Lyne Lamoureux wrote a great article about my love for ‘Cross – check it out here. Take the time to peruse the website for other hot-off-the-press articles and fantastic photos, too!!

I’ve had enough 4th places already, sheesh! The first weekend in Providence I was pretty stoked to have finished 4th both days. For my first weekend out they weren’t bad results. But still?! Come on. You read that Louisville was a mixed bag, and now I’m here to tell ya that at Blue Sky Velo and Boulder Cup here in CO last weekend I finished 4th BOTH DAYS! Frick!

Blue Sky Velo Cup held at the Xilinx Campus in Longmont was a freakin’ blast – hard as hell in the mud but I loved it – blue sky, sun shining, and mud…what’s not to love?! I’ve said before that while I might not be the greatest “mudder”, I enjoy riding in it. This past week while out mtn biking, my front wheel wanted to ride through every muddy section but my head said not to so that I didn’t ruin the trails. Damn. Anyway, Katie Compton showed up in Longmont to school us for the the first time that weekend. Had I not seen her on the start line I wouldn’t have known she was even there since she rode off the front of the race so bloody fast and left the rest of us choking on her dust (er, mud). That left Georgia chasing Katie, Alison D chasing Georgia, me chasing Alison, and Kellie chasing me to round out the top 5. I had started to close in on Alison but with only 1 lap to go she pulled away again while I was fighting behind her to keep Kellie at bay. As you can see from the photos, it was a muddy mess out there. There was this one turn in particular that I couldn’t quite conquer and as you can see it got the best of me several times. Imagine the turn of a velodrome, cover it in mud so it’s more slippery than the banking of velodrome, shrink it down in size, and that’s what this turn was like. One lap in particular it about ate me whole – my wheels slipped out from underneath me and I fell off, of course grabbing a handful of mud as I went down. Kinda sucks when you gotta grab the handlebars and shifters again with a hands that are caked in mud. Luckily Brian Dallas was in the pits for me to give me a bike change the next time through. On the last lap I played it safe by running through that section. Yeah, so I’ve got some work to do technically but I think I’m learning something new each weekend.

Sunday once again brought out the sun and warmth, although there was one crucial part missing – mud. Instead we got sand. Yuk. Because of the wet conditions at Harlow Platts Park, the venue for Sunday’s race had to be changed to the Boulder Reservoir. Not ideal but understandable so that promoters can continue to hold events at the park in the future. It’s become a very mental thing but sand just kicks my butt. I have to admit I’m getting better at riding in the stuff but there are times when my bikes seems to just sink right beneath me. I’d love to follow Katie through the sand to see how it’s done right, but like the day before she was running away from the rest of the field by the end of the first lap.

Anyway, I was riding like a yo-yo out there (literally and figuratively) – that is, I was riding anywhere from 10th to 3rd to 5th to 4th. I’d move up a few spots, do something stupid like ride through the tape when my head was down and cut the corner too sharp, and then fall back a spot or 2 again. Luckily it was a long, hard race and I kept the pressure on the pedals until I rode up to Alison in the race for 3rd. Unfortunately, going into a crucial sand section, she got the fastest line ahead of me and came out with a small gap that I wasn’t able to close on the last lap. First, I should have been more aggressive going into the sand to get that line in front of her. Second, when I didn’t get the fast line I should have run it. Live and learn.

Now I’ve got four 4th places in 6 races to add to my palmares – greaaaat. The next USGP is coming up in Jersey this weekend and I am desperately hoping that I’ll do something right to get myself up on the podium for the first time. If I want to make the Worlds team, I must be on it, I mean really ON IT, for the Sunday races in Jersey and Portland. None of this 2nd day shenanigans that seems to be my trademark.

I also want to throw out some props to the people out there who helped me keep my head on straight – Justin and Jason (aka Sugar) from Specialized who helped me take care of my bikes, Brian Dallas who rocked the pits for me, and Stu Thorne from Cyclocrossworld.com who is always there to help in any situation. What would I do without his trusty air compressor to make sure my tires are at exactly 28.4 psi?!

After yesterday’s meeting, each of us knew exactly her role in today’s race and no one had it easy. Of course, I replayed my role over and over in my head all night long, anxiously awaiting the start and keeping my fingers crossed I could make it happen for my team. With a 9am start time, our morning wake-up call came early so that we had time to fuel up at breakfast and digest before hitting it hard on the roads in Mendrisio. Disappointingly, we woke up to rainy skies, which certainly injected a little apprehension into all of us because of the speed at which we’d hit the technical descent that followed the first climb. Well, there’s not much you can do about it when nature tries to spoil your fun so we headed off to the race with the hope that at least it would be a safe and successful race.

We pulled up to the course and immediately felt the energy that surrounded us. Spectators, police, and team buses filled the streets. Team Columbia’s bus was our home base for the day, and that in its self was a nice treat that pumped a little more energy into us. It’s not often that pro women get to enjoy the luxuries that the pro men probably often take for granted, so yeah, we were kinda giddy. But, regardless of the extra perk, we hadn’t forgotten our task at hand and how hard the race was going to be today. Keeping our nerves in check we rolled off to sign in and then each country was called up to the start line according to ranking – we were the 6th country to be called up so were pretty close to the front of the line, which was especially good for me. My job, to force the pace on the climbs for as many laps as I could, essentially started from the gun since the first climb came just several km’s after the start. The gun went off and I followed Kristin Armstrong straight to the front. We hit the climb, I went to the front to set the pace, I got to rest on the descent (it had stopped raining so it was slippery but at least not as sketchy as it could have been), and then went right back to the front on the 2nd climb of the lap. I got to rest again before we hit the 1st climb on the next lap and then didn’t have to worry too much about the pace up the climb because other teams were setting a solid tempo. Over the top someone ran into Mara’s rear wheel and broke a spoke so we decided that when we hit the 2nd climb I would give her my rear wheel (we had decided in the team meeting that a rider would be able to do a faster wheel change than waiting for the car because of the nature of the course and I was the first rider to give up a wheel) because she would be able to catch the peloton easier on the climb than on the fast and short flat section between the climbs. Just as I had gotten my wheel out, the team car pulled up and gave Mara a spare. She took off and caught the group but I was stuck in no man’s land – day over, back to the bus to watch the race on TV. Then disaster struck for real a couple laps later when Kristin and Amber both crashed. Amber ended up in the hospital with a broken metatarsal, but Kristin was able to chase back on with help from Kim. Then Kristin needed a bike change and once again had to chase back on – a lot of energy lost there – but she made it. Evie, the freakin’ energizer bunny that she is, kept setting a tempo up the climbs that was blowing riders out the back as if they were standing still. Evie kept coming back again and again to the front to set tempo, to chase, and to attack as if she had an endless supply of energy wrapped up in those legs of her’s. The woman is a freak of nature, no doubt, decimating the field like she did. Mara, Kristin and Evie pushed harder and harder to break the legs of the few women who were left in the very select peloton, but it was Guderzo (Italia) who made the move of the day. She attacked and a chase containing Kristin, Vos (Holland) and Cantele (Italia) ensued. In the end the 3 weren’t quick enough to jump on the chase and Guderzo took the gold, Vos silver and Cantele bronze. In our minds we knew that if Kristin had not had to waste precious energy chasing back on twice today, she would have made the podium – gold, silver or bronze who knows but it would have been one of those for sure.

In the end we didn’t get the WIN that we had hoped for and knew we were capable of obtaining, but we each did our job and gave it our best. Cycling is a tough sport and all you can hope for is that things go your way on the day. As far as the results go, today wasn’t our day but it certainly wasn’t for lack of leaving everything we had out there.

Now IT’S THE OFF SEASON!! Woooo Hooooooo!!!!! Well, for a couple weeks anyway. One season ends as another begins. ‘Cross has started and I’ll be anxious to join the races in a couple weeks in Providence, RI. Bring it on! First, tonight I will celebrate the season’s end and Kristin’s retirement with the team in Lugano and then will enjoy several more days here in Switzerland with Ben and friends in Lausanne.