Fun Weekend

Fairhill was a blast . . . it was great getting back on the mountain bike and seeing so many familiar faces. Cheryl Sornson (Trek/VW) and Michelle "Sunshine" Stopper (VisitPA.com) were first and second and I was lucky enough to round out the podium in third. The course wasn't that technical, but I sure could tell I hadn't been on the mountain bike since last summer!
The chicken had a great day, too! She placed second in the Sport category and was a mere 20 seconds from winning. An early crash moved her from the lead to second - but she held on to second - way to go!

Jeff Anderson, photographer and mountain biker extraordinairre

Here are some pics from Saturday's women's skills clinic - here we are practicing putting a hand on our partner's shoulder and looking back. We got really lucky with the weather, but ran out of time so we plan on putting on a skills 'n drills clinic part 2 to address more advanced cycling skills. Look out for a post on another clinic, perhaps in May.
Thanks again to Laurel for organizing this clinic to raise money for RAAM's Green Team!

Wednesday Night Ride in DC

Cherry blossoms - this one's for you Mom! Snapped a shot on my way to the most awesome ride DC has to offer on a weeknight.
Cassie, Clifton and Lisa joined us for the ride. Here we all are crossing the 14th St. Bridge on our way to Arlington, VA.
The Route 1 Velo gang "pacelining" on the Mt. Vernon bike path just like little ducks in a row. 
The chicken demonstrating her winning style. She claims she got me at the city limit sign on the Memorial Bridge, but I'm not so sure.

Thanks to Route 1 Velo strongmen Mike, Travis, Jesse, Brandon for pulling me around and making me hurt! You guys rock. 

Weekend Races

Me chasing an early break at Tyson's with HPC's Kristy Scheffenacker on my wheel.

Jdub on Circus Peanuts

This weekend was a blast and I accomplished my goal of just about, but not quite, blowing myself up at Walkersville. My intent was to try and find out where my black line becomes red. I think I now know. What a great ride and many congratulations to Lorena, Chris, and Susanna! I was able to lead out the pack for a nice sprint finish, and although I thought I had nothing left after the lead-out, I somehow managed to come around Wendy Ullmer at the line (sorry about that Wendy, I couldn't help myself :>)

The chicken had an excellent race, as well, finishing 14th overall and 5th in the Cat 3s. We were both pretty spent and wondered about how our legs would feel on Sunday and much to our surprise, they felt awesome!

Tyson's started out pretty normal for a circuit race, and early on there was a break that I decided to chase along with Hub's Arly, while Lorena sat along for the ride - she had a rider in the break. Jen Cheng bridged up to us and as we were moving up the hill, I noticed I was having trouble turning the crank. No problem, must be the brakes, so I flipped the lever. But the crank wouldn't free-up. I kept pushing and the crank felt like it had fused to the frame. I looked at the wheel/cassette and I saw all these little metal shavings coming out from the drop-outs. I thought, hmm, I wonder what that is? Maybe I should stop pushing.

Needless to say, the Spokes guy said, "Three or so more pedal strokes and you would have ruined your free-hub body and your frame." Apparently my cassette had loosened and was flapping around and the rings gotten pressed up into the drop-out. What a new experience, I have never had that happen before. I guess that will be one more thing I'm going to check before getting on the bike!

Anyway, the race went on while the Spoke's guy worked on my bike. After about 45 minutes he had determined that the derailler hanger was also bent and that I would probably need a new one if it ever got bent again. He got it dialed in pretty good, though, so I was able to attempt to race with the boys. BTW, the boys speed up the hill was 7 mph faster than the girls at 22mph. I got dropped pretty quick, but kept latching back onto the back several times when they came around to try and get a work-out in.

Thanks again Spokes guy whose name I forgot. You made a disappointing day a lot of fun in the end! Congrats to Jdub for an awesome victory, most certainly due to the Circus Peanuts! God I love those things - especially with chocolate milk.

Redlands

Hope everyone is having fun. Been living vicariously through you guys via cycling news. They mixed -up their kittens identifying this rider as Melissa Sanborn, but it is none other than Jenny Trew.
Good luck to all the Kitty-Kats! Kick some ass - wish I was there.

Jefferson Cup

Last Saturday, Christina and I headed down to Charlottesville, VA to race Jefferson Cup. We stayed at the KOA located just minutes from the start. We were able to sleep in until the very last moment; this was especially important since it was sleeting off and on outside until about 9:00 AM. The poor guys had to race in the sleet – probably the only race where the men raced early – ha, ha!

At the race, we met Jamie from Charlottesville Fit Studio, a Wobble Naught bike fitting specialist and Vanderkitten retailer. Shortly thereafter I met my closest teammate Mandy Lozano – what a nice person! After having worked the men’s 123 race - and getting no warm-up – in addition to recently returning from Argentina for school – she raced the women’s 123 and finished with the main field. Since she raced as a collegiate rider, her results aren’t posted.

The race was fast and slow. Colovita’s Andrea Dvorak showed up to support her hometown race and to push the pace from the start. The 42 mile 4 lap course sported one large hill that offered excellent breaking opportunities. Every lap had some attacks on the hill, but no organized efforts developed so no breaks stuck. On the fourth and final lap, everyone settled in for what would surely end in a sprint finish.

I was lucky enough to find myself on Andrea’s wheel for the final run toward the finish, but got boxed in a bit right before the line by Amity Elliot of Van Dessel who was later relegated to 21^st. HPC’s Lorena Canadrian found an open lane and came by on the right to take the win. Laura Cook of Conte’s TriPower took second, Leslie Jennings of CycleLife was third, I was fourth and HPC’s Kate Flore rounded out the podium with fifth. All in all, it was a really good race, it’s still early in the season, but this was definitely a good start to what should promise to be a great season – thanks Mandy for all your help with organizing Jeff Cup and getting back into the racing scene! Go Kitty-Kats!