I’m at ValueAct Capital Team Camp 2009  . . .

Same house as 2008, but check it out:

Here’s my room that makes me feel like a super bicycle princess . . .

And my favorite quirky room . . .

Lastly for today here’s a pic of my favorite artwork in the house . . . something crazy yoga pose with a deer on drugs in the back ground.  Sweet.

Ok team meeting now gotta run and hopefully more pictures and maybe even some vid’s soon . . .

Oh p.s. did u know Chrissy Ruiter can play the piano?  Me neither.

Tour of Missouri was awesome and Kansas City is a pretty cool place, but now I’ve ben sick in bed all day.  Feeling under the weather yesterday when I woke up but I still felt like racing cuz I had already flown to Missouri for just one day to race after racing in Michigan over the weekend.  Just talked to the nurse on the phone and I’ve got all the symptoms of strep so hopefully some antibiotics will kick this real fast but who knows?

So Kansas City . . . I was envisioning lots of cow n stuff but what I found was a vibrant down town and lots of cycling fans.  I thought the race was fast-ish at times but definitely not quite fast enough to get us single file in the last few laps so scrounging for position I rolled in 10th place.  I had not realized so many women bike racers hailed from the area, and with the enthusiasts of Kansas City plus the relatives of Kansas Citian Kelly Benjamin, we had a great crowd for the first Women’s Tour of Missouri.

The race promoters put us up in the Embassy Suits a few blocks from the course and we also got racer gift bags with lotions, earrings, and other Kansas City products.  Hands down the best race promotion for women I have ever seen, and I know many people in town worked hard to make it happen.

Brooke Miller won the sprint in her new stars and stripes skin suit . . . suprise suprise.  Overall, it was an awesome race and I was very happy I made it out to Missouri, sore throat and all. 

(And PS . . . Kansas Citian is a real word, I looked it up)

Giro SF this weekend.  Fresh out of creative energy for the season but still happy to race!

So VAC teammie Chrissy Ruitter had an awesome ride yesterday to claim 3rd place in the Nationals Time Trial. 

Needless to say, I was very excited for her race.  What was even more impressive is that Chrissy had just hopped off a flight from Europe the night before the race and didn’t get in until 11 pm!  The highlight of yesterday was the podium presentation somewhere near Disneyland with all the women who raced the Time Trial kickin it together.

My ride was not so impressive . . . somehow results have me as DNF??? Which is not the case, but trust me, it isn’t really worth fighting for at this point.

Otherwise, I tried to make come-back a few weeks ago with regular blogging but it just hasn’t worked out that well.  Brett Farve’s come-back landed him with the New York Jets . . . my come back has been slightly less dramatic or successful. My creative energy is really low right now and I don’t have too much incentive right now to turn my computer on and click clack on the key board.

Nationals RR on Saturday!

I’ve been so inspired by Brett Favre’s comeback battle to the NFL that I have decided to make a comeback to my blog. 

It hasn’t been easy, but I don’t think its been as hard as the NFL drama.  I once read in a blog by Sabine Dukes, founder of Velo Bella, something very clever.  It went like this, “It’s not that haven’t I been blogging, its just that its all written in my head.”  Never, in a million years, could I have said it better.  And I just saw that Sabine announced today that her VeloBellaBabble site is moving somewhere with more bling and less babble.

So in between then and now, I have been at the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Oregon.  Ah, Oregon . . . I am so proud to be a Native Oregonian and I desperately pine for the day that I can move back to the land of greenness, soft clouds, bikes, nice people, and delicious ice cream.  If you have never been to Cascade, let me tell you that you are missing something.  Sure, its a hard race.  But the Down Town Twilight Crit with thousands of specators and the cool dips in the Deschutes River make up for every foot of climbing in that race bible. 

Thats me in blue.  Looks like a downhill part of the race.

The race was great, I had a few places in the top ten but unfortunately no podiums for the week of racing.  And now I am back home and plugging away with a few more big race trips left on my schedule for the year, including the Nationals TT and Road Race, which I am eagerly anticipating to see the course.  Profile has been out for sometime, but its very different to see the hills in person.  So I guess I will wait and see.  And ride.