stars and stripes

Congrats Robbie!
Robbie solos away from a break on the second to last climb, puts more than a minute on the chase group and wins the Maters National Road Race!!!

story and pics

wisconsin Rules

The first stop is always Backyard Bikes. Mike hooked me up on a Fisher and I was on my way to the fun, fast, endless singletrack of Kettle Moraine.

Tractors own the road. Look out for golf carts, too.

On the last day of Lewis Camp, the red carpet is rolled out. 5 claps on 3 for MVP Suchy!

All good Catholics attend Friday Night Fish Fry. We must be Wiscon.sinners as we headed to Hernades to celebrate mom and dad's birthdays!

When the lake de-ices, trade the hockey stick for the wake board. Can I get a back flip?

No shirts allowed at the Brewers game. We can too get a tan in the shade!

It's a state law that you must finish your entire beer
before ordering another no matter how warm it is, how much back wash is in 'der or how many people have helped you drink it. And you can't leave Lake Geneva until you sink 10 baskets at Champs! 1....1....1....1....1....1.... 2!!!....2....2....



back home

at backyard bikes

on Wisconsin

days in Durango
Getting up for work on Monday was rough as we strolled into town at 2am and there was not much sleep to be had. Nothing a little Bread coffee couldn’t fix. The Purg crew went out on the scenic chair lift for ‘research.’ I was entertained by the 12 year old boys shouting, ‘don’t be a chick-ennn!’ to the girls on the alpine slide. The girls took their message to heart, resulting in a crash and burn. Yea, get it girls! Before heading back to the drawing board, we checked out our new entrance sign.
Monday ended with a trip to SRA where Meg, JPowers (who, for the record, was not the semi-pro JellyBean on the Orbea at Deer Valley) and I hung out with Dr. Frank until he had to go to one of his dinners.

race to work day
The morning kicked off with the City of Durango’s Ride to Work Day. I dropped my stuff off at Scott’s, driver of the Purgatory team car, and began the ride from Ninja’s house. We were 10 minutes in front of team leader, Sven, and his domestique, Russell, so we toured homes and golf courses, let them get in front of us and launched a sneak attack. Race on! Each attack was preceded by pouring water on eachother leaving us all dehydrated for the final climb up Needles. Ninja won the polka dot jersey but some late race tactics put Sven in the Village first.

dolphins in Ouray and angels in NM
My crazy cousin Julie drove the e-bay purchased Dolphin across Colorado and ended up in Ouray. I called her cellie to see if she could drive down to Purg but since it was storming and her camper doesn’t have windshield wipers, we kept our visit to a digital one. Jules had a message for her mom (Lynnie) ‘not to worry...the camper has half an engine which is plenty to get back to Ft. Collins.’ After much story telling and giggling, Jules and I said goodbye.
As soon as I hung up, Rebecca called. She has been workin’ it!! Thanks to AC, we’re going to the World Cup!

unpack and pack
Last night I unpacked all of my stuff from Deer Valley and packed for my trip to Wisconsin. I can’t wait to get back home! The cowboy stopped by with dinner and dessert and once again, forgot to grab his hat. Guess I get to wear it on the plane. Time to go...

the unofficial winner of Ride to Work Day

Sven Armstrong

kickin’ it in the Valley

parade in the parking lot
The morning of the XC was spent breaking computers and downloading music onto iPods. Thanks to the cowboy for taking care of the real business - our bikes. I test rode mine up to the expo wearing flip flops + a PINK skirt while listening to my new tunes and carrying 3 feed bags to deliver to Brig. Getting on the bike was not a struggle, but dismounting was. Fortunately no one was hurt and not even Fabio from Ford could sneak a peek. I found Brig and gave him the feed zone instructions and checked in with Frosty who ran down the latest race info...parade lap + 2 full laps for the chicks, start time is pushed back 30 minutes.

playing in the dirt
Warm up went pretty well and I headed to the start line in time to hear them call up the largest mens pro field of the year. The pro women, herded like cattle, waited for the men to do their 5 minute neutral parade loop through the resort, back through the start/finish and onto the dirt. Pretty sweet! The chicks were let out of the pen and directed onto the parade route. It was fast and fun, unlike the upcoming jeep road climb. After the climb was an awesome,“worm dirt” singletrack descent followed by switchback climbs and intense, sandy, rocky, switchback downhills. The course was a blast but the “stop & go” made it hard to move up and there wasn’t much room to pass. This became troublesome when the pro men caught us. The 10 chick train derailed as we each pulled off and got back on the trail to let them by. Rebecca got tangled up with one of the guys and turned into a rolling ball of dust on the final descent. One by one we funneled to the finish line...not a great result but a great time battling with bad ass chicks.

food and friends
Racing was followed by a pasta dinner and slide show of photos that Wink took while running next to us playing superfan. Thanks Wink! And thanks to all the fans...from the downhill dudes who reunited us in the grocery store to Ben from Kona to Poz the Trekker to Brig the feeder to Sager’s teenage boy groupies to people we’ve met along the way and people we’ve never met. After dinner, ice cream and Sol, RG and I dropped off Brig in SLC and stayed the night at Laura’s, my best friend from college. We spent the morning chillin’ outside on the deck. As RG says, ‘everyone should have a deck’. It was another beautiful day with birds chirping, coffee brewing, girls giggling, boys playing and beats in the background. What a life!

the last dance
It was time for the girls to pack up and head back to Deer Valley for the short track. We checked out the course and watched some of the racing before putting on our costumes. At the start line I handed Elke my iPod - she was unlucky in finding some country music. The ‘hurricane of pain' began and I jumped into the top 15. Sara B-Z went down in front of Niki + I and the gap that opened never closed. One by one we tried to bridge, one by one we fell back and eventually all but the top 8 got pulled. The finish was an exciting one as a $250 prime went to Shonny who solo’d the final laps, ate it in a corner but hung on for her 2nd win of the weekend. The pro mens race played out pretty much the same with K-Bomb flatting, T-Wells attacking and riding alone for the victory.

moonlighting in the Valley

hitch hikers on Main
Rebecca and I decide to warm up for the TT by riding from the boys condo to the course. We really weren’t sure where we were going, but how hard can it be? Take the main road and if you get to the freeway, you’ve gone too far. So, away we go. On the main road, to the freeway. Uh, we’ve gone too far. We look behind us and see the bobsled course but which of the 2 mountain climbs will lead us to the Olympic Village? While RG looks for bobsled signs, bikers and/or policemen, I find a nice, young man in a ranched out pick up truck who doesn’t really know where to go but would love to be our escort. He carefully places our bikes in the bed next to his large collection of work tools. Skinsuits, helmets, PINK booties and all, we jump in the truck and take our chances on road #2. Things are looking up as we roll into the Village, get waved through security and are dropped off red carpet style. Aw yea...nice entrance.

babes up bobsled
It’s 6:10pm and our start is in 5 minutes. We show up to the line only to find out they’re running behind. This is now a moonlight TT. The coffee buzz is wearing out and so are we as we continue warming up and the officials continue telling us ‘15 more minutes.’ Finally our names appear on the electronic board and we’re sent up the paved bobsled run on our modified mountain bikes for 5 minutes of fun and pain. We take a quick tour of the Olympic museum and eat graham crackers with the guard before riding in the dark back to the condo.

girls gettin’ groceries
It must be close to midnight by the time we get to the grocery store. Delirious and with serious sugar lows, RG thinks calling boys on her cellie will somehow help her find bagels and Gatorade. I’m having no luck finding pesto that doesn’t contain cow guts and now I can’t find RG. As I’m checking out in aisle 4, my phone rings and it’s RG wondering where I am. All the discussion in the world wouldn’t help as she’s in aisle 3 but thinks she’s in aisle 15 due to the “15 items and under” sign. Fortunately the group of downhill dudes have been observing our *confusion* and they reunite us. We pop jelly beans and drink protein shakes on our drive home, make pasta sans cow, take power showers and fall into bed.

'lil Brig goes big

The opening day of the NORBA National in Deer Valley began with a trip to the SLC airport to pick up Rebecca G. In an attempt to 'stay relaxed' until our twilight race, I left the house in my PINK pj bottoms, stopped by the coffee shop and took the scenic route. RG called barking orders to hurry my hot a** up. Little did she know I was stalling in hopes that she'd have her bike already built by the time I got there. No such luck, the bike box arrived at the same time I did leaving 2 chicks to fumble through tools and parts in the airport parking lot. Even with the added pressure of passer-by-ers staring at RG's thong, we assembled the Bianchi in record time and headed out to the venue.

We strolled through the expo and to the start line to meet Brig, my first friend born in the 80s, who was racing his first ever semi-pro National. After we let him in on our racing secrets and made sure he was race ready (don't forget the lip stuff!), RG went back to the boys condo to sleep and I headed to the feed zone. I hung out with the hot dude in the cowboy hat and waited for the racers. The lead moto comes through...I jump up, ready for showtime! Rider 1, Rider 2 and there's Brig shakin' things up in the number 3 spot. He takes water and looks fresh. The waiting game continues and 40 minutes later I hear the moto...now there are 5 riders together, Brig is still in the mix. Feed zone duty is over so I head to the Shimano tent to get my bike worked on and wait for the finish. You can see the racers descending the switchbacks but they all look the same. The announcer lets us know there is a new racer leader...the winner comes through and the previous leader finishes second...'we've got one more spot to round out our podium and it's racer number 208....Brig Brandt!' Raise the roof and high 5's from the Shimano tent.

a weekend of 1st(s)

kickin' off the weekend
On Friday afternoon Kathy picked Chris and I up at Purgatory to head to a mountain bike festival in Palisade. From what I had read about the race, it felt like a first generation event...a grass roots, lets go race because we love to race and lets put on an event because we want to have fun! So off we went. Kathy had our bikes packed and brought Bread cookies and bottled water for my first drive over Red Mountain Pass. We arrived at Kathy’s brothers house and were greeted with food, wine and a neighborhood block party! The racers turned into pumpkins at midnight while the rest of the hood stayed up ‘til dawn, sampling wine at Dave and Michelle’s Bed and Breakfast hideaway next to the orchard.

morning came early
I shoved down some toast with peanut butter and enjoyed 2 cups of coffee while getting my costume on. We got on our bikes at 7, rolled through town to the dirt roads winding up Horse Mountain and to registration. We picked up our race packets which included a t-shirt, water bottles, stickers, bars, gels and beer, chili and raffle coupons. How much fun is this? A free beer! This Wisconsin-ite felt at home.
The race began as the sun was rising over majestic Mt. Garfield. All racers took off together with Chris "Svetz" Stevenson and Alex "the hair" Hagman at the front. They pulled us over the 15 minute climb only to flat on the rugged, rocky descent. My motto became: it only takes one. Meaning one rock to ruin your day (a reflection on my Phoenix TT). There was a pro chick, Jennifer, up front who was killin' it...and me. I could see her in the distance drafting with her guy teammates through the windy Roubaix. I contemplated my decision to not go out hard but now I've missed the train...hmmm...it's always a gamble. The lap continued with a grueling, gradual climb mixed in with short, steep climbs followed by singletrack through the orchards and finishing with a rock garden descent. Dang this is rough! An hour lap with 2 to go. Kathy was in the feed along with a lot of excited volunteers handing up water and cheering us on. I set out for lap 2 knowing that I had to keep riding smart...eat, hydrate, monitor energy expenditure, keep momentum but don't get crazy. As I started my 3rd lap the spectators gave me a split of 1 minute. Sure enough, there's Jennifer. I caught her on the climb, recovered on the descent, pinned it through the Roubaix to the orchard and I was home free! My first win of the year.

all done, time to eat
The race was followed by an all day festival - beer, pizza, ice cream, a chili cook off, a bmx contest, a live band, dancing, raffles and awards. I think the whole town showed up. Annie and I turned in our free beer coupons as we waited for awards. I won DT Swiss rims and scored 2 pair of socks from the sales rep. What a great day! Thanks to Jim for an incredible event!

girl-y time
On Sunday I spent the morning with Nicole, my first friend born in the 2000’s. We played Magic 8 ball (which told us Liam really does like Nicole!), Barbies, parachute man, wooden block game, read stories, wrote stories, drew pictures, colored Snoopy, painted nails and sang along with Britney Spears karaoke (Kiera, where were you?).
Before heading back to Durango, Nicole and I ran to Target where we had icies and bought each other PINK pillows, PINK flip flops, fruity lip gloss and fashion trading cards out of the $1.00 bin. What more could a girl ask for?

new places, new friends

the story tomorrow

it took me twice to learn, it won't happen again

Since there is still snow on the trails up at the resort, the weekly Purg mountain bike bash moved to Hermosa Creek Trail - a world famous 21 mile trek through forest primeval. We started out easy and, like any group ride, the pace kept picking up. The wild cattle on the trail became no different than a rock, tree or any other obstacle you have to overcome. Get around and attack! I lost some ground as I wasn’t real into having a ragin’ mama cow plow me down nor did I like ‘taking the line’ through cow patties. My thoughts drifted to a mountain bike race on a ranch in Warda, TX...my friend EJ always boycotted the race because it was usually a mud fest and he was positive we’d all get giardia.




The Purg pack made it through the cattle and re-grouped at the river only to un-group on the mile descent. I practiced my skid turn and launched into the leaders spot. The guys were tired of getting dusted so we headed back. After the painful climb out, it was a race back to the barn. I was testing the corners by not braking into them, resulting in a fast acceleration out of them. It felt like catching a wave that was a little bigger and more powerful than you wished for. I was giggling and riding out of control. My crazy cornering kept me with the guy in the leaders jersey, Svetz, who narrowly beat me for the win last week due to my wrong turn at the finish line. I got around him on a short climb out of the last creek and was ready to take over the jersey when...i took the wrong turn! again! Heart break.

congrats to Wherry!

Too bad for the chicks...most bad boy cyclists like to lay in bed with their bike jerseys.
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=sports&article_path=/sports/05/sports050610.htm

keepin’ it

PINK
Today I talked to my old skool friend from the days at Veterans Park, Ronnie, who is now a big dog at Orbea. He’s working on hooking me up with the Mitis Dama (sweet) or Dama Race (super sweet)...

the more I rest, the more tired I am

Since the time I was in 3rd grade, my coaches have always told me to rest and eat. Honestly, I really don’t like to do either. I like to sleep when it’s raining and I like to eat if it’s chocolate. However, after Saturday’s demise, I better do a lot of both if I expect my body to function at the Deer Valley National next week. To start the healing process, I took a record 3 days off the bike and yesterday was an easy 1 hour spin. My iPod didn’t make the trip as it, too, had run out of juice. I was pretty bored when Wells Jr. came up on me in the valley. He was most entertaining with his stories -spoken in true troi willz form- of the 900 page summer school book, dreaded allergies turned illness, his brother’s ID being confiscated only once and thoughts on how to celebrate the upcoming 2-1! At the fork in the road, he told me to have fun riding up the big hill...little did he know I pulled a Robbie & Alex and parked at Bread.

Today I woke up even more tired so we'll see how the Purg mountain bike bash at Hermosa Creek goes tonight.

a look back at Boulder and the fab five

the drive
It was a beautiful day in Durango. I packed the car, drove up the mountain to work for a few hours, picked up my bike at Robbie’s Garage, bought a pretty, flower-y plant for my host family, stopped by Bread for bread, ran by Stephanie’s for Stephanie and we were on our way to Boulder. Our in-car party was jammin’ until the peek-a-boo construction stop: 80 to 0 in 15 feet. We had to pull into the other lane to avoid crashing. But, “seriously mom,” there was no warning. We had a picnic while waiting, made friends with the construction guy and moved up 8 spots as we were let out of the gate first. Smile and wave! We were back into our groove...singing, laughing, talking, missing our turn and driving over Monarch Pass. Our tip for those traveling from Durango to Boulder: when you see 4 signs in a row with Monarch in them, you’re going the wrong direction. The 64 mile detour took no time at all as I bombed down the steep grade in neutral with no brakes. Steph remained quiet with her game face on although her true thoughts were: ‘I trust your driving, but I don’t trust the deer.’ After our descent, Steph caught her breath and reenacted the weeks episodes of Sex in the City only to realize those were the last 2 episodes forever!! She became silent again. Silent until my run in with a police officer who (even after Stephanie’s text book comment: ‘we were going the speed limit’) gave me 3 warnings. About an hour later we made it to Boulder, brought in our gifts of thanks and appreciation to our host family and went to bed.

racer chicks
The next morning Stephanie and I pre-rode the TT course as our race was in the late afternoon. The course was hilly and pretty fun. I rode smart and worked on all of my ‘to do’s’ and ‘to not do’s.’ I started the TT with the first big ‘to not do’ which is go out too hard. I paid for it as my time on the first half of the course was not much faster than my pre-ride. We met up with our teammates (Marisa, Robin and Irene) at the finish and had an easy ride back home. Our Saturday race was a road race on dirt which I loved! Too bad I got caught behind a crash 3 miles into the race and chased for 2 hours finishing 4 minutes behind the group. I wasn’t much help to our team leaders (Marisa in 6th, Steph in 10th) but they held their own and finished with the lead group. Steph was gripping her bars so tight she had blisters on her hands but luckily I had my Euro Barbie Band-Aids (the coolest thing WalMart has ever carried) to give her.



country comes to town
Later that evening the chicks hit Pearl Street for some food, shopping and people watching. You’d have thought we'd never lived in or been to a city or suburb before...we were stunned by all the people, action and stores. The guy at The Body Shop must have been entertained by 4 giggly, biker chicks as we walked away with bags of free goodies.


sunshine on the hill climb
We had 2 races on Sunday. The first began with an 8am, 9 mile, steep-a** climb up the canyon. The highlight was having Tyler Hamilton there to give us a bootie push up the hill. Aw yea! Irene and Marisa threw down and both were in the top 10 going into the final race. Inbetween races the girls went to Wild Oats for lunch, the Title IX store and the $1.00 bin at SuperTarget. We love SuperTarget. That was the end of our shopping, it was off to the crit race. Another beautiful course in the historic district of Boulder on a fast course with a lot of spectators. Our mission was to keep our team leaders in the top 10 and thanks to Robin, a former national crit champ, we were successful. We celebrated with cookies courtesy of Rob from Bread, fresh strawberries from our new friend and local, Tara, and a delicious pasta primavera dinner from Chef Jim.

back to big “D”
Stephanie and I woke up early, packed the car, picked up some coffee at a little cafe on the river and headed home. On our way home, we discovered that the Buena Vista bathroom is the only game in town, Steph contemplated the difference between bison and buffalo and after 7 months of being in Colorado I realized the state is full of super crunchy granola people - off road strollers, khaki wilderness clothes and hats with way all natural hemp fibers and Chaco’s with no cute pink, glittery nail polish. About this time we both realize COPS is live in Pagosa!...76 in a 60. Game Over.

the fab five from big "D"

check out the chicks
http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=col&article_path=/columnists/articles/eparticles/ep050527.htm

happy birthday lynnie

love, mini-lynnie

an angel on fire

After 3 solid weekends of mountain bike and road stage races, should I really be going to another race? Well, probably not. But it’s at beautiful Angel Fire Resort and features a new XC course built for the upcoming UCI World Cup. The urge to see new places, ride sweet trail and travel with friends had me packing the bike to leave one paradise (Durango) for another (Taos).

Following a long, hard day of “work” at Purgatory, I picked up Robin and we were on our way.
Robin is my Midwest sista - a good lookin’ farm girl from Michigan. She can command a tractor but can’t operate a stick shift, leaving me to pilot the Prelude to Hippyville. We entertained ourselves with exaggerated Midwest dialect, grilled cheese sandwiches, coleslaw and chocolate malts ‘ya no.’ We rolled into town with enough daylight left to see an enormous wrought iron Ranch entrance with a hanging stuffed man doll without a head. We giggled in fright. Next up was a hippy commune of subsurface homes with rubber tire art decor...enough to make Robin mumble “if someone sprays me with patchouli...” Through town which resembled Spain (although neither of us have been to Spain) and onto our Southwestern hotel. We unloaded the bikes next to 2 very friendly racer boys and went to bed without the 2 very friendly racer boys.

Our wake up call never came. No worries, a little shorter warm up, a little more sugar in the coffee. Get to registration, worries. The timing crew has closed the mens pro/expert registration. By the time the guy in front of me is done arguing with the nice lady, the timing crew has closed the womens pro/expert registration. 15 minutes before start time, the mean guy from the timing crew (who must have gotten tired of being harassed) changes his mind and now everyone can race. Our penance is a $50 entry fee and a case of Budweiser to the timing crew. Too bad I get staged with the expert women and the pro women have already taken off. Wow, I missed my start. This is a first. In disbelief, I ride off on my own, take a lap of the course and call it a day, marking another first: my first DNF as a pro. The day went better for Robin who scored a podium spot in her category, received an earthy plaque and went the whole trip without anyone spraying her with patchouli.