Happy Valley TT Women's 35-39 1st place

Okay, I did narrow the field by racing my age category. I narrowed it waaaaay down to just me. But I at least went out and did my least favorite discipline. At first I felt a little guilty not racing women's 4.

I am actually pretty happy with my time. 1:12 for a 26 mile course. I was hoping to finish in under 1:15 so I met that goal. I felt like I stayed pretty focused on my HR, cadence and speed. I didn't see either the live antelope or the dead one that Kara saw.

In the first few miles I thought I was cruising along at a pretty good clip going 24 when my teammate Jamie (who had started a minute behind me) flew by me like I was standing still. After the turnaround I was passed by Jillian and Diane. As I neared the finish another teammate, Breanne passed me. By this time I no longer felt guilty at all about racing my age. I would have got killed racing Women's 4.

Breanne finished in 1:03! I had given her a hard time at the start because she was wearing Shane's old VMG skin suit and it had lots of extra room and the short were almost knickers. But the skin suit and the girl that cheated and sucked her wheel for 10K spurred her on to kick some Ass. (Okay, the fact that she is just damn fast on a bike probably had more to do with it than anything else.) Jamie's time was not far off Breanne's and she took third. Had I raced my field I probably would have been 9th or 10th.

Unfortunately, I can't say that I like time trials any better. Any other kind of race, regardless of my finish, when I get done I think "that was fun!" and "I'm glad I did it." I didn't feel either today. I was glad to be done and it is always cool to see my friends but not so glad I did it.

Bucking Broncos

This is about how it went on my commute to work this morning. I was flying down 2200 W. at about 24 mph. The rider either didn't see me or underestimated my speed and started crossing the street right in front of me. I hit the brakes but still managed to scare the crap out of the horse. He started prancing and bucking. I went all the way across the road to the opposite shoulder to give the poor scared creature some room and to avoid getting charged or kicked. That woke me up better than Starbucks!

I pledge my allegiance. . .

Just kidding. Can't be done. If you read my blog at all you know how enamoured I am with my Ski Utah team. But thank you Eric and co. for helping me with my flat. With no levers I would never have gotten my tire off and without Eric pulling the staple out with his teeth I'd still be at RMR. Eric, your wife is a lucky woman!

So tonight was back on the oval. For some unknown reason I got popped off early. I slowed up and as I got lapped got right back on. I felt great. I was able to hang with the surges and I even thought about moving up and possibly attacking (not likely to actually happen but maybe one day.) Then about 25 minutes in there was another surge and I just seemed to have no power. I figured the race was almost over so I pulled of and went to chat with Brent and Stan. After the race I went to leave and as I stood up on my pedals my back tire skidded. I realized then that it was completely flat. Grrr! My skidding and the staple seems to have done some damage to my tire and it only has about 200 miles on it! I made it home (see above paragraph) and now I'm looking forward to a nice flat TT on Saturday. 26 miles of riding alone- it will be a test for me!

No Mountain Bike Race for me today

It is only 7:12 but that is sleeping in for me. It is pouring rain outside. I wonder if they'll even have the mountain bike race. I rode the course yesterday, thankfully by myself. Some friends had invited me along (expert formerly pro level riders) but I decided to go it alone. I was glad I did. I struggled up every steep section, there was no spin, no nothing left in the legs from Saturday's race. I'd like to be able to spend more time becoming a decent mountain biker racer but it seems I can't do both. I'm still figuring out the roadie thing. Oh well, I'll be a Capitol Reef with friends in July and I'll get in lots of great trails there.

So now I am thinking about doing the TT next weekend. The only way to get better at them is to do them. Besides, being bad a particular type of racing has never stopped me before (except for maybe today where I just would have been in everyone else's way). So I'll strap 'em on and give it a go. I'm seriously considering trying it as intervals. A couple of hard minutes and a short recovery might be faster for me than trying to give it a sustained effort. That might also help keep the ADD in check. Hmmmmmm, thoughts anyone?

"Pure Sprinter"?

That is the title I'm going to give myself. It always sounds good when you hear Phil Ligget say it when Tom Boonen is suffering off the back in the climbs. My friend Tara wont let me say that "I'm not a climber" because that is negative. I'm still trying to figure out why I can suffer for an attack on a flat road or suffer for a sprint finish or suffer into the wind on a flat or rollers, but I hate the suffering of climbing. But I still love racing despite the climbs so maybe I'll get better at suffering.

Thanks to 10 extra pounds I'm carrying this year Garden Creek Gap was harder than I remember it from last year. My plan was to pull the speed demons/climbers: Allison, Breanne and Jamie to the climb and let them go. But just the first hill had me worried about hanging on even that long. Finally when it leveled out I caught up and pulled around front where Jamie and Allison were pulling the field. Brandi and I pulled for as long as we could and then let our teammates go off to kick some Ass Ski Utah style.

I watched the pack slide away and I settled into a nice rythm. I managed to pick off a couple of girls on the climb. After the descent I could see Nancy and a girl in green working together ahead. I pushed and pushed but never did catch them. The girls I had passed on the climb were working together and were catching me. We worked together until it was time to climb and I stayed with them as long as I could but the miserable, cold headwind seemed to be sucking the life out of me. I managed to finish but I'm not sure where I placed. I really thought I was last for the whole race so I was glad to see there were at least a few people behind me.

By this time it was hailing at the top. Kris, Brandi and I headed back to the gas station to change into dry clothes. We went back up to the top just in time to see Chase take 1st in his last Cat 3 Race. By this time the it was pouring and since BG felt so bad for those poor boys in lycra that were getting soaked, we offered them a ride. Apparently my little Jeep can fit 5 passengers 3 bikes and a crap load of gear. Happy days!

Congrats to Allison on 1st, Breanne 3rd, and Jamie 4th in the Women's 4 and to Chase on his 1st and Spence taking 6th in the Mens 3. Once again our team rocked it!

Next weekend is the State TT championships. If there is anything I love more that a nice steep hill climb it is a TT! OMG I can hardly wait!! Maybe I'll take a weekend off and pick up dog poo.

Bear Lake: The Finish Line

Although I wanted to sit up with both arms above my head in true pro fashion, I was so hypoxic that I thought I might crash so I went with the single fist instead.

The Riders Prayer
Written on January 21, 2008. Written by The Rev, Church of the Big Chain Ring

Our Father which rides in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy mountains come,

Thy will be rode,

in The Big Ring as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily mileage,

And forgive us our drafting,

as we forgive those who draft against us.

And lead us not into a field sprint,

but deliver a solo win.
For primes,

the flowers and jerseys are yours,

For ever and ever.

Amen

Ski Utah Cat 4 Women Rock!

Bear Lake Classic Road Race. Me !st, Breanne 2nd and Jamie 3rd!

Beautiful Bear Lake. . . .

My team rocked the field! I couldn't have done it with out them. Here's how it played out. . . . .

All week we had been strategizing over email. Last year this race had a whole bunch of scary beginners and a whole bunch of crashes. Ski Utah had 7 of 18 registered riders in the Women's 4 field. Our plan was to attack early and often enough to break up the field. We attacked right from the start and the Wasatch Women had a couple of attacks and short breaks early on. After the first turn Kris and Kara attacked and got in a nice break away. They got pretty far out because it seemed no one on the other teams wanted to work to get them. We eventually caught them right before the rollers. I immediately counter attacked and Jamie came with me. We were caught up the first hill but we had finally split the field into only 8 riders.

Through the rollers it was even worse, hardly anyone would work except for Ski Utah. Breanne and Jamie continued to put the pedal down hard and push the pace with Allison and I taking some pulls for relief. Finally after the rollers and into the final stretch the Bike Peddler girl took a good long pull and we used the time to rest and keep ourselves in good position for the sprint finish. Once she pulled off though it was back to us pulling and Breanne did a nice long pull into the wind. Again we attempted to back off and rest. Without us at the front the pace seemed to slow to a crawl.

At this point I was feeling good. Too good to be dragging along at 17 mph. I felt like I had enough in my legs to attack, split up the field, and if I got caught I would still have enough to sprint again at the finish. I went off hard. My awesome team sat up and waited for the rest of the field to chase me down. They either didn't have the legs or the smarts to chase so once again they sat on. I looked back several times. Once, I thought they were catching me but as a pack of Mens 5s flew by I expressed my joy at them being men. (They probably though I just got out of a convent or something!)

I got another wind when I looked back and could see I still had some good distance. My legs and lungs were on fire. I could now see the turn and the finish line and I knew my daughter was there waiting for me. Wanting her to see me win kept me going despite the total body pain I was feeling. I crossed the line a little less than 1k ahead of the rest of my field. It was awesome! Despite pulling a hard fast pace for much of the race, Breanne and Jamie sprinted for 2nd and 3rd place and Allison got taken at the line to finish 6th.

It was a great day and once again my team rocked it! I can't wait to return the favor to my teammates soon.

My kids ROCK!

My kids are so cool. Ashley just sent me a text to tell me that she made Dance Co. at West Lake. Austin is loving his job at Backcountry.com and he is doing some freelance graphics work on the side. Check out his blog (link to the right). I'm so proud!

More DT Crit pictures

Well, I look good! Now if I can just set myself up for the win! Soon. . . . .

Happy Birthday Izzy!

Little Miss Isabelle is 2 today! Happy Birthday to my cute little neice! She is an awesome kid. She's got a huge personality. I love it when she says, "What about me?!" because someone has overlooked her and she wasn't treated like a big person. I also love how she is so tough. She is never afraid to try anything and she prefers to have her adventures while wearing her princess pumps and tiara.

Crits are sooooo fun!

That is me up front. Maybe too much time up there today? Still it is nice to get to pick my line through the turns!


What a great day! I am really loving racing criteriums. I love flying through the turns and I love how quickly the race can change. Today I feel I did well at meeting most of my goals. I really wanted to stay in the top 5 of the field for the entire race. Any time I'd find myself slipping back I'd work to move back up. My second goal was to be 1st or 2nd going into the final turn. That was obviously the goal of everyone and I went through 7th or 8th-not exactly prime sprinting position.

The officials had me down as 4th. As nice as that would have been I know that 1,2,3 went to Diane, Jillian and Jamie. I also knew Melanie flew by me because I fought hard to catch her. I'm sure there was also someone passing me on the right. Most of us ladies hung out and tried to put together what we remembered about the finish. I ended up with 6th but unfortunately some of my teammates got jipped out of a position at all and were given DNFs even though they were in the pack for the final sprint. I wish they would have had names attached to the numbers because Kris and I would have known that Breanne and Gail were in it until the finish. It sucks but I can also remember from my time as an official how hard it is to get numbers and it is even harder when you have a lot of people from the same team finishing.

I stuck around and watched the Men's 5 and the Women's 123. The Women's was a great race with Laura H. in a huge break with 2 PC women. They worked her and worked her and she hung on forever like a champ until she had nothing left. I'm interested in finding out what the penalty was for the PC woman that dropped back to get lapped to help her teammate. I'm sure that is a big no no!

It was a great day and I look foward to celebrating one year of racing (minus the racing I missed from the elbow) at Bear Lake next week.

Ogden BDO Criterium Pictures

Diane and me. . .

Off the back alone. . . not a happy place.

I like the view from the podium. I'll have to do it more often.

A Little Slide Show

http://jamesevans.printroom.com/

So if you are at work and trying not to actually do any work you can click on the link above and see pictures from last weeks Ogden BDO Criterium. You can see me in the pack then suddenly there is a picture of the pack and no Shanna. Then Shanna riding by herself. The in the last few I'm way at the back but thanks to my strong legs I manage to pull off third. James is going to send me some of the best pictures so I'll have them posted here soon.

Last night was the RMR. We were on the oval. I still like the outside better but last night seemed to be a more reasonable pace thanks to some of the Porcupine guys upgrading. (Thanks JT!) There was a crash which is always a bummer. It was probably those stupid cracks! Good to see those BCC guys out and hanging with the pack no problem!

Now I get a few easy recovery days so I can be ready to push hard on Saturday's Crit! Lots of turns and flat, I love it! Now if I can just keep my ADD in check I can do well.

Geez! Like I wasn't already going to hell!

Okay, as if I wasn't feeling bad enough about being totally rude to nice people, I look in my purse and see my signed "restaurant copy" from my lunch on Sunday. Way to go Shan, just walk out on my bill. I called the restaurant and I guess they did get the $$ for my lunch but my waiter didn't get his tip :(. So I'm going back to Fiddler's Elbow soon so the good looking waiter named Joseph can get his tip. Maybe this time I'll refrain from drinking Bailey's with my coffee after an interval workout.

Public Apology

I looked back over my previous posts and Steve was right. I am guilty of trash talking. What I meant to be funny was really mean spirited and I am so sorry. There are some great cyclists on the BCC and I still consider myself a part of that group. The BCC has been very supportive and friendly to me and I honestly would not be the rider I am today without them.

So please accept my apology and I look forward to suffering through another century with you soon!

Aaaah finally.

My cross bike is finally home where he belongs. We are still in the getting to know you stage and he's going to need a few more adjustments. I think the bike shop was grateful that I had to leave to go teach my class so that I would leave them alone and quit having them tweak this and that.

It is weird but even though it says it is a 52 cm it feels bigger than my 53 cm Lemond road bike. Now that I'm comparing both frames I can see that it really is bigger and it feels taller from the beefier tires. I'm not sure if the frame difference is because it is a cross frame or maybe the bike shop put a 52 cm sticker on it. (Once again my mistrust of bike shops rears its ugly head!)

So I had the shop put a shorter stem on it, throw on my pedals and adjust my seat height. I still need to flip the stem. It is weird to ride that upright. I need to take off the labia killer of a saddle that is on it and move it forward and probably up. I also need to get rid of the stupid reflectors that are still on the wheels. I was hoping to do all that tonight but instead of playing bikes I had to write a paper.

Tomorrow night is RMR and I get to try out my new shoes. I put the cleats on all by myself so hopefully they wont fall off. But that means it will be Wednesday before my new cross bike and I get a little one on one time to bond. Maybe I should call in sick to work tomorrow. . . . hmmmmm.

Whew! Intervals

Today was a great workout with the ladies on my team. Laura H. got us together at Sugarhouse Park. We took turns leading out down the hill and doing hard intervals up the hill. After a quick recovery we'd push hard up the last short hill. Then we'd do it all again. It was an awesome workout and good to get to know the course and see how we can work together to to do well next month for the race.

Thanks Laura! Your leadership is appreciated!

A bit sad. . .

I received a bit of news that made me feel bad on what was otherwise a really great day. One of my best friends that rides for the Wasatch Women told me that she passed a Ski Utah girl today and the Ski Utah girl shouted at her "we are going to kick your butt!"

What!? Honestly, I cannot imagine which of any of my teammates would have said this and it makes me sad to think that this person is representing us. We are an awesome team! And yes, we do kick butt a lot of the time. But trash talking? Come on, let our racing speak for itself.

I searched diligently for a team. Some of my best friends race for Porcupine, Mazda One and Wasatch Women's. But I chose Ski Utah. I chose Ski Utah because I saw lots of people from this team at every race. I also saw in them a group of cyclists that race hard, race fair and are good sports. I've seen them be good sports in winning and in losing. As an official last year I saw all of the teams in action. I saw a lot of really crappy things like dangerous racing, yelling at officials, or divas throwing temper tantrums because of something that happened during the race. I never saw any of it from Ski Utah (VMG).

Since racing for Ski Utah I've only become more and more proud to race for this team. I've been dropped off the back in races but still had teammates fly by cheering for me. I've had teammates get up early to drive me to my race when theirs wasn't for hours and I've had teammates go out and kick ass and still be good sports.

So to my good friends on other teams, I apologize. Please note that this behavior does not represent the majority of my team. And to whomever said this, the woman you shouted it to was back on her bike today for the 4th time in 6th months since recovering from a crash last year. She's struggling with extra weight and getting her fitness level back. Yes, you probably could kick her butt at this point. Aren't you proud!

Ogden BDO Criterium

Today was the Ogden Criterium. Not a huge turnout for the Cat 4 Women. Also, completely different women from last weekend. Jamie, Kris and I were there representing Ski Utah. We raced against Diane (Mazda One), Jillian (PCD?), and Melanie (WWC). They put our field together with the Jr. Men and we were off for 30 minutes of fun.

We started off at a reasonable pace until the boys picked it up a bit and we gals followed along. The first Prime spread things out a bit but soon we were bunched back together. Then something happened. I was zoning out watching the wheel in front of me and when I looked up the rest of the pack was gone down the road. They were going hard so it must have been another Prime. I chased hard, mentally kicking myself for letting this happen. I soloed the next lap thinking I was pretty much out of the race at this point. Melanie had dropped off the back too so I focused on catching her. Soon I could see she was back in the pack and I dug deep and finally caught back on with 2 to go.

I spent the next lap and a half sitting on trying to recover for the finish. Melanie tried to attack halfway through the last lap but I easily pulled the rest of the pack up to her. I hung on her wheel as we headed into the last corner. As we rounded the last corner, still with 300M to go, Diane took off and Jamie jumped on her wheel. Melanie took off after them and I attempted to just catch Melanie. Once I reached her I realized I was going faster. I gave it all I had to the line and finished half a wheel length in front of Melanie to take 3rd.

Finish was as follows: Diane 1st, Jamie 2nd, Me 3rd, Melanie 4th, Jillian 5th, and Kris 6th. Once again I made mistakes, but I will learn! I am really happy with myself. Jillian and Melanie are both really strong racers so it was great to beat them and I certainly can't feel bad about coming in behind either Diane or Jamie, they are both awesome!

I'm looking forward to the next couple of races since we'll be staying out of the mountains! Next weekend is another crit and the following weekend is Bear Lake. Lots more fun pack racing! I love it!

Snowflakes on my tongue. . .

As a kid I used to love to catch snowflakes on my tongue. Yesterday I did it again. For all of my complaining about the weather it was a unique experience to be riding my bike with the sun shining and the snow falling slowly down. It was cool. . . . but now I still want it to be 70 and cloudless. . . I'm still ready to not have to put on layers and choose the appropriate thickness of gloves to wear before each ride. Yes, we have the GREATEST SNOW on EARTH. Now go away for a few months so I can appreciate you again at Christmas time.

This snowflake was courtesy of www.snowflake.com and is only a representation of the actual snowflakes that fell on my ride. No snowflakes were harmed in the making of this post.

He's on his way!

Ah finally, a cross bike. I get to go pick him up tomorrow. (Yes, Mistress Julie, you'll be happy to know this one is a guy). A beautiful mix of carbon and steel and Ultegra/105 components. I thought I was going to get a deal on a Felt but I also thought I was going to grow up and marry Prince Charming and live in a Castle. Lesson learned (again) get your own castle (or cross bike) and quit growing old waiting for Prince Charming.

My new Poprad and I will have such fun playing at the park tomorrow. And as for Prince Charming, if you're out there, I can be found at the races, on the open road or flying through the fall leaves on my cross bike.