Rockin' the River: Dotsero, CO

I love racing in Colorado. That pretty much sums up my feelings after today's 55 mile RR. I raced women's 1,2,3 in a field of about 40 for my new club team, GS Boulder. We rode along the Colorado River for about 25 miles before turing around and riding the same stretch back to the finish. For about half the race we were riding on dirt. Not bad except for a potholed section around mile 18 that made Sheridan look smooth. So many women lost their water bottles it was like a minefield. Luckily no one flatted or crashed. 

I don't know how I placed, but it was a lot better than I anticipated. What with altitude, mountains and fast CO women, I had pretty much reconciled myself to getting dropped and then enjoying a scenic ride through snow covered peaks, but I stayed with the leaders until a vicious hill at mile 23. After the turn around, I got in with a chase group that included NU's own Melanie Wong and we worked to catch the break. For a solid 20 miles, we had a beautiful, speedy pace line organized. We caught the break at mile 47, but some girls got away again almost immediately. My group ended up finishing about a minute after the leaders.

And apparently Lance Armstrong was there. One of the other GS Boulder women saw him and snapped some photos. Next race is in Laramie, WY on the 27 and 28 of June. It's a stage race called the Dead Dog Classic that is going to be epic.

Wish y'all could have been there to race with me! 

Axie

Finals week is over! If you haven't seen NU jerseys on the road for the past few weeks it is because some of us have been pulling all-nighters and sleeping in libraries. Those of us that are in town for the summer will be out on the roads and on area rides, so look for us! Hopefully everyone will be able to get out to some of the uscf races over the summer.

Hot Dog Cookout

Last Friday, members of the team sold hot dogs in an attempt to shore up our budget for the year. I was joined by Faye, Hannah, Axie, and briefly by Josh and Adam. At noon, we parked our borrowed grill next to the sidewalk south of Tech and began catering to the starving hordes of pre-exam week engineers. As one of the first beautiful days in an unusually cool summer, it was the perfect day for a barbeque.

I consider the event a success; not only because we broke even (and then some) but foremost because a good time was apparently had by all. Throughout the three hours that we were in business, volleyballs were lofted and footballs were tossed in the grass behind our table, we were visited by hungry friends (some even clad in hot dog suits), and sales jingles of debatable effectiveness and artistic merit were formulated. Finally, we promoted the presence of the cycling team on campus; many of our patrons weren't aware of our existence beforehand, but all were enthused by it. I'm confident that this is something that we'll be doing again.

The day I discovered chamois butter.

Today was Chicago-based team XXX's three-state ride. The intended route consisted of riding north to Wisconsin, back to Chicago, south to Indiana, and back up to Chicago. It was apparent by mile 20 that the goals of completing the ride were ambitious.

This is the whole route. We NU people started and ended at Northwestern.

Alex Neckar and Aaron Greco accompanied me today. We started out at a no-drop pace typical of XXX's usual Saturday morning rides, with about 50 people. We took a pit-stop at Highland Park (mile 12), and the group split up. We were left with about 25 people going to Wisconsin, and from there the pace really picked up. The group was going anywhere from 22-25mph most of the time, and I was sure they would slow down when people realized how much farther we had to ride. Uh, nope.

At around mile 20, I got caught at a long light, and had to pace back with three very Euro-looking guys. I was just about to shoot myself for getting popped so soon, but we caught up to the group just in time. After that it was smooth going all the way to the state line.

The ride was gorgeous on the way up. Instead of taking dicey Sheridan Rd north, we went west, and looped around the more rural roads of northern Illinois. Few cars, good roads, expansive fields, hay bales, horses, even rolling hills! However, the different route also meant that at any point in the ride, I had absolutely no idea where I was, which was further incentive to stick tightly to the group.

I fell behind the main group a few times, especially when they accelerated on the windy sections, but there were always stragglers around me to help catch back up. I made sure to keep Aaron and Alex in sight, and tried to stay in the front third for buffer in case I fell back. Also, red lights are good to me.

We stopped at mile 50 for an arrival break at a gas station, where chamy butter proceeded to brighten my appreciation for life. Chafing cured, we turned around to go home, keeping the same brisk pace, taking the less-scenic Sheridan all the way down.

The ride back was uneventful, save for a crash in a gnarly turn before Highland Park. Our own Alex took the turn too wide, but graceful as he is, managed to land in the grass, very much like a cat, with not a scrape. Another rider wasn't as lucky but got back on. We three NU riders left the group and rode back ourselves from Highland Park, and Alex and I rewarded our 87 mile day with the best part about cycling: lots of food, with hot sauce of course.

Happy riding,

Faye

Elections

We had a sweet end of the year party at my place the other night. Some good food was eaten and we were able to watch Andrew's sweet documentary (thanks man!) which we will hopefully be able to either post on the website, or at least get a link up to.

And we had elections- congrats to the '09-'10 Cycling Team Exec:

Prez- Will Nowak
Trez/ Secretary/ Webmaster- Hannah Iezzoni (the Hans)
Recruitment Chair- Axie Navas
Sponsorship Chair- Emma Kanig


Next year will kick ass.


- Will

Snake Alley, Melon City and Quad Cities

Hey all,

There were some pretty fun races this past weekend. Saturday was Snake Alley. I loved being able to cheer Hannah and Emma on, and chill with Joshie and Billy before my race. A few hours later I got by butt severely kicked in the 1/2/3 field. Wow, those girls are really freakin' fast. I lost track of how many times I got lapped, but as compensation, I had by far the best cheering section thanks to Hans, who recruited the 20 or so drunken guys sitting at the top of the alley. 

OK, side note- we spent the night at this incredible hotel called the EconoLodge. With the word 'Econo' in the name, I thought we would be lucky if the rooms had beds, so you can imagine how shocked I was when I found that the hotel not only had a pool and waterfall, (that's right, a waterfall), they also served hot breakfast out of a rock beneath stained glass windows out of some Arthurian legend. My new favorite hotel. 

Melon City was fun and fast. I raced in the 4s because my license was still pending, and technically I shouldn't have raced with the pros at Snake Alley. There was a break early on, I stayed with the front group for the whole race, but didn't have the energy in my legs for the final sprint. I ended up 6th, which was good enough for 30 bucks. Afterwards, the Hans and I broke into a beautiful swimming pool and got yelled at by the manager. Ah well, it was worth it. Cheered Bill on, and then headed to our Super 8.

I raced 4s again at Quad Cities. I don't know what I was thinking throughout the race. I raced really dumb, and kept expending loads of energy that didn't get me anywhere. Less than stellar race performance that left me 10th. Good enough for 20 bucks. 

Fun weekend, and a good way to get excited about racing this summer with GS Boulder. 

Axie

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was fun series of crits over Memorial Day. We started with the infamous Snake Alley. My personal goal was just to finish without getting pulled and I can happily say I finished my goal. The cobblestone alley hill was pretty intense, hills aren't my specialty, but it was fun coming around each time and hearing everyone cheering. The whole day was a huge party, the spectators made it all the better. It was fun watching Axie race in the 3s. We had some fast girls in both fields all weekend long, so I have a lot of riding to do this summer if I plan to cat up before I come back.



Each race had this sweet pace car that flew up Snake Alley once in the beginning. I asked the driver if I could ride with him for the beginning of the Pro, 1, 2 race and he let me. It was pretty sweet. Unfortunately it started raining so the later races were pretty slick and a lot of people were sliding out as they raced up the tight corners.

The Quad Cities was kind of a boring crit. By the end of Sunday, I felt like I had signed up for a weekend of hill repeats. It was a sunny day and lots of people were around. We got to meet a future NU rider. One of the juniors riding for ISCorp will be coming to Northwestern next year and will hopefully ride for us too. Melon City was a fast crit with some fast girls and some sketchy girls. A break went off the front right away and stayed away for the whole time. It was a good look at some competition I'll have this summer and next year. Overall, it wasa a great weekend, I wish some more NU's could have gotten out there as this is my last weekend racing in the Midwest until September but I cannot wait until next year.