The AVCs+FSA

One of the greatest things about track racing on the West Coast is the series of multiple-day track races held throughout the summer. It starts with the American Velodrome Championship in San Jose, California, heads to Portland for the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge, and then up to Seattle for the FSA Grand Prix. If you go to one, you'll probably go to all of them. The racing is hard, the fields are stacked, and the people are amazing. Most of all, everyone wants to have a good time, so the atmosphere is almost entirely positive and stress-free. Last year I went to the Portland and Seattle races, but this year I hit all three, and I couldn't be happier about it.

1. San Jose: I'm in the Bay, Trick.

Jen, Tela, and I headed south in what would soon turn out to be an epic journey. We drove Maggie, the VW bus. Maggie is big, Maggie is beautiful, but Maggie has no air conditioning and only agrees to go 35 mph up hills. For this reason, we split the drive up into two days, pulling over on the side of a road near Grants Pass to pop up the camper and sleep. Unfortunately, we had parked about 15 feet away from a railroad track. That night my dreams were filled with locomotives and hobos jumping from abandoned trains. We arrived the next day, picked up Christine, and drove straight to the track.

This was the first time I had raced on the track all summer. I was happy to be riding for Broadmark and to have the best teammates out there (despite yellow not really being my color). For the first time we had ever ridden together, we worked very well as a team, got some wine primes, and celebrated pretty much the whole time (regardless to whether or not there was anything to celebrate). Thanks to Rick Adams, the promoter of Hellyer Velodrome, we stayed in comfort and luxury in Palo Alto.

The ride home, was....hot. In the central valley we endured temperatures of around 111 degrees for 5 hours straight. We stuck it out though, taking a quick dip in Lake Shasta to try and cool off. When we finally made it to the mountains, we could not have been happier. For a while, I thought I could never be cold again. But since then, I admit, I have been cold at least 10 times.

2. Portland: Let me see your hips swing.

This time, apologizing profusely to Maggie before leaving her in Seattle, we packed up our new travel companion Suzie. Suzie is big and beautiful, too, but she has air conditioning and keeps a constant speed on an incline. Sadly Suzie has no loyalty to us, so it took us about 10 minutes to start her every time we took the key out.

Alpenrose is a terrifying track. Its banking is at 46 degrees and it's 266 meters; small and steep. The most terrifying part is the warm-up. But after that, the racing is FUN. The track forces the races to be fast the whole time. This time I decided to just do the endurance events (plus keirin) and was much happier. Some highlighted results of the weekend include Tela and Jen 2nd in team sprint, Tela third in Sprints, sixth in the keirin, Jen third in the points, Christine 4th, and I actually won the points race! Beating Erica Allar by 1 point. I also got 4th in the scratch. Overall, a very successful weekend all around. Big thanks to Daryl Hemenway, our host, who lives about a mile from the track, made for convenient and quick trips back and forth.

3. Seattle: She's a whooty.

Home track. Home track? Yeah, I guess I can say that now. This was the first and only qualifier that I would be able to attend, so I was pretty stressed about it. But, turns out, the stress was unnecessary. First event: 3k pursuit. I got third, 2 seconds behind Shelley Olds and Jen. Pleased. Now that qualifying was out of the way, I was able to relax, the way I LIKE to race. I ended up qualifying in the scratch and the points, too, 4th in both (but 3rd discounting Laura, who is an Aussie). Jen got 3rd in the points, Tela got 5th in the sprints, and then Christine and Jen got 2nd in the madison! Beating Proman! It was so cool! I did the madison for the first time, too, with Heather VanValkenburg from Portland. I had never done an exchange before, but Heather was super experienced and it's actually pretty natural. I REALLY liked it. Word on the street is that this year they're having a women's madison at Nationals! So I'm trying to convince Tela the Crane to do it with me. But she's turned me down before, so I won't hold my breath.

Really great weekend! And what better way to follow it up than a taco truck visit and then a ride down to Matthews Beach. Perfect.

So what's next?? I'm headed down to Bend this weekend for the U23 Nationals Criterium. I opted out of the road race and the time trial, I am not suited so well for those courses. Then the 5th I'm headed down to Chula Vista, CA to spend a few days at the Olympic Training Center. I'm really really really (times 20) excited for that, but also really really really (times 30) nervous. After that, it's track all the way to October. Though, I am starting to get worried about not being on a track for a month before Nationals. We will see!

Here are some assorted photos:

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Today Tela and I went for an easy ride to Golden Gardens. It's always the easy days that get you. We were transitioning from the path to the road path, and Tela said "Follow that guy." But that guy just happened to LOSE HIS PEDAL at that very moment. My initial reaction was to laugh at how someone could be as idiotic as to lose a pedal mid-ride. My second thought was how I was riding parallel to the railroad tracks that were conveniently placed ON THE TRAIL. And I really had no third thought as I collided with the ground. I got up, brushed that dirt off my shoulder, and kept riding. Not even a half mile later the very same thing happened to an older gentleman. Except he had the misfortune of colliding his face with the road.

So, city of Seattle, two cyclists in a half mile radius...perhaps railroad tracks running parallel ON the bike path is not such a genius idea, afterall.

A Few F'burg Photos

The Fitchburg Adventure

Wednesday: 4 am wake up call. Finish packing bike, bike box weights approximately 900 pounds. Hopefully they don't weight it. Tela Crane nearly gives me a heart attack as she falls asleep after her alarm. No worries though, she arrives. Things go smoothly into the ATL, but then I am hit (not by an ATL gangster) but with a 2 hour delay, which potentially puts me into Boston at 9 pm. I call Duncan. We take off, everything seems fine. We land. Some guy says, "This is not Boston." My seatmates and I exchange worried glances, halfway smiling at this man's ridiculousness. He repeats, "This is NOT Boston. There are no trees around the runway in Boston. Where ARE WE??" Our exchanged glances become more worry-filled. Because no one is telling us anything, I GPS our location...Westchester...NEW YORK. I report the news to the man and my seatmates. Soon the whole airplane is informed, and a near riot ensues. We are told that we overshot Boston by 200 miles and we ran out of fuel and had to land in this place, never ONCE mentioning the actual location. When the plane finally lands in Boston, the brainless flight attendant says, "Thank you for flying Airtran, we hope you will fly again with us in the future." Not even exaggerating, 12 people respond "YEAH RIGHT!"

This entire situation results in the plane not arriving into Boston until 1 am. At this time, I have no friends to pick me up and nowhere to go, so I sleep on the floor. No, actually I sleep on the pad from my bike box. At least 5 airport workers ask me the next morning, laughing, if I had a good sleep on the floor. I laugh, but on the inside I wonder why they think this is remotely funny. I HAVE A RACE TODAY. That's what I want to say, but instead say yes I enjoyed it very much.

Thursday: After a relaxing night of uninterrupted sleep (ahem...) I awake feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Oh wait, I'm still in the airport. But now, there is a steady stream of people walking past me, staring. Apparently none of them have ever had to sleep in the baggage claim. I pull myself together, build my bike, and wait for Duncan's friend Dylan to come pick me up. I try to visualize myself time trialing in 4 hours. Menzel tells me a Clint Eastwood quote to try and help, "You must endeavor to persevere." The early hour plus the lack of sleep results in my inability to understand this quote, so it actually does not help.

Dylan comes. We drive to Worcester (pronounced Wooster) and I transfer to Duncan's car. We go to Fburg. After getting my registration packet at the race hotel and getting to the course I have about 2 hours to get my shit together. Luckily, seeing Pam and Louise seriously cheers me up. I know practically nothing about this course, and the fine weather makes for about 50 feet of visibility at all times. But I have ENDEAVORED and now I must PERSEVERE. I do the time trial. I LOVE THE COURSE. It's not too hilly, and the fog adds a kind of intensity to it. Of course, my time is not super fast, but it's not terrible, especially without a time trial bike and my last night taken into account. I finish about dead center of 120 people. Cheryl Thonney (from Walla Walla) finishes 23rd! And Tricia Bailey 26th! Those are incredible finishes.

NOTE: One of the greatest parts of this trip was that we got to stay in the host hotel for FREE. We were supposed to stay in host housing that Jessi (one of the managers, essentially) of the Lipsmacker team had gotten for us. And the Lipsmacker team was supposed to stay in the hotel. But something didn't work out, and they wanted our host housing, so they paid for our hotel!

Friday: Circuit race-36 miles. The course was 3 miles around, mostly downhill with a killer hill up to the finish. The hill was short but very steep. I admit, I was scared of this course...until we began. The backside and the downhill was SO FAST and so fun. Despite a crash on the 2nd lap, the pack was pretty safe and not too sketchy. We started with around 120 people and ended up finishing with around 50. Because of the nature of the course, unlike Nature Valley, they do not pull people, they simply let them keep riding around in misery, hoping they don't get time cut. Everytime up the hill was hard, but honestly I was expecting it to be harder. I ended the day in 31st, very satisfied with the way I rode. Again, Tricia rode very well in 28th.

Saturday: It's the 4th of July! What better way to celebrate the holiday than with a 67 mile road race?! NOT. This was the hardest race I've ever done, and that's funny, because mostly it was by myself. I got dropped on the first lap...ahem. It was weird, I was all good, thinking the course wasn't going to be THAT hard, until we hit the hill. Oh god. It was horrible and I got dropped so hard, harder than ever before. I thought that I had bonked, but I had eaten a HUGE breakfast. Hmm, whatever. I did not get time cut, and this day certainly made me mentally stronger. I wanted to drop out so much, but my want to race the crit the next day was higher than my want to quit, I suppose. I finished.

After the race, after I rode back to the car (about 4 miles away) slower than a 4 year old would have ridden, Tricia, Cheryl and I decided to go swimming in a water hole. (This is not code for going to a bar) In Mass, apparently, places to swim are called watering holes. And it was free! It felt amazing and was just what we all needed. But the swimming does not end here. I get back to the hotel, sit down for about 5 minutes, until Pam comes in, ready to go swim in the pool. Okay, I'll go. As we are sitting in the hot tub, we start chatting with a little girl. She says that the water park attached to the hotel is FREE and that we can go to it anytime we want. WHATTTT?!? Soo, me, Pam, Brett, and Mike practically run out the door toward the indoor water park. We walk in, no one says anything to us. We go down all the water slides, even a TERRIFYING pitch black one. We go down the lazy river. That's when the security officer came over and told us we needed wrist bands...hmmmm...and kicked us out. We left, telling him we would go get them. Yeaah right. Turns out we had walked in the back entrance and the whole thing is supposed to cost $25! Haha, suckers. That's the last time we trust a little girl.

Sunday: Crit day! The crit is described as "pancake flat" but I guess in New England their pancakes have long hills and long descents in them. Warming up my legs felt like absolute trash. I was unmotivated...UNTIL I saw Duncan straight SLAYING in the 2s race. He was in a break with another guy, and the announcer actually said he looked "just like a Linebacker!" Haha, Duncan? He ended up 2nd, but was SOOO close to winning. His mom was proud.

The race was hard. Not a surprise. Somehow I find myself top 10 in the last lap, and the field splits...I am the last to make the split. Ooooh shit. Me and some Value Act girl get gapped on the backstretch and I wonder if I am going to get passed by the entire field. But then, something miraculous happens, and only TWO people pass me in the finish. I got 12th! And the 2 people that passed me were Ali Powers and Jeannie Longo. I'll take it! I am a very happy camper. Today was a redeeming day after yesterday, and I am happy I made this trip worth coming.

Pictures soon.