Skiing on Christmas Day

We spent the latter half of Christmas Day on the slopes of Sol Vista. Meghan decided to snow board and Erin decided it would be more fun to jump and tree ski. We had a great time, the weather and snow were perfect.

Christmas morning

The girls had a great Christmas, Erin got her i touch and Meghan got an ipod nano. They also got some cute clothes and of course the dollar bills from Grammy Kirk were a hit!

Christmas in the mountains

We had a fabulous time this year for Christmas. We rented a house in Sol Vista and were joined by my dad, his wife Sue and her daughter and husband-John and Jordan. My brother and his family joined us as well, but stayed in a different condo (thank goodness!). We had a blast skate skiing, snowmobiling, skiing and tubing at the Frazier tubing hill. It was great to be with family, however, 13 people in one house for too long a time can be a little trying! Sue and I got everyone these reindeer and Christmas pants to wear around the house. It was funny having all the guys wearing the same thing! Next year we are going someplace warm. I'm voting for Costa Rica and a surfing camp. We'll see how that goes!

Level 4 State Championships

Erin had a successful State Championship. This was her first year competing in gymnastics and she exceeded any and all expectations I had for her. She did great and got a little stronger as the season went on. It was fun to watch her entire team morph into little competitive gymnasts. We were so proud of her, and like Meghan, she had a personal best meet at State Finals. She started off her meet by scoring a 9.525 on vault! She had a great bar routine, landed her beam routine and ended her day with a 9.0 on floor exercise! She ended up with a 35.95 overall point average. Pretty good for a first year level 4 newbie! Her hope is to make the level 5 team with her sister for next year. This will take a lot of hard work, learning a bunch of new and harder skills, but she is up for the challenge and we are doing all we can do to help her make her goal.

Level 5 State Championships!

Meghan had the gymnastics meet of her life. Level 5 State Championship meet was held at Berthoud High School on Sat. the 6th. There were 9 girls from Apex in her age group and they all did great. Meghan started with her floor exercise, executing one of the best routines she has ever had. Then off to vault where she nailed her vault and received her first blue ribbon of the meet. Scoring at 9.15 she ended up the highest scoring vaulter on her team in her age group. Bar warm up's were great, as I have never seen her do such great sets, but in the actual competition she missed her squat on (bummer) and in disbelief, she continued with an almost flawless routine, finishing strong. The meet ended on beam, where she landed a great routine and her score represented all her hard work and effort.

She ended up placing 7th overall in vault for her age group and had one of the best all around scores of the season. A personal best meet! It was fun to watch all the girls, as they have all come a long way this season. Can hardly wait for next year! Way to go Meghan!!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving Day. We started out the day with a mountain bike ride at Hidden Mesa. 12 brave souls from the team showed up to burn some pre-dinner calories. It was cold but we still had a blast.

Doug did the annual duty of turkey clean out. He named our turkey Hank and we decided that Hank was not having a good day. After clean out and dressing, in the oven he went and by the time we returned from our mountain bike ride, Hank was smelling the house with wonderful aromas. We made our way to Dick and Cindy's where we stuffed ourselves silly with way too much food. Good thing we burned a few extra calories on the mountain bike ride!

We made our way to the nursing home with a plate of food for mom. We visited for a while, ate some great pie and returned home exhausted but fulfilled.

A would say a great Thanksgiving this year. Lots to be thankful for!

Both girls Qualify for State Finals

Huge load off the Gordon plate, as Meghan finally qualified for level 5 state finals at Grand Junction. Erin qualified for level 4 state finals earlier in her season. The judging at level 5 is a little tougher and Meghan was finally able to pull it together and get her points. Not only did she qualify, but she was 4th overall on her team, helping them get 2nd place at the meet. It was a good day for all. Erin had a very successful meet as well. Both girls work so hard, they will do great at State.

After the Harvest, Before the Snow

Our supporting bike shop, Adventure Cycling, puts on this great mountain bike weekend in Fruita. This year we had to combine it with a gymnastics meet in Grand Junction so it worked out great. For a cheap price, Adventure buys all the food, Steamworks provides all the beer, Yeti and Intense brought up all the mountain bikes and we had a blast. They do such a great job, all the guys in the shop help with whatever is needed and provide great rides for all levels of mountain bikers.

This year to weather was spectacular and trails in great shape. This is such a beautiful area of Colorado. Almost as if you were somewhere else in the united states all together.

Thanks Adventure for the great weekend.

2009 Team

We have finalized our team for next season. We have a great group of ladies who are committed to racing their bikes in 2009. We have added 3 new riders to the team.

ColoBikeLaw.com elite women's team:

Susannah Gordon- cat 1- strengths in climbing, RR's and TT's.
Terrie Clouse- cat 1 - strengths in Crits, climbing, RR's and TT's.
Lisa Renee Tumminello- cat 2- strengths in climbing and RR's
Alisabeth Thurston Hicks- cat 2- strengths in climbing, RR's and all around help!
Kate VanValkenburg- cat 2 - strengths in climbing, RR's and crit help.
Kate Scheider- cat 2- strengths in Crits and all around help.
Carla Flores- cat 1 - strengths in Crits and all around help.
Sue Stokes- cat 2 -strengths in climbing, RR's and all around help.
Megan Myrick- cat 2- strengths in crits and all around help.
Christina Moore- cat 2- strengths in climbing, RR's.
Patria Lanfranchi- cat 2- strengths in crits.
Kimberly Nuffer- cat 2- strengths in crits and on the track!

We are excited about the 2009 season and plan to race locally at all the BAR/BAT races as well as a handful of NRC races such as Gila, Joe Martin, Cascade, Tulsa Tough and Masters Nationals.

Halloween

Yet another Halloween has arrived and costume hunting was not easy this year. As the girls get older they are not as agreeable as they were when they were little. I used to be able to dress them in cute little outfits. Now they want to wear the wildest things, and coming to a compromise is not always easy. We somehow did figure it out, as you can see, Meghan decided she would make the perfect Cleopatra. Never mind that Cleopatra had long, straight black hair and Meggie has blond, super curls going!

Frisco Pics

Racin' some CX in Frisco

Had a great time at the Frisco Nordic Center Sunday, as I did my 3rd CX race. Great course, lots of road riding (good for me!) and lots of technical riding (good for CX racers!). Had a small issue with my pedals, such as not being able to get clipped in. After each barrier I lost all sorts of time trying to get my ridiculous shoes to clip into my pedals. On the last lap on one of the last technical parts, I could not get clipped in and 2 gals came flying by me, there was nothing I could do. I ended up 10th. Rachel had a great race, as she was 2nd on Sat. and 1st on Sunday in the SW 35+! Kimmy, Turbomama, Susan and Brenda all joined in the fun and raced well. If nothing else, it's a blast and I laugh alot.- except after this race, poor Doug had to hear the brunt of my frustrations.....He fixed my problem! :)
I love this Bianchi bike, it's lightweight and handles really well. Thanks Bianchi!!

Thank you Bianchi!

In my "off season" from the road bike, I have decided that cross racing is fun, action packed and I am now addicted. My good friend Jonathan Lane from ColoBikeLaw has set me up with a sweet new ride for this season. It's a carbon Bianchi CX bike. It's gorgeous and I love it. I have never done the CX sport before, always wondering how people could love to get out and suffer going mock 10 with your hair on fire for 45 min.

However, I knew there must be something to this sport, or these people would not show up every week to do such heinous exercise. After attempting my first race in Colorado Springs with the 35+4 men, sludging through the mud, across barriers and having my lungs searing with pain at the end, I was hooked! This is a fun sport I decided! Where else can you get muddy, try to attack other racers as they are suffering up hills and charging past them whenever you feel a bit stronger than they appear.

A huge thank you to Bianchi for supporting me with a bike, what a treat! I will try my hardest to make it worth their while. My first outing on it today resulted in a flat tire on the 2nd lap, darn. I see why people run tubbies on CX bikes, off to the bike shop.......

Looking forward to Frisco race this weekend, I'll give it another try. Stay tuned for more updates.

Gymnastics Season Has Started/ 1st meet

This was the first gymnastics meet for the girls. It was in Loveland with Premier Gymnastics. This was a first for both girls. Erin's first meet as a level 4 and Meghan's first meet as a level 5. Both girls did great, after getting the nervous energy out, they both rocked on their performances. Erin qualified for State Finals and it was her first time out. Megan's level 5 routines are much harder this year, she was a trouper and did a great job. A few miss fortunes kept her from qualifying. Those darn beams, who decided you should do tricks on a 4" piece of wood covered in material? I was so proud of them both. Looking forward to the next meet in a few weeks.

Tornado!!

This is a picture of a tornado that touched down right near our house on Sunday. Erin and I saw it on our way home from the bike race. We didn't realize how close it was to our house until we actually arrived. Amazing considering we hardly ever get tornado's this far west in Colorado.

The podium finish at Hart race. It was great, they gave out these gorgeous sunflowers to each winner. I love Sunflowers!

Hart Crit SW 1-2

See the suffering!!! Megan and I attacking on the hill.......

Hart Crit 35+ State Championships!

Congratulations to Alisabeth on her win yesterday of the Colorado State Crit Championship SW35+! This was a great course with a big hill and fast descent. Alisabeth and I worked hard to pull ahead of the competition of Trish Heisdorffer. We finally dropped her on lap 3-4 of the race and were comfortably riding until the 2nd to last lap when Trish and Sue Stokes caught back on. When we realized what had happened we worked like mad to drop them again. With one last lap on the hill, we pushed hard enough to drop her again. Alisabeth rode a fabulous race and jetted off for the finish line, winning by a wide margin! Way to go Alisabeth.

I ended up 3rd in the SW 1-2 race. Fast and furious attacking on the hill every lap made for a tiring race. In the end, Megan Hottman, Gwen Inglis and myself sprinted for the finish and I ended up 3rd. Darn those sprints, they get me every time! Great race, the announcers were hilarious giving primes out for anything they could think of. Even offering their phone numbers out as prime prizes! Megan and Cheryl Moffit of MOB both added a bunch of money which made for great prizes. Thanks to them for such support. Wish more ladies would have come out for this race. Oh well, still a great day.......

Team Photo

Yea! What a good looking group of ladies. This is my wonderful team from Left to right: Carla Flores, Kate VanValkenburg, Kate Scheider, me, Terrie Clouse and Rachel Farrett. The only two missing are Lisa Renee Tumminello and Alisabeth Thurston-Hicks.

Tour of Colorado

This was a great series that I wasn't even really aware of until Gateway Canyon race. It was a series of Colorado races that included Sunshine Hillclimb, Iron Horse, Rist Canyon, Salida Omnium, Gateway Canyon RR and N. Boulder Crit. Basically the best overall rider from all these races wins the title. Andy, who promotes this series is such a nice guy. He has been so wonderful to deal with and has a genuine passion for racing and this series. To find out more about the series for 2009 go to http://www.tourofcolorado.com/. I think it's going to grow in the years to come. This was the inaugural season. I wish Andy the best in the upcoming years! It was fun....

N. Boulder Park Crit

Way to go ColoBikeLaw ladies. Our goal for this race was to get out and race our bikes. I must say that it was one of the best crits we have done. VC got out early and attacked, but when they were done, we unleashed and set out to rip some legs off! About 10 min. into the race we had split the peloton up pretty bad, then Terrie launched and blew out. Anne from VC was the only one who could match her and two of them rode off for the entire first half of the race. With a rider from VC and ColoBikeLaw out front, we were not willing to help the pace much. Megan Hottman and Mara Abbott worked like crazy to catch them and eventually super Mara was able to close the gap. Then she rode off........This opened the door once again and we attacked, splitting the remaining peloton up even more. Terrie, Megan and myself were in the lead and VC worked like dogs to catch back on. Kate Scheider had a great race and launched many attacks, while VonVon did her job as well throwing in an effort and TT'd for one entire lap, making the field chase her down. Carla and ATH did a great job of flying off the back to get to the front of the field and slow the pace down, as we were all in pursuit of Terrie and Anne. It was classic and fun to race!

This team just keeps getting stronger and more efficient. We are going to get this crit racing thing down yet!

On to next weekend the Hart Crit. Megan has added a bunch of money to the pot, so it should be a good turnout and we'll see if we can win some cash! Cool...

Great racing ladies!

Gateway Canyon Weekend

This race is hands down the best race of the year. It's a 5 star race with 1 star attendance. Everyone really missed out on this weekend. There was a TT on Fri. (which we did not do), a 100k Delores River RR on Sat. and a 142k race up Unaweep Canyon on Sunday.

Lisa Renee, Susan and I arrived on Friday afternoon to a place of absolute beauty. This canyon is beautiful and the resort is the equivalent to something found at Disney World. It was the only place to stay if you wanted to be where all the action was, so it housed a large number of racers.

Our first race was on Sat. moring. They decided to combine the women's categories because of such small fields. There were about 20 of us combined and we set out for one of the most breathtaking rides of the season. It went 100k up the Delores River Valley and back. It was basically a flat ride with only 800 ft. of climbing. We all started out together and with a headwind to deal with, I decided we all needed to work together for a while. Everyone did a great job of forming an eschelon and we rotated nicely up the valley. I think the cat 4 and 3 ladies really appreciated being a part of the race and doing equal work for the feild. Before the turnaround there was enough of a gradient change, that it split up the feild and the 1-2's basically ended up together. We worked together until the last 3 miles, when there was enough of a hill that I decided to attack and finish the race alone. Lisa Renee stayed back and did her best to block the feild. It worked, as I finished about 40 seconds ahead of the peloton.

After the race there was a man (he actually seemed like and angel at the time!) that was standing at the finish line with cold, citrus smelling white towels that he handed out to all as they crossed the finish line. It was hot and windy, so this was an amazing treat.

After a great lunch at the gourmet restaurant, and a quick shower-we all decided to get a massage and then hit the pool and hot tub! (This was only after Lisa Renee spent 20 min. in an ice bath, I don't know how she does that!!) That evening we went to a benefit dinner and Scott Mercier gave a talk on his experience at the Barcelona Olympics. It was fun to hear his story.

On Sunday we were joined by Carla and at 8:00 we set out on our 142k RR up Unaweep Canyon. We knew that at mile 11 they had a Queen of the Mountain award, so Lisa Renee and I slowly picked the pace of the climb up and dropped the field about 8 miles in. Lisa Renee won the Queen of the Mountain!! We spent the rest of the race in horrid head winds (both directions) helping each other make it through this beautiful canyon. We were never so glad to have hit the turnaround, however it was followed by a 5 mile climb back to the top of the canyon. At the turnaround we realized that we were about 7 min. ahead of Carla, Sue Stokes and Sandra Hyra. We kept a pretty decent pace, I think because we wanted the ride to end! At mile 15 to go, we were pretty much sick of the head winds and ready for some good food. I ended up winning the race and the State Championship. After the race, Lisa Renee tried to get me into one of her famous ice baths, but within 1 min. I was out of there. I could not stand the cold. I still don't know how she does it!

Luke and his wife Erin who promote this race were so cool. They would help you in any way possible and did such a nice job helping do everything. Every day after the race they would have an awards ceremony and have nice loot to give away in a daily drawing. The prize money for the pro fields was amazing, the best of any race I have been to all year.

This was a great weekend and I would suggest more of us trying to get over there next year to support it. It is worth the time effort getting there with some of the best courses in the country, not to mention the place itself is fabulous. The website for this resort is www.gatewayresorts.com . Check it out!

Erin and Meghan racing their bikes!

Erin and Meghan both got out and raced their bikes today. They ride for ICCC team (International Christian Cycling Club). They love to race, but have NO interest in practice. They still look so cute in their kits!!!

Fed Center Registration and Bake Sale

Once again, a successful year at Fed. Center running registration. This makes for a long day, but worth it. We have a great team that steps up and helps in all areas. We did a bake sale this year to help raise money for our SW 1-2 training camp. Rachel, ATH and Jenny made awesome breakfast burritos, nothing but good things to say about those yummy burritos!