O Oregon

I headed up to Oregon for the last weekend of the GrandPrix in Portland and nationals in Bend. After being sick and off the bike for a good portion of the season, I didn't have high goals... but I wanted to get a little more cross racing in (it is a long wait until next year!), experience the Portland scene (I heard it was crazy!), and see all the great racing in Bend.

Portland was a little disappointing because we got COLD instead of mud. I was hoping to see first hand the epic mud conditions that usually define the Portland GP. The promoters still provided a fun course despite a lack of mud puddles, there were still great fans at the races (though I suspect the crowd was smaller than usual due to the cold), and the frites were delicious (mmm)! The actual racing was a bit of a bummer for me. Day 1 resulted in a flat and a lot of running. I think I was last at one point, but was able to bring back a few spots. Day 2 started off well until my lack of fitness caused me to drift back throughout the race. But it was fun to be out on the cross course again. It was also great to see a bunch of familiar faces from the midwest -- I've been missing my cross family since moving to CA!

After Portland, I enjoyed a fun week in Oregon. First, Aspen and I visited friends in Corvalis -- it was a brief visit, but we had fun times and great food. Then Aspen and I trekked across beautiful Oregon to Bend. The drive was spectacular! I was really hoping to see a bear fishing in the river along the road, but I guess they are sleeping now. I did see an enormous elk though -- at first I thought it was a mutant deer until Aspen pointed out that it was in fact an elk. Not quite as cool as a bear, but I was happy to see some wildlife along with the beautiful scenery.

In Bend, we met up with Aspen's dad and bro who came to race the masters and juniors nationals races. We spent pretty much the rest of the week at the races cheering on friends and family. I also rode the course a bunch in all sorts of conditions -- snow (my favorite), ice (not my favorite), mud -- fun fun fun!

My race finally came around on Sunday. Since I didn't get many UCI points this year, I was starting pretty far back and a bit nervous about moving up in the slick conditions. But I managed to get off to a good start and the first two laps, I was consistently moving up. I was also starting to feel a bit stronger on the bike again (good timing). Then I came to the off camber slip 'n slide section and took my turn at slipping and sliding. It wasn't a bad fall, but when i tried to stand up, my feet slipped out and this time I slid into the tape and got all wrapped up. After getting unwrapped, I had to get my chain untangled as well and this was not an easy task. It was a bit sad watching everyone go by as I wrestled with my chain.... but i finally got free and was back on the bike (now nicely decorated with course tape!). I was slowly picking off lost spots until another couple slips led to mechanicals and lots of running. Ugh! So it goes sometimes. Hopefully I got all my bad luck out of the way this year -- I am looking forward to better luck next year!

Mud Palace

The cross race this past weekend took place in the midst of the SF bike expo at Cow Palace -- a San Fran convention center. Since the Cow Palace is mostly a big building surrounded by cement, the promoters had to be imaginative to create an interesting cross course. They took full advantage of the one dirt section (typically used to show livestock) and made us go around and around and around to use every square inch of land -- after going in enough circles its amazing how you can actually feel lost in such a small space.

Their was a steep hillside between parking lots which the promoters spent many man hours carving stairs into... about 40 or 50 of them (yikes!)

At the top of the stairs, the promoters imported some dirt (which turned into mud after a little rain) for us to go through before coming back down the very steep hill... onto more imported dirt which took a sharp right hand turn (it is not good to miss that turn -- i know)

Then a series of aerial jumps where tricks counted for bonus seconds! Oh wait... that was for the BMXers. Good thing -- i might have died going off those jumps!

But there was a little track section of bumps INSIDE the convention center created with more imported dirt. Little kids were added for additional obstacles (check out the tiny one getting air!)

It was a very crazy cross course indeed. But cross is crazy so it was fitting. At the end of the day I was battling it out for second before flying through a mud pit, doing a somersault, and bending my derailleur hanger. I was fine and ready to go, but my derailleur went into my spokes and I ended up having to run almost an entire lap -- by that point, i was not very speedy with my run, but got a lot of encouragement from the fans and made it to the finish line! My bike and I were very muddy :)

The fun day of cross ended with spectacular views on my drive home down highway 1... photos through the windshield from my phone don't do the views justice... but they were breathtaking

Nap Time!

a nap looks nice.... I wonder if the sea lions would let me join in on nap time...

Cross is Back!

(Racing under the lights is the best!)

Back to racing this weekend! Well, kinda... I was in no shape for the USGP races so I stayed home and raced locally. I was really in no shape for the local racing either, but it was fun to get out on my Ellsworth and the race was super cool! The Bay Area Super Prestige series put on a night race under the lights with a tight spectator friendly venue that made for a great atmosphere and attracted a big and deep women's field (and big fields all around). The course had lots of twists and turns with a few steep little kickers for some fun riding and run up torture.

In some ways, the race was a bummer because I had no snap and not much energy, but mostly it was a ton of fun to be back on the cross course! I love cross -- i love zooming around on the dirt/grass/etc, i love the energy of the spectators, and i love riding my bike. I just wish the season weren't so short...

Exploring...

Racing has been put on hold as I am recovering from the flu. I've been on a prescription of easy riding lately which is the antithesis of cyclocross... but it's given me a chance to explore my beautiful surroundings!

Here is Aspen enjoying a morning view from Wilder Park

Here you can (kinda) see the mountains on the other side of the bay (they are a little sliver of blue in the pic) -- the lighting was amazing, but I couldn't capture it with my phone :)

Coming down to the coast, we caught a brussel sprout machine in action... these guys are fast! The people in the field machete chop down the stalks of brussel sprouts which go into the conveyer belt machine and somehow the little sprouts get stripped off their stalks and spit out into the trailer... you can barely see it in the picture, but trailer 1 is overflowing with brussel sprouts and trailer 2 is ready to take over. I'm glad I don't have to eat all those!!!! yuck!

(yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck!)

We then rode along the coast a bit -- the waves were splashing big this weekend -- I even caught a little spray as we rode by...

It was nice to get some good views and a little fresh air. Hopefully I'll be back on the cross course next weekend!

H1N1 is no fun!

After getting a stomach virus a few weeks ago, I was hoping to be immune from sickness for the rest of cross, but alas... this is just not my lucky season. The stomach virus must have told h1n1 what a good viral host i was... because this week the flu bug hunted me down and attacked!

Being sick makes the Ellsworths (and me) very sad because I don't get to go out and play cyclocross which is my all time favorite fall activity. But on the bright side, I had a little buddy come keep me company and cheer me up while I was at home on the couch.

Meet Rubin (isn't he sooo cute?):

Now I imagine that Rubin did not enjoy spending the day with a sick person as much as I enjoyed having a cute little puppy around... after a bit of napping I started getting some stares and some whines from Rubin. I finally got the hint that he needed some play time when he started chasing his tail...

So we went to the backyard for a little sunshine...

where Rubin barked ferociously at the neighborhood cats (i don't think they'll be visiting me again any time soon)

We also went on a very slow and short walk to go see the cows (I don't know if Rubin had ever seen cows before... or if the cows had ever seen a Rubin). The cows gave Rubin a number of stares and a few moos... which didn't really phase the little guy. He was more interested in all the wonderful smells --- mmmm.

While Rubin sniffed and sniffed, I made an offering to this one curious cow -- he really likes yellow flowers! Check out that tongue!!

Aside from a few mini adventures, Rubin and I spent most of the day napping...

...and dreaming of being back on the bike soon (well, that's what i was dreaming about anyway...)

Beautiful!

i was loving my ride today

KY USGP

This weekend I took a trip to KY to face a stacked field at round 2 of the USGP. I was greeted upon arrival with a KY size (ok, maybe a Texas size) truck... woah - they just let anyone drive these things!

(a big truck!)

I managed to drive this massive vehicle to our super host house without causing any major traffic accidents (or minor ones for that matter). I then quickly unloaded the bikes and went out for a little spin in the last bit of daylight. While I can't complain about the near perfect CA climate I now live in, I do miss the midwest fall... so it was refreshing to take a spin in the cool crisp air of a colorful fall evening.

(ahhh... fall)

The next two days we joined the herds of cyclists at champions park for lots of cyclocross fun. The organizers worked closely with the "weather gods" to bring in buckets of rain for the race, and they arranged for the rain to halt right before the weekend so we had muddy, yet sunny conditions -- well done organizers!! They also put together a fun and challenging course complete with mud puddles, sand pits, and a "Green Monster"!

(teamate Kari and I preparing to get muddy)

(yay mud!)

I struggled with bike mechanicals as well as some recovering legs this weekend, but still had a blast getting splattered with mud, battling it out with Katie "teenage phenom" Antonneau on day 2, and riding my bike for 40 minutes of lung bursting fun. Cross is the best!! In the midst of day 2's race I also made a dollar -- people just hand out money sometimes (did i mention that cross is the best?)! They also handed me a beer... and I think I disappointed them by not partaking... beer is just so yucky... i would have enjoyed a yummy beverage though.

(a dollar!)

Overall, it was a great weekend of racing against a top notch field. It was also wonderful to see a bunch of the Chicago/midwest cyclocross crew (and to hear all their cheers during the race... thanks :)!

Also, a big thanks to our host Whitney (and her sweet dog Lucy) for letting us take over your living room with bikes and for all the support from you and your Scheller's crew.

(living room takeover)

now... back home cleaning bikes...

(cleanup time)

Pink Girl

Our Velo Bella jerseys are in the making, so Ellsworth (our sweet bike sponsor) is clothing us with Project Pink jerseys to start the cyclocross season. Now, I admit that when I heard about "pink" jerseys, my excitement level was about a zero on a scale from 1 to 10... i just wasn't so sure pink was a good, fast, tough looking race color. I consoled myself with the fact that I don't actually have to look at myself in a race and probably wouldn't even see the pink. Then I learned that the project pink jerseys support a good cause and raise money for ovarian and breast cancer research. Now the pink color becomes tough and having a good cause behind the color made me a little more enthusiastic about wearing the pink! Plus the Ellsworth jerseys are a pretty cool design too... I could handle this whole pink thing.

(loving the pink :)

It turns out that an all pink jersey also sticks out really really well at a race. I'm new to CA and nobody really knows who I am, but this weekend I was getting all kinds of cheers. I raced the Lion of Fairfax on Saturday which contained an energy crushing run up... but the rowdy fans kept me going with the "GO PINK" cheers. I actually started looking forward to the run up after a couple laps. I'm pretty sure the pink may have helped me to victory Saturday :)

(almost at the top of the run-up... i can hear pink cheers!)

(yay pink!)

On Sunday I entered the men's B race at the central coast cross series. Not only did I stand out in pink, but I was also the only girl in the event. Here cheers alternated between "GO PINK" and "Good Job Girl". After a terrible start and a crash in the bushes, all the pink girl cheers kept me motivated to keep passing the boys... in the end I passed all but 2 -- it was a good hard race.

(getting chased by boys...)

Next weekend I head to Louisville for round 2 of the Grand Prix Series. I'm looking forward to heading back to the midwest and of course to wearing the Pink!

Oh NO!

Little (tiny itty bitty) Twig vs. Sram FORCE Derailleur... twig wins :(

(the derailleur is not supposed to look like that)

Luckily home was downhill -- i removed the chain/derailleur and coasted all the way -- weeeee!

Cross Weather!

A Pacific Storm moved in and brought torrential downpours today.

Gray skies....

and wet trails...

make a happy cross bike!

(I think the Ellsworth is smiling...)

Surf City Cyclocross

I was hoping to go to my hometown state of Ohio for some muddy UCI 'cross races this weekend, but a stomach virus attack left me sick all week and kept me home. There were some upsides to staying home though...

First, I was able to help out in the surf city velo bella cyclocross clinic on Saturday and lure more newbies into the wonderful world of cyclocross! Lots of first timers showed up at the clinic and I joined teammate Erin in instructing a small group on mounting, dismounting, barriers, runups -- all the fun techniques used in cyclocross. It was great to see our group getting better and better throughout the day and seeing lots of smiles as they worked on these new techniques.

(lots of newbies ready for 'cross)

Second, Aspen's family came to visit and we all headed to the first Surf City cyclocross race on Sunday. Aspen's dad and little bro are experienced mountain bikers and two years ago we got them hooked on 'cross. Yesterday they were tearing it up on the cross course -- Cypress (not-so-little, little bro) got tangled up in the start of the 18 and under race and ended up starting dead last... but he managed to work his way through the field and eventually catch the leaders... then he turned up the gas and blew them away for a win! It was super exciting to watch -- he seemed to fly around the course. Wayne raced next in the masters category and followed Cypress' example to take the win! A successful day at the races :) I gave the racing a go, but the body wasn't quite ready for the intensity of 'cross -- I had to call it quits... but I'm hoping to get healthy for lots more racing to come!

(yay Cypress!)

(don't worry -- it's rootbeer... Mmmm.)

Morning Spin

Been under the weather... but my spin this morning cheered me up!