Tina missed the big Chicken!!!

The US 10 K race on Labor Day for the women goes by in a flash. It is a unique event as the organizers put up a lot of money for just 10 kilometers on our bikes. No, its not a track race, nor is it 10 laps of a 1k crit course - its in a straight line, over many rollers, the exact same course that the runners, roller bladers and wheelchair racers do. And the announcers call us cyclers.

She's a tricky one, this race. Its rollers are hard enough, the descent finish is tricky and has to be timed perfectly, usually windy, there are 2 primes along the way, and it is short, so you have to watch out if someone attacks.

Tina and Laura Van Gilder are the only ones that can win the NRC competition at this point in the season, so Tina kept an eye on her while I tried to control the attacks. As I brought one of the attacks in closer, they all gave up except Lauren Franges, who continued to dig. The result was that the hesitation of the rest of the field allowed her to stay ahead by 100 metres, which was enough for the win. Meanwhile, Tina missed the big chicken!!!

The big Chicken is the landmark on the course that signifies we are at the last roller, after cresting it, it is the downhill finish....you have to be in position or be fighting to set it up by then to have a good shot.....

Well, we were scrambling this time...didn't go as well aswe hit it last year, this year only 5th and 11th.

Andrea said she was having her morning coffee in her kitchen at the time we were racing and was thinking to herself: oh, they shouldbe starting about now...finished her cup and said to herself, they should be finished now.....

That about sums it up how quickly the race is over with.....

next up: Michigan and Tour of Missouri............

Stars and Stripes

While the cats away the mice will play they say.....looks like Ali P. got to be the lucky mouse that capitalized on the TT nationals course whilst 3 of USA's brightest TT players represent in Beijing.

But seriously, who is going to pretend that a Nationals Stars and Stripes jersey is not a handsome prize even if a few players were missing???? There were plenty of fantastic athletes that came prepared to do battle for it, just look at that podium....good work Ali P!!!!!Now its count down time until the Road Race.......

Charlotte Weekend

mmmmmm, big money crits, delicious!!! Well, we wanted the biggest piece of tthe money pie by taking first step on the podium as we had done the last 2 years, but this year we were put on a bit of a diet, or portion control, by Kat Carroll of Aaron's team.

What started out as fairly normal proceedings with expected attacks turned into a one woman getaway as Kat slipped off the front and we weren't able to reel her in. This race we just were a bit off and not as sharp and it also seemed that the help from other teams was a bit disjointed. Or maybe we were all disjointed together in the "chase" - anyway....Kat is one of those riders that if your own team can't win that day, you're happy she is the one that took it. She rode strongly in that heat and held everyone off for a deserved win.

The girls at the Giordana Tent signing posters.

Tour of Jamaica - mon

"It can neither be confirmed nor denied that certain males of the Jamaican persuasion chose to drop out of the final TT stage rather than be flogged by us females...."

Our hotel doorman testing the Jamis ride.

Yes, Jamaica has a Tour, and up until this year's edition, only men have ridden the Tour. This year, some crazy females decided to enter the tour with the men with the goal of completing the entire thing. I say"CRAZY" because, from the viewpoint of the Jamaican public, this was a preposterous idea indeed!!! What, women, on their bikes, with the men? All those miles?

The idea seemed even more implausible because it did not come from me, Iona the Olympian, who the Jamaican public is used to by now as not being a "normal" Jamaican female anyway. Which, from my standpoint, was a good thing that the idea was born of non-Olympic type females, regular fun loving individuals who like to ride their bikes, run or do triathlons as a partof their normal life of work and family.

Anyway, the news spread like wildfire...TV interviews, radio broadcasts, sponsorship for the female team to be trained, guided nutritionally, have support...basically all the things that are done in prep for a stage race that are taken for granted in other countries where the sport is much more developped for women.

The Team: Iona, Yolande, Rachel, Tina, Alex, Leslie, Andrea

In addition to my participation on the team, a teammate (or two) was invited to join. So the women's team was comprised of 4 Jamaicans, 1 German who resides in Jamaica and 2 Americans in Andrea and Tina as the guest riders. We all rode in Colavita colours.

Not your tupical resort reception area sight- prologue number pinning

The tour went well - the major highlight being that the local girls finished the epic toughest stage, one Spur Tree climb that came at the end of 80 miles in the blazing sun that was 8 miles long and up to 17 percent grades.......

There were some great moments:

-Jamaican public realizing that women can do this thang

- Jamaican male peloton (not the Americans and Argentineans that were competing, they already know girls can ride) waking up to the fact that some women can kick it better than they ever dreamed

- Being able to chill on the beach after stages with preferred icy beverage on hand

-Eating Jerk Chicken from the side of the road

We had a great time, the local girls did a fantastic job organizing the support details for the race and we even got to have our husbands with us racing in the race on other teams.

Until next year!!!!

Battles within battles etc.

So, stage 3 saw us doing the circuit race and this race is basically coming down to a chess match between Cheerwine and our team. Our attacks are covered by them and vice versa, and today was no exception: the race was active what with points for various jerseys on offer on different laps. With both teams taking a bit of a breather at almost the midway point in the race, there was an attack by a non Colavita/Cheerwine girl that both teams gave a little rope to.  Our super guest rider Anna covered the attack along with Robin Farina.  Anna and Robin dropped the third rider in the break and stayed away for the rest of the race.  Tina once again showed her super-power strength in winning the field sprint (which was up a steep hill).  On the day Colavita was second and third on the stage.  The top three on GC remain the same as we head into the criterium tomorrow.

**  We are currently having technical difficulties with loading the pictures, so those will come later. 

Fitchburg Longsjo Stage 1 and 2

We had a great day yesterday for stage 1's opening TT with Kristin taking the win albeit by a only 4 seconds, but it was certainly motivating to get into the leaders jersey right off the bat. 

Tina and Andrea had solid performances as well coming in 7th and 8th to put 3 of us in the top ten on GC.

Stage 2 brought the Wachusetts road race which ended up being a battle between us and Cheerwine. We knew they would try to put us on the defensive and they did a good job of it, coming out on top of that climb and moving into the leader's jersey. Kristin is now in second place and Tina and Andrea finished up 4th and 5th to hold their GC positions.

Pictures to follow, connection is always timing out when uploading them....

Nature Valley "Stage 1" and Stage 1 again

By now on the various cycling news websites it has been well documented that the first stage was a complete washout for both the men and the women. Thunderstorms and constant rain soaked the course and the officials decided to start the fields anyway. MANY crashes later, the races were neutralized and or discounted.

We had 2 casualties: Nikki and Iona. Nikki broke her frame and had to get a new one and came away with some road rash. Iona hit into the barricades which had hay bales on the OTHER side of them (good thing the barricades are being protected, not the riders crashing into them) and suffered a concussion. They decided that stage 1 would not count as too many women got taken out.

Fast forward to stage 2, ahem stage 1 again, and we started everyone minus Iona, just to rest her head. This stage was filled with attacks from the get-go. After a windy, rolling road race section, and a crash involving Tina and Shontell, the field entered the finishing circuits for 5.5 2mile laps. The girls all worked well to cover moves and stay up front and Tina did an especially good job with positioning and staying tough after the crash here to take the win.

We have no photos...boy do we miss Tiffy and her camera.....maybe we can score some later.....

Tina in yellow, Kristin in the best amateur jersey.

Commerce Bank Liberty Classic

CJ Farquason took this photo at Philly and it pretty much sums it all up for the race!!! Tina had a crash on the first lap on the descent off Manuyunk, hitting a bump, hands sliding off and saving it until hitting barriers. Shontelle and Nikki hung back with her as Iona, Ali and Tiffy monitored the action at the front of the race. They ended up doing a monumental effort bringing her back up to us which cooked them for the rest of the race. Once she was with us and we determined she really wanted to try to stay in, especially after the effort those two put out bringing her back up to us, we continued to monitor the front and get into moves, cover attacks while trying to rest her if it came to a bunch kick. The fact that she pulled off 6th with the pain she was in showed how tough she is. It was a fun race as there were many attacks and people not content to sit in. The heat made it tough, and there was only a select group going for the sprint at the finish.
Good teamwork, even though it would have been nice to be on the podium, we gave it what we had and we had each other's backs at all times.
Next race for us is Nature Valley Grand Prix.

Commerce Bank Triple Crown #1 - Lehigh Classic

Today we were treated to a little bit of a step up in pace in women's racing as we are starting Philly week. On the line today were Ina Teutenberg and the Cervelo Lifeforce team that added a bit of Euro flavour to the race. Right from the start it appeared that Cervelo Lifeforce"s intent was to set a high pace to shed some dead weight. After the first few laps, many attacks were made and absorbed and re-shuffled and finally one rolled off that contained 8 riders. Alison was covering that one and made that move. It contained Laura Van Gilder in it but not Ina or Tina. It was only a matter of time that Ina would look for a good opportunity to bridge, and we certainly wouldn't have minded getting another one of us in as well to increase our representation in the break.
When Ina attacked to bridge, both Shontelle and Tina were ready but the problem was that Erica Allar from Aarons was directly on Ina's wheel in front of Tina and Shontelle and slid out in the last corner leaving Tina and Shontelle to skirt around while Ina continued powering up to the break. A chase ensued to bring one of us closer to jump across, whilst up ahead in the break, it was being shattered. Ali made the front selection of Ina, Laura and Sarah Duster from Lifeforce Cervelo. That was good, and we concentrated on absorbing the other 5 left behind, so that the field sprint would be for 5th place rather than 10th.

Up ahead, there were attacks and Ina won followed by Laura and Ali took 3rd place. Tina won the field for 5th.

Overall, we were satisfied as we came with four today and had decided to have 3 cover and get into breakaways and save Tina in case of a sprint. That is pretty much how it worked out and it was a fun fast day. Great job Ali P!!!

CSC Invitational: Dre on the podium!

CSC was a short circuit(only 1 km) with many turns and some good bumps and manholes......which made for some necessary handling skills! Amazingly, there was even a crash at the line (!) as we were starting! So we tried to set the pace high from the start so that we could make it as smooth as possible and swoop through the corners safely. After some attacks and reshuffling of breaks, one rolled up the road with Andrea in it and stayed off almost lapping the field. The only problem was that the race officials left the many clumps of girls on the circuit that had gotten lapped and this was so confusing. We couldn't make sense of how close Andrea was behind us which was a shame as it would have been SO cool to have had her back in the field so we could have given her a leadout!!!

She was a trooper and handled the pressure of being in the winning move and tried to attack her breakaway companions knowing they were sprinters before finally having to sprint. So, with Andrea in the break handling the podium for us, we did a mini-leadout for Tina to win the bunch sprint, which she duly took care of.

Next up.....part of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown Series: LeHigh in Allentown

Huge congrats also go to the boys who had Luca and Luis in a 12 man break with some big protour team names, they lapped the field and then the rest of the Colavita boys completely drilled themselves to set up a furious lead out train for them with Luca taking the win.

Somerville World Cup

We say World Cup
because for us, that is both mens and women's teams for Colavita, this race takes on extra significance as it is right in Colavita's back yard. We want to win every race we go into, but especially this one as our sponsor is right there!

Needless to say, both teams came ready and motivated.

Both teams have been working together for a few months now getting all the kinks out and gelling. This shows when you are able to work seamlessly and smoothly and execute a plan.

Catch all the race writeups on our team site and also on Cycling news and Velonews along with photos here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2008/may08/somerville08

http://www.velonews.com/article/76739/lucas-sebastian-haedo-tina-pic-win-the-tour-of-somerville

teamcolavita.com

yay!!!

Tour of Leelanau

So, this race didn't go smoothly for us. That's the way it goes in bike racing, and it is times when it isn't so fantastic that make you appreciate when things are great. We love this race - it has a bit of everything, climbs, sprints, QOM's, wind, rolling terrain and it is in a beautiful part of the country. Pity we didn't get a great result to go with all the great things that come with this race!

Team Cheerwine had the upper hand from the get go when one of their riders got up the road and so the rest of their riders got armchair rides on all attacks from that point on that took place from our team and other teams. Net result, we were pretty smoked when we got to the finish due to all the attacks on that terrain, and the field shattered into tiny groups of twos and threes!
Only 17 riders made the time cut! We ended up with Tina in 5th, Iona in 6th and Tiffany in 9th.

So sad, ah well, tomorrow is another day - we have an important rendezvous in Colavita-land tomorrow: Somerville, NJ

Kelly Cup

Yeah!!! Shontell won her first race of the season. What can I say?….Our lead out was wonderful. Shontell, Andrea and I (Nicky) raced here last year and we knew how “swarmy” the final laps can get. Andrea was unstoppable today; she went with every attack. We all sat behind her ready to help. Kristin tested her legs out on the first race prime. The finish line is at the top of a small gradual climb. After we watched Kristin win the prime…we almost decided to sprint for her at the finish -- “just kidding”. With two laps to go we started the lead out. Andrea drove the pace for one full lap, and then Kristin took over. About 200 meters before the last technical corner, right before the straight away, Kristin was still going strong. I told her to take one last pull…she powerfully upped the pace and launched me (Nicky) and Shontell through the last chicane. I went from there as if I was going to win. Shontell stayed on my wheel and blew by me at just the right moment to take the win. I got so caught up in watching the final meters, I forgot to keep sprinting (but I did manage to throw my arms in the air). What a team effort! The rest of our team is in Michigan right now racing the Tour of Leelanau. Good luck gals. Our next race is Tour of Somerville.

whew!

So, after stage 3, which was a bit of a hilly affair up Cooper Spur Mountain, the entire peloton was shocked from the sudden spike in temperature. We went from cool and grayish with rain to smoking hot and humid. Many girls were dehydrated and cramping, and almost everyone pitched themselves into the freezing river for an ice bath afterwards in their shammies!


The next day was an individual time trial, which ALSO contained climbs, happily, there were some decent descents to go with it. Tina said Jeannie Longo blew by her so fast that she was positive she had won it. Turns out there was some kind of holdup at the start with Jeannie's tt bars and she started over a minute late and still got third!!!!

Well, lets just say, that the rest of us did not fly like Jeannie in this particular venture....our little Tiffy put in a solid ride to score a top ten place, moving her up into 8th on GC. We went to dinner that evening at a spectacular house (friend's of Dotsie and Kirk) with a view and tried not to think about the suffer-fest that was to come with the next day's stage.




So, the famous Mt. Hood Meadow's stage was indeed filled with climbing.....over 9000 feet of climbing. The heat wave in Oregon continued and our plan was to keep our climbers as fresh as possible until the business end of the race when the climbing turned steeper. Dotsie, Tina and Iona covered moves during the race. When the climbing pace finally got harder and harder, Tiffany managed to come in with the first set of girls after Mara Abbott and Jeannie Longo, holding on for 8th. Our next best climbers were Kristin and Andrea a few places back. There was snow on the top, which Tiffy and Tina sat in to cool their aching muscles!!
The final stage was a criterium and we were stoked at the chance to get another stage win. We thought it would be aggressive with other teams also looking for the same thing, as well as some of the GC people were separated by seconds, so getting up the road would translate into time and therefore a move up in overall classification. We had to be alert. Right off the bat, there was bad luck - Andrea came down in the last corner and had to retire from the race with a pro-rated time. We also lost Dotsie to that crash. Both girls are alright. We were now down to 4. The way it worked out was that Tiff found herself covering moves at the beginning, then Kristin and Iona were taking care of the middle portion of the race, and then by the end, Tiff was recovered to be able to get up front to give Tina a lead-out. Tina took it 3rd out from the last corner and never looked back. We finished this very tough stage race with 2 wins, a podium, and a top 10 on GC. All in all, we were pretty satisfied, and now go home for a bit of a rest before the next races.

They call that a crit?

Stage 2 of Mt. Hood is listed a criterium in the race bible. I think everyone will agree that it was really a circuit race as it was a 1.4 mile affair that was uphill for half of it and downhill for the rest. Since we had been expecting a regular type of crit with maybe a bit of a hill in it we were a little shocked when we did the first run-through in warmup of the course. Then we were thinking: ruh-roh, maybe this could end up in a selection, we had best be very attentive near the front.

It worked out really well for our team though. The first 3 laps Tina, Dotsie and I (Iona) were berating ourselves individually for being too far back and making things harder on themselves. Riding like newbies is what we were doing. Fortunately, Andrea, Tiff and Kristen were riding up front and not getting themselves into a kerfuffle with people pushing and riding a bit frantically. So, after we got ourselves together and started riding as we should, all 6 of us girls were always represented and taking turns monitoring affairs at the front of the race.

The race came down to a field after unsuccessful attempts at breakaways, and Tina pulled off a win again which now puts her tied with Joanne Kiesanowski (Tibco) on time for the lead of the race. Tina actually gets to wear the yellow jersey tomorrow though as the more recent stage winner. She also has the lead in the sprint and Mountains competition as winner pretty much took all on the line for bonuses.

She says she doesn't know how her climbing legs will be for tomorrow's stage, but geez.....one day at a time...who cares - today was FUN, and we will deal with tomorrow.....well.....tomorrow.

Prologue - Mt. Hood

Its RAINING!!!! Oh stop it already, its mid May, WHY is it still winterish weather here? We warmed up in the rain on the course and at least it stopped raining by the time the prologue started, but the roads were still wet. It made it a little iffy on the turn around, but Dotsie made the podium within fractions of the leader's jersey!! Yay Dots!
SO fun! We were the goober teammates and cheered her at the podium, I don't know why we were so giddy this afternoon, its not like we haven't been on the podium before or that Dotsie has never been on the podium.....

Photos from Joe Martin

Ecstatic to win the TT and her first NRC race, Mackenzie jumped up and down screaming in a high pitched Mackenzie scream voice or about one minute before Kirsten Robbins could interview her.


We became a strong trio day after day.
Sam took me through the last corner blazing fast and I quickly sprinted up to Cheatley who launched Laura into the final corner. As soon as she (Cheatley) started to open up a gap I went. I carried the momentum from Sam’s lead out and soared past Laura. We were soooo excited to win the stage. Winning two out of the four stages with only three riders felt very satisfying and to top off the day, the Colavita boys won the criterium as well.




Thanks to our wonderful hosts (Joel and Erika) who opened their home to us during the race.












Look at Mackenzie....she can TT and sprint. She almost passed Laura at the line in stage 3.

Joe Martin Stage Race

Yay Nikki! She won the final stage of the stage race, with good support from Kenzie and Sam. That made it two stage wins out of four for the team (Kenzie won the opening TT). However, those girls neglected their blog updating duties, which is why there are no photos or reports...LAME!!!!!


So, this means that any kind of picture shall be inserted for these girls......!!!! Ha! You shall have to send in proper pics and make a proper report!!!!

Joe Martin Crit

Yay Nikki! She won the final stage of the stage race, making that two stage wins out of four for the team after Kenzie (Goofy pic above) won the opening TT.

Snow in May???????

Yes that's right you read it correctly it's May, it's Spring, and we got snowed on today! Where else but Boulder Colorado!

Andrea is visiting for the week in between Gila and Mt Hood races as her Brother lives here and she's keeping up the altitude training whilst Tiffany is living here whilst in the states and not racing!

On a lazy Saturday morning what better thing did we have to do but get up for an 8am local race up a mountain the race was Sunshine Canyon Hill Climb a tough climb that starts about 2 miles from the heart of Boulder it is 9.14 miles long average 7.6% gradient with a maximum gradient of 23.1% starting elevation 5509 feet and climbing to 8426 feet with total elevation gain of 3226 feet and the last 3.5 miles on dirt. So we knew we were up for a challenge and also questioning our sanity of racing up a mountain early on a Saturday morning on recovery/rebuild week hmmmm, i guess a good opener for Mt Hood!

We rolled out and already the pace was half on then we started settling into our own rhythm at about the 2 mile mark Mara Abbot (team high roads) had opened a gap then Tiffany and Andrea and a couple others were together then soon enough Andrea had a gap on the field whilst Tiffany was suffering challenging another girl for that 3rd spot eventually getting a gap and settling into her own pace feeling the effects on the first half of the climb of not have a proper warm up but then finished off slightly stronger!

As we were climbing up I couldn't help but notice cars coming down with large amounts of snow on their roofs and trunks, as we hit the dirt we started to get little snow flakes hit us and it continued as we reached the top and their was a fair bit of snow about which is understandable as all the snow hadn't yet melted from the cold winter Boulder experienced however it was actually snowing up their which wasn't cool especially considering it was May!

The race was a good hit out though Mara took out the win from Andrea not too far off the pace and Tiffany another couple of minutes back all going under the 55minute mark not bad for first thing on a Saturday morning! It was tough but the fun was yet to come as we still got the decent after putting on layers of clothing the fingers had gone numb and face and toes too as we began to descend the dirt sketchy as it is but fun too trying not to crash with the number of people still climbing and descending and also us nearly taking out people as we stopped part way down to get an awesome photo! Then finally back on sealed road the real fun began trying not to take myself out while flying down at 50mph and dodging all the other riders going slightly slower whist not being able to hold the brakes on the windy road as the fingers were so cold all made for a fun morning!

Hit up the coffee shop and ready for some easy days before flying out to smash it up at the Mt Hood cycling classic in Oregon!

until next time,

Peace out! Keep it rubber side down!