Velo Bella :: La Gazzetta :: Latest & Greatest Archive

May 2003

05/29/03 - Bellas remain HOT...and LOVED
I love our team. I really do. I mean, who’dya thunk that I could ever convince 4 other women to race a 24-hour race on singlespeeds?

A few years ago, we were lucky to convince any women to race the event at all, much less to do it committed to only one gear for 24 hours. And not only that, our team is so chock full of femme mountain biking talent, that we rounded up enough women to field 3 teams for the event! I’ve raced the 24 Hours of Adrenalin at Laguna Seca since it first arrived in 1997, when there were only about 20 teams total and Trilife had a staff of about 3. No one had ever heard of such a thing. 24 Hours? Racing? At Night? We were the only all-female team, we won.

After 1999, Trilife said they might not make it back unless attendance improved. It did. They keep coming back. 2003 saw about 300 teams and soloists and 11 All-Female teams! Our teams ruled the weekend. We love it when its time to race hard without being all serious about it and stuff. We were a hula hooping, sting ray riding machine! The superfast, "Bellas Haulin Ass" won the All Female National (not NORBA but who cares) Championship. The supersadistic singlespeeders, "Velo Bell aSS" won the 5 person All Female (much to the dismay of our geared competitors). And the superfly, Bellas Dragon Ass, won our hearts.

Also, Kathy, Kathy "I'll think Ill ride Mt Hamilton after this is over" Lenno won fastest Le Mans lap and fastest overall lap on the “National” course.
Jen "I’ll go as long as you guys aren’t serious about racing" Wilson won the fastest non- national lap (on her Retrotec Singlespeed with kick ass blue flames).

And, we have the BEST volunteers in the world. Thanks to Kathy Matejka and Susan Brown for working in the middle of the night, our angels Laura and Linda for bringing fresh coffee and bagels and Todd for not getting too drunk to work on our bikes.

It was a fantastic (albeit painful) weekend. Each year I say I'm not coming back because it can't get any better. Each year I do, and it does. Thanks fellow teammates (and guests!). You have no idea how much you all inspire me. Check out the results, laugh and cry at the reports and definitely peep out the pictures.

Speaking of racing hard without getting our panties in a bunch - yes, we know Lynn did not wear her jersey on the National podium. And no, we don't care. Oh, I know we'll dock Lynn's pay! Hahaaaa! Meow! After getting pummeled by T-Mobile's attack after attack, Lynn hung tough to finish in an amazing 4th place. The only non T-Mobile on the podium. It was a wet and dreary and tiring day. The awards ceremony was hours away and there was a bar nearby. Not only that, but we are such a poor team that Lynn only has one (I am not making this up) Velo Bella jersey. So after hours of hard racing and hours of hanging out at the bar, Lynn was in no mood to put on her stinky wet jersey. Who could blame her! She looks great on the podium, a sort of respite from the overabundant pink and black (as an aside, Dede's glasses are pretty cool and do you think Kim got in trouble for wearing low rise jeans instead of her team shorts?).

And you will be happy to know that our new clothing order has arrived and fresh clean clothes are on their way to Lynn. And yes, our clothes did arrive and as I warned you just about sold out. We do have a few jerseys in limited sizes around. We'll try to update the clothing page, but probably, by the time we get it updated, we'll be sold out. So if you’re interested in getting one, email us right now. We also have some very nice gloves on the way. They should arrive in a week or so. The hit will be our socks. I have no idea what they will look like, but P@zzo had a gleam in his eye and he looked mighty inspired. More info on those as I know it.

And in case any breweries are listening, P@zzo has designed some awesome Velo Bella beer labels. Now we just need to find a Red, Blonde, and Dunkles beer worthy of our excellent labels. Any interested brewery should call us asap so that we can hold a tasting party or two. Cheers!

05/01/03 - Well, here we go...
It's it. We’re officially in race season now. No more slap happy base miles. Let the games begin. Just look at what we've racked up already.

Locally, we started out the season with the Wente Races. The 4 road race field was full and split into 2, which shot all of our crafty strategic plans right out of the water as Bellas were split between races. We’d have won I tell ya, if only we weren’t too lazy and unorganized to preregister. Our 1/2/3 race went exactly as planned, which has more to do with Ginger being a climbing freak than with our super secret plan. The crit was a hoot! Watching Heather, freshly inspired by race school, attack over and over again in only her 2nd crit ever was truly inspiring and sort of bizarre. Equally inspring and even more bizarre is Tracy’s race report on the event.

Nationally, Lynn is our one woman wonder show. Who needs a whole team when one tiny woman can make an entire 6-women German-technology-funded pink-flamed U.S. National squad stop racing for first and start worrying about 2nd and 3rd instead? I think Manon owes us some of her winnings! Lynn’s at Gila now, but this time she’s not alone...

Our Bellas are so talented. We’ve been finding out just how talented as articles they have written keep cropping up all over the web. We’re so durn proud of them, that we’ve assembled a collection of sorts. Check it out when you have a moment. If you’re still bored, check out our Sponsors page and click on all their links like a hundred times, okay? Thanks.

24 Hours of Laguna Seca is coming up. That’s all I have to say about that right now except that we are going to kick ASS three times over. And, buy some lights.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Oh yeah, our clothing order is expected to arrive May 9th. That is, if Squadra’s word is any good. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know if it is or not. The clothing order is just about sold out by the way. I told you it would be. Why didn’t you order your jersey earlier?

And, did you catch the latest issue of Velonews? Oh yeah, big time baby. We’re all mainstream and legit now. A big ol raspberry pppphhhffftt! to the chick who looked down her nose and said, “They’re not at all serious about racing are they?” No, we’re not.