Local Utah Race

Snow at the Intermountain Cup Race (Deer Valley, UT)

Thanks to Dusty, Erika's husband, we have proof that we raced in snow, in June.

Well, it really didn't stick to the course, but it did snow.

Getting ready to warm up. It is snowing, cold and 7:30am!

Once the race started and my fingers thawed, it was fun. The course was different from all the desert racing we have been doing lately. Because of the trees and mud it was similar to a Southeast course, although there was a snow drift and only one root... Erika Pro Podium. My sister Erika far right. This was the first time we have ever raced each other, she is racing her first year in the pro class (after one year in the expert class).

Riding in Utah

Headed up Mirror Lake Hwy 10, 500feet.

Looks like they haven't finished clearing the roads, but we needed to make sure.

End of the road, really.

Headed back.

My sister Erika, showing off her new team kit (Revolution)

and her guns.

Time to put LOTS of clothes on and head back down.

Erika's Race

My sister's race in Sundance, Utah. Erika is racing pro in Utah and races one of my teammates, Heather Holmes. It was fun to watch and just hang out. Todd and I rode the course after the race, it was a great course.

Lake Tahoe

Before leaving Truckee, CA I decided to do a road ride around Lake Tahoe with Cass. 72 mile road ride, sounded like an awesome idea at the time. Todd opted to stay home...

The views were pretty amazing. We started in Tahoe City and headed clockwise around the Lake. It rained, no problem, we had rain gear. The temperature dropped, no problem we had lots of clothes. We tried to skirt the traffic through towns by taking side roads, that worked pretty well till we got ~40 miles into the ride, around the stateline (right before South Lake Tahoe).

We took a side road, then a nice bikepath that ended in a campground. No problem, Cass found a singletrack. The singletrack turned into a swamp, but Cass saw a road across the way. I am not sure why we kept going, but we ended up crossing a drainage ditch, climbing over cable boxes, sneaking through the back yards of a trailer park and finally cut through a yard and behold we were on a road (in a gated trailer park. The automatic gate almost took Cass out as we hightailed it out of there).

We made it back to the main road, it was raining, the traffic was bad, we rode the sidewalk, and I was getting really cold (~40 something degrees and soaking wet-so much for rain gear). The sidewalk ran out, Cass saw a covered valet parking area outside a hotel/casino and suggested we hang out there for a bit, I saw the Starbucks sign and said Yes. That was the end of our ride, we called Nick for rescue... Cass would have kept going, but I was done with cold and rain. I won $81 on slots (then lost $40 of it), and drank lots of coffee while we waited on a ride.

More views of the rest of our planned route (but taken from the car).

Truckee, CA

This is one awesome place to ride. Thanks to Nick and Cass we have our own personal tour guides. The weather is not cooperating, it has rained everyday (which is not normal from what we understand). Rain and 35-40 degree weather is not fun for long. But we have seen enough to know we need to come back.

Bike Fit/Setup Thanks

I have ridden the same bike for almost my whole racing career. This year it has taken a while to get my new bikes dialed and fitted, we received piece by piece so I had to wait for all my new parts before getting a proper bike fit.

After Sea Otter I had a bike fit on my new bikes (Eddie O'dea had fit me on my old bikes and recommended Karl Etzel at Silicon Valley Cycling Center in California). Now I really love my new bikes! I can tell the difference in the fit. I did make a couple tweaks since the fit, the Racer-X is now set up a little more for downhill control and the Fireline is for pure climbing. I have been testing the fits this week and I really feel I have more control now. Thanks Eddie and Karl!

Todd and I found some great shops to help me fix the other issues.

Thanks to Chuck (Pedal Power in Santa Maria, CA) for helping me out.

We visited all of the shops in a 50 mile radius and this was by far the best shop. He had all the parts we needed to fix my shifting, plus he loaned us tools, cut my fork, gave us pointers, told us where to ride and helped us work on our bikes well past closing. For the first race this year I didn't have a technical and finished well (11th) at NMBS #3. Thanks Chuck! What was different about this shop is that he really loves riding and helping out customers, you can tell as soon as you walk in.

We also found a great shop in Carmel, CA (close to Sea Otter). And again someone who went out of his way to help us out, Rob was very nice to set up my new road bike. I went in to get the fork cut, but he really knew what he was doing so I didn't stop him when he started fixing everything. I assumed I would not get in a road ride for a while, but Rob set it all up and I was able to ride 17-Mile Drive the same day. That was so very cool, I know they were busy. Thanks Rob and Netty!

Bruises from the NMBS#1 (Fontana) race. No bike fit, weight too far forward, too short of a fork = lots of falling.

Hail and Cold Rain in Truckee, CA

Wow what a switch from 103 degree, dry, dusty grasslands. We just drove up to visit Nick and Cass in Truckee, CA. At ~5500 feet it looks like we are in the Colorado mountains with pine trees and mountain views, it is 49 degrees and hailing/raining. Cass says the trails will be in good shape after a little rain. We just pulled in and set up (converted from "car" to "house") and are off to find a brewery and pizza.

A good write up of the NMBS #3 race: http://www.mtbracenews.blogspot.com/

NMBS#3 11th in XC! 15th in ST.

NMBS#3 in Los Olivos, CA. HOT! 103 degrees at the finish of our XC race on Saturday. A heat wave hit this weekend, my last few weeks of riding in CA have been in 55 to 70 degree weather. I had a great race though. My bike stayed together the entire time, my legs felt good, and I didn't put a foot down once in the XC race - what an accomplishment.

Picture: ST first lap, from right to left (I think): Heather, Me, unknown, Amanda.

ST Finish: Heather 7th, Zeph 13th, Amanda 14th, Me 15th.

http://cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/may08/NORBA_3_08/NORBA_3_085

Women's MTB Clinic - Los Olivos, CA

Free Los Olivos, CA Women’s MTB Clinic

May 10th 2008

Details

VW Van

So the transmission went out on the VW van again, Todd found this little song: Fun-ky Tranny! Tranny's got the Funk! Fun-ky Tranny! Tranny's got the Funk! Hear my shifting grinding... Makes me take my Paxil! Sound that's now reminding... Me of my funked transaxle! Fun-ky Tranny! Tranny's got the Funk! Fun-ky Tranny! Tranny's got the Funk! Van aint goin' nowhere! Van just isn't groovin' Gonna cost a lot of bread To get my vanny movin'! Fun-ky Tranny! Tranny's got the Funk! Fun-ky Tranny! Tranny's got the Funk!