Visalia Criterium, CA
2nd, Ryan Hostetter, Women 3
5th, Heidi Horton, Women 3

Zamora Road Race, CA
10th, Monica Neilson, Women 1/2/3
13th, Stella Carey, Women 1/2/3
16th, Erika Donald, Women 1/2/3
28th, Sarah Kerlin, Women 1/2/3
34th, Tracie Nelson, Women 1/2/3
50th, Linda Locke, Women 1/2/3
4th, Soni Andreini Poulsen, Women 4
9th, Kim White, Women 4
11th, Marian Hunting, Women 4
13th, Ashley Erickson, Women 4
20th, Katie Norton, Women 4
32th, Julie Porter, Women 4

Exeter Time Trial, CA
2nd, Ryan Hostetter, Women 3

Land Park Criterium, CA
40th, Jen Chapman, Master 35+ 1/2/3
8th, Katie Norton, Women 4
9th, Angela Aldrich, Women 4
10th, Marian Hunting, Women 4
14th, Denise Ramirez, Women 4
22nd, Soni Andreini Poulsen, Women 4
22nd, Stella Carey, Women 1/2/3
23rd, Erika Donald, Women 1/2/3
29th, Linda Locke, Women 1/2/3
30th, Monica Neilson, Women 1/2/3
31st, Tracie Nelson, Women 1/2/3
??, Sabine Dukes, Women 1/2/3

Pro Southeastern Bella Natasha Cowie takes 6th at Reddick!

Tennessee’s very own Natasha Cowie placed 6th in the first race of the 2007 South Eastern Regional Championship Series in Reddick, Florida, on March 11.

Natasha, who mopped up the course with the guys and finished 1st at the Columbia Cyclocross in January (see previous blog entry for photo), came out strong on a challenging course. We look forward to seeing her results this season!

Here’s a course description of Reddick from Dustin Greer:
“The course was typical Razorback style: lots of twisty singletrack, tons of roots, and many, many dips and drops to give the trail a roller coaster feel. The flier was a misprint and all classes did the same 10.5 mile loop. The loop was very similar to the course used for the 12 Hours of Razorback just three weeks ago. It began with a grassy field start. The start line allowed riders to start 15-wide, but you had to funnel down to 2-wide in 50 yards which made things interesting and forced more than a couple of riders to do some bush-whacking. There was a narrow, off-camber hill just a minute into the course, which proved to stack up several of the classes. Then came a BMX-type section, followed by a longer gradual climb that took riders to the top of a hill overlooking the whole Reddick mining area. Then came probably the nastiest descent in the park. If you survived it, you were rewarded with fast singletrack for two miles before a little bit slower, more technical section came up. It featured some really tight, rocky turns in an area I have never ridden before in my six previous trips here. The famous Triple Dipper section comes with about 3.5 or 4 miles to go. It is more like the 7-dipper now after some additions. A lot of the trail was covered with some sort of oak leaves which were as slick as ice. It is known as the “Florida Ice.” Most of the corners were slippery, but they all had two or three inches of exposed dirt/sand at the top of the berm that supplied some traction if you could stay up there. There was a lot of carnage on the slick leaves during Saturday’s practice. Overall, it was one of the hardest, most physically demanding courses I have ever ridden.”

:: RESULTS ::

Pro/Expert Women

1. Carolyn Van Vurst

2. Kym Flynn

3. Jamie Dinkins

….

6. Natasha Cowie

7. Philicia Marion

8. Shannon Morrison

Velo Bella – Kona Pro MTB is BACK!

The Velo Bella – Kona Pro MTB team is already racing and they haven’t even attended camp yet. Shannon Gibson produced fantastic results in Tucson at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo sponsored by Kona. Natasha Cowie joins the team this year after being nominated by her peers in Tenessee to represent them on the professional circuit. This is her first race report…

By Natasha Cowie

Quarry Racing: SERC #1, Reddick, Florida

Racing ON and IN quarries, that is. Not actually racing the quarries themselves.

Having spent eons training on the frigid, forbidding plateaus of Tennessee, I welcomed the opportunity to improve my (nonexistent) tan with the first Southeast Regional Championship (SERC) series mountain bike race in Reddick, Florida. Some desperate yearning for sunshine and beaches causes everyone to start driving 98 mph as soon as they hit the Florida line. Note to anyone traveling to Florida: free road maps and citrus juice at the welcome center. Also lots of sand and palm trees everywhere.

Natural history lesson (sorry, I am finishing a natural resources degree in May and I am a DWEEB about this stuff): 50-60 million years ago, a warm, shallow sea covered what is now Florida. The calcium-rich shells from ocean critters piled up, and were eventually compacted by pressure, forming limestone and coquina (incompletely cemented limestone that still contains the original shells). Central Florida forests look primeval. Enormous live oaks (salt- and drought-tolerant trees that can live for centuries) and saw palmettos lined the course.

Lined up at the start, I felt like one of those strange cave creatures that spend their entire lives in darkness. Sun! Heat! Humidity! Lush tropical forests!! It didn’t help that about three-quarters of the pack were happily tan, citrus-juice-fueled Florida ladies.

The technical bizarreness of the course hit us from the start. Half a mile in we swooped over an off-camber dip and up a wall of a climb, and things only got tougher as we wound around the quarry, along narrow ledges past greenish pools of stagnant water. I kept expecting to see an alligator stretched across the trail, but there were only a couple of snakes. I spent lots of time sprinting up reeeally steep hills with my bike on my back. I like my Sidis very much; they’re nice and stiff on the bike but they sure helped on those stupid hill run-ups. And they improve my badass factor no matter how slow I’m going. Which is always a positive thing.

Damn. I’ve been racing a while, but I sure learned a lot last weekend. Among other things, I learned:

1. Never, ever let your 17-year-old semipro brother advise you about energy drink:water proportions. I spent two and a half hours drinking syrup. Thank you brother.

2. If you average 4.5 cups of (outrageously expensive) coffee a day, do NOT go without coffee on race day. I am now saving pennies to buy a nice, portable French press.

3. Don’t crash on fossiliferous limestone. Just don’t. It’s bad.

I felt good physically, but admittedly I’m kind of a spaz on technical stuff. I’m happier on mountains than on power courses, but that made Florida awesome practice for me. I finished sixth, behind some amazing women who are very tan (if we were ranked by tans I would have been dead last). I didn’t actually meet any Velo Bellas there, although a wonderful person standing by the race course cheered, “Go Bellas!” as I passed. Unfortunately I never managed to find her after the race to say thanks.

Cardio Vascular Carnage

by Tracie

Quotes from CVC so far:

Mary: You’re not dropping out of this race.
Me: But… but…
Mary: You’re not fucking dropping out of this race.
Me: Do you have any idea how much I hate you right now?
Mary: Do you think I give a shit?

Mary: Would you rather have sex with that lizard tattoo guy or that facial tattoos guy?
Me: You mean David Clinger???
Mary: Yes.
Me: EEEEEEEWWWWWW!!!

Courtenay: I found a pair of men’s tighty wighties in my hotel bathroom.
Me: Tighty Wighties? Ugh. Gross.

Heidi: How did your tt go?
Me: I felt slow. I’m going back to the house now.
Heidi: OK. There’s ice cream in the freezer. (this is at 10am)

Need to read more? Check out the no sugar added long version here

Tuesday night rides

They are starting this week! 6pm! 75 N. Snelling.

be there.

Generally, I’ll be doing these rides…. wanna ride over with me? I’ll probably leave the U around 5:15ish…

drop a comment… or email loxx0058(at)umn(dot)edu

Cool MTB Race, Cool, CA
5th, Yvette Crockell, Sport Women 40-49
5th, Renee Ridgley, Pro/Expert Women
7th, Alex Fabbro, Pro/Expert Women (Single Speed)

Raymond Granite Road Race, CA
79th, Tracie Nelson, Women Pro/1/2
80th, Mary Maroon, Women Pro/1/2

Belmont-Piedra Time Trial, CA
52nd, Mary Maroon, Women Pro/1/2
80th, Tracie Nelson, Women Pro/1/2
6th, Ryan Hostetter, Women 3/4
7th, Heidi Horton, Women 3/4
1st, Soni Andreini Poulsen, Women 40-44

Tower District Criterium, CA
4th, Heidi Horton, Women 3/4
7th, Tracy Loper, Women 3/4
10th, Soni Andreini Poulsen, Women 3/4
13th, Ryan Hostetter, Women 3/4
68th, Mary Maroon, Women Pro/1/2

Central Valley Classic Stage Race General Classification
75th, Mary Maroon, Women Pro/1/2

CCCX MTB #4, Toro Park, CA
7th, Daphne Hodgson, Beginning Women
11th, Miss Mary Perez, Beginning Women
10th, Katrina Loera, Sport Single Speed
2nd, Esther Kim, Sport Women 19-34

Menlo Park Grand Prix, CA
12th, Laura Sanchez, Women 3
23rd, Sabine Dukes, Women 3
4th, Katie Norton, Women 4
11th, Amy Fischer, Women 4
12th, Angela Aldrich, Women 4
4th, Denise Ramirez, Women 4 35+

Winter Training and Speed Skating Bellas!

It’s been a wildly changeable winter, we’ve got degrees today in the 40s, while it was below zero yesterday morning. The Bellas have had to be creative this winter in maintaining some semblance of fitness. We had the most sickeningly mild winter until about February, when the central NY area got seriously dumped on; north of Syracuse, Oswego made the national news receiving 10-12 feet in a few days.

So, here riding on the road through the winter is not a realistic option: some Bellas run or snowshoe, some go to the ack, cough, gym, lots of us cross-country ski, and now several NY Bellas are speedskating!

Jenn coaches kids at the Iceplex in Morrisville, NY – hopefully she’ll race too one of these days. There, in Morrisville, Jan-o and Sue A are completely hooked on ice. How couldn’t you be with Apolo as such an appealing representative?

I went to Cleveland for the Short Track Nationals and got to see Apolo, and other top US skaters show the rest of us hacks how it’s really done. So small is this sport that all the best were there and they’re on the same ice as the “age class” and “masters” skaters, although the zamboni seems to take more care in giving them quality ice than for us. In any event, I tried my best to do Syracuse proud, and was lucky to have gotten 2nd place overall. Considering that there were 10 women in the 40-49 age group, which in terms of cycling, that would be pretty thin, in speed skating, that’s a decent masters’ women field. Over the three days of competition, you pretty much live in the hockey rink, which due to the amazing elite skaters, was surprisingly tolerable.

Here’s one of the few shots of my particular races that I don’t hate, though it still isn’t too pretty. This is the A final of the 500 and we are duking it out for 2nd place; the 1st place woman is, erm..a bit ahead of us. Kim, in the middle, could be given honorary Bella status with her tiger style.

Ok, I can’t help but put this one in too – this is in the 3000 – 27 laps – should take around 6 minutes or so to do. This is the one race I “almost won” – I stepped on a block on the last corner and went down just as I was “making my move”. Oh, well.

Next post will be less self-centered! Promise!

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