Pumpkins.

So it's the last day of August and I'm really curious as to what'll happen after this weekend. See, I never make it past labor day weekend in the race calendar, and it's the labor day weekend race that always cracks me every year. So I'm wondering if I'm going to turn in to a pumpkin after this weekend's races in Grand Junction. Let's hope not because there's still some good road racing left and even some track racing to go in to October. On the other hand, a big ol' piece of pumpkin pie would be pretty tasty right now.

I went to preview the Parker race courses today and this was the most remarkable thing I saw. My only question is why.

I rode almost a hundred kilometers today, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but when you consider that all 90k I rode were on the track that's fairly amazing to me. I actually don't know when I've done more because I never had a computer on my track bike to keep track of it until last week. I'm fairly cooked now after my super secret motor pace workout this morning and then some fun racing tonight.

Warming up on a chilly night. Pazit is always stylish at the track.

Sharon is
a) practicing her new victory salute
b) telling us to "fight the power"
c) showing us the latest dance moves

uh, that'd be C. I believe this one's called "the sprinkler" (well it'd still make a decent victory salute)

"the power, it's all right in here"

Longmont Crit: This was what it looked like all day for me in the cat 3 men's race in which I won the super supreme ultimate tailgunner champion award. Not exactly the workout I intended, but at least I am very well practiced at closing gaps and sprinting out of every corner now.

The women's race went well except our plans for complete world domination were foiled again. Despite some good hard teamwork and both Beth and Sharon making the break, Beth ended up 2nd, Sharon 3rd. Then I fell asleep at the wheel for the field sprint. I think I was 7th and Anne was 8th.

Two rainbows on the way home - lucky much?

BEERFEST: Movie Review
Better than Super Troopers, but still not quite as funny as Anchorman, but definitely more belly laughs than Talladega Nights. Warning: this movie may contain crude language, nudity, sexual content, and substance abuse. NOT intended for mature audiences. Definitely funnier the more beer you drink before you go.

If you're in the mood for a little more mature comedy this week then Little Miss Sunshine is definitely worth the price of admission.

Look what's coming in the mail next week. It's some kind of wierd road bike with fat knobie tires and mountain bike brakes. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it, but I heard there are some kind of psycho something-or-other races that a wierd fringe community does in the fall. Perhaps I will be checking them out this year... or more likely just turning this in to a sweet townie bike instead.

Who do these knees belong to? Is it
a) The former US national crit champion after a nasty spill a few days ago.
b) Former fat kid from the mid-west turned super-pro roadie who thinks he can do anything on a bike from pursuit to madison, stage race, and sprint after trying his skill at mountain biking.
c) Current USPRO crit champ Brad Huff Superfast Secreteriat.
d) All of the above.

That's right, d. All of the above. That's our boy, Brad Huff, always the professional.

.... And no Friedman, you can't get good sangria in an Irish Pub.

but Logan knows you can get a good sausage.

Who had worse luck this week?

Georgie getting taken out meters from the finish?

4-time crit champ Tina Pic getting taken out meters from the finish of crit natz?

My vote goes with George since the guy that took him out took the time bonus and the win... now that sucks!

slow day today = posting pictures of my cat

Aargh! I do my best impersonation of a pirate as I warm up for the pursuit this morning. I might have ridden better with a wooden leg though as I did a less than impressive 3k pursuit today. Oh well with only 2 of us racing at least I was assured a spot on the podium.

Rained out at the track again!?!?? We were rained out for the elite nationals qualifier races today, so we're going to just have to wait until next week for the next big points race showdown...

The day wasn't all bad though.

Steph made cookies. There are two things I can't say no to, and that's beer and cookies. Ok, maybe three things... but anyway I think there's some kind of conspiracy to get me fat because everytime I turn around somebody is making cookies.

Oh my god, so much fun. I got invited out with the ladies from Hammer racing last night. (note: not the same as my teammate Sharon the Hammer, but rather a whole team of racers who call themselves Hammer. )
I assure you I was tall enough to get on all the rides.

Wheee!

Getting scrambled in the scrambler... Melissa tipped the guy so we got like a 20 minute ride. I think he jacked up the speed too. I was kind of dizzy when I got off.

The best was the roller coaster...
Ready with anticipation.

"AHHHHH, we're all going to die!"

Ok it was a little scary mostly because I think it was built about 40 years ago and it seemed a little rickety. All I could say about Lakeside is that there seems to be a lack of safety equipment there. You might have fun, but you're taking your life in your own hands or in the hands of some teenage burnout operating the ride.

Happy Birthday to the world's best mom.

Saawheet!
Local girl does good at Manhattan Beach. Way to go Nicky!
(picture pirated from cyclingnews)

Some things I saw at track nationals...

Me and Maatje holding hands (photo courtesy of Mark Legg http://markleggimages.exposuremanager.com/)
Mark and Dave holding hands. Well, it was the madison.

Group hugs by team Hammer.

Katie Compton in a skirt!
Great podium shoes.
and me taking the "tour of the velodrome" in my pursuit. Imagine how fast my time would have been if I had acutally ridden on the pursuit line (shortest distance around the track). (photo courtesy of Mark Legg http://markleggimages.exposuremanager.com/)

Master's Nationals Points Race: Race Report.
Since the statute of limitations of basking in the glory of my big win yesterday is almost over I figured I'd get the race report out now before all my friends and family tire of hearing me talk incessantly about it. (oops, too late)

So if you don't know a points race is kind of like a criterium, but instead of winner takes all at the end there are a sprints every 5 laps during the race. The winner is the one with the most points accumulated from those sprints.

And so the story goes,
It was a dark and stormy night....
No actually it was a dark and stormy afternoon and we got rain delayed after just 3 laps in to the 30 lap race. So we hid under the tent for a couple of hours until we could start again. (p.s. sitting around is not so good for the legs)

And so the race starts again.... It started great. I won the first points sprint was all "get some of this" until my legs seized up immediately after that. My legs just felt like bricks and I wasn't able to score any more points in the next few sprints. So by 10 laps to go I'd dropped to 5th on points and Maatje up in 1st tied on points with Kele Murdin. By that point I started to think I didn't have much chance of winning or even still making the top 3. This was so not how I visualized the race going...

With 6 laps to go I had no choice but to nut up and sprint my ass off for the penultimate sprint. Phew, I won that one and that was enough to get me back in the race. So now with one sprint to go Maatje and I were tied for the lead on points, and it was all going to come down to the final sprint. Then with 2 laps left the field started to sit up a bit. I saw a chance and made a most sparktastic attack with 500 meters to go. I held a gap the finish, won the last sprint, and won the overall for the race. Woohoo! By the way, I must have tried moves like that a hundred times before and it NEVER works. I mean never, until yesterday ;-)

So I've only won one race so far this season, and I guess if you're just going to win one race, then doing it at nationals makes it all ok.

Giddy-Up!

ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?

I'm getting ready for the big Colorado Springs showdown in the points race tomorrow. Although I can make no predictions to the outcome I will say that it will be fun, it will be fast, and it will be a crowd pleaser. (last chance to come watch, we should go sometime between 11am-1pm)

Shown above Maaahk (that'd be Kiwi speak for "Mark") is racing his points race last night. He rode a really smart race and finished third. Brent did awesome too and finished 2nd.

Oh, and if you want to see some more about the race yesterday just click here to go to Kate's blog.

What's that called when you don't win and there's only one person faster than you? Oh yeah, FIRST LOSER.

Today was the pursuit. Well, I brought as much as I had to bring, and I'm really happy with my ride. I did a PR by 5 seconds and in just a 2 kilometer effort, and I think that's pretty good. I was hoping to go under 2:39, and I did a 2:38 ...and I've never gone under 26 second laps before! So the good news is I'm pretty fast right now, the bad news is I'm still slower than Maatje who did a very nice ride to win today. This of course would be the 6th time I've placed 2nd at Master's Natz... I'm like the flippin' Eric Zabel of master's racing.

So I'm all psyched up for the racing now because I watched the best sports movie of all time last night.

Oh I'll bring it, don't worry.

Top 10 things I don't like about track workouts.
1. Changing gears.
2. Changing gears.
3. Having to lug a bunch of tools, wheels, bars, ect all so you can change gears and equipment between efforts.
4. How it takes 2.5 hours to do a half a dozen efforts.
5. How in 2.5 hours you've actually only ridden 20k.
6. Excessive chamois time in the infield while not actually riding.
7. Severe dehydration and sun stroke from sitting on the infield between efforts.
8. How after riding the track for a few weeks going up and down the banking feels like hill work to you.
9. How after riding the track for several weeks all of a sudden the Manitou shuffle becomes your "endurance" ride.
10. Last but not least, changing gears.

Do you ever want it to be tomorrow so bad just so you can wake up and have more coffee?

Found this cool poster for the Bannock Street criterium in Old Town the other week. The Bannock was today, and just happens to be my favorite Colorado race. I'm also very happy to announce we got the win today thanks to some good teamwork and awesome sprinting by Beth. We had a really good weekend with Beth winning today (after an awesome leadout by the Hammer), and then yesterday I got second after getting in the break thanks to my teammates awesome blocking.

I think today we were all fired up to win because Carmello showed up to cheer us on from the sidelines. Word on the street is only a couple more weeks until her collarbone is healed enough to start racing again.

In other news my roomate Mike is now sporting the Flyod Landis B.A. look with hat on backwards with rock star glasses.... hmmm, not such the look to be sporting now that the B sample came back positive.

Eh, wait for the DVD. Anchorman it isn't.

Ok, so now I'm officially up to racing at total of 20 laps on the track so far. At least the rain held off for the first 2 events of the evening tonight, and I actually made it in to the finals of the keiren. Ha! So tonight was the last chance for me to race before master's natz next week, and if I'm going to do well there I'm going to need a little help. This is where you come in.


I want you to come watch me race the points race on Saturday, August 12. I know most of you reading this are in Colorado and there's no lame road races or crits going on that weekend so come on down to the track. I need the support of my friends and especially my teammates to come down and cheer me on. I don't just mean a little "wohoo, go renee" I mean face painting, foam finger-waving, british soccer fan crazy cheering me on... it's the only way I have a chance.

The race should be sometime around 10 or 11 am, in the morning session of the track racing. http://www.usacycling.org/events/2006/masters_track/schedule.htm
The 7-11 velodrome is located at 250 S. Union, Colorado Springs, CO 80910

Go fast, turn left, and don't stop pedaling!

I finally got in a track workout today. There was a brief window of blue sky this morning.
And there it is. Of course it clouded up and rained as soon as I got done. I feel as if I'm in some alternate reality where it rains all the time in Colorado. If I wanted rain I would have moved to Portland with Kurt and Gretchan in the first place.

(ok, ok, it's not that bad, at least every thing is green and pretty now).

I can't catch a break. I can't even win the race to get off the track once it starts raining. Foiled again by Tuesday night rain showers. This time I got so far as making it to the track, warming up, then it started raining right at 6. So once again SOL on the track racing, at least now I'm up to about 50 laps of riding on the track so far for the season. I'm so ready for nationals, bring it!