Month: February 2009

Andrea

Valley of the Sun Criterium

I woke up feeling like a zombie on Sunday morning. After arriving/setting up, I downed a couple of cups of coffee and got dressed/warmed up. I really like to ride a lap or two of a crit course before the race starts, but that wasn’t an option here. Since the P/1/2 field was combined with the 3 field, everyone was lined up on the sidelines as the preceeding race was finishing in order to get to the prime real estate that was the start line. I’m normally pretty good at this, but today it didn’t happen, and I ended up somewhere in the middle. From the whistle, the accelerator was DOWN.

The first few laps were hell- Ashley and Shannon managed to keep up in the front (Ashley moves like a jackrabbit through a pack!) while the rest of us got strung out down the course as riders in front of us cracked and got gapped. After what seemed like forever, we all managed to catch on. At some point, a rider from another team got away from the pack. Ashley attacked for a lap, but it didn’t stay. Next lap, Shannon attacked (all the while, I’m absolutely dying while trying to move up and feeling like Private “Gomer Pyle” from Full Metal Jacket). This time, Shannon got away, and made the bridge to the other rider off the front!

The other 4 of us got to the front of the pack and made the pace just hard enough to discourage anyone else from trying to bridge. Once I finally made it to the front (thank everything holy/unholy), I went for 3 or 4 laps before finally succumbing to to an attack on the start/finish hill, and hanging on to the back of the pack like a booger for the last 5 laps. It was a heroic effort on everyone’s part, and halfway through the final lap, we heard Nathan on the radio yelling, “HANDS UP, SHANNON, HANDS UP!” I was cheering and celebrating in my head as we rode the last few corners to the finish! Everyone sprinted up the last hill, but I’d been prettymuch redlined for the entire race, so I didn’t really have anything left other than holding my speed out of the corner and up to the finish line.
I actually never even looked to see how I finished- maybe somewhere in the top 30? I’m not too worried about it- I am so happy to end the weekend with a win for the team!

Hopefully some photos will start popping up on the internet soon… I’ll post/link to the as I find them!

Andrea

Valley of the Sun Road Race

So Casey and I, being the lowest in the GC standings for the team, were given the job of causing some havoc in the first two of three and a half laps (57 miles) in today’s road race. I’d say we did a pretty good job. On the first stretch of crosswind section, we took over the front as a team and guttered the rest of the pack on the yellow line. From there, Casey and I traded attacks. There was one climb on an otherwise flat course, and, though I made it up fine the first time. The next time through the crosswind section, I attacked three times, finally getting away the third time. Casey bridged to me and we traded pulls trying to make it work.

Soon after, we hit the climb. I tried in vain to pull her part way up the climb for a KOM bonus, but I blew up early and went backwards through the pack, and was forced to chase. I made it back on, and managed to work with my teammates once I got there, but each time we hit the climb, I cracked about 1/4 of the way up. Unfortunately, the way the course was set up, the finish line was just close enough to the climb that I was totally useless to my team as a leadout. I’ve got a lot of training to do if I am going to help us get podium spots.

Shannon ended up in 7th, and we all moved up in the GC at least one spot since the woman who was in the leader jersey climbed about as well as I did. All I know is that I am totally exhausted now and hoping that I can do better in tomorrow’s criterium.

Here are a few random photos from before the race started:

Random mountains of area
Random mountains of area

img_0242

After trying to van-jack us on the way to the race, the hooligans from Rock Racing came by & stole our Clif bars!
After trying to van-jack us on the way in to the race venue, the hooligans from Rock Racing came by & stole our Clif bars!
Andrea

Phoenix Pre-Race

This weekend I’m in Phoenix, AZ for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race- debut race for me with MetroVW. I got in yesterday(Thursday) around 10:30, and, after a shuttle trip from the airport, arrived at the hotel just in time to inhale a PB sandwich and change into my riding clothes to head out for some leg-opening. I got to ride my new team bike for the first time as well. The BH frame rocks- it’s a lot stiffer than the Blue Rc7. Something else that’s new is that it’s built with Campagnolo components, which, of course, work fine, though I still have a special place in my heart for the Red group on my other bike.

Anyway- the ride was nice. Once we got back and had some lunch, I hunted down a tape measure so I could make some fit adjustments on my new bike. I also needed to swap the 110mm stem out to a 100mm… though since we’ve got Andrew Gonzales here as team mechanic, I sat back & held faceplate bolts while he did most of the work. I think I’ve got it just about perfect, but I won’t really be able to tell until I ride around on it a little longer this afternoon for the time trial.

I just had some breakfast- a couple of packs of Kashi hot cereal with whey protein and some yogurt w/a spoonful of peanut butter mixed into it. It would have been much more enjoyable if there wasn’t a herd of peewee hockey kids running through the lobby yelling about coffee and waffles while the parents ignored them and made life difficult for the breakfast-bar waitress by switching tables and letting their spawn run through the “employees only” section of the dining area. Then they let their kids monopolize the lobby computers to gawk noisily over god-only-knows-what on ebay. WTF?? Are you kidding me? Other people are hanging around the computer waiting and you’re watching your group of 5 or 6 kids eff around and look at EBAY?!? WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS OK?!?!

I digress.

It’s time to race. I like that we’re starting out with a time trial, because it’s somewhat lower-pressure than a road race, and will give me a chance to scope out how I compare to the competition. As always… updates will follow.

Andrea

Tapering…

“In February?!?”

Yes, in February. I’ll be flying out Thursday for my first “big time” stage race- Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, Arizona. I feel ready- on Sunday I could barely contain myself. I took two days off last week and rode easy on Saturday, so I was ready to tear the pedals off of my bike on the group ride. I managed to hold back, though it meant splitting off from the group for a good portion of the outing.

I’m also excited to announce that I purchased a new laptop! It’s a Sony VAIO. My desktop was working OK, but it was very slow and had a tendency to bog down for several minutes at a time. Not to mention, it doesn’t pack too well in my luggage…

My favorite features are the nice, big screen, an ample keyboard area, and most of all, the built-in webcam, which I’ve already used to take random photos like this:

See you in Arizona...
See you in Arizona...
Andrea

What are the chances?

I was riding up Pisgah road yesterday when I happened upon some workers cutting trees next to the road. They had blocked one lane, so there was a man standing in the road with one of those stop/slow signs. He saw me and said, “you’d better hurry up if you’re gonna catch the guy that just went through here!” I laughed and agreed with him, though didn’t think much of it once I went along my way into the Latting Rd area that prettymuch everyone rides through on their way out of Cordova and into good riding territory. There are a couple of ways through the neighborhood- I took the slightly shorter route. As I approached the intersection where the shorter/longer routes come back together, a rider in a Healthnet jacket passed by. He was going my way, so I figured I’d catch up to him & say hello.

What is your first thought when you see someone in a piece of pro team kit? (you people from California or other “nice” places don’t answer that) I was thinking the same thing- it’s just the usual recreational dude who was a either a Healthnet fan or happened to get a good deal from PBK. However, as I appraoched him, I could tell that my first impression was incorrect- he looked fit and had the pedal stroke and steadiness of someone who has lived small bits of life on two wheels.

I pulled up beside him. We talked for a while- turns out, his name is Rusty, and he used to ride for Healthnet several years ago, got burnt out, quit, and today- yes TODAY- was his first time back on a bike since then. Seems he & his wife were in Costa Rica the day before (nice!) when they saw some people riding. It inspired him to get his bike back out & try it again. I told him about the weekend group rides in the area, and he expressed some interest in going to the Trinity ride this morning.

Did he show up? I don’t know- I am tapering for VOS, and had another chiro appt. this morning, so I’m going to ride on my own in a little while. Hopefully he went, enjoyed himself and is inspired to keep it up!

When you think about it, it’s pretty crazy that we crossed paths at that moment. All the little things you do before/during a ride that only take a few seconds… seconds that could have potentially placed me just ahead or “just” behind far enough. Goosebumps :)

Andrea

Chiropractor

After nearly 8 hours of riding over the weekend, my neck, which I injured in a previous “stretching incident,”was getting sore. So I decided to go to a chiropractor recommended to me by another cyclist.

When I arrived, the first thing he did was explain to me the purpose & limitations of chiropractic work, which was nice, because apparently some chiros are pretty religious about their ability to treat EVERYTHING that can go wrong with your body.
After talking about that and discussing my injury, he ordered a couple of neck x-rays. When he showed them to me, I was immediately taken aback by the side view- before he could say anything, I gasped an “oh my gosh!” I noticed immediately that my cervical vertebrae were straight as a post! (the vertebrae of the neck should curve forward)
Luckily, everything else- space between the bones, etc.- looked great. He made three “adjustments” and instructed me to come back on Saturday and Monday. He feels that with a series of treatments, he’ll be able to get everything back into proper form, and I’ll only have to come back on an “as needed” basis.

So I went home feeling hopeful. It wasn’t until a few hours later that I realized how much my neck had affected my movements- I was in my car and turned to look behind me to back out of a parking space… only I did it without really turning my shoulders and body- only my head! I felt like an owl! I’m a little sore right now, but even more hopeful since I realized that so little can make such a difference. Updates to follow!