A Great First Month With SBW!

What an exciting month! I jumped back into racing with one of the best teams in the country and with the greatest teammates in the world.

My first race with SBW was the Barrio Logan Grand Prix. Lucky for me, Barrio Logan is one of the very few races held in the San Diego area. While normally I have to drive at least two hours to get to the races up in the LA/OC area, I was able to leave my condo in downtown San Diego and drive about 3 miles on the freeway to get to the race. I met up with my new teammates at the course, donned my new team kit, got a warm-up in, and then hit the race course. It was a fast race (dominated by SBW) with Morgan off the front with Pam Schuster for several laps and Quinny right up there in the front with her. When the break was brought back, it became a field sprint with Quinny taking second behind a very strong Pam.

The next day was a road race near Fallbrook. I was able to contribute on the flats the first lap by being up in the front with Neva, taking some long pulls, and covering a few attacks, hoping to save X and Mojo's legs for the end, where they finished 5th and 6th.

The next week we were up in hot and windy Bakersfield for the State RR Championships on a course with the most exciting view of the oil fields. There was excitement early on as the peloton ran into a rattlesnake out on the course who thought he would try to take a bite out of Christen. I'm just glad I didn't see it since I have a severe phobia of snakes. Mojo was able to take 9th in the field sprint, with Christen not far behind.

Then last weekend we hit the State TT Championships in Lake Los Angeles (where there is no lake to my knowledge). Wow, it was a cold morning after the rain storm that hit the day before, leaving a lot of snow not that much higher than the elevation we were at. X had her motor going strong and flew around the course, taking 3rd, with Mojo 7th, Neva 8th, and myself 10th. I didn't do the kind of time I wanted to do, but it gave me a good measurement of where I am and the training I need to get in to peak for Nationals in August.

I can't wait to see what June holds for us!

Road Race State Championships

This year the SBW women took on the new 2008 road course with 3 riders. One of the riders is Kelli Jones, a new rider to the women's elite team. We are very happy to have her riding with us. She is a very strong rider, especially in time trials.

The women's race started last, so it was a pretty hot race. The only preview of the race couse I had was the video posted on You Tube. Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxxl2CyU3yE. This really made the road conditions look a little sketchy at the least. On top of poor road conditions, everyone was warning me about flats. Needless to say the first lap was raced pretty conservative by everyone. After riding the course, the roads were not that bad and I didn't get a flat.

My climbing legs seem to be coming back since I was able to stay with the lead group as the climbers attacked over and over again. Morgan I made it up the climb together on the last lap and started setting up for the finish. Morgan made an awesome move on the right side of the peleton at the right time. I waited too long and was blocked in by the team who had sent a rider up the road for the win. Morgan finished with another top 10 finish!

I can see that our team is getting stronger and beginning to get to know each other now that we are racing together once again. I can't wait for our next race together, so we can set our team up for the win!

Women on a MISSON, CA State Championships ITT

Miss Reither, this is your mission if you choose to accept it. Awake at 4:00 a.m., start hot water for tea, dress, get in car and drive to Lake Los Angeles CA. While you are driving, shove 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich in your mouth and wash down with hot tea. When you arrive to Lake Los Angeles you will have approximently 17 minutes to pick up your registration packet, use the faclities, pin your number on your jersey before heading out to your warm up. After your warm up you will arrive to the start line of the the State Championship Time Trail. Be warned the bike holder at the start is a double agent and may try to sabatoage your start by dropping you off the steep ramp. You have been warned! And one more thing, it is not quite 40K the distance is only 37K or 23 miles. So all you preperation you have done for the past 3 months will need to be adjusted on the spot. This message will self destruct in 5 seconds.

As challenging as the State TT is with its early morning start the cold weather and lack of expierence of the bike holder made it even tougher. The team arrive ready to ride. Neva and Kelly got off to a good start, but the bike holder dumped Morgan off the ramp. As she got herself together, putting on her chain and composing her temper, she was off. I was the last SBW rider to go for the championships and opted to take the risk of the ramp. Sure enough when I started I headed over the side instead of down the ramp. With a quick yell of PUSH, I was righted and on my way. There is not too much to tell you about a 37K time trial, other than the toughts that go through my head which are: Breathe, spin, catch the carrot, breathe, I wonder if Nordy's is having a sale?, breathe, its cold, breathe, spin, push, look at the snow on the moutains, spin, breathe, sprint. That about sums it up.

The times were a bit slower than last year and I managed a bronze for the event, results are as follows: Gold Ruth Clemence (Cycles Veloce) 54.19 Silver Lana Atchley (Team Rock) 55:23 Bronze Jennifer Reither (SBW) 55:45. Other noteable times and placings: 7th Mogan Kapp 57:55 (but we take of 30 seconds for the fall off the ramp and chain drop) 8th Neva Day 58:03 and 10th Kelly Jones 59.18. With a stong showing at the ITT, the women hope for a team win at the State Championship Team Time Trail 6/7/08

Neva TT's at SBW's Baxter Series

There are many benefits of being affiliated with a 200+ active member cycling club and one of those benefits are club races. This is my 3rd year with SBW and 3rd year cycling and I never have attended a club race-and I can't really say why. But as fate had it, due to a flat tire scenario, I missed a key workout Saturday and was in need of a high-test workout. I remembered an email had gone to the club from our president Cary Alpert regarding the Baxter TT series being held on Sunday- this might fit the bill for what I needed.

I threw a kit on, had my TT bike in the car, and drove down to the Carson course 7:00 Sunday morning. I am the last to arrive and I see what is a real pre-race scenario taking place with close to 20 riders. Riders were warming up on trainers, everybody in full race gear with discs, TT helmets, booties, etc. Me...well I had my Hawaii water cages still on with a pump attached to them, a bento bag of extra tubes, training wheels that had near 60 pounds of air, my Rudy regular helmet, and no thought of a warm-up.

I quickly begged the race crew to let me start last so I could pull myself together and I asked if I could be behind Lynette Rock by a few places so chasing her would keep me honest. Lynette is a State and National TT champ and is an animal when it comes to the TT. I would be lucky to see her today with a minute head start but I knew keeping her ahead of me would keep me focused on task at hand- riding a strong 10 mile TT.

The course is a .9 mile rectangle and as I was riding it, I felt like I was on a really big outdoor velodrome. I had a solid well paced race finishing with around a 23:30 and most importantly was able to see some mistakes I need to correct before next week's State TT. I also had a blast. The competition was great, the support of Ted and the SBW riders continuous, and realizing what a great benefit the Baxter TT series is to my fitness and racing was invaluable. You have to be a member of SBW to do the race series and the cost for the event is $5 which covers everything and they even gave me splits by lap!!

Thanks SBW for putting these races on, you'll see me again very soon at the next Baxter TT.

Tour De Big Island- Neva's Report

Day 1:
Stage 1: 6.2 mile TT with last mile being a 7% hill climb. Winds favorable for most of the TT course, heat rising to 90, humidity very high. No race equipment including cycling computer. A TT bike, heart rate monitor and an old SBW kit did the job. Finishing place 1st with a 15:25 time.
Stage 2: 14 lap crit course. Course .7 miles with leg 1 being crosswind from the east, leg 2 a 7% descent with a tailwind 1/3 mile, leg 3 a crosswind from the east, leg 4 a 7% climb dead into wind 1/3 mile. Wind: 30 MPH gusts blowing a steady 20+ MPH. Equipment: road bike with 404's- oh crap. Mixed field with some men's fields. Women's field came down to a sprint between myself and Roberta and I took her by 100 meters and it was a fight all race. Finishing place: 1st
Day 2:
Stage 3: 40 mile RR with first 50% descent, second 50% ascent average of 7% ascent. Weather very unfavorable. Winds steady at 11 MPH, fog heavy, rain pouring. Course descent on open highway with traffic. Equipment: road bike with 404's- oh crap again. Field mixed with all men except the M1-2's. A few tears nearly shed on the first descent and the field split, I was with favorable split. We hit the ascent and the men hammered. I was dropped eventually and at feed almost pulled out- it was pretty miserable...but I don't quit and I decided to try to catch the field anyway, now a good mile ahead. I caught them about 4-5 miles when a guy named Doug was TT'ing trying to get back in. Then we got dropped the 2nd mile in on the climb and Doug kept me honest and we finished 1/4 mile back. Finish: 2nd
GC Final: 1st
Summary: An excellent weekend of racing and we got a delish meal at Tako Tako, a cool Tour De Big Island shirt, and prizes and shwag galore! With the smaller fields, which is hard to get large fields in Hawaii as the mainland, it would be more like a formal training race for those used to larger fields but the race was 100% professionally done and the racing hard! I was so impressed with the Race Director and his team and the team of volunteers- it was their first stage race and it went like clock-work- if all races could be organized this well- nice going Hawaii Cycling Club! My fellow racers were awesome- both women and men, and Roberta gave me 'ell all weekend- watch out for her at Master's Nats- she's an animal! I hope this race starts a new tradition on the Big Island and with prior notice of the event I will make every effort to return. Thank you Big Island for a great weekend- you really made it worth my while on many levels, mahalo.

Vog Training on the Big Island

I am in Kona for some good 'ole vog training. (See any newspaper from Monday to know what vog is- an AP wire article talks about it extensively).
Weather is 85, humidity out of control, winds pretty crazy, and scattered rain and sun.
Day before I got here I was looking for a triathlon to enter and instead found the Big Island Stage Race. Looks like I'll get some fun riding in this weekend.
With much aloha, Neva

Reunited

SBW Pro Women are finally reunited and will be heading into June as a full team. Becky, Christen, and Neva came off of track season in March and took some down time to R&R and build their road legs. That placed all of the racing pressures on Jennifer Reither, Morgan Kapp, and Jennifer Wilson over February, March, and April. The three winter road riders raced strong and placed well and their success attributed to Jennifer Wilson being asked to ride for the NRC Vanderkitten team after a strong showing at Redlands. Just as the rumor of the loss was heard, another rider Kelli Jones decided to come back into racing and was immediately rostered to fill the Jennifer Wilson position. The track riders and Kelli all agreed that the end of May would be the "be back strong and fit" date to go into a challenging June, July, and August schedule.

Working hard to meet that deadline, Christen King used Chuck Pontius as a prep race with Morgan Kapp. Christen working the peleton hard finally secured a break with two other riders and with a lap to go decided to try a solo break and was successful as she crossed the line solo for the win. Morgan's help working the field also allowed the win.

Following up with that podium was a 2nd place finish at Barrio Logan. The team minus JennX was in a field of 48 and Morgan worked the front the entire race with some strong attempts of launching some attacks but to no avail. Neva attempted a break with Helen's but missing her top end put her back into the field. With about 20 minutes to go Quinny repositioned herself to the front with Morgan and just started working it and even secured a prime. Helen's launched with 1 to go and Quinny was in chase and a perfect move by Morgan gave Quiny a leadout on the backside for the sprint and 2nd place finish.

The Cinco De Mayo weekend ended with the San Luis Rey Road Race with a 5th and 6th place by Morgan and JennX. The team minus Quinny raced the 5 lap 58 mile 4000' course. With 15 minutes to race start Neva's derailleur had a snaf-u with a wheel change and in 6 minutes she changed pedals, frames, wheels, cassettes, and bottles just to make the start with a completely different set-up then she had prepared- good work! The race started slow and Kelli and Christen decided they would work the front and give JennX and Morgan a reprieve since they would be needed at the end. Neva joined them at the end of the first lap and she and Christen took over the 2nd lap. The field was very content with SBW doing all of the work. Christen attacked on the back side and Morgan countered and then JennX. SBW working and attacking went on for the five laps and eventually it went down to a field sprint where due to positioning Morgan and X had to really scrap out the spring and placed an excellent 5th and 6th. Also a shout out to Julia Cross and her family, Terry King, Dicky, and Morgan's family for feed at SLR!

Having the team come back together is great and in two weeks of being re-united we have a 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th and June is still 4 weeks away when we said we would be in full force. Next up is State Road Race Championships in Bakersfield Christen, JennX, Kelli, and Morgan are prepping for the weekend.