IT HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!!!!

It’s here!  It’s back and it’s brand spankin’ new!  My powertap just arrived via Fed Ex…and I am so excited.  Everything is brand new, even the hub!  It better work this time! (longer than 6 months).

Other than that – nothing exciting.  Nice weather.  Willamette is canceled.   But life will go on.  We may be doing the DRVTT this weekend, which I’ve heard is just amazing, so we’ll see!  If not, it’s a bunch of hard weekend rides on my own!  yipeee!!! Maybe I’ll just go have an individual Willamette Stage race.

They’re just so cute!

Llamas. I love Llamas!  How could you not love these adorable creatures. I realized how much I really love them yesterday at Table Rock Road race.  Hard race, feeling the pain, and then I look over and what do ya know????  A Llama is staring me in the face.  Well, maybe not right at my face, but it certainly seemed like it.  And it made all my pain go away.  Well, not really, but close…and I realized…that’s what Llamas are on this earth for.  To make me feel happy on painful rides.  How can you not feel happy when you see a face like this????

Hello! My name is LLAMA and I am here to make you happy!

Alpacas are pretty cute also, but they are less common in these parts.  This guy forgot his appointment at the barber, but he still looks pretty darn cute.

Is there actually an alpaca under all that hair???

In other news, I raced 2 races this weekend.  Roubaix and Table Rock.  Roubaix went well…until the end when I managed to botch the sprint and went way to early and lead the other 2 women out perfectly.  Way to go Karey.

Table Rock went extremely well in my perspective and I stayed with the pack (or what was left of it) much longer than I had anticipated and only dropped off after climbing the long hill for the second time.  4 of us chased for a bit and settled into a good pace and finished the race together.  I finished 4th in the 3’s which was an excellent placing for me considering the extremely hilly course.

In other news, my power tap is on it’s way home!!!!!!!  It should be here some time this week and I am so excited!!!!!  It just better work for a while longer than a measly 6 months like it did last time.

I think that’s it…Llamas, Alpacas, racing and Power tap.  Yup, that’s about it.  Oh…and Willamette.  If you are an Oregon racer and you are reading this you should SIGN UP FOR WILLAMETTE STAGE RACE!!!!!  If Mike and Sal don’t get enough people signed up by tomorrow (Tuesday April 21), then the entire race will be cancelled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  SO SIGN UP!

One last thing.  My boyfriend did really well this weekend at racing, so you should check out his blog if he ever updates it.   Here’s a picture of him getting his sprint on at Roubaix.

Kings Valley Road Race

Is hilly. But not as hilly as I expected.  The hills were very do-able and just my type of hill – the kind you can power over in your big ring and sprint up if needs be.

Overall the race went well. I was feeling pretty good.  The first lap consisted of some attacks, going hard up the hills (including myself attacking a couple hills) and trying to cover stuff for my teammates who were going for Oregon Cup points.  I got out in the wind, chased down attacks, etc for the first lap and a little of the second.

I started feeling tired and so I ate some goo and drank a lot of Vitargo.  Felt better, so I moved back up to the front.  At this point we were down to 3 out of the 5 TAI women who had started.  Jill and Jakki were both caught up in a crash in the first lap – so now it was Pam, Lisa, and myself.  This was definitely Lisa’s type of course (power sprinting up hills) – so I’m thinking we can do what we need her to get her the win.

Well, the third lap was hard for me.  I started loosing energy and my legs started feeling like they didn’t want to work any more.  I tried to get up to the front a couple times to shield Lisa from the wind – but then a hill would come and I’d just slip back.  Finally it happened.  Up one of the longer hills (still not very long) – I popped.  Slipped right off the back.  Watched as everyone rode past me.  And I fought it  – and I mashed my pedals – and to no avail I slipped back even farther.  I grabbed my drink and took some huge swigs (the stuff has quite a few calories) – and hammered away.  This is where I know my TT-ing ability comes in handy.

We headed down the descent and it took me mashing up two more little rollers, but then I was there.  Back with the group.  I recovered quickly (to my surprise) – made it up the rest of the hills with the group and got rested as the pace slowed before the finish because we were neutralized.

The finishing hill came and I just didn’t have anything.  Once again everyone skirted past me as I just spun my legs to the top.  Looking back I know that I could have gone harder. I didn’t even try to get up and sprint.  Why?  Because I  don’t know how to make myself hurt.  It’s frustrating!!!!  I always feel like I really really want the win around the 2K – and then it gets hard and my legs are like, “NO!  You don’t want the win!”  Well, dang it!  Yes I do!  And my legs need to learn to make that happen!

This week will consist of some high intensity intervals/sprints/hill sprints at the end of a long ride or efforts.  I have done hardly any of this and my legs need to know what it feels like to be maxed out and then dig even deeper.

Also, I believe I need to be eating more during races.  I calculated my caloric intake for the entire race and I didn’t scarf down very much at all.    That would also explain my little “popping off the back experience” and not having it at the end.  If any of you gals or anyone else are reading this – How much do you all eat for a race like yesterday? (56 miles and a little hilly) – I haven’t been paying attention to caloric burning since my powertap bombed out – and so I feel like I haven’t been doing a good job of replenishment on the bike, even on training rides – so any input would be great!  I just know I should have eaten more than I did.

Now, it’s raining.  Dumb rain.  I know it’s making my raddishes grow in the back yard – but still – it doesn’t make long rides easy.  I’d much rather sit at home and eat banana bread or something like that.  hmmm….

Oh, and by the way – both of my teammates (Jill and Jakki) who were involved in the crash both came out of it not seriously injured.  Jill’s bike, unfortunately, took a turn for the worst and is not really rideable – but hopefully she can get that fixed asap.  Oh, and Jakki had an epic ride with numerous unfortunate incidents and still finished – what a sacrifice for her to be there and to finish the race!  Way to go Jakki!  And…Lisa got the win!!!!!  So, overall our team had a successful  day (whichever way you want to look at it).  Nice job girls!

Cherry Blossom Stage Race = AWESOME!

So, this past weekend was the first ever Cherry Blossom Classic Stage Race which was held in The Dalles, OR.  It was an awesome race and I had so much fun!

There were only 2 of us from the TAI women’s team there, but we made a pretty good showing.  Overall with the 1/2/3’s all combined there were about 52 women who started the race.  This in itself is just awesome and I am so excited that soooooo many women came out to race.  The caliber of racing this weekend was also excellent – so, way to go ladies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope to see more of this in Oregon racing this year and years to come!

The first stage was brutally windy.  It was a road race – 54 miles or so.  Rolly with a long climb in the middle.  A break went off during the first 5 miles or so – I was too far back to realize or react to what was happening and they got away and stayed away.  The rest of the time was spent chasing and trying to keep the rubber side down in the gusty wind.  The final 200 came and I went ahead of the pack and ended up getting 1st out of our group which placed me in 3rd for the Cat 3 women.  Yay!

The second stage: TT – I started out (almost late for my start time) – was going hard – and I got passed – really quickly – and then passed again and I’m thinking…something is wrong.  I’m not going very fast, but I’m putting out all this effort.  I’m thinking I have a flat tire because I can kind of hear a weird noise.  Then comes the mental battle of weather to get off my bike or not.  Finally, when I’m almost blown up and I start hearing a rubbing noise on my wheel I get off.  No flat tire, but I do have a rubbing break.  IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What the heck!??!???!  I move it back over and start on my way again.  Now I’m flying!  Damn!  Not enough to really make a difference.  My time was already lost.  Any time that I had made on most of the Cat 3 field the day before was lost.  Crap!

Stage 3 – Crit: Fast, furious.  The entire race consisted of the GC leaders trying to get away from each other.  At one point 2 of them got away, but was soon to be pursued by the 3rd – Towards the end it got a bit sketchy and almost got taken out by a girl who some how managed to keep her tires on the ground after being bumped and catching on someone else’s wheel.  This sort of spooked me and I fell to the middle of the pack at a critical point.  From this point on the race just got faster. I kept my position and moved up just a little, but not in time for the final corner.  As we rounded the last corner before the sprint, a bunch of women went down hard.  I was on the inside and skirted around the crash, but sat up and rolled across the finish line, not wanting to come across any more sketchiness.  Unfortunately a few of the women were seriously injured and had to be taken away by ambulance.  Our thoughts are with them and I hope they are all okay.

The 4th stage: Road race: Climbing: pain: heat: BEAUTIFUL!!!!!  I got dropped immediately on the climb.  Well, maybe not immediately, but pretty quickly.  When I started the race I knew my legs were toast and I would be lucky to hang at all.  The 5-7 mile climb – I’m still not sure exactly how long it was was brutal – I enjoyed it more the second time as I got to skope out a little scenary.  By the end of the first lap I had joined with about 5-6 other women and we chased and paced lined up to a second groupetto where we picked up a few more riders, but then dropped a few.  We came around to the hill the second time and just kept a steady bearable pace.  Eventually by the top of the climb (after a popped tire) and a few dropped riders it came down to 4 of us.  It was awesome.  We just worked together as much as we could.  Susan from VF paced us all up the second little climb up to the lookout point and then we sped down the awesome descent and pacelined back home with Susan motoring us in from the 5K.  It was great to be able to work with a group of girls that were really working their butts off and just being really awesome!  Thanks a bunch gals!  It was really a pleasure!

So, it’s pretty much a rest week for me and then off to Kings Valley where we will have most of our women there to represent!  The season is officially in full swing and I’m pumped for more racing that will kick my butt!