Meshberg: Track Nationals Follow Up Report

Hey there team,

Here's a final update to our para track nationals adventure:  The rest of the trip to LA continued to go great.  On our day off, after we went to the track for a little spin, we headed up to Beverly Hills to look for movie stars--we didn't find any but we did get carsick driving around in the hills.

On Sunday we were so much more pro with our warm up and it felt just right.  We had decided the day before to go with a different gear than originally planned and in hindsight we think we went (way) too easy.  We were relaxed and felt great and we gave it our all but were spinning like mad.  In the end we got the silver medal by 3 milliseconds!!!  Unfortunately we missed our podium picture because we had to catch our flight.

On the whole we were quite happy.  This track stuff is so technical and it's exciting to be in that beginning phase where every time you go out you see a huge improvement.  We still feel like we have a long way to go and are looking forward to continuing this journey!!

Here's a picture of us doing our Kilo:

And here's a link to a video of a lap of our pursuit.

Meshberg Update From Track Nationals

Hey team,

Hope all is going well at the fall fling and ABD is continuing to dominate the team points.

Hanging out at Track Nats is an absolute blast. Kim and I flew in on Thursday and went straight to the track, arriving exactly in time for a break in the racing where we were able to get onto the track test it out and get some openers in. This place is really cool. The track is wood, 250 meters and 45 degree banking. Several years ago I'd heard that once you got past the fear you would become addicted to this, and after the last couple training sessions at Blaine and CVC I think I'm finally here!! I think Kim feels the same way.

It's tough trying to figure out exactly when you are going to go and timing your warmup. There's a 3 hour morning session and evening session and then the events during the sessions are listed in order. So unless you are first you really have no idea when you are going to go At the track you'll see a lot of people warming up on their road bikes. In the interest of saving money, we didn't bring our individual bikes out to warm up on, so we rode the trainer together for our warm up. On Friday our first pursuit was in the morning session and the time for this one was going to be a qualifier for worlds, and (if we'd had more competitors) a seeding for the evenings finals.

Our timing for warm up was a little off, we warmed up really early and then sat for a long time waiting to go. We were nervous. We were starting with an electronic holder for the first time and also that morning we'd had to cut my aero bars because they were too far out to be UCI legal. So we went to the start with no practice in this new position, and no practice with an electronic holder. We'd practiced 3k pursuits before but never done one in competition.

Our start out of the holder was just fine, but going into turn one, the bike started wobbling and I had to come out of the aerobars. It was about a lap before I felt comfortable enough to go back into them. After we got our rhythm we felt ok and finished the race without further issue. Our time was 4:15 and we were a little disappointed with that.

The evening session was the finals, and since the time wasn't going to be a worlds qualifier if you were passed by your competitor the gun would be shot and the race would be over. We started the race so much better, relaxing into corner one, staying well within the lane, and gradually getting up to speed. Our following laps were substantially faster. We got caught about halfway through so we were disappointed not to be able to get a new (and better) time but we were thrilled with our improvement. Our next race is the Kilo on Sunday and we are chomping at the bit for that one, feeling more confident in our start and more confident all around.

It's a really great atmosphere here. There are lots of other Chicago folks here, and our new friends that we met at Blaine when we were up there training a couple weeks ago (who are all Elena's buddies) as well as people from all over that we know just from the racing scene in general.

Chicago's Val Brostrom rode a great scratch racing, taking a 10 lap flyer. Unfortunately she was caught but it was a gutsy beautiful move. XXX fielded a men's pursuit team and they were fourth overall. Former Chicagoan and current resident at the olympic training center, paralympic rider Greta Neimanas won a gold medal in the individual pursuit last night. But probably the most thrilling race so far was Chicagoan Joe Berenyi's individual pursuit. After Joe's ride it was the general consensus of the entire stadium that it was the best pursuit win everyone had ever seen. It started out with Joe steadily losing ground to his competitor. In the final round of the pursuit, if you are caught by your competitor they shoot the gun and the race is over. It looked as if that was going to happen to Joe. But something changed and he started gaining ground. The crowd was going wild and he inched his way into the gold medal just before the finish. Everyone went nuts and Joe was thrilled.

Today we will be heading over to the track during the break to get in some laps, loosen up the legs and make sure our gear selection is right for tomorrow's Kilo.

Later,

K

Jeannie Report: Tour de Gaslight

Jeannie's Cookies: 21 Aug Tour de Gaslight

While this race report is well overdue, accounts of our US visit just wouldn’t be complete without a report on our last race, Tour de Gaslight. We’re back in New Zealand now, back to work—the main reason for the long delay in writing this report!—and nearly adjusted to the chilly spring temps (in contrast to the sultry heat of a Midwest summer). The venue for Tour de Gaslight was East Grand Rapids...

Meshberg Gateway Cup Report

Kristin Meshberg has poster her report from the Gateway Cup series over Labor Day…missing teeth and all.

Jeannie's Superweek Report

My Super Week report, now up on my blog.
Check it out before it becomes old news.
Oh, wait…
OK, check it out before I post my next report--coming soon!
Many thanks from the whole team to ABD members for all the cheers, time checks, and awesome support.

http://jeanniescookies.blogspot.com/2011/07/9-17-jul-super-week.html

Jeannie's West Michigan Race Report

Jeannie, Sarah and Jessi tackled some racing across the pond, the Lake Michigan pond, that is.

Read Jeannie's Report Here

Elena Dorr: Superweek Stage 8 Report

Sorry for the silence on this end, I've been in a bit of a rut lately with bike racing and took some time off, but I think I finally crawled my way out! Yesterday all I can think was "Wow, racing bikes is fun!" I suppose it helps having amazing teammates and a incredible team!!!

It was a hot one, 95 degrees! And with 5 of the 6 of us there we were excited!

Jeannie, Jessie, Kristen, Sarah and I raced hard yesterday attacking off the front and trying to secure 3rd in the overall for Jeannie. Unfortunately it was a fast race and a few of us were not there at the end to help Jeannie out, and had a bit of miscommunication, but it was a learning experience for all. Jeannie ended up 8th that day, 5th in the overall. 12th for the day and 12th in the overall for Kristen, 15th in the overall for Stacy, 26th for Sarah.

The highlight of my day was attacking off the front to try and break things up/hurt some legs for Jeannie, but it turned out to be on a sprint lap so I got 2nd in that sprint behind Carrie Cash. Unfortunately after that I popped, but I think i broke things up a bit and confused some girls and wow, I had so much fun!!!

I am so proud of all the awesome racing my teammates have done during Superweek, you are all incredible!

Elena

The Prinner Toona Report

While her teammates battle it out at Superweek, Jessi Prinner had the opportunity to guest ride for Team Danbury Audi at the Tour de Toona. Following is Jessi's report from The Prinner Posts

Sometimes the most entertaining part of bike racing is not even the racing itself, but the other trials one must endure in the sport. One such trial for me was trying to get to Pennsylvania, which I ended up driving the 600 miles from Chicago by myself. I departed from home at a brisk 6am and made my way along interstate 88. All was fine and dandy until 88 disappeared. Just like that the road turned into 290 and 294 and 290-something else and my trip suddenly turned into a cluster. Was I even headed the right general direction anymore? Was I even in Illinois anymore??? Was I even in the United States?????? I don’t know but I ended up going straight into downtown Chicago, right in the middle of rush hour and confusing roads splitting in a million different directions. And then I found the Skyway. Just about everyone and their cousin were jammed going into the right split and I curved left onto a gorgeous piece of pavement that one could look for miles without seeing another car. So I put the car in cruise control, sat back and cruised my way out of Illinois and through about a fortunes worth of tolls in Indiana, Ohio, and finally Pennsylvania.

When I finally got close to the house the team rented, my car’s muffler decided to stop working, which would have been bearable if it had not been for the steep, brutal climbs that lead up to the top of Blue Knob Mountain Park. I apologized to the locals ahead of time for any inconvenient noises my 1998 struggling Saab was making. It took me several tries to find the cabin atop the mountain along a gravel twisty road in the woods. After arriving I immediately went for a spin to get the juices flowing after 10 hrs in the car, and my only option was a swift descent that made me climb for about an hour to get back to the house. Like I said, easy spin.

The Tour de Toona required only 5-8 rider teams in order to race, so all during Nationals I was networking and meeting Pro Women’s Teams to see who could accept a young guest rider for this race. Luckily Danbury-Audi agreed to pick me up, directed by Greg Wolf.

After spending just a day and a half with the team I was already feeling comfortable and welcome, as everyone was exceptionally friendly and fun to be around. The team consisted of Kathleen Billington and Rebecca Wellins (who were permanent riders for the team) and guest riders Emily Collins, Alisha Welsh and Liza Rachetto.

The first race was a 3 mile prologue on Wednesday beginning at 6:50pm around a fast, exciting course that featured quick, steep hills, fast downhill turns, and a downtown crit-like finish with about 10 turns. It was more like a punchy sprint interval workout without any real consistent effort, perfect for the fast-twitch riders like Tara Whitten who ended up winning the race. And not so perfect for the not so fast twitch riders like me who came in half-way down the results sheet, only 34 seconds off the winning time.

Luckily our cabin atop a mountain happened to be about 200 feet from the finish of Stage 2, which is priceless to an exhausted cyclist that just climbed 6 km after a 70 mile race. Early on it was our goal to keep the race fast and aggressive, which called for attacks, chases and counterattacks on my part. I was quite surprised at how well I rode up the first few QOM climbs, staying in the first 20 riders on the steep Pennsylavanian hillside. Of course I can’t say the same about the last long climb, but I was quite satisfied to finish in 28th place, with teammate Alisha Welsh in 2nd for the day, all 30 lbs of her somehow taking the green sprinters jersey. Not sure how they worked that one out.

Friday was a rest day, and I was awarded the Dirtiest Bike Award for having the director take a scrub brush to my frame. I honestly cannot fathom how my bike always comes out so much filthier than everyone else’s. I would think it was a fluke if it weren’t for the fact that I also won the Dirtiest Bike Award just about every day at Nature Valley too.

We had to wake up at a painful 5:30am on Saturday for an 8:10 am start, to which I insisted we protest such a ridiculous decision on the promoters’ part and go back to bed until noon. Unfortunately no one else seemed as reluctant to wake so early as me. The stage was supposed to be 91 miles with at least three longish climbs, including a 6 km one that simply went up the opposite side of the mountain that we climbed at the end of the Thursday stage. I wasted myself early on, keeping the field together as one of our riders had gotten up the road in a break. Tibco was especially keen on getting a rider to bridge to the break as they kept hitting the field left and right with attack after counter attack. It wasn’t hard to pick up on the pattern and soon I simply began following Tibco rider wheels knowing that they would probably fly next. I made the mistake of trying to cover Tara Whitten’s wheel, who happens to be track omnium World Champion. For me it was basically the hardest 700 meter pursuit I’ve ever done in my life that ended in me hovering about 30 feet off her wheel straining every muscle in my body at a perceived effort of about 10 for about 20 seconds before physiology dictated that my VO2 max was not up to the task and I sat up only to have a half-mile long, strung out field blow by me with no mercy whatsoever. I think it took me about 5 minutes to recover to the point I could finally see straight.

And then just when I’d about pulled a muscle trying to stay on the Whitten train, the motos pulled over the entire field and informed us we had gone the wrong way. So we got turned around and began racing again when about 15 minutes later we came to another screeching halt only to be informed that we had once again gone off course and had to turn around in the middle of the road. By that point the race petty much seemed like a huge joke, and I’d have been laughing if it weren’t for the fact that our 91 mile race suddenly turned into a 99 mile race.

After getting dropped on the mid-race 6 km climb, I settled into an 8 woman group that rode steadily to the finish over another two climbs, one of which had what seemed like a 30% grade on a gravel surface. For the first time in my cycling career I actually worried I might not make it to the top of a climb without falling over from 20 rpms and blown out knees and an inability to track stand. Fortunately my fear of looking like a fool prompted me to wring out my legs and make it to the top. After what seemed like 12 hours I crossed the finish line with a stomach ache. It turned out Alisha Welsh had an unfortunate crash and lost her 2nd place in GC, while the break up the road with our teammate got caught before the end. It was a brutal day for everyone, to say the least.

The next day was a 30 mile criterium, and I was secretly hoping they might shorten it the same distance our road race was increased by. Nope. Cycling is a merciless sport. My legs were trashed and it didn’t help that it was a technical course with an uphill and a fast downhill section with turns that would string out the field.

My first failure was not getting to the front on the line, which subjected me to the miserable back of the strung out mess with all the exhausted riders that kept opening up gaps and the riders that couldn’t corner to save their lives. And then on about lap three a crash happened in one of the turns and just like that I was off the back and my race was sadly over. I only lasted about another six laps before they pulled me.

But it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who had a weirdly miserable race. The yellow jersey wearer’s group got lapped by the field, and lost her minute lead and her jersey. Three of my teammates managed to stay in the front group and despite all their obvious pain faces got a top ten finish at the end. I’m disappointed I couldn’t finish but on the other hand it’s been perhaps one of the hardest physical challenges of my life. My mind said “GO GO GO!!” but my body said “hell no”.

Thanks again to team Danbury-Audi for supporting me in this race, as well as ABD (whose socks I wore for some events) because I couldn’t have done it without that sweet Madone.

See the second rider in the photo? Yup, that's me.

Meshberg Report: State Criterium Championship

Hi team!

So sorry for the delay of this report, I know you've been sitting on pins and needles awaiting it. So without further delay, here it is......

After Nature Valley, we had planned to do a couple ToAD races, and then do Glencoe on Saturday. The promoter, Jon Knouse, has always done right by the women by giving us decent prize money and race lengths, so we wanted to support the race. Plus it was the Illinois State Criterium Championships!!!

Jeannie was under the weather, Jessi was at nationals, and Elena was in search of upgrade points at the ToAD race that day. Sarah made the drive from Michigan to line up with Stacy and I, so we had a team of 3. It was a small field, but we knew it would be hard because there were a handful of Tibco and Vanderkitten pros there as well as some other big names we knew, as well as all of the locals going for the top Illinois spot. Our goal was to make sure that Stacy or I took that position. The course is fairly long with a nice little technical descent heading into a little kicker of a hill that was enough to hurt. It was critical to maintain speed in the technical downhill to be able to have momentum for the uphill. Almost immediately riders were opening gaps and if you were behind them, you were done! Sarah got stuck behind such a gap but rode hard enough for the rest of the race to still finish in the $$$.

Stacy did quite a bit of work throughout the race and tried several times to initiate a small break containing a Tibco and a Vanderkitten, which would have been the magic combination but it was immediately apparent that Tibco was confident in their chances against us in the sprint because every time they chased it down. As a result we came to the finish as a group and on the last lap I was able to be in awesome position; about 4th. Unfortunately I let a small gap open up somewhere and then had no gas for a full sprint. I got passed by a couple riders to end up 7th overall and Stacy was right behind me yelling "go for it!!" to finish 8th. I was the FIRST ILLINOIS RIDER!!! Which was super cool. I was pretty happy about getting the Illinois State Jersey for ABD, even though I would have liked us to have a higher placing in the race. Turns out Tibco made the right strategy choice as they finished first and third with Vanderkitten sneaking in for second.

In the end Stacy, Sarah and I raced well together and I'm cautiously optimistic that I might be able to see an improvement in my year!! We even got some props from Tibco's winner Emma Mackie in their post race write up listed on the GGP website: “Some of the girls from the area were doing some great attacks and definitely keeping the pace high as well..... I tried a couple times on the hill (to break) and everything stayed together so we just waited for the sprint and stuck to our plan.”

Many thanks to Steve Crane and Rich Johnson for cheering us on EVERY SINGLE LAP!! It was awesome. :)

Can't wait to hear the updates from Altoona--Go Jessi!-- and up next for Sarah, Stacy, Elena, Jeannie and I..... my all time favorite time of the year: SUPERWEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not sure what will happen in the results, but I do know this: It will be fun and it will be hot. See you all out there!!!

Regards,

Kristen

Prinner Report From her Bronze Medal TT Ride

This report originally appeared at "The Prinner Posts"

Here is a perfect example of the messed up schedule of a competitive cyclist;

• Wed-Sun race Nature Valley Grand Prix,
• Sun drive 6 hours home after an agonizing 8 laps of Stillwater crit,
• Mon get everything done you’ve put off during NVGP and pack for Nationals,
• Mon night drive to Champaign,
• Tues morning (uncomfortably early) meet Hogan Sills and Ben Damhoff/ girlfriend Molly and drive 12 hours to Augusta Georgia,
• Wed preview TT course twice and cramp up because it’s about 100 degrees with 100% humidity,
• Thurs morning race the U23 Women’s National Championship Time Trial...

The course was definitely one that needed no brakes and absolutely no technical skill whatsoever. It was 30km (~19 miles for those of you stubborn Americans) of rolling hills and the type of muggy heat that leaves no hope of ever getting dry again. I had spent 2 days searching high and low for an individual who would lend me a disk wheel with no success, and I was continually told that having a disk was vital for this particular course. With just 1.5 hours before my start time I was getting desperate asking random pro teams and people I knew if they had a disk to spare. Unfortunately, there seems to be a shortage of disks here in Georgia because no one would lend me one (or it might have to do with the fact that they didn’t want to give some random girl a disk that costs almost as much as a car). After downing three Gatorade bottles in my warm-up and sticking a pantyhose full of ice down the back of my skinsuit, I was as ready to go as I would ever be. And just as I was dismounting my trainer to roll over to the starting gate, USA National Team director Jackson Stewart appeared at our team tent touting a disk wheel that he had gotten from someone else that had gotten it from some junior. It was a moment that epitomized my usual last-minuteness. I never even got to meet this junior who lent me a ridiculously expensive bike wheel. Needless to say the shifting was not all that great and I could not reach my lowest cog in the back (which for a while made me believe, to my horror, I was riding junior gearing in the race).

I wasn’t nervous until two U23 women in front of me fell off the ramp in their starts. I couldn’t help but worry if there was something wrong with the ramp, or the holder. One chick even took out the time clock on the left hand side (quite ironic if you think about it). After seeing a bunch of chicks falling over I punched it super hard from the gun and shot off the ramp as straight and true as an arrow. The rest pretty much goes without saying. I suffered for 30 km, crossed the finish line thinking my face had caught on fire, and sat around in damp clothes until results were posted. For my first year in the U23 category, I came in a respectable 3rd place, 55 seconds off the winner, Tayler Wiles.

In lieu of Wednesday Night Racing- a Wed Night/Northbrook Report

Ed. Note: Here's a great report that Stacy Appelwick filed a couple of weeks ago.

Whoo hoo!

What fun I've been missing! The ABD women's team showed up en masse (except Jeannie-she's in IA) last night for the Wednesday training crit in West Chicago at the Pelladrome! Fabulous time and great training. It's so darn hard racing with the boys. Thanks to everyone for volunteering your time and organizing this every week! I'll for sure be back! If you haven't made it out to the Pelladrome yet, give it a try!

Thanks to Kristen for her recap of the Spring Prairie RR last Sunday up in WI. http://pwppedalingwithapurpose.blogspot.com This course is 6.4 miles of rolling terrain with a 18% grade finishing straight. We had the pleasure of going up it 6 times for a total of 39 miles. After the second climb, I just rolled through the downhill section and got about a 6 bike length gap and Lindsey Durst of IS Corp attacked and I caught her wheel. We went through turn one, I looked back and we had Kelly Hess of Kenda and Holly Matthews also of IS Corp with us. It was the right combo of teams represented, so it stuck. In a nutshell, Lindsey was protecting Holly's position, so she was doing most of Holly's work, so Kelly and I set about to attempt to escape from them. We started attacking. On the 5th lap, I put in a pretty hard dig, but it was on the wrong spot of the course. Live and learn. After dangling for awhile, I got caught and Kelly attacked hard. She rode away as I was too gassed to catch her wheel. We rolled around for another lap and after the last climb, Holly and I dropped Lindsey. My goal then was to attempt to drop Holly. It didn't work. That girl is strong! Since I was attacking her, she went into defensive mode and slowed to let Lindsey catch back on. When I saw this was happening, I finally sat up and realized I'd better save something for the sprint. Sure enough once we turned the corner for the final climb, I caught Holly's wheel, but those sprinter thighs of hers dropped me after all the previous wasted effort. It really wasn't wasted though, because more lessons were learned!

Kelly won it by a large margin, Holly was 2nd, I was 3rd and Lindsey rolled in behind me after all the work she did for Holly.

There were many interesting things that went on in this break, but it would take way too long to talk about them all. All I can say is that this bike racing business is the just the coolest thing ever!

Thank you to ABD for supporting our team! We really appreciate all you do to support cycling and racing. This is such a great community of people!!

Chris, Elena and I are now off to Minneapolis to race on the track at the Fixed Gear Classic this weekend. Jeannie, Kristen and Jessi are racing the Galena stage race and Sarah's racing locally in MI. Good luck girls! We'll see you in MN for the Nature Valley Grand Prix next Wednesday.

Stacy

Jeannie Report: O'Fallon Grand Prix

Jun O’Fallon Grand Prix Road Race

With no team race on the schedule, Brian and I decided to head down to O’Fallon, Illinois, for two days of racing aimed at boosting our fitness for the harder racing ahead. About five-hour’s drive south of Chicago and just east of the Mighty Mississippi River, O’Fallon is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The course was a 40 km loop through mostly narrow rolling rural roads, the rows of early season corn lining the course lush green and just inches above the soil.

With the point of the weekend being training, I was hoping to get in some hard racing. Well, I got it! Not because of the field, the course or even the intensity of the race. It had entirely due to Mother Nature. With temperatures soaring above 45 degrees (high 90’s) with humidity to match, a cloudless sky, and a stiff headwind on most of the longer straights, the race was one of attrition. The women’s race was two laps (80 km) of suffocating, energy draining heat. I tell you what, that was plenty. Brian’s mater’s race was three laps and the Pro/1/2 guys had a brutal 150 km.

I wanted to make the race hard without blowing myself apart, so around each corner (the course had 27 per lap) I went to the front and rolled through so that anyone breaking into the corner would have to work to get back on. About halfway through the first lap, the field was struggling. I upped the pace around the next corner transitioning from head-cross into a tailwind and the bunch splintered, leaving a lead group of six. With two of the three bigger hills on the course in the last 8 km of the lap, my legs and arms began to feel like jelly as we passed through the start/finish and a nap seemed like quite a good idea.

Having finished two of my three bottles, I was grateful to grab a fresh ice-cold one through the feedzone (Thanks Jane!) where, unloading my empty bottles, I accidentally threw my remaining half-full one. Being a bit loopy, but not crazy, I stopped to retrieve the accidentally discarded bottle (Thanks again Jane!). A modest attack after the feedzone meant a bit of work chasing back on but the heat quickly demotivated much output of effort from the girls and I was quickly back in the group.

One rider tailed off not long into the second lap and we were soon five. The remainder of the race was relatively uneventful as we each struggled to conserve enough energy (and water) to finish the race. By about 15 km to go, I had just a splash of drink left in my bottle. Heading into the last 5 km of the race, all of us dragging in the heat, one rider attacked up the climb. I dug deep and followed with Chris Roettger (Revolution Racing) on my wheel. We pulled hard over the top, I took my last sip of water, and heading into the last hill at 2 km to go Chris attacked up the climb. And then there were two.

Cresting the hill I felt pretty blown, but the 500 m to go sign boosted my spirits. Gasping for air I stayed on Chris’s wheel out of necessity rather than tactics. She put in a dig for the line but when I stayed with her she sat back down. I stayed on her wheel, sprawled on my bike, melting. Two-hundred meters to go and Chris let loose again. I had just enough left to come around. Chris sat up and I was able to cross the line solo in a full victory salute. My first 2011 US win!

5 Jun O’Fallon Grand Prix Criterium

Thank goodness for morning clouds. Temperatures on Sunday dropped to almost tolerable and the breeze even gave an ever so slight coolness to the air. The crit was a fun albeit bumpy hour glass-shaped course with an exciting chicane corner heading into the finishing straight. The turnout for the women’s Pro/1/2/3 was disappointing at only six riders. But quality isn’t necessarily related to quantity. The race was brutal. When Chris Roettger and Carrie Cash Wooten (Revolution Racing) lined up on the start line, I knew it was going to be a tough race.

I went out hard from the gun, hoping to split up the two teammates straightaway, but with both women experienced strong riders, my plan came to no avail. After a couple of laps on the front I began to question the intelligence of my tactic. My enthusiasm faded, soon to be replaced by a slight feeling on dizziness and perhaps a touch of nausea. We shelled two riders straight away so it was a race of four. Carrie came around and she and I shared the load for a few laps as I regained a bit of equilibrium. Then the attacks, as expected, began in earnest. Chris flew by to my right. No sooner had I grabbed her wheel did Carrie put in an explosion of speed. I chased her down and Chris countered with another effort. And so it went.

At 15 minutes the prime bell rang and, being the optimistic and often nonsensical rider that I am, I put in a big effort, only to be rolled on the line by a very speedy Carrie “I’ll take the Cash” Wooten. We had a big gap after the sprint, so I pushed the pace hard for a few laps, taking advantage of the opportunity to get away from the constant one-two attacks. But with a good 25 minutes to go in the race and Carrie catching a free ride on my wheel with no incentive to work, I was conscious that too much effort on my part would give away the race.

A couple of laps and we were again four—and back to one-two attacks. Thankfully, Chris was now a bit tired from her chase effort, mediating her attacks, the fourth rider, Natalie Carroll (Dogfish Racing) hanging on for dear life, teeth firmly wrapped around her handle bars. Final lap, I had the advantage going into the final chicane, but in a deja vu of the earlier prime, the speedy Carrie came around at the line to take the win. I took second with Chris crossing the line in third. Definitely a good race to work the molasses out of my sprint. A weekend of good hard training accomplished. Thanks to Metro East Cycling for putting on a great weekend of racing.

Memorial Day Weekend Women's Reports

This past weekend the women's team filed a flood of reports from both the Quad Cities Weekend as well as Kristen's experiences at the ABD Memorial Day Masters Weekend. Click through to the reports below.

Jessi's humorous tale of going from her high school graduation to Snake Alley!

Kristen Meshberg's Memorial Day Weekend Report including tales from the ABD Master's Races and the Quad Cities Criterium

Sarah Demerly's Rock Island Report:Success or Something Like It

Sarah's Melon City Report: Apocalypse

Northbrook Report: ABD Women at the Track

Ed. note: A special thanks to Chris Mosora for filing this report.

Hi all!

Last night was another great night of racing for the ABD women's team at the Ed Rudolph velodrome up in Northbrook, featuring the Madison as the main event in session 2 of the evening. The 1st session was a point-a-lap (1 point only for first place), and the 3rd and final session was a scratch race --descriptions of these races can be found here; http://www.northbrookvelodrome.org/information/glossary-of-racing-terms/

In the point-a-lap race, things got off to a bit of a shaky start for team ABD as the girls are still trying to get "in sync" with each others racing style to race as a team having only formed this year. It was a 10 lap race and in the second lap Elena was aggressive and sprinted for a point with Kristen on her wheel. Kristen tried her best to sweep for Elena, but the rest of the field could sense what she was trying to do and started to charge around Kristen between turns 3 &4. Kristen had no choice but to try to get the point -not to beat Elena, but to keep points from the opposition. This had the unfortunately secondary effect of catching Elena in a bad place, as she had started sprinting nearly a full lap earlier, and got a bit gaped while she fought to catch her breath.

She was still a bit stunned for the next couple of laps, finding herself having to chase back on after every sprint while Kristen was mixing it up at the front, but then amazingly came around and found her second wind. Unfortunately by this time it was mathematically impossible for her to get a high placing, but rather the throwing in the towel --which most people would have done-- she instantly switched into "selfless team mate" mode for Kristen, by pulling back gaps and leading Kristen out, culminating in dramatic finish for the team as with 3 laps to Kristen was in a 3-way tie for 1st place, with Wisconsin powerhouse Beth Engwis, team (?) and another rider -who's name escapes me right now (I must do a better job of remembering names). Local elite rider Francine Haas, Alberto's sports, got off in a dangerous solo break at this picking up a point with Beth chasing -also with a gap. It didn't look good for Kristen, but in an impressive display of raw speed and team work Elena set a blistering pace for 2 laps with Kristen glued to her wheel. Elena single-handedly reeled in BOTH Francine and Beth(?) and launched Kristen for the win in the final lap and secured the overall! It was an extremely exciting and concerted performance by both of them! That was a nail biter of a race ladies!

Next up was the Madison -20 laps with sprints every 5. For those of you who know and or have raced this event, probably the biggest factor for success is just pure experience and skill (more info on the Madison at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_(cycling) ) You could easily tell Elena knew what she was doing, but this was Kristen's first time. The women's field consisted of 5 teams, including the super-duo composite team of Val Brostrom, team BTN, and Beth Engwis, team (?) who are both very experienced track racers, not to mention super-fast, making them a extremely tough team to beat for sure in this event.

Another team of note was Chicago Cuttin Crew's -or CCC from her on, Dahpne Karagianis, and her team mate (?)-again, I have to start remembering names better- tried to catch everyone napping at the start of the race with a first lap blitz, and it worked giving them an instant and dangerous gap, this put even the super team of Val and Beth in a bit of trouble as it took them several laps to reel themselves back up to team CCC. These girls where racing!

Again, experience and skill being so critical in this event saw team CCC miss an exchange which Val took immediate advantage of due to her extensive race savvy which now got her and Beth off on their own. Meanwhile Kristen and Elena were having a bit of trouble while Kristen became more comfortable with high-speed exchanges. It seemed for awhile they were destined for 3rd place, but miraculously started to get into a rhythm in the second half of the race. Lap after lap they slowly close on team CCC who were now showing signs of fatigue from their blazing first laps.

With every exchange Kristen's confidence grew, and you could actually see Elena and her pick up speed. They blew past the visibly exhausted team CCC which now put them in 2nd place, and started to close on the super team of Val and Beth who by now had won 3 of the 4 sprints to lock up 1st place. It's hard to say if Elena and Kristen, actually caught and beat Val and Beth in the final sprint or if Val and Beth sat-up knowing they had won the already won the race and didn't need to contest the last sprint (probably the latter), but it can be said that if the race was a bit longer, or Kristen had more experience Madison racing they would have given Val and Beth a run for their money.

I have to reiterate that team CCC do need to get recognition and mad props for their gutsy early race tactics that nearly worked. Keep at it girls, as sometime when you roll the dice like that they come up in your favor, but also racing like that makes it so much more exciting to watch!

I don't mean to ignore the other 2 teams in this race, but the Madison can be confusing to keep track of, and I was having a hard time just keeping track of the top 3 teams. I know for a fact that Madison racing for the women's field is relatively new to Northbrook and it takes a while to figure it out, and I'm sure that is what the other 2 teams were doing, so please ladies keep racing it as it is super fun to watch and participate in!

Directly right after the Madison, Kristen jumped in with the master men in their scratch race, but unfortunately I had to leave at that point and couldn't see how she finished. I also believe Kristen had to leave right after the master's race and couldn't stick around to race with Elena in the 3rd session scratch race so we'll have to hear from her how it went.

--This just in-- After a tough race of countering attacks on her own in the last session's scratch race, Elena sprinted for the win but a slight miss-timing on her part saw her just getting edge out to take 2nd! -Will have to wait for the results to see who else rounded out the top 3.

No word from Kristen yet on the Master's race, but I know she held her own despite jumping right into it with no break from the previous race.

On a side note, I have to say that the women's racing at Northbrook this year has really taken off this year. The fields are surprisingly large and these gals are getting fast! I highly recommend that if anyone who's reading this hasn't made it up to at least watch, if not race at Northbrook on Thursday nights should really try to do so as you won't be disappointed! A good time is had by all!

Again please forgive me if I forgot the names of some the riders in this report, or if I am a little off on my facts, as I'm feeling under the weather with a bad head cold so I was kind of foggy-headed last night and tried my best to keep track of everything.

-Chris

The Appelwick Report: Quad Cities Weekend

Whew what a weekend. 3 days off from work and I'm beat!;)--I actually couldn't wait to sit behind my desk and rest!

It all started on Friday late afternoon when Chris and I loaded up the van with all the bike stuff, loaded up Elena and her gear, dropped off Jazzy with Donna Maday (thank you again Donna!) and hit the road for Burlington, IA. We checked into the luxurious (by circa ~1964 standards) Howard Johnson at about 11:30pm. We were beat from a long week of work and training, but ready and excited for the weekend of racing, especially since this was the first weekend with Jeannie Kuhajek racing with ABD back up here from her home in New Zealand! She and her man, Brian, aka Lami, had arrived in the States after the long difficult trip here earlier in the week. Needless to say, they were more than a bit jet lagged.

Snake Alley

We woke up on Saturday ready to attack the Snake. Unfortunately, Mother Nature wanted to make it tougher on us with frequent rain showers that moved through the area making the cobbles slick and the descent on the back side tricky. Elena, Sarah, Jessi (after her mad dash to IA from her graduation earlier in the day-congrats Jess!), Jeannie and I lined up toward the front. As you probably read in her blog, Kristen wasn't able to join us due to her husband Jason's knee surgery. Our team had some bad luck as both Jeannie and I had a bad clip-in and worse yet, Elena broke her chain right there on the line. We did the best we could and climbed the Snake 12 times. I was quite conservative on the descents and had Jeannie and the small group she was with in my sights the whole race. They'd drop me on the downhill and I'd make up distance on the flat so that I was just behind them on the climb every lap. On the last lap, an especially large gap opened up and I had to kill it to catch up. At the perfect moment, Jeannie, who was on the front of her group, sat up before the last turn and I came around the corner with some speed and out sprinted that group to end up 11th. I wasn't sure how many girls were up the road, so I figured since Jeannie set it up so perfectly, I'd try to increase the teams placing a tad. She came in just behing me at 13th. Jessi, after warming up during the first half of the race, finnaly got her "car legs" going ("car legs" are the heavy feeling you get in your legs from sitting in a car for too long right before a ride)and moved up from her understandably slow-ish start to garner 16th. Afterwards spectators said they could actually see Jessi picking up speed every lap, which is the reverse of what usually happens during the Snake. The podium consisted of Amanda Miller-Coumbia HTA 1st, Coryn Rivera-Peanut Butter & Co. 2nd and Kaitlin Antonneau-Peanut Butter & Co. 3rd.

Full results:http://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2011-1049

Melon City

It rained on Sunday. That's an understatement as you know, since the same storm that gave us a two hour delay for the Melon City Criterium in Muscatine, IA, came through the Chicago area too. After waiting the storm out at the HOJO's, we headed north to Muscatine about noon. Our race wouldn't go off for another 5 hours.

The course was super fun and was held in the beautfiful setting of not appropriately named Weed Park. It has a nice climb before the last few hairpin turns going into the finish line. The descent has a speed hump at the bottom that like Kristen, freaked me out for the first four laps. Jessi was nice enough to talk me down from my fear. Chris told me it was no big deal and he and Jess were right. I just started going over it without braking. What an energy saver. Ashley James from the Kenda team rolled off the front in about the 2nd or 3rd lap of the 20 lap event. She put in a massive effort to stick that lead for the win. ABD raced well together and attacked and countered and covered moves nicely. With about four to go, after a fast stretch, I put in a dig at the top and got a nice gap going into the descent. I only held it for a lap before Amanda Miller of Columbia-HTC and Coryn Rivera of PB&Co rolled up to me. I caught their wheel and we traded pulls for the remainder of the race until on that last ascent, Amanda put in a dig that I couldn't respond to. Luckily for me, my fanstastically gifted and smart teammate Jeannie had burned one of Coryn's matches earlier in the race by letting a gap open up that Coryn had to close. That was key to me dropping Coryn on that last climb and getting the last podium spot. Jess was just nipped at the line by Samantha Schneider of Team TIBCO and garnered 6th place. Jeannie, after a successful 4th place finish (she should have won, but that's another story) in the 2/3 race, put forth a fabulous team performance and ended up 22nd.

Quad Cities Criterium

Monday morning we rose to very warm and windy conditions. Yes, summer was here! Jeannie, Sarah, Elena and I decided to double dip and do the morning 2/3 race. Jessi was smart and studied for a college class she's taking. The race was a short affair at only 13 laps and after a very botched attempt at a leadout on my part for Jeannie(sorry Jeannie) that I won't go into right now, she was able to salvage a 7th place finish and I sheepishly rolled in behind her for 9th. I've got work to do!

The afternoon race was set to go at 2:30. It would run 33 laps. It's a flat course, but the wind added a difficult dimension to the race having kicked up a bit more since the morning. Kristen, being the defending champion, got her call up as did Jessi. I wasn't paying attention when I got mine for being 3rd the day before. I wasn't expecting it and had to be told twice. OOPS! It was my first call up! COOL!

The race started out hot and heavy with Kristen covering the first dangerous move and was in that group! I was relieved, since I'm on a roll of kind of starting out slowly. I had to bridge a gap to get up to Jeannie and she informed me that I could sit up since Kristen was up the road. Being that Kristen had won this very race the year before, and also being pretty much a local legend, this tactic forced the other teams that hadn't made the break to chase, saving the rest of the team from having to work too much early on. WHEW! Thank you K!:) --Kristen has a TON of experience and has alot to bring to the table and we all very much appreciate having her on the team!

Jessi and Jeannie put in attacks once Kristen was caught though, and Jeannie ended up in a nice break of 4, again taking the pressure off Jessie and me. We did our best to slow things up but the field was still fresh enough to reel the break back in over the course of the next several laps. Once it was caught, I found myself out of position to counter. Honestly, I was struggling to hang on while they chased, and they chased hard! I needed another half lap to move up. Two girls attacked into the head wind and I bridged up to them solo. When they sat up, I attacked them into the headwind section past the start/finish dropping them and after taking a quick look back I saw the field sit up! I couldn't believe it, they were going to let me go! --Well at least for the moment as they must have started to tire out a bit after so much hard racing. So, I went into "time trial mode" --which Chris has taught me so well! I'm not sure exactly when I got the gap, Chris thought it was around lap 15, others put it more like 12, I dunno, all I knew it seemed a LONG way to go by myself, so I just had to pray it would stick. My prayers were answered in the form of Jeannie Kuhajek and Jessi Prinner! Thank you ladies for being great actresses --Jess to field "is that a Kenda girl up there?" in order to maybe throw off team Kenda so that they might shut down any chase attempts since they seemed to have the most riders in the field. That's some fast thinking Jess! Then Jeanie and her held the pace just high enough that when attacks were made, there wasn't enough of a speed differential for anything to get away, but not so high as to roll up on me.Those long lonely laps by myself were tough, but it's all worth it when you know you've got a team backing you and cheering you on! Huge thanks to Mike Ebert and Sarah for giving me splits at important spots along the course! Thanks to my Moso Man for saying the perfect thing along the way. And Kristen and Elena, thanks for screaming your brains out for me! I couldn't have done it without you all! So, on the last lap, I was just trying to stay upright and get my skinsuit zipped up for the "post up". I was so exhausted coming into the finish line that I was afraid I would fall over with the big headwind so I kept one hand on the bar. Better to do that than go down! :)

Coryn Rivera came in 2nd and sprinter Holly Matthews of IS Corp came in third. Jessi and Jeanie's HUGE efforts to help ensure I stayed away of course didn't leave much energy left for them to contest the finish but did finish up very respectfully in 17th and 22nd respectfully due to their incredible natural ability.

Full results: http://www.truesport.com/rzone/racereports/report.asp?recid=3059

I was so happy to head home after a successful weekend of racing for ABD. I couldn't wait to pick up our team dog, Jazzy, at Donna's house. She took awesome care of her and I hear Jazzy even had the pleasure of meeting several ABD members at the Master's race, including celebrity announcer, Todd Busteed. Jazzy says "HI Todd!" Donna you're the best!

Thanks to the ABD Club, Farrell and Ebert for everything you do. Chris, thanks as always for making my sweet Trek Madone run like a top so all I have to do is concentrate on racing and for always listening to me! :) Lastly, thanks for my amazing teammates. I can't wait to see what we can do together once we really get to know each other! :)

We have a weekend off from travel, but we're off to Minneapolis next for the Fixed Gear Classic and Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Have a great week!

Stacy

Northbrook Report: Stacy and Kristen Off to a Great Start

Hi ABD!

Kristen and I had a ton of fun last week at the track in Northbrook. My fiancé Chris was nice enough to write up a report for us. Yep, I messed up the win-and-out (read below). More learning is done with every race!

Stacy

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Last Thursday was the first night of racing of the 2011 season at the Ed Rudolph velodrome in Northbrook IL. Officially the preious Thursday was opening night, but it unfortunately got rained out.

Kristen and Stacy were there in attendance to represent the ABD colors in the surprisingly large women's 1,2,3 field. And represent well is what they did!

In an impressive display of team work they worked together to ensure ABD took the top spot in ALL of the women's events of the night, and only missed taking both first and second place in the last race of the evening in an event known as the "Belgium win-and-out" due more to inexperience racing together than anything else. The Belgium win-and-out is an admittedly confusing race where 1st place is actually fifth place, and fifth place is actually 1st (more info at , http://www.northbrookvelodrome.org/information/glossary-of-racing-terms/ ) and in a moment of confusion between Kristen and Stacy, Francine Haas, who rides for Alberto's, as able to capitalize on the situation and take 2nd place, but Kristen secured 1st with Stacy close in reserve.

The best example of Kristen and Stacy's teamwork though was in the 5 mile scratch race. A scratch race is just a plain old race to the finish. They attacked and counter attacked several times to get Kristen away off the front. She strongly time trialed it in for the win while Stacy was able to rest in the pack so she could sprint for 2nd place. It was really fun to watch them work together so well! I think it's just a sign of the things the ABD women can accomplish when they work successfully as a team!

Since these gals LOVE racing their bikes, they both jumped in with some of the men's fields to get in more racing for the evening giving a strong showing in each. I think pretty much everyone who attended last night would admit that the performance of the evening was Stacy winning the cat 3, 15 lap tempo race! --Yes you read that right, she won against cat 3 men in arguably one of the hardest of track endurance events there is!

The tempo event is where the field sprints for points on EVERY lap, and the points are only awarded to the top two riders (2 points,and 1 point respectively). Anyone who has raced this event knows how unrelenting the pace is the entire time, and though I lost count of the point total, I can say Stacy it won it with a comfortable margin by both going off the front a couple of times and also out-sprinting the field! --Wow!

All in all it was a VERY successful night on the track for the ABD women's team with both girls winning two events each for a total of 4 races with ABD on the top step and two more second places--Not bad for an evening's racing!

Go ABD!
Chris

Appelwick Report: The Rest of the Gila Story

Hey ABD!

Has everyone seen "the Matrix" with Keanu Reeves? As Chris often reminds me, I could have taken the blue pill two years ago when he asked me if I'd like to do a bike race. I was blissfully ignorant going along in my "normal" life of working, hanging out with friends and family, going to church, you know, just regular life stuff. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that life. I was happy! I had dabbled into doing a few triathlons, so I thought why not? I had no idea that jumping into that first crit in Peoria back in '09 would eventually bring me to test the limits of my mental and physical abilities the way that bike racing has. It's the greatest thing ever!

I survived the first two road races of the Tour of the Gila, including a crash, to wake up to sneezing and wheezing the day of the TT. Oh joy! My seasonal allergies were back. Or so I thought. Turns out by Sunday, those ugly little mucous globs from the Mucinex commercials had made a home in my lungs. But trust me, even if I was 100% it wouldn't have mattered. I'm sure my results would have been the same. Those girls out there are amazing!

Friday was the TT. A 16 mile out and back course. Up down up on the way out, down up down on the way back. Nasty crosswinds and my inexperience with flying downhill in aero bars caused me to have to slow down to a near stop to keep the rubber side down. I'm sure I wasn't alone in that. It was cool to see many of the teams make the decision to just go Merckx style. Later, I figured out that they weren't doing this because they were worried about the winds. In actuality, they probably didn't even bother to ship out their TT bikes since they were there to do one job, support the team star. They didn't need to have their TT bike to do that. In spite of slowing to a near stop, I was OK with my 46:46 time that put me at 27th place out of 51. I know that with bigger gearing for the downhill, more practice and a massive dose of courage that my time will drop on that course. Just another reason to go back for more punishment next year. I want another shot at that descent!

Clara Hughes, who is Canadian and a former Olympian medalist in both cycling and speed skating and member of Team Pactimo won the day with a scorching time of 39:33. Rhae Shaw from Team Cycle U posted a solid 41:23 and Janel Holcomb of Colavita/Forno d'Asolo wrapped up the last podium spot with a 41:58.

Stage four was the downtown criterium. The entire town comes out and it's a fun festive day. The weather was great. The course is super fun, and pretty much non technical being that it is a standard 4-corner affair. There's about a 100 feet of climbing and then a long flying descent through turn 3 into turn 4 to the finish. Last year I won the cat 3/4 race. This year, I pretty much felt intimated by all the talent and tailgunned most of the race. What a difference a year and an upgrade makes! I started to loosen up a bit once I realized I wasn't going to get dropped. Any of you that do crits know, the first few laps are often the hardest. These girls weren't messing around. The big pro teams went to the front and hammered it. I survived the first 5 laps and then things settled down a bit. I was able to move up a little on the last few laps and managed to sprint for an awesome 39th place finish! --heehee;)-- It was fun to move through the pack and just practice sprinting a bit. Clara again took the win. Lauren Tamayo of Peanut Butter & Co took 2nd and Petuzzo Eleonora of Colavita/Forno D'Asolo rounded out the podium spots.

The last and final stage is called the Gila Monster. It's pretty much the reverse of day 2. 72 miles back through the initial "small" climbs (still huge by mid-western standards)out of town, then through the Mimbres Valley to the base of the Gila Moster, where the real racing actually begins. A group of about 12 of us got dropped on those first "small" climbs. We did manage to catch onto the group in the valley only of course to get dropped again on the initial slopes of the Gila Monster. The climb seemed to go on forever. I was pretty much alone the entire time but for some sideline fans, which was really cool. I was dropped by the gals in front of me and I had put time into the small group behind me. When I came around that last curve and saw the finish with Chris standing there, I managed to pant for his benefit "I should have taken the blue pill".

Ah how the tables were turned on me again from the prior year. Last year I took 2nd on this stage in the 3/4's. Now, in spite of completing this stage a solid 20 minutes faster this year, I only came in 37th place. Kathryn Donovan of Missing Link Coaching Systems took the win with Lex Albrecht from Team Juvaderm and Heather Logan-Sprenger of Colavita wrapping up 3rd.

After holding the top spot in the GC through two stages, Mara Abbott our current National Road Champion, let her lead slip away to Clara Hughes in the TT and she was never able to reclaim it. Kathryn Donovan took 3rd overall. Oh, I was 39th.

So, I survived one of the biggest stage races on the NRC calendar in the US. I'm once again "Gila Proven". I learned a lot about a bike racing and myself. What a way to spend my PTO!

I would be remiss to mention that my wonderful fiance, Chris, had a fantastic Gila this year and finished 21st in the GC in the 40+ category among some incredible bike racers. Thanks to his encouragement, I was able to actually complete this race and get every ounce of training and experience from what this gruelling event had to offer.

Next up, Tour de Grove in St. Louis on the 14th.

Thank you all as always!
See you at the races!!

Stacy

Prinner Report: The Gracia Orlova Wrap Up

Stage 2 of Gracia Orlova was an epic 123 km that featured the same brutal 8km climb that we finished on in stage 1, except it was now in the first 20km of this day’s race. Knowing I probably wouldn’t make the front group over the top of the climb, my job was to stamp out aggressive moves at the beginning of the race and protect our GC rider, Lindsay Myers, who was 7th overall. As soon as we hit the climb the field blew apart and I simply found a group to ride with and paced myself to the top. At the base of the decent the skies opened up and began to pour on us unfortunate 15 riders, and looking down at my speedometer I realized I still had about 80 km to go until the finish, including two more climbs and a nasty steep 1 km finish to a castle atop a hill. Not only that but it was, of course, freezing cold rain and my arms and legs soon became numb and refused to function. Luckily I had teammate Jackie Kurth to keep me company in the same group for the rest of the 3 hr 45 min race. The rest of the race was quite uneventful except for a crash on a descent that left two riders sprawled on the highway and a Ukrainian chick that insisted on constantly attacking our group as if we were the winning breakaway instead of a group of survivors riding for 60th place. I think I finished in the 70s. Our team leader Lindsay Myers finished fourth on the day, keeping her in 7th on GC.

Saturday was the time trial, and practically everyone’s legs were cooked for the 26 km event. It was a flat, 13 km course that we repeated twice, so it was easy to pace oneself and important not to blow up midway through the race. Unfortunately I was still sick with a cold and blowing snot all over the TT course, probably slipping up other riders and causing wrecks. I ended up in a satisfying 22nd place for the day, just less than 2 min off the winning time. Lindsay Myers, on the other hand, finished in 5th place, moving her up to 4th in GC.

The last day was a circuit race consisting of 6 laps to total 100.2 km. There were no climbs in this race, but a few grades and a tricky bike path section with a sharp right hand, 100 meter kicker that was sure to string out the peloton. And then it began to rain, in the usual Czech Republic fashion. And in the usual European peloton fashion, nobody gave any more room than usual to allow for the slick roads. I did not have the guts to ride up front in the draft, and soon found myself dangling dangerously off the back in the strung out bike path section. And just like that I became one of the many shelled riders in the last stage of Gracia Orlova, except for one important difference. I didn’t drop out. Even though I could no longer see the field or the caravan, I rode the rest of the 80km race by myself. And the broomwagon followed me the entire way, either because they felt sorry for me or truly had nothing else to do. Eventually another vehicle drove in front of me, so I essentially had my own miniature caravan. The police on the corners and roundabouts still stopped traffic for me, and a part of me felt bad for holding up cars, but I mostly didn’t care because I felt so tired and miserable. I’m pretty sure I was the last rider to finish the race, and I don’t even know how far back I was from the main field, nor do I really care to know.

This afternoon I just arrived back in the States, and I have just five short days until I leave again for some racing in China!

Jessi

Appelwick Report: Day 1 at Gila

Hey ABD'ers,

Just a super quick note before I crash for the night. 66 women were registered and it looks like 59 finished the 73.1 miles and I don't know how may vertical feet of climbing. If anyone's interested, here's the link to the course profile: http://www.tourofthegila.com/racecourses.html

The highest grade was 19% today. Just a little bigger than Fox River Grove! :)

Our group pretty much hung together until the last 15 miles. At that point, there's a right turn toward the Mogollon climb where the girls got serious and hit the gas! Note to self: be at the front at the turn! A few girls got gapped and it was impossible to get around and make up that ground into the head wind quickly enough and just like that, the group was gone. Coulda shoulda woulda. Who knows!? I may not have been able to hang on with the pack until the base of the climb. At that point I was able to rotate through with a few girls until the beginning of the ascent where everything splintered further. Our 8 turned into three and I was the last of those three. It's 6.7 miles of nasty hairpin turns and super steep climbs.

As Chris, my trusty partner in this crazy life always reminds me, an athlete has to believe in themselves and have a bit of hope that if they had been there at the front through the turn, they would have held on and maybe been up a few minutes more. It's what keeps me coming back for more! So, although I was 32nd on the day and ended up 6:49 behind today's winner Mara Abbott, I had a great day. It was warm and sunny and we rode through some amazing NM country! AND I was surrounded by many of the women that are role models for me! Here's a link to the results page: http://www.tourofthegila.com/2011race/day1womens12.html

To no one's surprise, Mara Abbott of the Diadora Pasta Zara team rode away from everyone and is up 19 secs on F. Parks Oliveira of the Pactimo Cycling team. Ms. Oliveira'steammate, Clara Hughes, is another 21 seconds back.

After the race, Chris and I rode back down the "Mogy" climb and saw Ben Damhoff of our men's elite team climbing. Of course I yelled "GO ABD!" We had a chance later to officially meet and chat a bit.

So, we're in recovery mode now. The forced feeding continues and we're back for another 80 miles tomorrow! I guess that wasn't such a quick note!

More to come!!

Thanks for all your support!

Stacy

Prinner Report: Energiewacht Tour, Netherlands

Reposted from The Prinner Posts

You never really realize how important your passport is until you don’t have it and the visa customer service rep is telling you it won’t arrive at your house until the day after you’re supposed to be on a plane to Brussels. And I knew that it didn’t matter how verbally abusive I got with the rep because they were not in the authority to walk 50 feet to sort through a stack of passports to find mine to ship it back to me. Thankfully my flight got changed from Monday to Tuesday and my passport (with visa inside in preparation for racing in China) arrived Tuesday morning as I stood anxiously at the door waiting for the FedEx truck to come pulling up my driveway.

By the time I arrived in Brussels on Wednesday morning I had had two days off the bike after a brutal two man TT during Hillsboro Roubaix (when Kim Eppin and I broke away early and rode by ourselves for 50 miles) and my legs were seriously confused as to what kind of trick I was playing on them. And then as if the jet leg and 4 hr drive to our Dutch hotel wasn’t enough (I came by myself as the team had arrived the day before), I was to start a 4 day stage race the very next day. I managed to get in a short spin that night on some awesome bike paths, which the Dutch seem to have a well-maintained network of and are indeed well used by many Dutch locals. I was enjoying my spin on one such bike path when I heard the distinct sound of a revving engine behind me and quickly realized it wasn’t a bike path, but a street, which then began making sense with all the street signs.

I woke up Thursday morning wondering what I had gotten myself into with 108 km ahead of me and 160 women at the line. One woman insisted on being all up in my area and I kept giving her the stink eye in response to her jabbing me in the butt with her brake hood. And I couldn’t even eavesdrop on anyone’s conversation as they were speaking in a language that sounded as if they were trying to expel phlegm from their throat. I began to wonder if they were even speaking a language at all or just making amusing sounds to mess with the confused looking American.

The first stage started in a town called Sellingen and took us took large laps around a 46 km loop that was comprised of flat, narrow roads, some of which were brick, and lots of unprotected sidewinds. Holland is in some ways like my hometown of South Elgin, Il, in that what it lacks in hills it makes up with the wind, and I quickly learned that being protected and in good position is essential to doing well here. The first large lap of the race was slow, bunched up, and relatively uneventful as far as tactics go, but as far as handling and technical skills go, it was chaos. My reflexes were thoroughly tested that day as I had to decelerate from 25 mph to zero, back wheel sideways, the pungent smell of brakes in the air, to stop inches from a cluttered pileup of limbs and bikes. This soon became normal (as we humans seem to have the sick ability to normalize any twisted situation we find ourselves in just for the sake of not panicking) and I was even amused after accidentally ramming my front skewer into some chick’s back wheel, after realizing my machine was okay as her spokes were flying in all directions. Alison Starnes, my teammate, took an offroad adventure into a muddy ditch early on, and Kristen McGrath (another USA member) crashed hard in a pileup, stopping a competitor’s wheel with her hamstring, leaving a burn mark the size of a baseball.

Just a few km after the start of our second lap team HTC turned up the gas at the front in a sidewind and it was RIP for about half the field, including me as I was in bad position and could do nothing as I saw the long line of guttered riders getting annihilated and shattered. My chase group of about 30 riders remained just seconds off the back of the peloton for a while, until a few key teams turned it up in the first group and disappeared out of sight. I sat in with my group for the rest of the race and finished about 2 minutes down from the peloton in the 70s place.

The next day the whole team was relieved to only have an 80 km circuit race that consisted of five laps starting in the town of Midwolda and touring around the Dutch countryside. Even though I still didn’t see much of the front of the peloton, I still managed to stay protected from the wind as I grew accustomed to the layout of the course and could predict the direction of upcoming turns (which makes a difference because you can move up quite a few places on the outside) and the angle of wind (which would determine if the field would be bunched up or guttered down the road). Surprisingly no crashes occurred in the crazy sprint finish between HTC’s Ina Teutenberg, Nederland Bloeit’s Marianne Vos, Forno D’Asolo Colavita’s Giorgia Bronzini (current road world champ), Diadora-Pasta Zara’s Shelley Olds, and AA Drink-Leontien.nl’s Kirsten Wild. I had just enough brains to stay at the back in the last 3 km (not that I probably could have gotten to the front anyway if I had wanted to) and finished in the 50s place.

The third stage’s race was to be 128 km on a course with cruel crosswinds and a narrow, windy (used in both contexts) section of road with dikes on either side (surely with alligators and sharks awaiting the person who was sure to fall in). The first sprint would be in the first 9km to be at the front when the peloton turned into this narrow bike-path like section, because only four or so women could fit across the road, and even less could actually take the twisty turns side by side. Sure enough, everyone was taking all the risks to move up as much as possible as soon as the race began; dodging light posts on sidewalks, riding offroad ‘cross style, or just simply shoving people out of the way if they weighed less. I was approximately mid-pack and continually trying to move up when we hit a left hand turn, and instead of keeping her line through the turn, one rider decided to go from being in the middle to cutting straight across about 3 people’s lines to the right hand side. I actually did not remember this until it was retold by another Canadian rider who went down and broke her collar bone, simply because it happened so fast and there was literally no time to react. I assume that I must have T-boned the rider’s back wheel as she swept across the road and did an endo over the handlebars. The good news was that my bike and body received very little of the impact; the bad news was that it was really all absorbed by my face. My next clear memory is of my head resting on the pavement, stunned from the feeling that my face was just hit by a sledgehammer. Then I saw thick, red globs of blood dripping into a puddle on the pavement and immediately went into panic mode as I felt an absence of teeth in my mouth. The USA team car finally pulled up after much of the caravan had gone by, and Jackson Stewart (the team director) jumped out and began insisting that I was okay and to stop screaming bloody murder because I might just wake up some Australians halfway around the world.

Once I was reassured that the world wasn’t indeed crashing down all around me I hopped into the medics van, somewhat relieved I would finally get to abandon this crazy race. I would later hear from multiple sources from different teams (including the Belgian National Team, which is known for its ruthless aggressive riding) that this race was quite ridiculous in how dangerous everyone was riding and all the risks people were taking, as if they were fully willing to crash in their attempt at positioning. This may have been due to the sheer flatness of the course and that there were few hills to really splinter the peloton, or because it was the race’s debut year and the idea of going down in history as the first woman to ever win this race was truly a savory dream.

Team USA finished the race with five out of the six who started having crashed during the course of four days. Luckily, four of the five crashes weren’t serious and all but one rider on the team got to finish the race. I hate to be the one to set that one-sixth abandonment rate.

Whatever the case, I’m hoping that my upcoming one-day race feels considerably less hazardous in comparison. I also just got my teeth repaired at the Dutch dentist. They didn’t have the Olympic ring grills that I wanted, so I had to go with the conventional white tooth deal.