Junior's Day Out Sept. 26th

We're psyched to be co-sponsoring the Junior's Day Out & Maryland Special Olympics Fall Games with T.E.A.M. FUJI on Sept. 26th in Sykesville, Maryland. Tons of racing opportunities and prizes. See flyer below (if any problems reading it, click on the flyer and it will expand). Register at SportsBaseOnline here.

Master's Worlds

Epic. Fantastic. Heartbreaking. Inspiring. Cool.

That pretty much summarizes the trip to Austria to compete in the Masters Worlds. Having gotten my feet wet last year, I came back this year to win the Masters World Championship. It was the race that I'd thought about all year. The race that motivated me when I sat on my trainer in the basement all winter long. Every other race this year was preparation.

I was competing in three races, the World Cup, the World Championship, and an "elite" race to finish out the week. I'd learned my lesson last time and decided to forgo the stress of trying to do the time trial too.

So the results...
2nd at the Master's World Cup race, 3rd at the Master's World Championship, and 1st at the elite race.

I was thrilled overall, but have to admit that I was disappointed with the Championship race. It's hard to come that close and know that something was within your grasp, but you just didn't do what you needed to do. I've replayed the finish a million times thinking of all the things that I could've done differently.

And the damn advice that I was given at the beginning of the season kept coming back to haunt me..."the little things are what will make the difference when you're sprinting against someone who is just as strong or stronger than you are." I screwed the finish up royally.

After that I figured that I'd just race the elite race and see what happened...wouldn't you know that the sprint finally came together and I got the win.

That was the racing part. The rest of the trip is what's its really about. I can't do the experience justice though so hopefully the pics will...








Downtown St. Johann in Tirol











The top of the climb on the road race course where hundreds of fans hang out, yell, and get drunk. Seeing a pack of 80 year old+ riders digging deep and getting over this thing is one of the most inspiring things you'll ever see.










World Cup Prize = Giant beer.
Me = a drunk bridesmaid.





















On the podium with Michella Gorini (Italy) and Sarah Storey (Great Britain) for the Master's World Championship ceremony. That's me rocking a Sarah Palin updo.

Sarah Storey (left) was a gold medalist at the Paralympics in cycling and crushed the time trial at Worlds. At the elite race she gave me a world class leadout!







At the start before the last race...lots of chaos in the background. And the mountain that we'll soon be climbing.




















The podium after the elite race next to Martina Ruzickova (CZE) and Jacqueline Hahn (AUT). They actually had to stage this cause I missed the real ceremony... we had gotten bad information about the ceremony running late and had returned to the hotel. Oops!











My first international win! I'm keeping this.




















The photographer finally has the camera turned on him.





















One final random comment...they drug test at this race. The woman who won the 30-40 year olds race last year ended up getting disqualified because she failed. The penalty is a 2 year ban from the UCI. Supposedly, out of 20 athletes tested last year, three were positives! That's outrageous! I hope they start publishing the names of every athlete that fails. Dopers suck.

Winner x 3

Jen Cheng wraps up her season with a hat trick in the 540 Development W3/4 Series.

540 Series Part II - Jen Cheng - 1st place
540 Series Part III - Jen Cheng - 1st place
540 Series Omnium - Jen Cheng - 1st Overall

Congrats Jen!!!

Congrats to Our Newest Cat 2!

Go Robin! She's worked her arse off this year and deserves it. And in case there was any question . . . her palmares include a win at Bike Jam, Grandview Grand Prix, and a 3rd in Tour of the Gila crit. And yes, and all this while planning her wedding and baking a mean cherry pie. I think she practices law on the side, too.

Congrats to Our Newest Cat 2!!!

Go Sara! She's worked her arse off this year and deserves it. And in case there was any question...this photo is of her winning the Cat 3 Crit Championship (photo courtesy of Jim Wilson)... And yes, she can beat you at arm wrestling too, why do you ask?

Tyler & Me... a Couple of Bridesmaids

Yep - that's one of my favorite pictures! Tyler Farrar and me at CSC last year. I wish his sprinting abilities had rubbed off. Unfortunately I think he caught my bridesmaid condition.

Hagerstown and Dawg Days

So its Monday after a hard weekend of racing. Am I the only one who feels hungover?? Granted, I'm allergic to alcohol and technically don't know what it feels like to be in the said state of "hungover", but I imagine it feels like this. Dog tired (like I actually fell asleep at my desk today). Puffy face. Bad headache. Gotta love this hobby of ours. But I digress....

Saturday was the MABRA criterium championships in Hagerstown, MD (what a great venue. thanks AVC!). We knew going into the race that the tactics would be a bit tricky because there were two jerseys to be had...one for the 1,2s and one for the 3s. The plan was to keep things aggressive while ultimately protecting our sprinters and overall BAR contenders in each category. Sonja started things off hard with a long initial attack/pull. I countered in what I thought was just going to be one in a chain of attacks that would keep the pace up...but only Erin (Artemis) went with me. So, we just decided to hang out for a bit up the road (by "bit" I mean 50 freaking minutes of pain). We worked super well together with her pulling through the longer, curvier back side of the course and me taking over for the windy straight-away through the start/finish. The officals consistently gave us time gaps of 20-30 seconds from what we thought was the entire field...but turns out they were giving us splits from Sonja and Leslie and then just Leslie as they tried to bridge up to compete for the 1,2 win. I definitely pulled like a crazy person every time I heard the gap go down...so yep, maybe time to get out the race radios again. Erin and I were able to hold the gap , literally proclaiming our love for each other throughout the last lap (bet that doesn't happen too often in the men's fields). She took me in the sprint, taking the overall win...but we both got to walk away with our first big championship wins! Leslie finished second for the 1,2s as the sole chaser, and Jen took the field sprint for second in the cat 3s. Special thanks to Sonja and Christina for controlling (and dealing with some frustrating tactics) back in the field.

Check out the nice article about the race in the local Hagerstown paper (and check out the pain grimace in the pic from the article).

On Sunday we welcomed Michelle back after a few weeks off nursing an injured knee . Michelle, Sonja, Christina, Jen, Leslie, and I lined up in a much larger field for the 1st Annual Dawg Days of Summer circuit race. What a fitting name for the race. The open, unshaded course was mucho hot and windy. With the heat, wind, and sprinter phenom Sarah Caravella in the field, we knew it was not going to be an easy day. Michelle led it off followed by a number of failed attacks from CycleLife, Sarah, Team Kenda, Artemis, and others. It didn't seem like anything was going to get away until Leslie countered a strong attack from Jen late in the race, taking Amanda (Artemis) and Chris (Kenda) with her. The trio would ultimately stick it (seriously guys, I don't know how you did it) with Leslie taking the win. Back in the field, we settled in for the field sprint after pulling in the only chase group. Sonja drove the lead out for an entire lap...allowing Jen to take over with a RIDICULOUS acceleration to take the field sprint. In the end, we walked away with two primes (Michelle and Leslie), first (Leslie) for the 1,2s, and first (Jen) and second (Christina) for the 3s. All and all, not a bad weekend if I do say so myself :)