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.