Fon du Loc and Sheboygan

Cool idea this coffee shop had.

First of all, I can't stop saying Sheboygan - it's such a cool word! Sheboygan, Sheboygan, SheboyGAN.
It's hard to believe there are only two days left on the Tour.  I'll admit - part of me is a little sad.  The routine has been rad - sleep till 9, coffee and breakfast until 10, pack make lunch, on the road by 11:30 and show time at 3.  I'm lovin' it. 

VK Fan in Fon du Loc

The racing has been epic.  I feel like everyday is an opportunity to learn, and throw it all on the table.  The towns, communities, and fans have been encouraging and make even the tired day's fun.  In Sheboygan, my leg's somehow found my body again and we were all game on.  It was great to have Emily in the race, which rounded our team to an even four.  She brought some energy to the group, keeping the pace  high. We lucked out with the weather too!  It had rained all day, except for our hour race.  Someone's lookin' out!

Pre Race Routine

Yesterday's race was in town of Fon du Loc.  The name is French for bottom of the lake, because it's located at the bottom of lake Winnabego.  There was a great crowd, lots of kids who would scream as the Peleton rushed by.  It was awesome!  We found a great little coffee shop downtown, and partook in a little pre-race ritual that I had to document. 

Beautiful night in Wisconsin

The course was short, only .6 miles which made for a lot of fast laps! My legs were feeling ok, but not as good as they were in Sheboygan.  I still managed to hold good position, and found myself around 4th or 5th wheel with two to go.  Crits are crazy, and I'm realizing that in order to have good position on the last lap, rounding the last corner - you can't hesitate for a moment! You have to go, and only think about one thing - moving up.  It's really intense, and takes a lot of courage, timing and bit of luck - but if you can rail it, and stick your moves - you'll be there at the end.
Today we travel to the biggest city in Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

For reading

Ripon TT

Compression socks Ninja style

Coffee is beautiful.  I'm pretty sure it's my favorite food.  It's also a great friend - it has your back when you're feeling down, is always right around the corner when you need it, never really changes unless you want it to, and can be taken in small doses or large quantities depending on your mood.


That said, we were all in need of some Starbucks lovin' yesterday morning, you could see everyone come back to life after a few sips.  The TT was the earliest day we had so far, and coincidentally the farthest away - which meant an early wake up call at  6:30 am.  TTing is really an art, and I'm pretty fascinated by how much there is to know and learn about it.  How to gauge your effort so you don't blow, the course, the warm up, the position, the equipment etc...  There's a lot going on!  But when the 3,2,1 buzzer goes off nothing else matters but the rhythm of your pedal stroke and beating of your heart - and the one that has the smoothest, fastest, and biggest usually takes the top step of the podium.

Beautiful Dairyland

Mine went ok.. I was surprised that I didn't feel like complete crap the entire way, which made me hopeful for the last four days of racing we have here in Wisconsin.  Ended up 29th overall on the day with a time of 40:12 just a handful of seconds away from a position that would have put me top 20 in the points. That's the crazy thing - we're talking SECONDS.  That's the amazing part about TT - the only thing that sands between you and the podium is yourself.  It's a brutally honest cycling discipline, and I really admire those who master the art of it.

Waukishaw, Greenbush RR and Schlitz Park Criterium

Ok, so this blogging every day after a race thing is getting demanding!  But hopefully some readers find what I have to say amusing or motivating =).  The day's go by pretty quickly with most of our races in the afternoon/evening and when i'm horizontal on my blow up air mattress bed the last thing I really want to do is use my brain - but here it goes! 

Day 4 at Waukishaw I slept in and still felt pretty tired, wasn't sure how the legs were going to feel during the crit.  The course was pretty technical, with a couple risers in it, but other than that it looked fun.  There were a couple dicey turns, the first one especially - a hard right hander down a narrow street that was slightly uphill.  Good place to turn on the GAS. 

We found a great little coffee shop, and enjoyed an americano with good friends eying the lower division racers fly by between random rain drops.  We even spotted some local Bay Area celebs in the hood.

that's Mary Ellen Ash in the Distance!

Coffee a pre-race must!

Race started out pretty fast, and I spent a solid amount of time near the font and chased down two pretty good attacks from Mellow Mushroom.  That had me gased (again) and I shrunk back to recover from my efforts.  Then, the primes increased in their amount and the pace was drilled.  Oh boy did that hurt like a you know what!  I was cross eyed at one point for sure.  But, i made it through the toughest parts, navigated through the sea of people and tried to stay out of trouble at the end getting 26th.
 
Later that night we went over to someones house for a BBQ, and I met some pretty great people, heard some pretty rad bike racing stories, and had some ice cream to die for.  Great day all in all.

VK All The Way

The next day came quickly - too quick! In a daze we loaded the car, drove through a crazy DOWNPOUR storm, and before I knew it we were in the town of Greenbush (yeah, lots of green bushes there...hardy har har!)  We warmed up quickly, and prepared ourselves for some hurt. 

We did 6 laps, each having several significant climbs that weren't the longest but hurt pretty good.  I survived this race, trying to bridge gaps, and hit the climbs before the field so i'd have a "head start".  The last lap was brutal.  Van Guilder drilled it with La Sasso (Mellow Mushroom) on the second major climb, and gapp'd half the fieild making what could have been the final selection.  I was surprised my legs had lasted this long, and decided it was all or nothing given my teammate was in my group.  Red Racing attacked, and I jumped to catch her wheel.  We busted tail! I was going really hard, fighting for dear life and found myself struggling to hold on to the chase group.  POP.  And i did.  I didn't give up tho, I took a breath and said no way not after all that...  I gave it one last GO, slipped past the follow cars, and was on the back of the main peleton once again with a few miles to go!  They were nervous because it was going to come down to a field sprint once again.  So, I just tried to stay out of trouble and nip some people at the end.  Came in 24, and my teammate Starla came in 3rd! Podium for Vanderkitten! 

Starla rounded the podium out, and captured the Green jersey for best armature rider

Today I was fried.  I sorta never came out of my fog.  I was hoping that I could surprise myself like the day's prior, but no way.  I gave it a go tho, and after falling off the main group in the first 20 min of the 60 min race, I decided not to punish myself, and call it a day.  I routed for my teammates on the sideline and tried to recover, as Wed will be a tough non aero TT.  

I'm really looking forward to that and the last four crits.  Time is flying by, and I'm trying to enjoy every min, learn as much as I can about bike racing, and have fun with great teammates, and new friends. 

Also, frozen custard is pretty life changing.  That's all I have to say about that!

~VD

Giro d' Grafton - USA Crits - Quick recap

I feel like we're all starting to get into a groove with our routine which is pretty awesome.  John one of our host's took us out on a bike path for our coffee spin, and it was really beautiful.  My body was sorta protesting the ride at first, but after a few minutes I was glad I motivated to venture out. The girls helped with that =).

After, we stopped in downtown Greendale to soak up some of the local culture.  Maybe i'm from the Midwest?

After a slight detour on the way to the race, we reg'd, warmed, up, and made our way to the start line where we were greeted by the same familiar faces, with a few new ones with this being a USA crit series race.

The race began, quickly and I worked on positioning - up up up!  The highlight for me was getting the nerve to chase down a couple vicious attacks.  With 5 to go, the three of us organized at the front but not on the font.  A few wheels back.  With two to go we were poised, and as I rolled through the start finish, I hit a bad pothole and dropped my chain to the outside! OH NO.  I took a deep breath, changed to the 39 in hopes it would fling the chain back up.  No luck.  I felt myself floating back, as the sea of bikes parted for my mechanical.  I wasn't going to give up.  Screw that! I worked too  hard.  I leaned down, grabbed my chain with my fingers, placed it on my big ring, pedaled and when I knew it was on sprinted my heart out with one to go back to the font.

As we rounded the second corner all hell broke loose with a crash.  I quickly thought "wow, if I hadn't dropped my chain, maybe that woulda been me".... I re-focused, and reshuffled knowing the rest of this race was all or nothing.  Heading into the final two corners I was about 12 wheel, and knew I wasn't going to crack top ten.  I tried to lead the girls out, but then lost my wheel on the decent and floated back a couple more. As we rounded the last corner onto the finishing straight I stood up and hammered (avoiding that pothole) to crack the top 20, for 19th place.  All in all, i'm satisfied despite my mechanical.  Today, after lounging the entire morning watching Sarah Palin's show Discovering Alaska.  Priceless.

Thiensville Extreme Ski & Bike Cycling Classic

Today started out so peaceful - Drigo's harp alarm sounding off at 6 am.  If Starla and Vanessa hadn't been there, I totally would have slept through that peaceful music...  I usually have an obnoxious panic alarm go off that usually makes me dream of fire trucks, and more often than not I still don't come out of my REM coma.

But, it was well worth it.  We got a nice spin in, breakfast and then massage for all.  Back to the house, and made dash to the race.  Of course, panic set in when I couldn't find one important thing - my wallet!  After searching high and low, I gave up and figured it'd turn up eventually...or so I hoped... that was stressful.

We got to the race with two hours to spare, got a good view of the course, warm up in and then game time baby.  I can honestly say, that this was probably the most sketchy crit i've ever done.  Not sure if everyone was nervous, edgy, tired, or what but it was a little nuts with quite a few crashes.  Positioning was a little bit better, and I even led Vanessa out for a prime which was fun but SHOOT I was gassed to the max and had to shrink back into the peleton for a solid 10 or 15 min after that.  After I got my legs back under me, I made my way up to the top third of the pack, trying to stay out of trouble, but also position myself smart for the finish.  With five to go, I found myself 5th wheel, and tried  to pin it - we were all together round and round, intensity building, tension growing, you could feel the anxiety getting thick.  With one to go it was all out, and I was just trying to hold a top 15 position.  Heading into one of the corners I heard a scream from a Kenda girl up ahead.  Drift to the left, right and then she headed straight into the curb.   T-bones it and flips completely over her handlebars into the grass.  WTF!!!! I lost some ground, but tried to regain control of my senses with a half lap to go.  Finish safe, but finish strong.  

Vanessa charged it with superb positioning, and captured a super amazing 2nd place, Starla overcame some serious challenge (crashing half way through the race, and jumping back in) cracking the top 15, with a solid 14th, and I improved from yesterday finishing 26th.  Tomorrow will be fast and furious.  Lot's learned today.  Rest and relaxation are in order. 

Shorewood Criterium Cycling Classic

Hard to believe that I'm out here racing in Wisconsin sometimes.  It's seriously like i'm livin' my dream - is this real?!  The flight was long and uneventful.  Brought a good luck charm with me, and bought a random book in the Las Vegas Airport (it's actually really good), let's hope I finish this one.... I also made a generous donation to the Wheel of Fortune machine.  20 bucks i'll never see again, but I did hit Spin three times which gets the heart rate up a little bit..  I was feeling lucky...hummmmmm - i'm a sucker!

Got to Milwaukee and was greeted by Vanessa "Drigo" which was totally rad.  Star was doing laps and picking up on the cute rent a cop directing traffic... We piled in and made our way back to the host house.  Built the bike, put the gear on and went for a spin with Starla despite the clouds overhead.  How bad could it get?  It poured!  We came back drenched after extending our ride due to some navigational challenges...ha!  Olga damn you and your voice navigation on the magic phone...

Today's race was a lot of fun.  It's really great to have a plan and teamies to work with.  The course   was relatively straight forward, four corners with a LONG straight finish and one straight away that was BUUUUMPY.  I did my best to stay towards the front, and give her a go every chance I could to close gaps down.  Legs felt pretty good and I was thankful the rain decided not to come out and play.  With crits positioning is everything and I was not in the right place at the right time with one lap to go.  Got boxed in and by the time I could find my way out I was fighting to get inside top 30.  All in all it was a good race, with some exciting chasing.  AND Drigo got 5th!!! We're in 2nd place as a team with our sights set on tomorrow - a new day and another opportunity to make some magic happen.

A Perfect Sunset

Featured from right to left:  Smoken hot Ionos helmet from Giro, ice cold Corona Light from my fridge.

A Few of my Favorite Things: My Family...

All you can eat salad bar and Brandi Carlile.

I solved the mystery license plate - it was my brother - little sneaker =).  What a cutie!  I have to give a big shout out to my family for being so supportive of all my crazy cycling ambition.  Without them and my supportive friends, it would be a lonely road.  I appreciate the little things they do - like nailing an old crusty Wisconsin plates to my door.

Music by Brandi Carlile - word.  I need to see her in concert - that would rock.

Mystery Liscence Plate Nailed to My Door

So, today was a little long.  I woke up in a fog, as I do most days. Anyone who's seen me wake up knows all I want to do is go back to bed - it's a real battle.  Wandered to the sink to ready the hot water for the french press..half blind.  Somehow managed to get my oatmeal cooked, myself caffeinated, change of clothes for my afternoon ride, and oh yeah - my phone - which I later that morning dropped in a big bowl of water (in the bathroom!) yeah, I wont go into details...  Good news, after baking in the toaster oven and sitting in a bag of rice - it's sorta working again! Phew!

The biggest shock of the day came when I arrived home at 9 pm to a Wisconsin license plate nailed to the door frame! WTF! Check out this picture.  I immediately was like - great, I left the dishes in the sink, my bed unmade, coffee on the counter - real mess due to the mad dash to work...

So, after some texting and investigation - I still have nothing.  No clue as to who braved the guard dog Cole (basically risking their life) to wish me good luck this week.  Whoever you are - Thanks, that made my Sunday night. =)

5 Days Till Go Time

And I still haven't glued my tubular tire - sigh.  Behind the 8 ball again! Will I ever catch up? Probably not, but that's what keeps me chasing!  =) 

So, in tallying up my expenses for my trip to Wisconsin next week it's going to take around $1500.00 bucks to get me there, entry fees paid for, fed, and back.  Vanderkitten has generously offered to cover my housing and transportation for this event, which would have sky rocked my trip costs. Phew!

So, mission over the next few days is to raise a few Dimpel Dollars! I added a pay pal button this morning to make it easy, if you have a couple bucks to spare - any donation is greatly appreciated! Also, if you would like to make a donation on behalf of your company - i'd love to help cross promote, and help bring some attention to your website, blog, or facebook page.

Here's to hoping! Off to work, then to ride, and probably start the packing process!  

A Berry Good Ride

This morning I had a tough workout - warm up, and then every 4.5 minutes 300 watts for 30 seconds @ 60 rpm's for an hour straight. Basically, it's a weight workout on the bike. Fun! I had a friend on the ride for a change - yay! Mr. Dean Dealy himself - aka mr. Go Pro. So, we started the ride, cruised over to San Andreas, I started my intervals and we played the game of cat n mouse.... it's so hard to ride with people when you have a specific workout to do... Sigh. But, we had fun! We made a right on Beach road and as soon as we were on the straight away we got a whiff of some sweet fresh strawberries being picked from the fields! OMG - talk about a treat. As soon as it hit my nose, my mouth said - insert here! So, Dean being Dean pulled over and kindly asked the workers if we could have some. Sure enough - here's what they said:


And here's how we got them home!


That made my day, and made the intervals a lot more fun. =)

Wisconsin Whirlwind

Ok, so kind of a lot has happened over the past couple days. Aside from my normal life - training, working full time, training, sleeping, eating, training, and laying on the couch - I've been planning my next great adventure - Tour of America's Dairy land, also known as TOAD. Little did I know - June is one hell of a bike racing month for women - there's Philly, Tulsa Tuff, Nature Valley, TOAD, and RR Nat's all crammed into roughly four weeks. Whoa! Mental note for next year. I feel like this year has been crazy and most of the big races somehow, someway just come together for me. I've been lucky, and am super grateful for the peeps who have my back!


This race come together story is pretty awesome. Last Tuesday I was doing my little hour recovery ride out San Andreas and back, and I got to thinking.... (uh oh), I was thinking about how MUCH I wanted to go to Wisconsin for TOAD. Then a good song came on, I got a little pumped up, and was like - that's it - i'm going to buy a ticket, and just do it! But, when I got to work, I kinda lost my steam and said well maybe it's not in the "plan" (what plan?!) this year, and perhaps it's not meant to be.

Then my life for the next couple weeks took a turn. I was sitting there eating my lunch, when I got a text from Jono - the team Director for Vanderkitten and here's what how it started "Court, you keen on diryland??" What!? Are you serious?! I was just thinking about how much I wanted to go that morning - dude, i'm so a believer that if you really want something, and put it out there, if it's right, it will happen.

So, I did some homework on plane tickets, registration, put in a time off request (THANK YOU AARON!) etc - and committed. All I had to do was get myself there, get registration covered, pack a crap load of power bars, gu and recovery powder (yum?) - and life would be good. =).

So there you have it - i'm about to embark on an adventure that will include 11 stages, hanging out with great people, and sights and scenes completely new to me. And here's what I have to say - Bring it on baby.

Solo Excursion, Not Mission Impossible

Today was another great day in the saddle. I woke up, hell bent and determined to ride for at least 3 hours rain or shine. I drove out to the entrance of Nisene Marks (where I live), parked my car, packed my pockets with two tubes, a couple c02's, a bunch of Gu, and made my way out - destination unknown. I was just going to ride and let the road take me wherever. I found myself heading South. The views of the ocean and strawberry fields were amazing, with the cloud cover filtering through bits and pieces of light. They weren't the threatening rain type clouds, so I kept going further from home. I was setting a good tempo to the rhythm of my music, but then decided to unplug for awhile and just keep time to the rhythm of my breath, and the sounds that Elkhorn Slough had to offer. It also offered up some pretty gross smells - that water needs to be rotated!

I headed out to Dolan road, and at that point saw 2 hours on the clock. I made a 180, and hit up a great little climb - Strawberry road. From there I headed back San Miguel Canyon, and through more fields with a pit stop at Gizdich Ranch where I picked up some fruit logs - they didn't have bars, and pie seemed a little ambitious. I sat there for a few minutes, and just enjoyed people watching. A middle aged couple on a date, a crazy family with I don't know how many screaming kids, two old ladies looking at raspberry's. Everyone on an agenda!



Then I started pedaling again, throwing in the Dell as my last umph effort. I kept a good tempo the entire ride and totally chicked a dude at the end. That was a fun part of the day! The 3 hour, turned into 4 and the 4 hour turned into 5 by the time tax and tip was included. So, I treated myself to a good bagel with egg at my favorite coffee shop.



Get back to my car only to realize my car key is sitting atop my dash, laughing at me behind two locked doors. Nice Court, really nice.

A Few of my Favorite Things: Coffee

1. Coffee

And it can't just be any coffee. Either French Press or cafe made from a Bialetti dressed with steamy foam and stevia. Normally, there aren't big bubbles like that on the foam. I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps there was some soap in the cup. Oh well - hopefully not for my sake. Already got food poisoning once this week and almost died! Geez...

Foul Weather Turn Fair

After and entire day inside with Cole, the Dalmatian, I decided to venture outside on two wheels. The workout on the calendar was a "fun day" which is basically like a do whatever you want and get away with it card (which is awesome!) and I would have normally done some epic, ridiculously hard ride that left me feeling completely depleted - but no, I worked on the laptop!

So, in honor of my fun day on the bike, I treated myself and threw on the mud tublars from last cross season. Talk about floating on air! I suited up in my spandex, rain paints (I found a $20.00 dollar bill in them!!), rain jacket, and multi-base layer outfit and headed out - destination unknown. I was just going to ride.

From my doorstep in Nisene Marks there are a plethora of killer trails, so I hit some on the way out of the forest - grinning from ear to ear as I rocked out to Bruno Mars "I'd catch a grenade for ya."

I took the coastal route to Santa Cruz, and of course was confronted with a super awesome headwind the entire way. Love that... Took a dirt path (locals only) out of 26th ave. beach, and then meandered for awhile down residential streets, hoping curbs and playing.


Cruised downtown - sweating like a pig, because of course at this point the rain had ceased... Lots of people out shopping, I like to people watch.

Then headed home to watch the final stages of the 2008 Tour of California. All in all - good day.

Rainy Day Project - The Blog

So, it's June here in "sunny California," but here's the thing - it's not sunny!!! In fact it's raining, and it's been raining for the past 17 hours. And when I say rain, I don't mean it's spitting outside, or drizzling a little bit. It's full on downpour with wind and cold, the whole nine yards. So - after drinking copious amounts of coffee, eating two breakfasts - yeah, the first one was so good I made another one for lunch. The second one didn't go so well. The egg blew up in the microwave. 1:30 not 2 min next time... Anyways - after drinking copious amounts of coffee I decided to work on my new blog where I plan to muse myself, and share all the crazy, funny, and noteworthy stuff that happens in my life.


So instead of cleaning my road bike that has been neglected for the past month, I made a blog. Well, that's a lie - I made a blog, and put air in my tubular cross tires - in hopes the weather would clear according to weather.com's prediction, which never came true bunch of liars... I'm still hoping.

Oh, and I did take my road wheels off, thinking I may get inspired to wipe them down. However, they are still sitting in front of my sink dirty as all get out.