An excuse to type Puu Puu

If you are coming out to the Surf City race this weekend, bring your lunch money.

Heather from Heather’s Patisserie will be out in the early morning with coffee and the county’s best bakery goods. She will be joined by Trinity Deli who’ll be serving up sandwiches a little later in the day.

But if you have a big kahuna kind of appetite, no worries. We’ve got Aloha Island Grill coming out with their full barbecue to serve up some puu-puus and the rest of their famous Island Style menu.

And, there’s been some rumors that someone might be hiding a Seabright Brewery keg out in the venue somewhere. But don’t worry. If we find it we’ll put a stop to that right away.

Velo Bella Kona for 2006

The Kona Bicycle Company partners with “The fabulous women of Velo Bella”
Team Velo Bella-Kona 2-year deal includes addition of Wendy Simms to roster

Welcome “reception” this Friday at Surf City Gran Prix Cyclo-Cross

KONAWORLD (Nov. 15, 2005) – The Kona Bicycle Company today announced a new two-year partnership with the fabulous women of Velo Bella – the California-based collective of professional bicycle racing teams and clubs. The new Team Velo Bella-Kona partnership will encompass Velo Bella’s professional road racing team, professional mountain bike racing team, and elite level cyclo-cross team, know as the “Flamingo Flock”.

Adding to the already deep talent and fun pool, Kona rider Wendy Simms will be joining Team Velo Bella-Kona for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The Velo Bella-Kona partnership will also support Velo Bella’s recreational and amateur racing clubs around the United States as well as Velo Bella’s numerous camps and clinics.

In classic Velo Bella and Kona style, a semi-official celebration and “reception” in honor of the new relationship will take place in Santa Cruz above the Bicycle Trip, 1127 Soquel Avenue. The “reception” will feature DJs from San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Santa Cruz. Kona Brewing Company Longboard Lager will be served and the party goes from 9 until it ends…

Kona team manager, Mark Peterson, said that, like every solid relationship, Velo Bella-Kona was destiny. “This relationship is a natural. The Velo Bella culture is a lot like Kona in that it’s all about bringing fun to the sport. Kona is fun and Velo Bella is fun so we’re in for a lot of it.” said Peterson. “We’re proud to call Velo Bella partners and ambassadors and look forward to supporting their mission in any way possible.”

“When Kona contacted us initially we were in the midst of coordinating our Surf City race”, explains team co-founders, Sabine Dukes and Laura Sanchez, “We were going through our boxes of hula skirts, coconut bras, and leis, and thought well how perfect is this partnership?” Sanchez adds, “We’ve waited a long time to attract a sponsor that appreciates our quirky style and charm. It’s a pivotal point for us because we now have more opportunities to support developing riders while attracting newcomers to the sport. Finding the right sponsor is a lot like finding the right coconut bra, they don’t all fit…with Kona we not only have the right fit but we Kona knows how to get their hula on.”

Team Velo Bella-Kona will be riding on a variety of Kona bicycles, including Kona new road rigs King Zing and Zing Supreme, King Supreme and Kula Supreme mountain bikes, and Team Jake cyclo-cross bikes. Additionally, Velo Bellas more than 150 club members will get special Kona deals through Kona’s authorized dealer network and grassroots racing program. Peterson reports that orders for Kings, Coilers and Stinkys are already pouring in from Velo Bella riders.

About Velo Bella:
Velo Bella is a non-profit, grassroots, multidiscipline cycling team based out of Watsonville, CA. The Velo Bella mission is to encourage a healthy and active lifestyle through cycling and laughter. Velo Bella’s contagious spirit and unique approach to women’s competitive cycling have created a following across the United States They inspire women to get out and ride a bike, race a bike, and to eventually grow the pool of talent and have a lot of fun along the way. While the core Velo Bella Team is a committed group of female racers, membership includes female cyclists interested in completing their first race, century, or even group ride. More information on Velo Bella can be found on their website: www.velobella.org

About the Kona Bicycle Company:
Bikes and Stuff. www.konaworld.com

Ann wins one!

Congratulations to Ann Fitzsimmons for her win at CCCX#3 yesterday. This is Ann’s first win of the season. Ann came to the team and the sport of cyclocross 3 years ago in response to our Dirty Dozen contest for beginners. Its sheer joy for us to see her success today.

Look, there’s a blurb about it in Velonews

(picture stolen from Farid Abraham who has always taken great pictures, but finally went digital so that we can actually see them!)

Please win this stuff

Halloween Bella Cross: A good excuse to bust out the pink fishnets (again)

By Heather Kirkby

Can bike racing get any more fun than this?

The Bella Halloween race at Soquel High represented everything I love about this sport: lots of fun people everywhere, Bella flair everywhere, crazy costumes everywhere, bicycles everywhere and a hands-down-killer-sweet-awesome cyclocross course that doled out plenty of sweat and tears.

Yes, another Sunday in cross heaven. I love love loooooved this course. Thanks to Jeff and Brent and all the awesome course creators and destroyers & race volunteers.

Highlights definitely included the scary corner full of tombstones and ghouls, the curb rollover, the off-camber descent with a few sketchy lines, the bomber-fast sections past the ball diamonds and all the Bella Love through the start/finish. I had a great race, feeling strong and very pretty in pink. My cx mojo went south in the final lap as I saw the girl behind me closing the gap. Argh, after all that work, I can’t let her catch me! The adrenalin surged and I promptly crashed. That photo cracks me up. I love the dust trail.

Since pictures are indeed worth a 1000 words I thought I’d share the experience of this day with a few of my favorite memories. There so many good costumes I don’t know where to begin.

Andie Mackie, Amy A and ??? definitely gave a solid performance.
Eyeball man was really freaky to look at.
Sabine was resplendent as the Queen Bee.
Don’s car was possibly the most beautiful thing on the course:
The chain gang showed some impressive group-bike handling skills (Iwarmed up behind them for a long time because they were impossible to pass and fun to watch).

Until next time, happy trails…
At least it wasn’t a real bare ass, like last year.
Kudos to all the great photographers! Thanks again to the race organizers.

Surf City Overall after #2

Math is hard. But we scribbled and scrawled and figured it out. Here are the points after the first two events in the Surf City Series.

Ben Jacques-Maynes (Kodak/Sierra Nevada) seems to have a commanding lead over Mike Hernandez (Safeway Bag Boy) and David Wyandt (Boomswagger.boom) in the Men’s A Presented by Kona. But with the added variable of USGP racers at the last event anything could happen. Ben could oversleep, Mike could get a hole shot (right), and David could get his Boomswagger sponsors to pony upsome extra boom.

Sarah Kerlin (Velo Bella) has a slight lead over her teammate, Ann Fitzsimmons and Stella Carey (Kelly Bike) in the Women’s A Presented by Bicycle Trip. Sarah, resplendent in her purple horns and tail, took over the lead with a great performance at the Halloween event. The rest of Kerlin’s 47 teammates will be at the final event, so look for things to shake up a little in this category.

Jeremy Blalock (Joselyn’s Bicycles) and Logan Loader (Alan Bike) are in a dead heat tie in the Junior A event Present by Bontager. More than pride is at stake here as the overall series winner gets to take home a set of Bontrager XLite tubular wheels. Don’t you wish you were 17?

Consistency has paid off for David Eastwood (Art by Opsal). He leads the Men35+A Presented by Bicycle Outfitter over cross stalwart, Mikey Matthews (BuyCell.com) and the resurrected Tim Thompson (Flossaid/Eurocycling). Nipping at all of their heels though is the corpuscled winner of race #2, Alan Coats (Amgen).

Hey Look! Larry Hibbard (Family Cycling Center) is leading the Men 45+A. Mark Abele (Boure/Rivendell) is in a solid 2nd place.

Other category leaders include:
Melanie Dominguez (Bike Trip) – Women 35+
Katrina Baumsteiger (Black Market Racing) – Women B
Julianna Perry (Dirty Diaper (ewww)) – Women C
Jesse Nickell (Bike Trip) – Jr B
Robert Mau (Needs a sponsor) – Men B Presented by Scotts Valley Cycles
Murray Swanson (Pen Velo/Kondra Sys) – Men 35B
Matt Dunstan (Scotts Valley Cycles) – Men 45B
Eric Lowe (C’s don’t need no sponsors) – Men C
and riding like a man posessed,
Rich Maile (Art by Opsal) – Singlespeed

Thanks everyone for coming out. Look forward to seeing the gang at Surf City#3: Crankbrothers USGP #5. Pre-registration for this event is encouraged. Remind your loved ones (and their sisters) about our Women’s Cat C Bicycle Trip challenge.

and ummmm….what else…
oh yeah! Thank, visit, and spend lots of money at the following sponsors:
Bicycle Trip, Scotts Valley Cyclesport, Bicycle Outfitter, WildDingo.com, Hincapie Sports, Bontrager, NCNCA, Kona, WTB, Crankbrothers, Calabazas Cyclery, Dwight Goss Construction, GU, California Giant, Gizdich Ranch, Palo Alto Bicycles, PAZZO, Phil Wood, Ritchey, Rock Lobster, Subaru of Santa Cruz, Seabright Brewery, Sheila Moon, Vanderkitten, Crossroads Bicycles,Chain Reaction Cycles,VeloTech,White Industries, and Munktiki

Because we feel like it

This doesn’t have a lot of anything to do with anything, but it sure is cool. Thanks Pazzo.

Highland Happenings

****
Check out my story on the Velo Bella founders in Bay Area Business Women. It’s also in their magazine. But more importantly, check out Flying Erin’s photo!

By the way, she went in for stitches on her calf after cutting herself during the race today. And for those of you who didn’t hear, erin placed 5th in yesterday’s race! On another note, there were a bunch of velo bella supporters at the race today as the VB gals put in great performances. Lisa, Erin, Barb and I raced (sami cheered for us). The course was twisty, turny, muddy with a couple of run-ups. After a self-induced slide-out in yesterday’s race that put an early end to my efforts, I’m happy to say i made the top spot on the podium at today’s event. Barb placed 2nd and erin and Lisa were just behind.
–Christine

****
Thanks for the healing words from all who’ve written. I had a really great racing weekend but kicked my pedal with my calf when running with the bike around a tight corner on Sunday (note to self – hold the bike alittle further away next time). The calf opened up ina really ugly way and I had to get it all stitched back together on the way to the airport. The funny thing is that I was having a pretty good race and was so amped up that I didn’t even notice and just kept racing!

Fortunately Barb, Christine, and Sami all rallied together to get my bikes packed up really quick so I could go the ER and still make my flight. And the girl I was battling with during the race came over and gave Barb a sports-bra full of Burt’s Bees stuff to help with healing. Barb was suddenly a Dcup! It was so fun to be on the East Coast this weekend with Barb, Christine, Sami, the fellas, and Lisa, a sweetheart who I had not met before. The announcers everywhere love us and are so proud to have women travel across the country to attend their races. And the compliments on our jersey have no geographic boundaries.I’ll be back on the bike for our race. I can’t wait.
-erin

****
Don’t know if a link was made to this coverage & pics yet:http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2005/nov05/highland05

This one just plain rocks:http://www.cyclingnews.com/crossphotos.php?id=photos/2005/nov05/highland05/5569
-Don

****
I just received a link to more photos of highland park cx race featuring the fab bellas – barb, erin, lisa and me. (scroll down and click on coverage of bike race)

My favorite photo of the bunch is Lisa turning a corner with her legout – well done. They did an interview with me as well. By the way, in the sprint photo between barb and me, it looks like wewere somewhat even in the sprint. But I actually had a gap on her going into the pavement straightaway that she easily closed in a short distance. If the race would have been a couple of meters longer, she would have taken me at the line! Her sprint really impressed me.
–Christine

****
I just wanted to chime in that it was great racing behind Christine, Barb, Erin and Sami this weekend. Also good to see bella Susan Gabriel in the Women B’s.

At Saturday’s race I saw Sami wipeout in front of me coming off a fast grass decent into a 90 degree gravelly turn. Very dicey corner and she immediately said ‘I’m ok’ and all I could think was good thing she’s wearing those blue’granny’ leggins. They saved her from road rash on top of her already injured calf.You gals are inspiring me to race faster so I can learn some more skills. Barb raced phenomenally both days…ok so no surprize to you all out West. Great come back ride to Christine after some tough luck at Camp Hill. Hey, but that’s racing. Just when you think you’ve raced your worst race ever you cancome back & win the next day…nice! Looking forward to seeing ya’ll again at Nats.
-DElabella-Lisa

Velo Bella Beginner Giveaway!!

Would you like an opportunity to win a brand new fully built Lemond Poprad cyclocross bike! (yes! the one in the picture!)

Thanks to the amazing generousity of Bicycle Trip, if we get at least 15 women to race the WildDingo.com Category C event, we are planning to give away this fantastic bike during the C women awards ceremony at our cyclocross race on Saturday, November 19th in Watsonville.

You do not have to win. You don’t even have to make it to the podium. You just need to show up and race. The winner will be choosen by random drawing based on those Women Category C racers that finished the event. The drawing will be held during the C women podium awards.

If you have ever competed at a B level, Women 35, or As in any cyclocross race, ever, you are not eligible. This promotion is being held to encourage newcomers to give this quirky sport a try. If you are not a newcomer, then send this message to some friends you’ve been meaning to sway into racing. If you are a newcomer, then shoot, what are you waiting for? We’re talking a BRAND NEW BIKE here ladies.

Category C women race at 9:25a.m.. They will get their own start and there will only be Women B, Women 35+ and Junior women out on the course at that time. The course is tough, but its not scary (although that run up is a bitch) The atmosphere will be full on bella style, even if it rains, expect fun, mischief and coconut bras. And of course, all the support and encouragement that goes along with that type of mayhem. Mountain bikes are perfectly fine to race on, just remove your bottle cages and your bar ends.

This race is also some kind of big deal event, so come early and race and then stay for all the excitement as the nations top cyclocrossers face each other in the afternoon. Lots of prime opportunities for boy and girl watching.

And remember, we need at least 15 women on the line, so bribe your friends into joining you.

More information on Surf City races here.
Info and registration for the Watsonville race here (please pre-register!)
and the world’s most fabulous technical document is here (no offense Tom)

Due to the race being held on a Saturday, we will not be able to hold a clinic before this event, but I encourage anyone with questions to email us and we’ll tell you all you need to know. And then some.

See you there.

Sabine

p.s. If you are even in the neighborhood of Bicycle Trip (in Santa Cruz) please stop in and thank them for their amazing support of cyclocross. Buy something too. And a big thank you to WildDingo.com for their support of the Women’s Category C race.

BABW Article

Ooo..Cool. Check out this article about Velo Bella in Bay Area Business Women

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