Cross Season hath begun!

Wow, it has been quite a week! A cross team meeting and ride/clinic and 2 cross races for the season already under the belt including Cross Vegas and So Cal Prestige Series #1.

I don't have any pix to share yet of Cross Vegas (What happens in Vegas....), but it was quite a way to kick off the cross season, lungs burning and all (hmmm maybe it was the pesticide all over the soccer fields we were racing on!). The race was Weds night (feels like forever ago!), during Interbike, which some of us from Team CICLE attended to meet with sponsors and see all sorts of familiar faces. We ate many clif/luna product samples (yum!) and drooled over some gorgeous bikes and bike products. The race venue drew an amazing crowd including folks like Gary Fisher, lots of dudes and dudettes in wigs, and a really good Elvis impersonator who sang the national anthem for our race. You know you are in Vegas when a bike race has spotlights shining into the sky and a taxi stand! Mandy, Carolyn, Dorothy, Tonya and myself all represented Team CICLE at the race (a.k.a Team Frumpy due to our temp kits that unfortunatly are CLUB cut). We didn't get the greatest warm up because we were busy pinning 3 race numbers on each of us. We did a loop of the course to discover that it was 95% turf-like grass that didn't seem to pack down at all! Lots of false flats and short yet painful climbing sections covered the course. There were also hidden sprinkler heads in the grass that would cause some pretty bad crashes in our women's race. Overall, it was a great experience with an amazing crowd of spectators (felt a little bit like doing the World Cup at Mt St Anne last year). We were up against the best in North America, which felt alot like our National MTB races which a few road and cross stars in the mix. For my 3rd cross race ever, I can't complain too much. With 40 starters, I ended up 31st. Unfortunately there were 6 DNFs! I realized how important a good warm up is and also for me to take my inhailer when I am going to be racing on chemical-laden grass! Congrats to Carolyn for a strong 19th place finish!

Somehow after doing our 7:30 PM race and watching the men's 9pm race, we rallied and made it out to the Sinclair Imports party by midnight (Team Frumpy cleans up well!). What an interesting mix of industry people and athletes including Mario Cipollini, Todd Wells, Georgia Gould, etc. Thanks to Derek (one of our awesome Team CICLE sponsors (Bear Valley Bikes) and friend) for coming out with us girls, it was really fun!

Saturday was the first So Cal Prestige Series race of the season at Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. It was a nice venue and a fun and challenging course and we had Larry Longo announcing which is always great. We were already used to a mostly grass race from what we experienced on Weds night. Thankfully this race was a bit less like just a road race on grass, and required actual bike handling skills (helps out the mountain biker faction). We helped set up the team tents/booths, etc etc. We all participated in a team relay race which acted as a nice warm up for us. We had a great showing, 10 girls from Team CICLE all in the elite women's race (including 2 juniors). I had no idea how my legs would feel, but I had a good start, lead the race for a bit, dropped back a few spots and witnessed some interesting crashes that I thankfully avoided, but rallied to 3rd place finish feeling like I left it all out there on the course (almost 2nd, 10-15 seconds back or so). Guess I recovered OK from Cross Vegas and a late night out! Congrats to Carolyn who blew us away and had her 2nd win of the season (1 on each coast in less than 1 week). Also congrats to all the girls who gave it their all! it was a tough race and for most in the group was the first of the season.

MTB Season wrap up!

My 2007 MTB season has essentially wrapped up at this point. I am transitioning into a full cross season and will be riding for Team CICLE-Redline, formerly known as Team Redline-Figueroa Farms. Some of us on the elite team are heading to Interbike next week to attend a bit of the show and participate in Cross Vegas, which will be televised and is also a UCI level race.

My final three races of the season went well! It was nice to end the season on a high note. This included my first Cal State pro win which took place at the Big Bear Shoot out #2 (Also Cal State finals). I missed one of the series races and DNF'd at Castaic Lake (bee sting on the neck during the race) thus costing me a few spots in the overall series. So I ended up 4th overall. However, finishing out the series with a win really felt great!

I also did the Rim Nordic Stage Race (Rim #3) and the series finals in August. Both races resulted in a 2nd place finish in the XC which I was pleased with. Felt good and my bike was operating perfectly (except for at the finals where my seat post kept falling down thus causing me to ride BMX style on the first lap)! I wrapped up the Rim Nordic series 2nd overall behind Carolyn. It was also fun to hang out with the usual suspects/friends before and after the race! Carolyn and I decided to do a trail run right after we finished our XC race at the finals. I think everyone thought we were pretty crazy, but we had a good time!

I want to thank everyone for a really fun and quite successful 2007 MTB season. We had so many great trips to the Nationals and great times at the local races. It's really a great community to be a part of. I have made many new friends this year and had a great time as usual with the old ones! Also thanks to everyone who helped out with feeding or other support this season! It's nice to see everyone working together regardless of the team they are riding for. 2008 is going to bring great things as well. Some excellent talent has popped up through this season and the pro ranks are going to have some new faces to mix things up (especially Joy & Maureen). If I could award a most improved award, it would definately go to Joy. She has emerged as a power house climber and has also made great strides with her descending! She has a long career in front of her, and hopefully she will remember all of us when she is famous! :) Props also need to go out to Vegas Bob and James, both of who had greatly improved seasons as well! James might want to think about moving up to expert!!

Labor Day Outing

Believe it or not, sometimes I partake in activities other than riding my bike! I took the opportunity yesterday on a Monday (day off the bike) which was also a day off work (Labor Day) to go on a fun outing with Greg and Murphy.

We decided to beat the heat and go up the hill to Angeles Oaks (an easy 30-40 min drive or so from our house). I learned from riding up in Big Bear Sunday (Joy's B-day!) with Joy, Matt and Trevor that the thunderstorms would start up right around noon (I am sure Joy and Matt will give some good updates on that outing! My clothes are still drying from that one!). So we planned for around a 2 hour hike before getting deluged with rain/hail/wind/lightning.

We ventured up San Bernardino Peak Trail which I highly recommend! It was beautiful singletrack and we really enjoyed it We are trying to plan an outing to complete the whole climb. This time of year we would have to start hiking around 5 am to make the summit before storms develop. So we might camp part of the way up the night before and summit early. We could also go with Trevor's style of a total green solution: ride MTB from Redlands, stash it at the trailhead, hike all the way to San Gorgonio Peak, hike down, ride back to Redlands and Gourmet Pizza Shoppe for grub.

Murphy was a champion. For his first real off-leash hike, he was great about staying on the trail and not venturing too far ahead of us. He definately wanted to lead the way! He had on his trusty backpack which makes him feel like a real working dog. It definately made him more thirsty hauling that pack up the hill!

It was a really good exercise for myself and Greg to test Murphy's obidience. To our surprise, he did not chase after a single squirrel and responded when we called him to come back to us. Also on the way back down the hill, I was a bit slower than Greg (my knees/legs aren't used to descending like that!), Murphy was behind Greg, in front of me. He would periodically stop and look behind to make sure I was still there. It was a really great experience for us and we definatley want to go do more hikes as a *family*. The thunderstorms rolled in forcing us to head back down, but we got a solid 2 hour hike in. My legs/glutes are feeling it big time today. It was a pretty steep trail and felt fine at the time. Guess I should have stretched before we got in the car!

Beautiful views so close to home