Badger is down, but not out!

I never thought the "badger" nickname would be so fitting until I looked down at my hand this morning. A lovely black and blue shade and nicely bloated to form a sort of paw.

4 weeks until the fracture heals (I'm told). Face is healing nicely, though I admit to not wanting to shower for two days for fear my face and the skin would come off.

Big thanks to my "roadside rescue team" for scraping me off the icy gravel and Mike B. for putting my digit back into place. I also owe a thanks to Mike B. for capturing on his phone a very candid moment of me in a dazed and apparently happy-concussion-state. I do not recall posing for this shot, and that's not my glove. Either someone is shielding the camera from my ugly dislocated finger or the universal middle finger gesture.

Little did I know I was the center of all the mayhem when "the lady of the woods" came out of her house asking if we wanted to come in. I just thought, "Wow, this lady sees us training in below freezing weather and wants to offer us some hot tea and cookies. How cool is that." I didn't get the tea or cookies, but the IV and percaset worked. I could do without the bedpan next time, but now I can tell everyone that HvT knows how to get my pants off. Thanks chick.

WOMan Down!

The first visit to the emergency room of the year!

We're pretty good at handling these little trips to the emergency room, but today was a new one. An hour from where we started, on a dirt road, with only one inhabited house in sight, and Robin does a face plant going over some ice. YIKES!

Despite the banged up face, the neck brace (unneeded they just wanted her wearing it at the hospital), and a dislocated/chipped finger, the sense of humor never failed...

Well maybe for a minute when she realized she had a concussion and didn't know what day it was.

Special thanks to Mike B. for "re-setting" Robin's finger (ouch!), Von-T for staying with Robin while the rest of us sprinted back to the cars, and to the lady that lives in the woods and let our spandexed riders sit in your house til the ambulance came.

It was also exciting to find out that Robin's family is able to apparate. By the time the team arrived at the hospital, the Zimmerly entourage was there - mom, step-dad, brothers, and boyfriend! Very impressive. Heal fast Robin, and keep using those painkillers.

The Official CAWES, Inc. logo

Yes, it is official. This mark which will adorn our 2008 kits, bikes, bumpers, etc., is officially registered as a design trademark for use by Cawes, Inc. With it, we hope to encourage women to get out there and ride....!

Wouldn't call it a Party ....

So, HvT, Zim and I braved the cold weather and early hour this morning to check out the 7am ride in DC. VonT and I woke up at o'dark-hundred to make the quick trek to casa de Zimmerly only to find that VonT forgot her shoes! This happens to everyone at some point, but VonT is actually famous for this trick. (although she claims that she wouldnt have forgotten them had we taken her car). Thankfully, Robin's boy had a spare set of mtb shoes to lend - with shoe covers on, no one was the wiser.

After bundling up for sub-freezing temps, it turned out to be rather balmy ... relatively speaking. We took a quick spin to meet up with the ride, where we tagged on right before the hammerfest that is Mass Ave. Good way to find your fingers and toes again since they went numb during warm-up spin. I realized during this portion of the ride that I need new bottle-cages... i dropped not one, but two bottles in a span of about 15 minutes. At this point we decided to take a short cut to rejoin the ride and had just enough time for Beth, who was riding with us, to fix a shifting issue. Rejoin the ride and play the accordian game - it wasn't a blistering pace but would ebb and surge at odd places. HvT suffered from shifting issues after conquering Old Angler's ... to the point of dropping her chain. During another shortcut, we were heading up a slight hill when I went to shift to an easier gear - my shifter went slack and Beth said she heard something pop .... I just said "something bad just happened". Yup, the shifter cable completely broke. Thankfully I could still shift the front ring, but I was stuck in my 12 for the rest of the ride. HvT dutifully tried to rig it to a lighter gear, but we started getting cold so I said I'd suck it up and move on. We rejoined the group again and stayed near the front, especially on any inclines, so I could play my own version of the accordian game - bomb the descent, attack the hill and slowly fade toward the back of the pack until we crested. Hey, it works.

Despite the multitude of mechanicals, we'll be doing this one again - its a friendly ride with ups and downs and many short cuts to rejoin. We made it back to Robin's no worse for the wear, and it wasn't even 10am - what a gift, we were done for the day and still had plenty of daylight left ! Almost, ALMOST worth the 5am wake up ... and unfortunately I'll be spending the rest of the day attempting to re-cable my bike. Well, you can't have it all.

CAWES Mission Statement

The “Women Formerly Known as ABRT” were presented with an opportunity to build a women’s team that will compete at the regional and national level, with the future goal of becoming a truly competitive national level team. The team title sponsor is CycleLife, a new bike shop opening in Washington, D.C. in the Spring of 2008. The women have formed a non-profit organization known as CAWES, Inc. (Capitol Area Women's Elite Squad) that is committed to promoting and encouraging the participation of women in cycling locally and nationally. We will be working with local groups to advance policy initiatives for a greener and healthier lifestyle through cycling and cycling friendly laws. We have partnered with WABA, the Cycling Made Real Series, and the US Women's Cycling Development Program in an effort to accomplish the mission of the organization. We are extremely grateful for the support that members of ABRT and MABRA have shown us and would like to thank them for their continued support in 2008.

Thank you for your support!