more race left, in Sandy Spring, Georgia then it is home time! The week of racing, road tripping, adventures, laughter and meeting all these amazing people will be done. And I will be sad! But fear not, there are many more road trips and escapades to come this racing season!
Ciao!
Dale
I am all caught up on my school work and back on blog writing duty!
We are now in Anniston, Alabama gearing up for our race here later today. We arrived late last night after racing in Spartanburg, and we are once again are being hosted by another amazing family - Doug and Brenda Ghee, in their beautiful big home on the outskirts of Anniston.
Doug was up this morning first thing to cook us a traditional Southern Breakfast of corn grits, bacon, eggs and biscuits before we went for our morning spin! Lucky us!!
The race last night in Spartanburg was a little frustrating for us - we all seemed to struggle a little with positioning in the bunch and getting bossed round and really just need to be more aggressive about holding our space to stay up near the front of the peleton. No easy task when you are careering round the corners at 27 miles at hour! However, both Anna and Kate finished in the top 20 so it wasn't all bad! Every race we have learnt something from and this will hold us in good stead for the rest of the season.
It is raining here today and it looks like we may be racing in the rain tonight, so that will add a whole other factor into the race equation.
Anniston is an National Racing Calendar race and not actually part of the 'Speed Week' series we have been doing. The town puts on a real fesitval and we are excited to be part of it all!
After tonight we only have one more race left, in Sandy Spring, Georgia then it is home time! The week of racing, road tripping, adventures, laughter and meeting all these amazing people will be done. And I will be sad! But fear not, there are many more road trips and escapades to come this racing season!
Ciao!
Dale
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