Bambi’s Bites…

Hell yea, back on the road - in sunny southern California!!! Well, it was sunny on Friday anyways!

So the weekend started with a rather uneventful 5 hr drive in from Phoenix (where I had been waiting on pins and needles for UPS to drop off my new BH TT bike… its lookin like it’ll be a pretty sweet ride once I throw it together)!!!

Friday brought the first day of racing - a 3.7mile uphill time trial - and although I’ve done it twice before, theres really nothin’ that can prepare you to go all out up the side of a mountain for near 4 miles!!! It was brutally awesome to say the least - and I’m not completely stoked about my time, or place for that matter - but am certainly encouraged by the fact that I managed to catch both my 30 second and minute girl going up the climb - and shaved a near 45 seconds off my time from last year… so I guess it could’ve gone a lot worse then 22nd of 72. I do have to mention the winner, Mara Abbott (duh), beat me by a whopping 2:40sec - though she also beat the second place rider, her High Road teammate, Kim Anderson by 45seconds!!! WOW - smokin fast!!!

(www.clintonphoto.com for more race pics)

Saturday’s circuit just went to shit for me… I’m exaggerating a good bit - I really did well for the time that I was in the race (7 of the 8 loops), moved through the pack fluidly, felt comfortable in almost all instances, and never once felt in danger of being dropped… then on the 7th time up the KOM climb, I had a very untimely mechanical and dropped my chain about 1/3 of the way up the climb - but then to add insult to injury, when I bent over to fix it, my nose started to bleed too… thank god for the Shimano neutral support guy who pushed me nearly another third of the way up the hill as I watched my chances of finishing well wither away and pretty much die… I held on though, and managed to ride in a mere 45 seconds behind the peleton - which for completing more then the entire final circuit alone isn’t all that bad… but the damage in the GC was done, and I dropped from 22nd to 45th in the blink of an eye… oh and 45th made me like 3rd to last… definitely out.

Sunday was just a mess and I didn’t start the crit. I came to San Dimas to prep for Redlands - the nature of SDSR lends itself nicely as a precursor for one of the hardest races on the calendar - and I’m really stoked to have knocked out an uphill TT and rolling circuit race prior to Redlands. Even though I didn’t race today I did get a really solid ride in!! Glendora Mountain has nothing on me… so I returned to the site of the uphill TT, and continued past the TT finish to the top of the mountain - but this was no ordinary ascension! It was rainy, cold, and so foggy that I couldn’t see but 50 feet in front of my face…

shaweet! yea well, going up was great, its an amazing climb - lots of switchbacks and overall just a fun climb… but going down… not so much fun!! Mostly due to the fog, and the fact that my SRM read 3 degrees… also didn’t help that I’m not familiar with the mountain at all, and didn’t know when to expect the switchbacks! After descending it cleared up at the bottom, and it was no longer raining, but the damage was done - I was completely frozen and had about an inch of water in my shoes… bam! Ride done! I had contemplated going further, as the climb didn’t actually take that long, but as I couldn’t feel my feet and hadn’t really touched my water in 2 hours (1:20 of which was climbing), nor had I eaten anything, I decided it was best if I returned to the warmth of my host house!!

My hosts, by the way, have been incredible!! I don’t know if I’ve ever been in host housing where it feels so much like home! To all those who host riders for races, Thank You So Much, because without your generosity and hospitality, racing would be near impossible! So yea, they bought me a gift… and for those of you who know I can’t live without Peanut Butter, you know how much I appreciated this lil something!!!

Anyways, its on to Redlands for me… I did watch the end of the Womens “race” (well, I got there just in time to see that 2 High Road girls got away and stayed that way) and the Men’s Pro race - suppppppper fast!!! But yea, it should prove to be a pretty tough race, but alls I gotta say, is bring it on!!! At least for this go around I’ll be joined by several of my teammates, so I won’t be the lone VK rider!

K, off to bed… to rest up for, well, idk what tomorrow will bring quite yet, but maybe a jaunt up another mountain is in order : ) Thanks again to everyone who made San Dimas happen for me, and all the other riders - 3 years in a row for me, and its been great!
Tailwinds,

Bambi… air bite!

Saturday I rode in my second NRC race of the season, the Sequoia Cycling Classic’s Exeter Time Trial… Am not so excited about my performance, but am definitely stoked to have the first 40k out of the way - and what a way to start the season (check out this course profile):

Luckly my teammate Flavia and I were able to pre-ride the course this past Friday:

(Flavia is a defnitely a goof)… But the pre-ride didn’t have any bearing on the Ass-Kicking that Kristin Armstrong handed everyone yesterday - beating the second place finisher by more then 4 minutes!!! SHIT! I placed 29th of the more then 50 that raced… got my worst 40k tt time ever, and although my bike was LEGAL (for the first time ever) it hurt like nothing else… definitely need a smaller frame!!! Tho, I do have to say that my Soloist looked pretty pimp for a road bike retrofitted into a TT bici!!!

AGAIN… lol. But back in familiar territory - Northern California!!!

After driving up to Northern California (11 excruciatingly boring hrs alone - explains the pic above!!!), I raced the Merco Cycling Classic 2 weekends ago…

(a race I had definitely not expected or planned on doing until about the Thursday before - but managed to place 10th in the 72mile RR on Sunday)

And since then, I’ve been in Nor Cal logging miles on some of my favorite routes…

The Pacific Coast Highway down into Stinson Beach…

The overlook at Muir Beach…

In and out of Sausalito…

Riding up to the Top of Tam via Alpine Dam and the 7 Sisters!!!

And I even had a chance to pre-ride the next NRC course: The Exeter ITT!! Which I’ll be racing this coming weekend!! The TT is sick, seriously sick - the first 5k (of 40k) is totally up!!! I’ll post more about it for sure!!!

So if I’m not out climbing Tam, the Cheese Hill, Whites Hill, or highway 1, I’m probably at a coffee shop, or somewhere on the Paradise loop enjoying all that Nor Cal rides have to offer!!! Anyways, things are pretty slow up here, and I’m getting rested and ready for the upcoming races!!!

I’ll be heading back to PHX after Sequoia, which consists of the Exeter ITT on Saturday and the Visalia Criterium on Sunday - its NRC for women this year, so wish me luck :D Shout to all my peoples doing Tumacacori in AZ (pedal hard BHAWM), and those doing the Land Park Circuit Race up in Sacramento (Go VK) this weekend!!! Keep the rubber side down!

Cheers, tailwinds,

Bambi

Vanderkitten’s NRC debut should be proof enough that we are going to be a force to be reckoned with!!! After only a week with our teammates and a few days days with our new equipment we were able to make a sizable mark on the Santa Rosa field!!! My Diesel Sister Moriah MacGregor laid it down on the front through the first laps of the race - hurling VK into the spotlight from the races’ onset; Speedsters Jenny Trew and Liz Hatch showed just how stiff our new BH Connects are and picked up 2 sweet cash primes; we had an undeniable presence throughout the hour-long criterium and finished strong with 3 girls in the top 20!!! In a race where field limits had to be enforced, it was awesome to rub shoulders with the best of the best this early in the season - and show that we’re not going to go quietly into submission!!!! It was, needless to say, an amazing culmination of Vanderkitten Team Camp 2008!!!

Not only did I learn a lot about my teammates, their achievements, aspirations and race goals; but I learned a lot about Vanderkitten and the VK Foundation. The Vanderkitten Foundation may be our title sponsor, but their reach goes far beyond our team, and is striving to promote health, well being and equality for women in professional cycling. The Vanderkitten cycling team is committed to the development of young riders and increasing participation and visibility of women in the sport of cycling. (The VK Foundation Mission) That is the ultimate.

So I made it back to AZ after camp and Santa Rosa last week – accompanied by my awesome new kits and my suppah sweet BH bici!!! Am just waiting on a few pieces to finish out my bici set-up; but am overall super stoked with the way things are coming together!!! Am all recovered (for the most part) from the crash at Santa Rosa; raced my lil’ tail off this past Saturday, and watched my boy Ron and his teammates control their race on Saturday and come together to finesse the win on Sunday!!! Yea, he looked super hot in his Neon Pink Radars!!! Next up looks to be the North End Classic in Yuma, AZ - keep the rubber side down!

Tailwinds,

Bambi

Its mid-February and the first annual Vanderkitten camp is well underway in Northern California and its pretty freak’n exciting to say the least!! Not only is it the first VK camp, but its my first ever team camp as well - so needless to say I really didn’t know what to expect. Alright maybe I wasn’t that clueless as I let on (I mean its a cycling team, and its training camp - I can do the math, theres gonna be a lot of hot bici ridin’ action) so I think the thing I was most worried about was the fact that I had only ever met one of my teammates and knew very little about the personalities of the others; and in my mind, one of the most important underlying factors that makes a good team is chemistry!!! And chemistry we have! All of us are so different in many ways, but the mix of personalities and talent have allowed us to integrate seamlessly into a cohesive group in such a short period of time - we’re not your typical group of girls!!

So theres definitely been a lot of Bici time:

A lot of time with our new BH Connects:

And a lot of time just sittin’ around bs’in with our new teammates:

And no camp would be complete without 3 Canadians on a Fence:

We still have a lot to accomplish while we’re here at the VK Ranch in Walnut Creek, CA - a lot of new product to get our grubby little hands on, including new Spinnergy wheel sets, Look Pedals, Specialized shoes and helmets, and a vast assortment of other goodies - some time with the owner of Vanderkitten and the unveiling of our new kits on Friday morning; the Risibici ride out in Petaluma, CA on Saturday; an appearance at the prologue of the Men’s Tour of California on Sunday; and of course the Santa Rosa Women’s Grand Prix on Monday!!! I’m sure there will be a lot of other action, including some badass chamois time in the near future, but camp so far has been a blast, and I’m definitely looking forward to sharing the season with this amazing group of girls!!!

Also, good luck to my bhawm and everyone out racin’ Valley this weekend in Phoenix!!! Lay it down!
Tailwinds,

Heather

Ron is a badass… and rocked his way to an 11th place finish (out of 100+ starters) in his first race of the season - the 97 mile, climb fest held in the Laguna Mtns just outside of San Diego known as the Boulevard Road Race!!!

Yep, thats him in a break…where he apparently spent most of his time (smiling of course) :P What can I say? He’s my idol!!! BBHAWM!!

Although I didnt get to race, I did get to spend an extraordinary amount of time in the saddle the past few days and including Fridays ride logged a little over 13hrs for the weekend!! Which should make up for skippin’ Tuesdays workout to go to the FBR Open!!! The FBR is the ABSOLUTE biggest PGA golf tourney held in the state, (I should also add that its one of the biggest parties in the state as well) and was a blast to say the least - Ron’s Oakley rep, treated us to the Skybox on the famous 16th hole, Oakley VIP passes, and most importantly to struggling cyclists - all the free food we could want ;) lol… seriously tho, it was an amazing day to be out on the golf course, talking about everything but golf!

Camp is rapidly approachin’ as well as my first race, which will be none other then the Santa Rosa Grand Prix, where we’ll be racin’ on the finishing circuits for that day’s stage of the Amgen Tour of California!!! So I’ll be in Nor Cal from the 9th to the 19th!!! Rock on, there will be more updates soon - but congrats to my Ronikins! Awesome!

Tailwinds,

Heather

It’s been so long since my last post, mainly due to the fact that the airline I flew back to Arizona on lost (= somone who handled it proably stole) the suitcase that contained all of my various power supply cables and adaptors for my computer and various electronic devices (as well as all of my favorite clothing items, sunglasses and shoes); and I have to say that life without my computer may just be tougher then life without my phone!!! BAH!!!

Anyways things have been just keepin on–keepin on, I’m selling my p2k TT bike on ebay, looking forward to camp, Santa Rosa GP and gettin on my new BH!!!! I’m suppppper stoked about the new bike, gettin all my new gear at camp for Vanderkitten and basically havin a blast with my new teammates!!!

Next post will most certainly be better, as theres tons more exciting news to come :) Thanks for readin’ - tailwinds!! Heather

Less then a month from Vanderkitten team camp now, and things are finally starting to pick up!!! I’m back west now (a suitcase short & 3 pairs of Oakleys short, because even though I’ve been back for 5 days they still haven’t “found” my suitcase - so if you’ve seen it, or have an extra pair of oakleys laying around, I could use all the help I can get!!!) but anyways I have to say that for the first time EVER, I actually enjoyed riding from my parents house in Northern Virginia…

I guess I haven’t been riding long enough to actually get overly adventurous while I was back east, and the only time I actually remember having a satisfying ride while there was when I was staying further out of DC with other family… Its always been excruciatingly boring - I would ride on some terribly dangerous roads with no shoulders to a paved bike trail, and would then ride the bike trail to it’s western end, about an hour and a half later I would get off the trail and ride into Round Hill VA - turn around and return on the same route for a total ride time of 4 boring, monotonous hours. Not to mention there are no hills or rises on the trail to speak of and there are so many road crossings, sometimes I felt like I might as well be in mid-day traffic in Tucson! Well, no more! I finally ventured off the aforementioned route and found some awesome riding not too far west!!! I still had to ride the trail for about an hour each way, but in my 8 days home (6 of which I actually got to ride) I managed to see a ton of cows, ride more dirt roads then I ever knew existed (or ever cared to know), find a few awesome rolling country roads, ride up the Snickersville Gap in the Blueridge Mountains, and log a whopping 26 hours of meaningful saddle time!!!

It was sweet to say the least, and the strangest part was, that I actually enjoyed riding on the dirt roads (some of which were actually much nicer then some paved roads in Arizona)!!! I just couldn’t help but laughing while I was out riding on them because I’ve done everything within my power to avoid riding off the road (the few times I had to included a few select roads in provincial France and Collegiate Road Nationals in 2007)!!!

So yea, Christmas has come and gone - I got some amazing gifts :) and I really hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!! I got to spend some QT with my fam, and Baby my boxer puppy!!! And now I’m looking forward to my Cali trip to Napa for camp in a few weeks - and am stoked about getting to post pics of all our new gear and sponsors!!!

Aiight, its time for some more meaningful saddle riding… and some world-class leaching!!! Tailwinds…

Cheers, Heather

So it’s been a long time in the works, but I’ve finally landed on a roster… and I’m excited to announce that I’ll be racing for the Vanderkitten Women’s Cycling Team for the 2008 season!!!

So check back, often… because I’m positive that theres going to be an onslaught of happenings in the next few weeks!!! I’m super excited to have found a home with VK and I know it’ll be an exciting ride!!! (Oh, and yea, thats blood on the kitten’s fang… vicious!!!)

FOR REAL… on my Sunday ride, in Tucson!!! Seriously no joke, my SRM read 0 degrees Celsius…

Mind you, I was at 8000 ft ascending Mount Lemmon, but it was enough to make me decide I was one of two things… a dumb ass or a hard ass. Still not really sure which I am yet, but Ron assured me it was closer to the latter then the former as he too ascended the snowy beast!! Hopefully this BRUTAL experience will help prep me for my trip back east, where I don’t expect temps to rise above 7C (or 45F) for the 10 or so days I’ll be there - maybe by the time I get there I won’t require 5 layers of clothing!!!

Actually, to tell the truth, the weather here in Arizona’s been kinda crazy lately… Saturday it was sooooo incredibly rainy and windy that one of my roommates came home without feeling in his fingers, Ron had to be picked up after two flats…. I flatted less then 15 min into my ride, rode back to the house to get another tube, and right as I was about to leave again it started to hail… and take a look at last Saturday:

Oh yeah, that, let me assure you, was a terribly “fun” ride… I don’t recall too many occasions where I’ve actually been blown off the road… The rain wasn’t so pleasant either, but would’ve been completely bearable if it hadn’t of been so windy!!!

Anyways, think its supposta be pretty miserable for at least the next couple of days here - it’ll be good to get my tolerance up, because although I’m not a fair-weather child by birth, I’ve certainly been spoiled by the Arizona temps here recently - I mean, last week was the first where I actually needed leg and arm warmers after 9am!! yeaaahhh… : ) Like I said tho, I’ll be heading back east in about a week to celebrate my lil sis and lil bros b-days and see the fam for Christmas!!! And I can’t forget the best part of all… oh yeah, spending time with the most amazing puppy evvver - Baby our boxer… I’d expect pictures : )

Thanks for reading!!! Til’ next time!