September Madness...

From France to Germany to Austria to Las Vegas then back to the East Coast - 5 races, 2 trade shows… and still charging on!  Mike and I are just loading up the winnebago to go race round 3 & 4 of the New England Pro Cyclocross Series this weekend in Providence, RI (check out the poster girl for providence cross festival).

It's Cyclocross season!!!  Day 1 - Gloucester, MA.

Day 2 in Gloucester was VERY muddy...

Yes, it's been a HECTIC month for Mike and I… but all is well and we are stoked to be racing our bikes!   The running around from race to race, the pack up, logistics, clean up, constant mechanic work and training has kept us more than busy - and quite honestly is a little over the top - but it will quiet down next week. 

Happy to be back racing New England Cyclocross.  Gloucester, MA

Usually, after a hard long race season, we racers take a little break, as it is necessary to recover from the accumulated stress to carry on.  Welp, the race schedule we committed to this year, did not really allow for this.  We had a whole 9 days separating our cross country mountain bike season from our official 2012 cyclocross season… Our way to cope is to balance EACH day.  For us self managed athletes, training comes first, with a strong focus on eating healthy and getting enough rest.  Then all our other energy goes into managing, planning, and preparing for the present and future needs of our team.  Usually the day ends before we've accomplished what we've set out to do, but tomorrow comes and we pick up where we left off.

Part of the balance... Mike gets it done.  Box jumps before getting on the plane.

This past trip to Europe, where we contested the World Cup finals in Val d'Isere, France and World Championships in Saalfelden, Austria was a unique and successful race trip that was an important and defining part of our race season.  Hard to believe it was my 11th and Mike's 10th year at World Championships!  Also found that living in an RV for two months straight seems to be just about the limit - even for us mobile types!  But we definitely had a great time and enjoyed the ease of staying where ever we landed and being able to cook and eat the foods we prefer.  Having access to exploring new and exciting training options on top of all this, far outweighed not having private space or the frustrating reality of being disconnected from a consistent internet signal, laundry services or running water.   Even though the backlog created by being on the road this long will have us playing catch up for a while, we will still opt for the convenience of mobile home living.

RV living at it's finest - homemade hand picked wild blue berry tarts!!!

Don't park your RV near a church that tolls every 15 minutes - you won't sleep!

We had the opportunity to check out the EuroBike trade show in Germany before heading over to Worlds in Austria…  It was awesome to meet up with some of our great sponsors overseas.   We really could not believe how BIG this show was and how important this show is to the thriving bike industry.   In between rainy training days on the country roads outside of Friedrichshafen (around apple and hops fields), Mike and I enjoyed checking out the extravaganza of Eurobike. 

Plenty of training options near Eurobike...

Mike likes beer plants.   Me too.

Soon enough it was time to make the drive to the event we were training so hard for.  The 2012 World Championships venue was just 10 km down the road from where I raced my first Worlds in 2002 (Kaprun) and where Mike and I experienced Euro living in an RV for the very first time.  We laughed reminiscing over the memories...  Wearing the stars and strips National Team kit at this annual event has been an honor and a highlight each year for the past decade.

Most of Team USA 2012 in Saalfelden, Austria... a great crew!

The lead up to the race weekend went smooth and the weather was stunning - there was only one very rainy day early in the week which made for a messy and exciting team relay, but this created perfectly tacky weekend conditions in the root filled woods…  The course undulated over a mix of pavement, gravel and natural trails, up into the woods where we navigated a few steep drops and traversed some sweet off camber and technical sections.  The course got pretty hacked up over the training week, but was great for spectating and the racing was going to be exciting.

I started the race on the 4th row of 58 of the worlds best female XC riders.  When the gun went off I focused in with high alert as we all swarmed and raced forward.  It's a pretty intense feeling to be surrounded by this aggressive chaos as we battle for position until we are anaerobically forced to settle into our own rhythm.  Due to the surging of the pack filing into a single track, subsequent traffic jams had us waiting in line to WALK down or UP simple sections - while the leaders charged forward unimpeded.  Pretty annoying, but typical, when that many fit riders race for a single track trail! 

I made it through the start lap unscathed, but dropped back several spots.  I put my head down, and gave it my all for the next 90 minutes, passing as I could, but still encountering traffic and waiting in lines.  Gaps grew and eventually the fumbling, clogged hyper riding subsided, we spaced out and settled into our own paces.  I pretty much ended up finishing where I lined up…. 33rd.  Which in my mind, is not as satisfying as I'd like.  But, as Mike and I know, it was again all about how things went in the all crucial start…. It seems I've been on the short end of this frustrating reality for the majority of the world cups this season.  AH well, I know what I need to work on and I believe my fitness was better than the race I ended up having, which leaves me feeling good about the upcoming cyclocross season….  

Beautiful mountains of Saalfelden, Austria. 

Mike had a good day at the races - especially considering he literally started on the very last row where the the traffic clog is exponentially amplified.   He did not loose heart and moved forward throughout the entire race, making clean lines out of what looked pretty choppy for most.  In the end, he finishing a hard earned 60th that gave him a couple UCI points and the praise of all that know the realities of passing even 30 of the worlds fastest guys over such a short course and time.  Yeah, Mike!

Mike smiles, post race. 

The departure pack up from 2 months of living in the RV was more like scraping out as we got pretty embedded into the nooks and crannies of the rig we were renting.   Luckily there was enough time to share a memorable evening bike ride to a cool beer garden with our good friends in Ingolstadt before heading back overseas.  

Bier garten fun...

Even though it was a quick pass through our east coast home, it felt like complete luxury to stay in a real house for a glorious 4 days before packing up and getting on another plane to Las Vegas.  It was a quick action packed 6 days attending the Interbike tradeshow.  Especially with the added pressure of racing my first cyclocross race of the year - Cross Vegas.  

Race After Dark, under the lights with hot competition & WILD spectators.  This is  Cross Vegas! 

Stoked to catch up with the Yang family and celebrate Kenda Tires 50th anniversary!!

All in all it was a good and busy time connecting with our awesome sponsors and friends in the bike industry.  Mike and I managed to keep a good balance by staying outside the city with friends, where we could cook a few meals and wake up next to the quiet beautiful desert trails.

One of my favorite parts of going to Las Vegas - The trails of Blue Diamond.

As I contemplate this intense and wonderful year of globe trotting to the races, I can only nod my head, smile and remember the opportunities, people & places we've been so lucky to know.  I can also sigh deeply remembering the difficult, painful and challenging moments, which Thankfully, have passed - but left an impression.   The new friends we've made this year, the old friends we reconnected with, as well as the new scars, the lessons learned (and relearned), all add to the incredible feeling of being ALIVE and truly LIVING this life.   We are so grateful for this.

Huge Thanks to the cycling community that surrounds us - ALL our friends and sponsors - KENDA Tires, Seven Cycles, Stan's NoTubes, SRAM, Rockshox, Avid, Truvativ, Feedback Sports, Cane Creek, ESI Grips, Mavic, Clif Bar, Fizik, Crankbrothers, Garmin, JetBlack Cycling, Smith Optics, Defeet, Guayaki Yerba Mate, Jim's Organic Coffee & Arnot-Roberts Wine…. We could not be doing this without ALL of you!

Wishing you all positive perspective on the good life we can truly manifest.

Salud,

Mary and Mike

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