This weekend was a reminder (from my road racing days) that, if you race with the big-name pros of your sport and don’t hang with them, then NO PHOTOS FOR YOU!

My one exception was a listener of the Just Riding Along radio show- Benjamin Wendorf. He took photos and video of Friday night’s crit and sent them to me Thursday (including a good nosebleed shot that’s now my photo on the Brickhouse Facebook Page)…

 

DAMN that kit looks good! (thanks to Micheal at Second to Nuun for the design) If you’re interested in purchasing one, my plan is to get a Nimblewear shop set up soon for orders. It will likely be a slightly modified version of what you see here- the same black/purple houndstooth w/pink accents, but without the sponsor roll-call down the front & back (not sure on that yet- feedback from YOU would help me out there). Hit me back on the comments below, or on Facebook/Twitter if you would purchase one- I’d really like to get a feel for reader interest so I know if I’d hit minimums or not.

 

 

Here’s another photo of the leaders that includes a good view of the crest of the first hill/crowds…

 

Take notice of the Giant GuEnergy Gel. Having Gu (who sponsors me) sponsoring a race is pretty awesome, because I get to meet all the people I’ve emailed with the past few months, and they’ve got all my favorite stuff at the booth/aid stations. I’ve also never seen any other nutrition companies send a giant gel mascot into the crowd.

In general, I’ve got a great bunch of sponsors this year.

Everyone from bystanders to the pros I lined up with were stoked on the bling-ness of the I9 Trail 24 wheels. Surprisingly, a lot of people have never seen Industry 9 wheels in person, so I have a good time telling them how not only do they look awesome, they kick ass as well.
On the same “awesome” list is ProGold. If you’ve only used the lube (something I’ve been doing long before I knew Bruce Dickman, ProGold rep extraordinaire and Brickhouse Racing superfan), I highly recommend trying the rest of their line of stuff. I got some of the bike polish (and some other stuff to try out and report on later) from Bruce over the weekend, and it made my beat-up Air9RDO look new again. Plus, Bruce gave me a call-up at the start of Sunday’s race as well as a kickass pair of ProGold Swiftwick 7s
If you go back to my post about Friday’s race, you’ll see the Maxxlite 29s that I raced in the crit. Maxxis has a very diverse mountain tire selection (I saw other  ladies riding hybrid tires. They fared fine, but personally- and you know how picky I am- given the high-speed nature of the downhill turns on course, I’d rather have something a little more performance-oriented rather than commuter/cruiser oriented). Sunday, I rode an Ardent 2.25 front (favorite all-around front tire, ever) and the Ikon 2.35 rear. The Ikon 2.35 is available now. If you live in Memphis, Outdoors Inc in Cordova should have some in stock. As I’ve said in the past- a fat, fast-rolling rear tire on a hardtail makes a lot of sense.

I couldn’t do it without them. My advice to you is to look at who makes your favorite bike stuff and see who they sponsor. See what shops in town sponsor riders in your area (I know it sounds cliche, but I couldn’t do this without the help of Outdoors, Inc.) Let those companies know that not only do you like their products, but that you also like that they help people in the cycling community. It reinforces their decision to help out racers like me.