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June 2004
06/12/04 - Give it up for our boy BJ-M!
Congratulations to Ben Jacques-Maynes (Sierra Nevada) for winning Stage 1 AND THE OVERALL at Nature Valley. We've always known that this guy has talent (wink-wink), now the rest of you know. He's so cute, we could just kiss him all over, but we'll let Goldi handle that for us.
06/12/04 - Twin Cities Making it After All
Whats one of the perks of having an amazing foundling team in Minnesota? It gives our gals a place to call home when they race the Nature Valley Grand Prix. A mini team of Christine, Hiroko and Brenna headed to Minnesota for the NRC Stage Race and were oh so well taken care of by the local bellas. The funnest part had to be a local race the gals did incognito on Tuesday. Congrats to Brenna for finishing in 4th place and Christine for finishing in 10th in the wet and wild Minneapolis Downtown Classic. Congrats to the Twin Cities bellas for setting up the bella tent with all the fluffy trimmings in the midst of a thunderstrom. And big bella hugs to the Twin Cities gals for taking such wonderful care of the team.
06/10/04 - Where's Gabby?
We don't know. She left for Mexico and we haven't heard from her since. She headed down there to find out when her road race and time trial nationals would be held. The nationals might be the qualifier for the 2004 Olympics and they might be this weekend, or last weekend, or next weekend. If you can hear us Gabby, go get em!!
06/07/04 - New Bella Blood
Velo Bella is pleased to welcome Brenda Lyons to our elite team. Brenda and I met at a mountain bike race in Boggs several years ago. She was a scared new racer and was nervous about the whole thing. I calmed her down and she then proceeded to kick my ass in the race. I feel like a proud mama now watching her refine her sprinting prowress and securing top ten finishes in NRC races. Her BMX kick will get her that breakthrough win soon. Just you watch.
06/06/04 - Give me Liberty or give me Mama Palma's
The Bellas traveled to Philadelphia for the Liberty Classic. This former World Cup race is still one of the top races for women in North America and attracts a star studded international field. Our team was led by Philly local, Liz Begosh. Liz knows the Brotherly lovely streets of Philly and placed 10th at the event last year. Unfortunately, Liz was ill on the day of the race and opted to help the team from the car instead. But we were okay, because Velo Bella has tricke....errr I mean convinced a fantastic new spirinter, Brenda Lyons, to join our team. But as luck would have it, Brenda flatted and suffered the world's slowest wheel change. Bummer, because our little Brenda would have given that Petra a run for her money I bet. Whle I have a moment, a round of applause for the amazing Petra Rossner. She has won the event 7 times. She is a classy and ridiculously powerful sprinter amd she announced her intentions to retire at the Philly post race press conference.
Velo Bella photo coverage of the Liberty Classic and US Pro Championships, can be found here, free of charge even.
A big thank you to Liz and her family for taking such wonderful care of us. It was a joy and a tasty treat to have dinner with everyone at Mama Palma's.
06/05/04 - Dash for Upgrade Points
Okay, we admit it. We've been sandbaggin the 3s with a couple of crazy strong pro mountain bikers. But we can't help it. They are trying to get their points. And who'da thunk that little teeny tiny Melodie
was such a storng sprinter. At the recent Dash for Cash which they did, Sarah Kerlin got in a break with Palo Alto rider Armida Huerta. With the gorillas, Mel, Suzy and the Tracies patrolling the field, Sarah's break held and she sprinted for the overall win! Mel put in a gusty little sprint in the field and finished 3rd.
06/01/04 - Gabby vs Mt Hamilton
Gabby came up north to race a couple of NCNCA races as part of her training to make the Olympic team for Mexico. The big race of the weekend was the epic Mt Hamilton Classic. This point to point race climbs up and over Mt Hamilton as racers make their way from San Jose to Livermore. According to reports, Gabby attacked and
attacked and attacked and attacked some more until the group was down to 5 (including our own Barb Howe). And on the descent, Gabby attacked one last time and solo'd the remaining 30 miles to the finish for a spectacular win. When all was said and done, Gabby was first, Melodie was 5th and Barb was 8th. Booyah.
05/23/04 - Flamingos, Barbarella and Snow Summit
5 Expert and 3 Pro Bella mountain bike racers packed the bikes and the flamingos in the truck and headed to Big Bear. We rented a big ol cabin and the slumber party weekend began. We decorated our mountain home with pink flamingos, Bella banners and pink handcuffs. We spent the evenings relaxing by eating, painting our nails and watching Barbarella. Inspired by Barbarella's courage against the orgasmatron while still managing to look fantastic, we raced our cute little hearts out. Barb, Sarah and Mel competed in the pro stage race. Barb Howe secured a top twenty placing in the cross country and finished an exciting come-from-way-behind 11th in the short track. Almost all of our expert racers ended the weekend on the podium too. Alex was 2nd in Expert Women 40-44. Sabine was 3rd in Expert 35-39, Kim and Suzy were 4th and 5th in Expert 30-34. Now that we all qualified for Mammoth we want to figure out how to decorate our homes with floor to ceiling brown shag. Love.
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