the OC and the IE

My trip to Cali was awesome. Not only did I get to see my brother and his bros at Mansion de Lynn, I met up with Pren and Company for dinner on Laguna Beach. Earlier that day I rode through nature trails, explored rivers and hidden caves and learned how to do big wheelies in Laguna Canyon.

checkin on the tide


the scenery


the scene: blondies with the dark haired rich guys in CLKs with cellies
hmmm...I wonder what my other boyfriend/girlfriend is doing

On Friday we drove inland to the empire for the first NORBA national. The course was sweet - desert singletrack climbs, techie downhills and urban thrills. A fun pre-ride was followed by pool time and a trip to a savvy Italian eatery with Team Trek. While waiting for our table, we hung out in the parking lot of a mad C-Rock concert–skate board demo–car show. We didn’t think the guy who just polished his hotwheels would mind us posing for a pic.


Lea, Kricket and Rebecca in, on and around the display model

Race day came and went. For me, a really fun race but a really bad result. Chalk it up to early season. At least my bike ran like a dream and my clothing kit made one photographer’s day. Back at the bike racer’s ‘dorm,’ we told race stories (my favorite part of racing), refueled, checked internet blogs (so dumb) and met up with the Park Ranger for dinner. After one more day in the smog racing short track, I left the IE to get back to the beaches of the OC.


short track climb


short track dust


bye, bye beach

life moves faster than the speed of the river

fuerte or muerte?
A month ago I made it back from my spring training camp on the island of Curacao. While the resorts and ocean were beautiful, the rest of the island was dirty, drug ridden and sketch-ie! The race course was next to a jail and as I’m sure you heard, a pro guy was attacked during World Cup pre-ride. Not exactly the most relaxing and focused trip as a solo chick but one which taught me many lessons in self reliance. Luckily the LunaChixs were at the same bay and adopted me for a few days. Our down time was spent on the beach, snorkeling, eating pancakes with euro chocolate sauce and watching the final four.

town
My friends were in town. My parents were in town. Lea and Shonny finally made it back to town. I moved offices into town. I moved homes into town. And then I did a crit race in town. Things are coming together, just in time for this weekend’s Norba opener in Cali.

happy may day
As a kid in Wisconsin we celebrated May Day by creating may baskets (a cup full of grass, dandelions and left over Easter candy), placing them on boyfriends’ door steps, ringing the bell and running. The whole point was to let the boys catch you so they’d have to kiss you. But I’d rather beat them in the sprint home, winded and without a kiss, but in my mind - the winner.