LA TRACK WORLD CUP ROUND UP points race

Session 3 & 4:

Points Race Qualifier & Final:

Saturday morning was a new day with a whole new race. Everyone was back to square one and each rider had to again prove that they were worthy of riding the points race final. As always, nothing matters until you've made the final, so I raced the qualifier as if it was the final. The first 7 laps were mellow until the pace started to pick up for the sprint. I sat in for the first sprint and waited for the move that I thought would inevitably come after the sprint. When I didn't sense it coming, I went for it myself and quickly found myself off the front with about a 1/4 on the field and an indecisive chase. I was joined by a German rider who jumped off the front and bridged up to me, but I misjudged and totally boched the exchange when I moved up track to let her through. She blew by me and the gap between us was devastating, but I noticed the she was settling into a tempo and that I could close the gap with one quick hard effort. She and I were built very differently and I definitely benefited more from the draft than she did. When I bridged up to her I was wishing that she wouldn't realize I was there and let me sit on for a few laps. Unfortunately, she saw me right away and expected the exchange as soon as I got there. I was happy to work with her for the points. It was the ideal situation. We were able to hold off the field for the next sprint lap by working together. She got the five and I picked up three points for second.

We were quickly reabsorbed by the group and I sat on for the next 10 laps before the sprint. Meanwhile, a total of 4 girls lapped up, which meant only 4 spots remained from the field and it would be decided on points. I knew I had to score on the last sprint and that positioning would be a deciding factor in the final sprint. With about 3 laps to go before the sprint it slowed down and I saw an opportunity to instigate an attack to keep the pace high for the last few laps. A Russian rider jumped with me and went over the top of me to begin leading it out at full speed with 2 laps to go. I buried myself to stay on her wheel and all but one rider from the rest of the field were gapped off behind us. She lead me all the way to the line and only the Chinese girl was able to come around us. I was in a three-way tie for 8th in the final sprint and ended up getting into the final because of my 3rd place finish in the final sprint. I was 8th in the qualifier, but I was in the final and that's all that mattered.

The final was a little later that night. The crew took me home and I got a quick shower and a sandwich, then it was back to the track to start my warm up. Before I knew it, Rob was holding me on the blue band ready to push me off when the whistle blew. Again, the race started slow and the wind up began just before the sprint. I was patient in the beginning of the race, sitting in for the first couple of sprints. Unable to sit still in the back, I found myself off the front again and chasing 2 girls. I made it about half way and the other two girls gained a lap without me. A surge came from the field of about 5 very strong riders. I was in no man's land when that move came and I was hurting. I tried to move up track and wait for them to come by, but they came too fast, overtook me and then I was reabsorbed by the field.

I floated to the back of the field and nearly got popped off the back until a little lull and the Netherlands girl's wheel appeared before me. I was on and very happy to be. I sat in and recovered and was ready to wind it up before the 20 lap sprint points. On the back straight, a couple of girls got mixed up and started to crash down track in front of me. I saw it happening and moved all the way off the track onto the apron. The Cuban rider and myself were trying to dodge the crash and nearly made it, but we didn't. This was my first crash on the track and it was pretty crazy picking splinters out of my skin after a fall. I walked away with some bumps, bruises and burns. The cuban rider looked really banged up. We saw her at the hospital later that night and kept asking how she was doing. No one would tell us, but it sounded like she would be o.k.

It was a bummer not finishing the race, but I learned a great deal. I will be resting for a few days trying to recover and relax so that I can really put a big effort in to prepare for Denmark. I would like to thank everyone who has allowed me to train this winter and sacrificed their time to allow me to prepare for these world cups. I am living a dream, thanks to all the Hellyer folks and every member of the PROMAN Racing Team.

Thanks for reading... ~Shelley

* What Shelley neglected to add was that when we had driven back to the house after the qualifier, when it was time to leave I realized that i had left my keys in the car - locked, they were in there with her shoes and helmet. While a little panicked and thrown, Shelley had come prepared with a second helmet and shoes, she took the whole situation and moved forward with plan B. She returned to the track and picked up where she left off, regained focus and prepared for the task at hand - a true professional. She also didnt tell you that I had to pull splinters out of her body with tweezers, i knew i had to do it right away as they tend to work their way in or break off. I know it was painful but Shelley was brave and I am very proud of her for taking an adverse situation (keys in car) into her stride without barely flinching.! Nicola

LA TRACK WORLD CUP ROUND UP scratch race

UCI Track World Cup, Los Angeles 2007

The third of four rounds of World Cup action took place this weekend at the ADT Event Center in Carson, California. PROMAN Racing Team had five riders in many of the different disciplines of track racing; sprints, individual pursuits, scratch, and points race. This time around, we had all the support we could ever need with Tim Brennan, Rob Evans, Mark Altimirano, and Aussie Bob. As always, our manager Niki Cranmer, was the glue that held it all together.

Going into the first two races in Sydney and Beijing, I was nervous and overwhelmed as well as naive in my preparation. I walked away from the experience with a fierce desire growing inside me to compete again. When I first made the decision to compete in the World Cups, I set my focus on these L.A. races. I knew that traveling overseas would be tough the first time and that there would be a bit of a culture shock. Racing in your home country is something you learn to appreciate after you've raced internationally. Also, knowing that there were so many family and friends up in the stands watching and cheering inspired me to race that much harder.

Day 1: Scratch Race Qualifier and Scratch Race Final

In Sydney, I did not qualify for the scratch race final. In Beijing, I took a big chance and attacked off the front in the qualifier with 17 laps to go. I stayed off the front for the entire race and got caught by the entire field with 50 meters until the finish. It was devastating and I feared that the same thing would happen again if I ended up off the front in this race. However, I knew that I had to follow my instincts and race the race to my strengths, which could mean attacking and ending up off the front.

The 20 lap scratch race qualifier started and we rolled around for a few laps waiting for something to happen. With about 11 laps to go, a move went off the front with Lauren Franges of the U.S. and two other girls. Within a few more laps, they had rejoined the group and now 3 girls were up a lap and guaranteed a spot in the final. That meant only 5 spots remained for those hoping to advance to the final. I sensed a lull in the group as we were just about to be lapped and I jumped off the front in a desperate attempt to be forgotten. I kept looking back to make sure they weren't chasing and to be sure I wanted to commit to this move. At that moment, Rob yelled at me from the sideline as if it was the last race of our lives. "Put your head down and Go! Don't look back!"

Immediately I trusted him and put my full focus forward. So now I am committed and praying that the field will be disorganized and preoccupied with setting up the sprint. After having failed my first attempt at breaking away from the field, I was more determined than ever to make the move work. I had tasted failure and it wasn't something I was interested in tasting again. With 3 to go, I started to believe that I had snuck away and earned my spot in the final. The field hesitated and delayed it's wind-up until 2 to go and I was able to cruise across the line in 4th. It was an amazing feeling to overcome my fear and qualify for the final.

The Scratch Final was about 2.5 hours later that night. That left just enough time to go to Panera for a quick bite with the "crew." We arrived back at the track and I started warming myself up again for the race. It wasn't long until we were up on the track again and Rob was holding me on the blue waiting for the whistle to start the race. The first couple of laps were slow and after about 15 laps a Russian rider went off the front. I attempted to keep the pace high in the field and instigate a chase, but no one was committed to helping bring the solo rider back. She dangled on the back of the group for a while and struggled to latch back on, but eventually she did. Shortly after her move, three riders attacked off the front while I found myself in the second half of the field in a group that was about to be gapped off from the front. I was worried that I was going to lose the front of the race and decided to jump around the gap, but my effort was in vain because shortly after I jumped across, the whole group came back together.

Now there were 4 girls that lapped the field and I found myself on the front of the group with 6 laps to go. When I moved up track to rotate off the front, I ended up moving way too far back in the field and then the pace increased and I got caught up in a little dicy-ness between turn 1 and 2 just after the laps read 3 to go. Coming around turn four with 2 to go I found momentum and good acceleration in my legs and made a big effort to move up to the front. Now with 1 to go and I am in the top 10. I came across the line just behind Marianne Vos, (I even tried to throw my bike to pick her off), and finished in 13th overall because 4 girls behind me were the girls that lapped the field. It was a fun race and I took a lot of good lessons away from the experience.

I really have to thank Niki, Tim, and Rob so much for taking such good care of me before, during, and after every race. Thanks to Niki and Tim for making sure I was hydrated with water and recovery drink. Thanks to Tim and Rob for taking care of my bikes and getting them weighed and measured, etc. I never even thought twice about my bikes being ready. Everything ran so smoothly. It was a pleasure being with the entire PROMAN team this weekend. Good times, Great memories....

More to come on the Points Race.....

RACHELS CROSS WORLD TALES

Tuesday Jan 15

The boys got out early because of the forcasted rain. I thought I should do sprints, but also wanted to do the group ride. So I left at 11:20 to get 1.5 hrs in before the group ride, and to try to get some time in before it started raining. It sprinkled a bit and waited till just before 1pm (the start of the group ride) to really start raining. I met up with the group ride at the church in Begjinisjik (probably misspelled) at 1pm. There were only 10 riders (including me.) Alex, the brit from the Teilt-Winge house was there along with Mike Garrigan the Canadian National Champ. The roads were wet now and I was getting hosed in the face from the spray and the side wind... NOT pleasant!

I decided to turn around and ride home at 1:40. I figured 20 min home + 2:10 so far = 2.5... that's fine. But somehow it took me 40 minutes, or something, to get home with missing turns and such... well I got 3 hrs in and was absolutely forzen by the time I got home. I hopped in the bath immediately and thawed myself out. Then had a huge lunch and read for the afternoon. Joscelin cooked her famous curry for dinner, then we all watched the Treviso cx World Cup from November 2007. Total road race with a couple of steep hills in the middle, bunch sprints for every category. I hope the race is muddy for us in a couple of weeks... supposedly it has been raining...

Wednesday January 16

Headed out with the boys at 10 and rode with them for 1hr. The sun was poking through the clouds, so I got a better sense for the lay of the land. We went out through Westerlo and looped around and back. Then I headed past the house (towards Booischot) and right on the bike path (which is an old railroad bed) towards the canals north or east, I still can't figure that out yet... the sun hasn't been out enough for me to totally get my directional bearings. I did 6x30+30 intervals. These are 30 sec standing start sprint over geared, wind it up and sprint for 30sec then maintain effort seated for another 30 sec, with 3-4 min recovery. They are hard, hard enough to make you feel naseous. I then headed back towards home on the path and kept riding till I had 2.5 total.

Came home, ate a lunch of toasted bread with butter, honey, avocado and an egg omelet on it. I then headed out to the bakery in search of rogge brood for Joscelin (a special dark very heavy bread that Jos likes.) I went to my favorite bakery in town and they were out. So I went to the other bakery in town, the one across from the church and a lady who walked in the door while I was putting the kickstand down on the town bike got the last loaf of this rogge bread! So I went back to the first bakery and got another kind that was similar, but lighter. Then I rode the town bike (this one with a higher seat than the last time I went out on a borrowed town bike) to the butcher in search of ground turkey. They only ave ground cow, ground baby cow, and ground pork. So I choose the pork. After all it IS the 'other white meat' right? With all my purchases strapped onto the rack of the town bike, I rode home and made salad dressing. Jos was headed to Blauberg so I went with her for something to do and in hopes of seeing new people! We walked in the door to a welcome greeting from Greg Keller, Brandon Dwight (from Boulder, Co.) and Kurt from the east coast. They were very surprised to see me walk in the door with Joscelin! Greg's blog is "Mud and Cowbells" if you are interested in hearing other stories of 'cross in Belgium. They are actually going out and doing other fun things while in Belgium, un like myself. I am being a good bike racer and sleeping, eating, training, eating, resting and eating in that order. So we hung out there for a while, Jos got some house things sorted out, I picked up some broccoli at the market next door and we headed home. I started cooking as soon as we got home. I made salad with sliced carrots and homemade vinaigrette, gnocchi with pesto and a red sauce with ground pork, onions and broccoli. We ate dinner early, and I made a point of heading up to bed around 8pm to read for a while and turn out the light at 9:30

Thursday January 17

Got up at 8 this morning after a great 10hrs of sleep and got on the computer early to catch up on emails. The for-cast called for rain at 12 so I planned on being on my bike by 10. After a 30 min yoga/sit ups session I headed out the door at 10. I forgot the map today... the first day out with out my security blanket. It's not like I use the map to find what road I am on and then find my way home, but I use it to see the names of towns to head for. The names here are so foreign that it's hard to remember the ones in a 10k circumference of Westmeerbeek, the ones that will get you near enough to Westmeerbeek to have a sign for it.

I headed down the rode to the right past Tim and Jos's house and in 5 minutes ran into the Boulder guys from the Blauberg house! They were just out for a 1hr spin (they are racing on Saturday at the Masters World Championships in Molle.) So they flipped around and I rode to Blauberg with them on the route 86/87 that they had been following. You can just follow these little bike routes all over Belgium. It's great, tiny little roads, dirt roads, a few little trail cuts, really sweet loops! I left them in Blauberg, turned around and came back on the same route. I then headed towards Herentals, then towards Begjinidijkt, but ended up in Booischot. I followed a route on the way back and popped onto the bike path (old railway.) I guessed I should not head towards Aarschot, but the other way towards Herentals, then a bit down the path I saw a little brick building that I recognized from yesterday and I knew I needed to head the other way. I flipped around and headed home. Got back just after noon, beat out the rain, showered, and ate my lunch of toast and eggs.

Then watched the second half of "Catch Me If You Can" on Shaun's computer with the boys then put in some computer time researching my competition on the UCI website. From just one world cup result, I have moved up in the world ranking from 43rd to 30th! I might be able to move into the 20's if I have a good race in Hoogerheide this weekend! Shaun cooked tonight. We had pasta, peas, and some ham product that looked like prosciutto that he chopped up, cooked, and mixed in. It turned out quite well. That's all for now, thanks for reading! -Rachel

CYCLOCROSS WORLD CUP - LIEVIN, FRANCE Saturday

Saturday January 12
Woke up a bit earlier at 8:30 and ate breakfast with the boys, David (Canadian
Junior) and Shaun (Canadian U-23) then caught up on emails to Sam, packed, and worked on my 'B' bikes shifting. This was my first time working on Sram shifting as Tim has taken care of my bikes this whole season. Me and the boys then loaded Joscelin's car up, with 6 bikes on top and the trunk full of wheels and bags.

Osmond (elite rider from Canada staying at the Blauwberg house) met us at 12
noon and we headed out. I rode with Osmond (who proved to be jolly good company)
and the boys rode with Jos. We steadily drove into nicer weather and had quite a
nice, clear, sunny patch for a bit. We got to the 'Formula One' hotel in Lievin
at around 2pm, checked in and unloaded the car, then dressed and rode to the
race course.

People had told
me that the course was a hilly course and it
pretty much was just as described. Long flat paved start, left turn onto dirt,
left turn onto/down a short grassy hill, then sweeping muddy right turn to three
stair stepped plateaus. Then it drops back down and winds gradually back uphill
onto the top of the major hillside that it goes straight down, u-turns uphill,
straight back down, up again and finally down and around through the pits for
the first time. After going through the pit the course goes uphill more
gradually and crosses the top to drop down again, and then again and through a
boggy turn then up a steep pitch, down again and flat grassy around about to the
pit for the second time then soft grass to a slippery clay 5ft climb to the
paved finish stretch. I couldn't ride the steep u-turn uphills, but when riding
a few laps with Shaun (U-23) I found that I could run them at just about the
same speed as him riding them. I rode the first few laps with Wendy Simms, how
nice it was to find a friend over here! She was looking strong, she had no
problem riding the steep uphills that I was running! I think I did about 5
laps. The course is pretty hard, the hills and the soft boggy grass will prove
to favor the powerful riders.

After riding the course we (Shaun, David, and Osmond) rode around looking for
Joscelin and a pressure washer in the rapidly approaching dusk. I got to
practice my French a bit in our search, but it proved fruitless. It turned out
we could pick up our numbers, so we did, and ended up washing our bikes out of
buckets in the parking lot. We then rode back to the hotel, showered, dressed
and drove back to the managers meeting. We got parking passes, pit passes,mechanic passes, and Jos and I sat in the manager meeting which was all in
French. I didn't understand most of it (they talk too fast) and they spent a lot
of time talking about doping control. They gave out pit slots, told us start
times and race duration and handed out start call up sheets. I will be called
up about 6 from last. Meeting finished, we all got back in the car and went in
search of food. There wasn't much around, a lot of flower shops and bars, but
no quaint little French restaurant. We found a 'Buffalo Grill' which everyone
seemed excited about (except me.) I was pretty hungry and ended up having a
Buffalo burger and fries, which was fine, but a far cry from most pre race meals
I have. The place was trying to be a Texas/American joint with cowboy/country
music playing (American.) We ate much faster than all the French people there
and returned to the Formula One, which is really quite a dreary place, and
settled in for the night.
Race report to come soon, thanks for reading. Rachel
.

RACHEL'S WORLD CUP ADVENTURE - Part 2

So I just got back from what ended up being a 3hr ride! Tim Harris rode to the start of the ride with me. It started in a parking lot across from a church in the town of Beginjendijk. Apparently Sven Nijs and Niels Albert live in this town and sometimes come out on this ride... they were there last Tuesday. Alex (a British rider who lives at the same house as Helen Wyman) rolled up just before the start, so I rode with him for most of the ride. We rolled out of town when the bell at the church tolled 1pm.


They have all these rules in Belgium about how things work. Cyclists must ride in the "bike lanes" which sometimes look like what we in the US would call "sidewalks" and what they call in England "pavement." If there is more than 15 people in a group then the cyclists can ride in the roadway two by two. If more than 50 people show up for a group ride the groups must be split up so there is no more than 50 per group. Apparently sometimes there are quite a bunch of groups. We were two groups today. So the loop is 75K at a nice steady pace, except for the accelerations out of every turn and up the few small hills. I was very grateful to Tim for printing a map of the route for me. for after the ride I needed to find my way back home. No one was left who could understand me, so I basically just kept going straight till I came to an intersection. You see the way it works here is you decide where to go at every intersection, you dont follow roads, you look for signs to towns. Then at the next town you look for the sign pointing to the next nearest town to where you want to go. Luckily for me, the ride route basically went through Westemeerbeek, the town were Tim and Joscelin live, and were I am staying. Also lucky for me Tim was in his ready to head out to the airport to pick up a some people and he honked his horn as I rode past. I had forgotten to take a good look at the house when we left and I would have ridden right past! So I didn't get lost, which really is pretty amazing.


The ride was pretty mellow, and my legs actually felt pretty good! We'll see how they feel this weekend in Lievin at the World Cup. I hope I still have some speed. So that's it for now, it's pretty quiet here, no one around. It just started sprinkling at the end of the ride, and it's quite grey out now. Tim Harris is an ex euro pro. He raced on Festina in the 90's! How about that! ~ Thanks for reading!

RACHEL'S WORLD CUP ADVENTURE

The flight was... long. I had an isle seat, didn't sleep much, maybe 2-3 hrs, wish I had a neck pillow. I watched a couple of movies and tried to sleep. We left SFO one hour late, but made up one hour in the air and got to London right on time. I was worried about making the connection while I was standing in another line (that wasn't moving) to get my boarding pass, but thankfully a BMI agent sent me and a South African mom and her two kids to the gate to get our boarding passes there.

Well we arrived and no one was around. Turns out we were just early... imagine that! The mom had such a cutie of a 3.5 yr old, he only spoke Flemmish. It was nice chatting with her and flirting with her kids. We spotted our luggage being loaded onto the plane so that was comforting. When I went through my last costoms check to get out on the other side, I chatted with the man who stamped my pasport briefly and told him that I was here for the cross world cups and World Championships and he said "ah in Treviso" it turns out he is a cross fan! That was cool! He sent me off with a smile on both of our faces and a welcome feel in my heart!

I spotted Josceline's car parked down a ways and we hit it off immediately. She is a very cool woman. She took me to the house that Helen Wyman lives at (this was a different house than the one I thought I would be in, in Blauberg.) As soon as I met Helene and Gabby Day, they said "we thought you were Canadian, and a masters racer." Turns out there was a bit of a mis communication. As soon as I had my bikes built up and everyting un packed, Josceline said I would be moving to a different house... her own house, since the Blauberg house was full of Canadian masters racers. So I headed out for a 1.5 hr ride, and a quick trip to the grocery store.

Then Tim Harris (her husband) picked me up and we headed to their house. See they thought that I could just get a ride to the Lievin race with Helen and crew, but they didn't have room for me. Now I will get a ride there with Josceline and a junior, some u-23's and some elites. We will head over there the day before and stay at a hotel in Lievin. This way Josceline can go to the managers mtg for all of us and we can get our numbers the day before (which is required.) They both told me of a group ride that goes out on Thursday and Tuesday, Tim said this would be a good ride for me to go on, but they are out of the house now, and I have no idea where the ride goes from or what time. (bummer, I hope it is later and I can make it, it would be good for me to go a bit harder today.) I slept very well last night, I was SO tired yesterday, by 6pm I was nodding my head sitting up watching the recording of the Belgian National cross races. I couldn't finish it I was just too tired. I had had some bread and cheese that I got at the store, and decided that was enough. I had, after all, been eating the whole trip about every 4 hrs and my system was all confused! Josceline got me all squared away with a bath, I was freezing, I think just from being SO tired. I filled up a hot water bottle with hot water and read one page from my book and fell fast asleep. I woke up at 4am took a pee and read a couple more pages, ate some mango slices, and took a few valerian capsules. Fell asleep again and was deep in sleep stupor when my alarm went off at 8am. I slept untill 9:30 when I made myself get up.

Stumbling around to open the window covers... got some cereal and tea and found the internet! That's pretty much it up to date, I couldn't find any maple syrup in the grocery, but Josceline has some in her cupboard so there is some to be had... unless someone brought it as a gift... Can you bring some if I can't find any here? Maybe I can find some in France this weekend. Now I have to figure out how this town is layed out, it's a bit bigger than the tiney town of the first place. I guess I'll go out and walk around a bit. It's quite grey out now... It was beautiful and sunny in London when I landed, then we flew into the rain in Brussels and by the time I was ready to ride the rain had stopped and the sun even peeked out briefly! So local time is now 11am, I suppose I should try to get on my bike at least by 12:30. I will be racing on Sunday at 1:30. I'd better go now, Rachel

GOOD LUCK RACHEL!

Team Party people - by Bob Cullinan

Thank you to everyone who attended the Fundraiser for Rachel's European adventure. She recieved generous donations from the bike community ~ report coming soon!

Dario Fredrick provided the place

Josh Snead provided tunes

Sam Leuck provided the pizza and beer

WORLD CUP WARM UP, LOS ANGELES

BURNABY SIX DAY

HIGHLIGHTS FROM BURNABY SIX DAY
what is six day racing?
http://www.burnabysixday.com/what_is_sixday.html

Scratch Race
1st David McCook/Roman Kilun - PROMAN

The first 1-rider race was a 40 lap Scratch. Several early attacks were reeled in, but an attack by McCook of Proman with 4 laps remaining caught the group sleeping and he put almost a half lap on the field before they responded. McCook was able to hold off the charging group, with Successful Living out-sprinting the bunch to take second.

Tempo Race
5th McCook/Kilun - PROMAN

Team Elimination down to Scratch Madison
6th McCook/Kilun - PROMAN

Elimination to Scratch
3rd Roman Kilun - PROMAN

Elimination
4th David McCook - PROMAN

http://descantes.smugmug.com/gallery/4114878#239963558

more 2007 - 2008

Back from a 4.5 hrs mountain bike ride, making up for lost time onthe bike the past 6 weeks. fire roads and singletrack. Phoenix lake, Eldridge to the top of Mount Tam, railroad grade to West Point Inn, Old Stage to Pantoll Ranger Station, Coastal trail to Muir beach, Green Gulch trail to Coyote Ridge, to Miwok fire road across Hwy 1 to Miwok single track, Panoramic Hwy to Gravity Car to Hoo koo e Koo to Kentfield coasters to king mountain single track! Gorgeous day!

Continued........................
Not to sound boastful as that's not my intention but just to state a fact, I am the only female owner/manager of a UCI track team in the world, it was just something i needed to do and was a natural progression from where we were as a team. (there may not be any women owners of road teams either, not sure of that.) Many of the other international team managers and riders ( when i was in Sydney & Beijing for track world cups) assumed I was the team masseuse (I am that too) They were all surprised when i let them know.

Obtaining sponsorship dollars is an uphill battle for a women's team, and I am so incredibly grateful for the support from our current sponsors who have faith in the team and its athletes. we could not do this without you. While some women's teams folded at the end of 2007, its exciting to see more other sponsors stepping up to support their women's teams.

Most people have no idea how much work the team takes, including myself when I started two years ago, its a thankless job at times and one I don't really get paid for (that will change soon) I felt that my first 2 years in 'business' I would just put the money back into the team, race reimbursements, race radios, website etc.

Self doubt creeps in on occasion and I wonder what I am doing. I wonder about spending so much time on something so frivolous as bike racing, when the world is full of less fortunate people in less fortunate circumstances, i think as long as i do this with honor and integrity and can inspire women to have fun, be passionate and healthy, I am ok with it.

- Thank you to my friends who reassure me that I am doing the right thing, the first two years I definitely was flying by the seat of my pants.
I have such a long list of names of those who have supported me but I am afraid to leave anyone out it includes, family, friends, teammates, sponsors, mechanics, bloggers, racers, nutritionists, commentators, coaches, acquaintances, directors, mentors, advisers, designers, bike shops, volunteers to name a few!

I watched a movie last night - A man who went up a hill and came down a mountain

Thank you too for all the support and thanks to my team mates who continue to inspire me to do this. ~ Nicola