ValueAct teammies HB Banks and Hot Sato say warming up is fun.  I prefer to just take pictures. 

Devon Vigus from Strawberry Giant will not leave his clothes on.  I don’t get it, but atleast he leaves them on during races (usually).

Whoever can guess who’s booty this is gets a big huge Yellow Bug prize.  I’ll give you one hint: it’s not mine;)

On the women’s side, international power house Ina Tuetenberg launched attack after attack after attack.  High Road’s also got some women that look an awful lot like Ina on a bike these days, so it was a little tricky for me to tell them apart.  Cover cover cover, finally one stuck and I could see Blue Diamonte Sato up there pedaling away - phew! So we all chilled out in the pack, Colavita road some tempo stuff and I tried a couple attacks towards the end to try out some tricks.  Finally Colavita and Tibco set up some powerhouse trains for the lead out and I managed to pop around most of them for second in the field sprint and 8th over all with the Sato finishing third behind Ina and Brooke M!  So we had Sato on the podium, prize money, burritos and some rootbeer to round out the afternoon. 

And of course there was the cycling tragedy yesterday with Kristy and Matt, making it so all this was just nothing when your friends are . . . are what . . . are gone.   This event is so tragic, it hurts me, it scares me, and it just makes me plain old sad. 

I just got off the phone with my friend and off-road monster cyclist Dan K Harris and when we said good bye he said something that made sense:

“We got this life to live, you gotta keep living it.”

And so that’s what I’ll do. 

Can’t quite fall asleep so I thought I’d banter on here about the start of the season.  Last season was a handful.  I felt alot of responsibility to help the ValueAct team expand for 2008 and, alot of pressure to perform, and hectic schedule - it was alot to recover from. 

In preparation for a very full NRC schedule this year, I have taken my time getting ramped up for this season.  Have only raced once so far (Santa Rosa) and I am just recently getting going with some hot intervals.  Next big team race is Sequoia.  Today I started my workout with enthusiasm to crush it on the bike.  It made me feel happy, weather was good, 2 cups of coffee, no leg warmers - I was living large.  By the end of my workout I had inflicted enough suffering on myself that my mood changed (or maybe my caffeine high was wearing thin?) and I was feeling a little negative. 

Some people like Hernando have such sickening and endless enthusiasm for suffering on the bike - I envy him. 

I am, however, not one of those people.  Love the ride, but easy like Sunday morning is more my style than a lunch time hammer fest.  Intervals are a love-hate relationship for me, I love the feeling of accomplishment I get but I don’t actually like to do them.  Still, they always get done. 

So finally I feel the need to pay my dues in the Central Valley (another love-hate relationship, more emphasis on the love than the hate) and race at CVC this weekend.  Cool course downtown in the Tower District of Fresno and it looks like the women’s field is super star with High Roads, Colavita, and then all the West Coast teams. 

I was also terribly entertained today that cyclingnews.com used “Nobody puts baby in the corner” as a subheading in their news report for women’s cycling in North America.  80’s movies are a constant source of inspiration.

And now I gotta go to bed.

So after the race last night, the ValueAct Capital team stayed the night at our awesome host house again. Did I mention that my host mom Susan raced the 40k TT on Saturday and got 4th in her category? Oh yeah, that was MY host mom.

And then the teamies and I went down to one of the local elementary schools to teach bike safety and cycling coolness to about a hundy second graders. As I am entering the school grounds, some how I am swept off my bike by a wave of elementary school anxiety. I hate school. But somehow I get through it. I manage to go to the office and sign in. I get a name tag. I grab a mint from the secretaries desk. Panic attack from memories of Catholic school avoided. Barely. But only because I knew my zippy bike was right outside the office door. I could escape at any moment if I wanted to.

Get some cornering pointers from the ValueAct Capital Team

I love it. Love Fresno, Merced, and the Fig Garden Shopping Center. I love the hot weather, the sunburns, the bikes, the boys, the cheers, the announcer. Love the carbon, the tactics, the thrill. And the bad tan lines and the bright kits. Love the talk on Mondays, the emails, the Vnews articles with props. This is my confession. I am a central valley junky.

Wrong valley but I like the pic.