Bike racing (aka war)

Oh wow, what a race! There is so much to say about the last week and a half, I don’t even know where to start. We took two days to drive to the west coast of France. The best part of the drive was getting pulled over by the cops to search the car. They went through every bag, every zipper, pocket, everything. I knew bad news was coming when they got to my bag. I had a zip loc bag with all my vitamins thrown in unlabeled. At the time of packing, I thought it might not be a super good idea, but didn’t have room for all the bottles. After several times asking “dopio?” and me saying “NO. I promise.”, I got to keep my vitamins and continue on the journey.
This was a UCI 2.1 race, so only UCI teams were represented. The field was smaller than I was expecting, but most teams with their A squads. There are some pretty serious and bordering on mean-looking girls. Get ready to throw some elbows and get your mean face on! It takes so much energy to sit in the top 15 of the peloton! If you let your mind wander for a tiny second, you just went back 20 riders. The mental energy on top of pedaling a bike pretty fast for quite a while will leave you pooped at the end of the day. There is so much road furniture and roundabouts and going through the little towns at full speed is crazy. So much fun! The race profiles in France seem to be a suggestion of what the course MIGHT be like, but probably not. On the first road race finish, we got into town, saw 1K to go, 500m, 200m, 50m, and Kirsty Broun raises her hands in victory. But boy do the Europeans cool down fast! Oh no! That wasn’t the finish! We had to do another 5K loop that nobody except Columbia seemed to know about. So of course, Ina won. The night before I was behind her in the line for food. She was trying to communicate to the server that she wanted two beefburgers but the woman couldn’t understand her and just gave her one. I convinced the lady serving that I needed two and gave my extra to Ina. So I’ll go ahead and say the extra protein made her go a little faster at the finish and helped her win. Whoo!
More crazy stories from racing in France. On one of the stages, we had a 3K neutral behind a group of kids. That was a nice to change to have the neutral really be “neutral”. Usually the neutral starts are just about harder than the race. So after the neutral, everybody stopped, and we got in a bus. A BUS. Then we loaded up the bikes, drove for about 15 minutes, got on our bikes, and started the race. That was definitely a first for me.
More crazy stories from racing in France. On the second to last day, about 60K into the race, a punching and kicking fight broke out towards the front of the field. A Bolivian girl on an Italian team kicked a Russian girl on an Italian team and made her crash on a bit of a descent. A huge crash with everybody behind her. I went over my handlebars and slid on my stomach for long enough to get a hole in my sports bra and enough road rash. I got a neutral bike, got back in the race and rode for maybe 20K before having enough and getting in the car. I got to watch Evie cross the line in first place after a long break. Then I headed to the medical area where 6 (seriously, 6 of them), paramedics kept discovering more and more places I had road rash. It’s funny, because there are a million questions in French that I just stare blankly back at them in response. Speaking slower or louder, still in French, doesn’t help me to understand. Most of it was the normal stuff, but I did somehow get a pretty deep hole in my stomach. A pretty disappointing finish for my race, but things heal and there are more races coming.
A sequel to the previous crazy story. After the aforementioned Russian got back from the hospital with her arm in a sling, I walked down to dinner with her. Just after I headed into the cafeteria, the also aforementioned Bolivian was walking out. The Russian takes her one good arm and swings at the Bolivian who continues to try to kick her again. There was war going on in that peloton! The Bolivian voluntarily pulled out of the race the next day and is suspended from racing for the next couple stage races.
Wifi isn’t as plentiful as in the US, the reason for my hiatus in updates. I’m back in Lucca though for a while, with endless internet! The next race I’ll be doing is Trophee d’Or, a French 5 day stage race starting on the 25th. Time for some beautiful training rides and Italian Espresso!

Italy!

I love Italy! That is about the sum of this blog post. I got to Lucca on Monday after a pretty uneventful flight. I had no faith that my bike was going to make it in working condition. Trying to avoid fees from the airlines for a bicycle, I got the case to a Ritchey Breakaway bike. I took the case and my bike to a slightly pessimistic mechanic who thought it would never fit. After a little work, it fit and I did not have to pay any extra…success!
I am staying in Lucca, Italy which is in the Tuscany region. I am not up on my history of the city, but Lucca is surrounded by a 3K long wall, apparently to keep out people from Pisa (…Pisans?). I haven’t been to the city much, but will hopefully see more when I get back from the Route de France. I have heard it is very easy to get lost inside the walls and most of your time is spent ON the wall, looking at the city, trying to figure out where you want to go.
SO, more about this trip. I will be staying at these luxurious accommodations until Friday, when we drive to France for the Route de France, a 6 day stage race in Central France. The other girls on the team are Kristin McGrath, Carmen McNeills, Aly Stacher, Alison Starnes and Evie Stevens. After the Route de France, back to Lucca to race for the Italian team, Systems Data. With the Italian team, I’ll race Trophee d’Or (also in France) and Toscana. I will then be raced out and fly back to the US on the 20th, to start school on the 21st.
We are staying just outside of the walled city in apartments owned by , and on the same property of the SRM Italia headquarters. There are 6 apartments, two in each, my roomie is Aly. I will put pictures up soon of the house. It’s so nice! There is even AC, which I was definitely not expecting.
We had delivery pizza last night which is not even on the same ranking scale as pizza in the US. It was so amazing, but is apparently not even the best pizza in Lucca…it gets better!
Blogging doesn’t seem to be my strength, but I will try to regularly post something.
Ciao!

I've been way too busy with naps, facebook, training and racing to write anything. Really...life is rough.

You know in the US everybody walks around with their LARGE coffee mugs and "venti" Starbucks? Not so much in Europe. Walking around with a coffee mug gets some stares, and any hopes I had of looking somewhat European are out the window. We left early for our drive to Luxembourg yesterday morning, and since we did not have time for a leisurely breakfast, I pulled out the mug and asked if I could have it filled up. "The whole thing??" YES. The WHOLE mug.
First off, I was really grateful for the opportunity to race with the National team. It is great to have such experienced women as teammates.
The race was a 10k circuit, a race of attrition with two climbs. One of those races where the field gets smaller and smaller each time up the climb. Race morning, I woke up not really in the mood for 3 hours of pain. It was an afternoon race, so I had all morning to sulk in the hotel room about not wanting a couple hours of self induced pain. I came to terms with it over a bowl of dry museli. We had a quiet ride to the start, getting their with plenty of time to sit around and enjoy the sunny weather. To make a race report short, Kat got in the break, the rest of us took turns covering attacks and surviving every lap up the hills. Most teams were happy with the break, Nurnberger missed out. It was interesting, because they didn't have radios, they didn't know splits. They were on the front, pushing the pace, and almost made it a couple times, getting the time gap down to 10 seconds. Thankfully, for the sake of my legs and pain threshold, the break stayed away. The last 5k in the field was pretty sketchy. Battle of the bars and elbows. It was a fast slight downhill before the last kick up to the finish. My legs felt good, but it takes more than good legs to maneuver your way through a final sprint.

Car, train, and taxi rides later, we made it to Paris.
Here is a link to the velonews article that explains Jeannie's domination at the Paris race.
http://velonews.com/article/91556/longo-wins-troph%26eacute%3Be-des-grimpeurs-again

This race was all about position on the first lap. There is a 500 m WALL at the start of the 8K lap. I was smart enough to make the first selection, but didn't have the 6th gear to stay there. Things could be worse, fitness comes.

After some quality hours on the eurovan, we made it back to Limoux. It was good to be home after being gone for about a week. Only one race left, then headed home already! Time flies, but I'm looking forward to some of the things I've been missing for awhile. Like Peet's, a burrito, people who speak English, a hairdryer.

Another weekend. Another race.

I learned a lot when I was in eighth grade. Learned stuff that you don't care about when you're in eighth grade. Stuff like how actions have consequences, how to concentrate, how to solve a problem without someone telling you how...
I learned to not have to know what was going to happen next. Whether he didn't know, or just didn't want to tell us, we never knew what we were going to do next. I've been appreciating that skill lately. Chris tells us just enough information to get by. We usually know what time we're leaving, we may know what we're going to be doing. But be sure to bring enough food, because you may be gone for awhile.

All I knew about the race on Sunday was that it was a crit. Crits in Europe? Yes, when I saw the course, I realized they DO have crits in Europe, but they're 70K, 40 some laps, with a big hill, and downhill 180 turns. And only when it's cold and raining. It was a more local race, smaller field, with maybe 45 starters. We pushed the pace from lap 1. Lap 3, Devon (USA), Megan Garnier (Proman in USA, currently on French team)and one other girl get a gap. Lap 4-40, Sinead, Alison and I take turns covering attacks. CONTINUAL attacks! On the local scene in the US, if a break gets a sizable gap, there will be bridge attempts for awhile, but eventually people will give up. These girls do NOT give up! We did a good job rotating who was going to cover the attack, and at ten to go, I was getting tired of covering attacks from the same girls on the same part of the course. But at least we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a downer when you look at lap cards and see 31 to go. 4 to go, Chris tells us we're free to attack now. 3 to go, Alison attacks, 2 to go, I attack. The 180 turn is pretty close to the finish, so Sinead and her wicked BMX skills would do better without Alison or I trying to lead her through the corner. Alison went with 1 to go. If she got brought back, Sinead could take the sprint. Alison held the gap, Sinead took the sprint, I came in on her wheel. We got 1,3,4,5. Good day for the team.

I'm leaving tomorrow for Belgium to race with the National team in Luxembourg on Friday. Fortunately it will be in a plane instead of in a Eurovan. Luxury!

I'm not a photographer.

No pictures of the lamb dinner. But the next day we were driving to the track and saw a field with lambs. Chris asked if we saw one with a crutch. Funny.

I don't know how I got so lucky to be able to race in Europe, but I'm such a lucky kid!
Every morning around seven o'clock, I wake up to construction on our street. The construction workers don't seem to be accomplishing much, just making noise in the street from about 7 to 10. I'm pretty sure the only thing they know how to say in English is "how are you." And they say it ridiculously exaggerated. "How are YOU?" Just keep walking...just keep walking...

When Chris isn't driving us all over Europe, he runs a hotel in Limoux. It's a really cool deal. For about 10 months of the year, he and his wife have a group of either cyclists or artists. Every week switches between the two groups. I'm not sure everything he does with his guests, but basically, he takes the artists to places throughout France to paint and takes the cyclists on some of the most amazing rides EVER. The cyclists go and do some of the Tour climbs in the Alps or Pyrenees and also some of the local riding. Every Thursday, Chris takes the guests to a small restaurant that is about an hour drive. Towards the Pyrenees (South towards Spain). There are so many different kinds of terrain close to here. In one ride (albiet a long ride), you'll go through what looks like wine country, then aspen trees, pine trees, farm lands...
Today was a little bit more laid back, enjoy the scenery ride. Of course I ALWAYS enjoy the scenery, but it's nice to be able to do it at a little lower heart rate ;) We started in the town of Bugarch* and did a loop with lots of climbing, descending, wind, French villages, Pyrenees in the background, narrow roads with NO cars and perfect pavement. I really don't think it gets much better than that. We even got to have a shower before dinner! That may not seem that fantastic to some, but for those of you who have sat in a car un-showered for three hours after a race, I'm sure you can appreciate that. We met Chris's Artists and had some "non-traditional" food for dinner. I won't go into too much detail on that, but I'll put a picture up of the leg of lamb roasting on the fire.

I felt really good on the bike today, especially after a long hard day yesterday. Tomorrow we're headed to the track. This will be fun. I seem to have been endowed with skills to ride a road bike only. It takes a lot of concentration for me to keep a cruiser bike upright, so a track bike will provide some good laughs.
Pictures coming...

*About the name of the town...I'm not REALLY sure Bugarch is the name of the town. It's something like that, that starts with a "B". So if you try to google Bugarch, don't expect to find too much.

I hear it's great weather in California. I'm losing my California tan and cleaning grime off my bike. But since I'm lucky enough to be here, I won't complain too much about the weather!

In France, there are specialty shops for everything. You cannot go to the coffee shop and get a pastry. There is a coffee shop. There is a bakery. A butcher, flower shop, produce market. There are probably 15 bakeries in Limoux (this is a pretty small place) and Jerika and Devon have visited every single one. And they know what is the best in every bakery. I have been to one bakery and I got a baggette. I need to immerse myself in the culture more and maybe go for a croissant.
I haven't visited the butcher, and probably will NOT be visiting the butcher. Apparently, he is a really nice guy, but there are also skinned rabbits staring at you.

We did sprinting drills on Monday (a very wet and cold Monday). Chris met us at the house and talked a little then we chose teams. Yes, we chose teams. I felt like I was in second grade. Chris was always the shortest when he was growing up, and the last to be "picked". So, since I'm the shortest, he let me pick first. It was tough...this is WAY more important than the kickball game in second grade ;)
This drill further solidified the fact that I need to work on my jump. From the races I've done, I noticed that when they attack in Europe, they MEAN IT. I tend to not jump hard enough and tow the field.

It was "ten hills" day again today! And I'm worn out! Chris has mentioned several times that this is the ride to train for Fleche Wallone. Hill #10 is a wall(like the finish of Fleche Wallone) that is less than a five minute effort. But it definitely hurts after a four hour ride! The great thing about this ride is that all the hills are close together. It's no more than twenty minute recovery in between climbs, then you're to the base of another hill. I brought my camera along today...I might have been able to go a little faster up the hills without it ;)
The video on here is on hill #8...but it goes a long ways after I stopped the camera. And sorry the video is sideways. I'm doing pretty good just figuring out how to upload a video, so just work with me and turn your head sideways ;) It was a little hazy out today, so no views of the Pyrenees, but still beautiful.
Enjoy the California sunshine!

Our hotel in Holland. In the lobby was the most awesome espresso maker you've seen.


On the drive to our house...

Be sure to take something away from every experience.

No matter how good or bad a race goes, you cannot leave the race without learning from it. I had a 16 hour drive to think about Saturday's race in Holland. I think part of being a good bike racer is learning from the race, but knowing how to leave it in the past, look forward to the next weekend.
Going into the race, I knew on a basic level what I needed to do. Stay close to the front during the neutral to avoid crashes and the cluster of the big field. The roads were narrow; be up front. The road becomes one lane, even more narrow, crosswinds. If you're not in the front thirty, you're probably going to get gapped and be in a chase group. I knew where I needed to be. But "knowing" doesn't get you very far.
I was really nervous going into the race. Maybe because of the field size, some of the best teams in the world were there, the course, the speed...
Here is a mindset that is not recommended: My last couple races in US and racing in Europe, I've been going into races doubting my ability to finish or do well. In some ways, I guess it provides an incentive to prove myself wrong.
I was talking with the director of the national team before the race. He said this is the deep end of the pool; this is the deepest field you'll be in. I lined up on the front line.

My legs felt fine, my head was out of the game. I still don't even know what to think about that. After we were through town and into the narrow roads, there was a bad crash in front of me. It was a cervelo girl who we had talked to a dinner the night before. When I went by, I really looked at her, crumpled underneath a couple bikes. And I could hear her moaning. That's the scary shit that you don't think about. It happens, it's bike racing...but I kept the picture of her on the ground in my mind. I wasn't mentally in the game in the first place, but was really out of it after that.
I don't mean any of that as an excuse for not finishing a race or not doing well. It's not. I might not have the finished the race had everything been going right for me. But sometimes, no matter how good your legs are, how much you've trained, prepared, if your head isn't in the right place, you're out.
After the race, I didn't know what to think. I needed to take something from it, but I didn't know what. Still don't have a really good idea. I kind of excused myself from the race, thinking that it was OK, because some of the best riders in the world were there. Because the course didn't really suit me. Because I should be satisfied with just being there.
None of those are valid reasons to excuse myself from a race and I have yet to come up with one.
Bad days on the bike happen, bad races happen, or maybe a bad season. But if you take something out of it, learn something, it was worth it.

Finally got some internet...

A really bad picture from the backseat. Going through Belgium. In the rain.



Alison and Sinead, last Monday on a recovery ride. We don't really ride, we just put our chamois on and take pictures.



I think that's Limoux in the background.

We're in Holland now, and thanks to wikipedia, I now know that Holland is not a country in itself, it is a region of the Netherlands and is now separated into North Holland and South Holland.
It was a two day trek to get here. We left Thursday at noon, drove until 11 pm, stayed in the smallest hotel room you've ever seen. After a rain storm in Belgium and not seeing the Schleck brothers in Luxembourg, the Eurovan rolled into Apeldoorn, Holland, which smells like a cow farm. From what I had been told about the country, Holland has no hills, the winds replace the hills. Fortunately for me, we found a hill to race up. We went to pre ride that hill this afternoon. After riding a couple sections of the course with Chris, he went back to get the car and we were supposed to keep riding and meet him in a town on our way back to Apeldoorn. You can probably tell where this story is going...we were supposed to meet in a town that apparently exists on the map, but when asking directions from people on the street, does not exist. We reverted to circling roundabouts until Chris (a very worried Chris) found us. He told me I wouldn't understand until one day my kids didn't come home on the school bus.
The race is a UCI race, Ronde van Gelderland, with around 200 starters. I won't pretend that I meant to say that with no emotion. 200 STARTERS!!! There's lots of medians, roundabouts, places where the road narrows from several lanes to one lane...it's going to be a wild ride.

Pictures from Pujols

When in Europe, hop curbs

"If you're passionate about it, you do real well, eh?"

That's what Chris Georgas, our director, said on the way home; he's from Canada, eh? I had a long drive home back to Limoux this afternoon in the middle seat of the front benchseat of the Eurovan. Chris talked about his wife, Fabian, who rides, but never did much racing.
"You see, she's an herbivore. You all, you're Carnivores, eh?"


My expectations of European racing: Like sitting in the top 10 at the end of an NRC race that is coming to a field sprint.
Today's race was a French cup, so aggressive, but a step down from next weekends UCI race in Holland.

Race report: Rolled out, went down a hill, someone attacked, we went hard, caught them. Someone countered, went hard again. Kept going hard, pace lulls. Attack (I think that was the one that stuck). I flatted, went hard, caught back on. Hopped a curb to avoid a crash. Then we sprinted up a hill.
I always find race reports redundant.

When I flatted, I rode on it a while, hoping to find one of the USA girls to ask them to tell Chris, because my radio wasn't working. I pulled over, didn't know where Chris was in the caravan (turns out he was way far back), got off, took my rear wheel off. Fortunately, before Chris got there, some other team car pulls over and the dude hops out with a wheel. He is trying to put the wheel on with the cassette on the wrong side. He didn't speak English, I was trying to tell him he might have to turn the wheel around in order for this to work. He was muttering in French because once the wheel was turned around, maybe he wasn't used to SRAM and he couldn't get the wheel on. I was laughing by now as he was giving me a push. I was off the caravan and put in a huge effort to make it to the caravan to move up.

About 5k from the start, there's a technical, narrow downhill. In a field of 130, I wanted to be top 10 going into the descent. It wasn't as aggressive at the start as I was expecting. I sat out in the wind for awhile before the descent to make sure I was one of the first to make the turn to the downhill. Better to sit in the wind than end up on the ground, eh?

My first European race, my main goal was to focus on positioning. I started on the front line...but didn't hold that long because when everybody started, I didn't know we were starting because the announcing was in French.
I felt really comfortable moving through the pack and sitting top ten. I sat on Jeannie Longo's wheel a lot. She's like a stealth bomb, a gladiator pulling everybody for miles.
I noticed her half aero helmet, French National champion skinsuit. She didn't fold her numbers like everybody else, they look more aero the way she did them. She pedals a really low cadence. She knows Chris really well, so knows we're here racing for him; she smiled at us on the start line.

I finished somewhere top 20-30. Devon made an attempt to bridge to the break, not making it, but stayed off the front to get 4th. I sat close to the front, followed a couple strong attacks, making sure that if anything went, I was in it, sitting on.

Racing in Europe seems so "right" if that makes any sense. It's the culture here, people all along the course cheering, not a blue tent ten minutes from the middle of nowhere.

Between Redlands and racing in Europe, I've been racing for different directors and having different teammates. One of the first questions that seems to be asked is "what kind of racer are you?" I’ve always thought this is a funny question as I would consider myself a bike racer. I read somewhere Ina Tuetenberg saying something to the effect that no one rider is just a sprinter, or just a climber. You might have a weakness, but it’s something to be worked on, not something to be considered an inability to accomplish.


The Easter bunny came this morning and we woke up to chocolate Easter bunnies.

We left this afternoon to drive to Pujols, about 2.5 hour away. We pre rode the course…in the rain. It is a 14 km circuit, 5 laps, uphill finish. I’ll let you know how it goes ;)

Some pictures from yesterday's ride

Ten hills

We did the "ten hills" ride today. I did nine hills. I got a flat about 5k from town and just rolled back to the house. Apparently, #10 is a wall that takes about two minutes to go up. Today was THE BEST RIDE I'VE EVER DONE!!! We saw maybe three cars during four hours, the roads were perfect. Elnat took us on the ride today because we had about a 90% chance of getting lost if we were on our own. Elnat is great...she lives in Limoux, rides for Chris's team and thinks American's get a ridiculous amount of flats. The views were amazing, with the Pyrenees in the background. My camera is from the 20th century (a little large) so it's a toss up between taking food and the camera. It's really cool to ride through the tiny towns with the main street being wide enough to barely fit two cars through. We were fortunate enough to stay dry, but it was SUPER windy!! Almost worst than Beaumont at Redlands...almost.

We went to farmers market this morning before we left. Everything looked great, but I didn't really want to buy anything to avoid having try to communicate (yeah, my French is going real well). I picked some stuff up from one of the vendors who looked like a pretty nice guy. Handed him my stuff, he told me something in French, I gave him ten Euros, which was plenty enough to cover the fruit, then I think he started to complain about the large bills. "Oui"

Good thing I came to France because I was just beginning to miss Napa. Limoux reminds me so much of Napa...plus the aggressive driving, roundabouts and old men standing on street corners with a baggett and cappuccino.
I got to Limoux after a day and a half of airports, the last 6 hours of which was spent on a metal bench in Toulouse. Megan Garnier came to pick us up once Allison got in (without a bike or luggage...unfortunately). I slept until 1 o'clock Thursday afternoon.
We're staying in a house in Limoux, about a two minute walk to the "town center" with plenty of bakeries and coffee shops. There are six of us who will be racing, Allison Starnes and Jerika Hutchinson (also from Norcal), and Sinead Miller, Jo Markhem, and Devon Haskell (from somewhere besides California).
If I was on top of things, I'd have pictures of the house and town to accompany this update. I'm not on top of things. The house we're staying in is smashed in between other houses, three stories with a gnarly staircase. It's a rough trip upstairs..almost a harder workout than riding.
Chris Georges, our director came over for dinner last night and talked a little about the races we'll be doing and training during the week. Tuesday is sprints, Wednesday TT, Thursday "Ten hills" ride, Friday recovery, race on the weekends. Since our race this "weekend" is on Monday, we're doing the hills ride tomorrow. I don't know much about the ride, but it sounds pretty self explanatory...go hard up TEN hills with recovery in between. Most of the races will be in France, two in Holland. In a couple weeks we'll go to Paris for a race (long drive) and see the Eiffel tower and touristy things you're supposed to do when you go to Europe.
We had a great ride today, really windy out and blue skies. We kept a pretty mellow pace, rotating pacelines on the flats and the gradual climb. Cars pulled over for us on the narrow sections! It was a pretty uneventful, beautiful ride. Got lost coming back into town, went around a roundabout twice (that's the beauty of roundabouts..you don't have to turn around, just keep riding in circles), went the wrong way on a one way street, but eventually made it.
Megan took us to the store this afternoon. You have to put a deposit of one Euro in to get a grocery cart. Apparently they've had problems with people stealing grocery carts? No peanut butter, lots of nutella, no grape nuts, TONS of pasta choices, lots of produce. I set an alarm off because I walked through the checkout line with a grocery basket. You're supposed to leave them on the other side of the checkout asile. They are REALLY worried about their grocery baskets!!
So things are good, I'm having a great time, felt surprisingly good on the bike today. About the bike...it made it safe (and free) to France. And thank you to USWCDP to getting it to me just in time to be put together and packed up (a few stressful moments there).
I'm looking forward to the hilly ride tomorrow...and of course a trip to the bakery in the morning.