Gearing up for the Race Season!

Our version of the American Dream...

The green budding Spring in California has arrived and Mike and I are excited for the travel and racing that is now upon us.  It has been great to spend another segment of our training amongst the redwoods and gnarly roads of Sonoma County and we feel ready to get into another competitive season. 

The pace of life seems to have sped up along side the demanding schedule that we've planned and the logistics and travel of this are quickly becoming our reality over the next months.

Mechanic Mike, preparing for the races

Our first cross country race of the season brought Mike and I eight hours south from our winter training grounds in Northern California to Orange County in our loaded down cargo van.  It has been a while since we've made this trip and I could not help but get nostalgic, remembering our first times traveling to races in (Big Bear) Southern California over a decade ago… it was a nice feeling to remember our past journeys and it felt good to be getting back to our car camping roots of racing and traveling in the states.

Mary McC Digging in...

Racing the US Cup in San Dimas, California at Bonelli Park turned out to be a fantastic experience, it was also a good reminder to the legs of the work that we have in front of us to get back into the type of shape that, no matter how hard we train, only seems to come from getting back into the racing.  The heat, dust and steep track, would have made for some tough riding even going at it solo - so as you can imagine adding in some world class competition made for an especially demanding weekend.     This was one of the few HC (high category) UCI events that has taken place in the US in recent history and we were glad to be in attendance.  The racing was really top notch and if you are interested to check out what it was all about the event was professionally filmed and is available for viewing for all to see.  check it out:  Race Coverage

MTB Racer Mike Broderick at Bonelli Park...

Happy to report both Mike and I had solid performances with a 6th place (of 40 pro women) for me and 27th (of 100 pro men) for Mike.  It was great to see the full and stacked international fields here in the USA.  You never know how the body will feel for the first race of the year… but the routine and instincts came back naturally and we battled it out in the heat and dust.  We also took part in the short track the next day and sufficed to say that this is the type of weekend that is guaranteed to give you a boost in fitness once you take the time to recover from the effort…

A short, but sweet pass through to visit family in Redlands... My great grandfather's Orange grove!

We headed directly to the coast after the races and from there made our way back up north, needing to make the trip quickly but still taking a little time to take advantage of a deep ocean swell that was hitting all the way up and down the incredible Pacific coastal drive.  We wished we could stay a week at every beach and camp spot that we saw but were happy just to be able to make a quick visit to Mike's brother in Santa Barbara for a night and get in the water at a couple of surf spots that broke the drive up nicely the following day.  It was a compressed little bottle of sweet times that led us to some great places that we  had not had the chance to see in many years and it brought us directly into the packing for our next trip down to Brazil for the Pan American Championships.  

Out training on the Pan AM race course...  happy to find a technical demanding track!

Holding the Current title of Pan American Champion is a tremendous honor and something that I am more than willing to make this incredibly demanding travel to try and defend.  Although the reason we are returning is as much or more about wanting to embrace this truly unique cycling experience.  This will be our 10th Continental Championships together for Mike and I  - which in itself seems an incredible achievement.  Pan Ams is an event which has led us to a whole new word of incredible people and places, and for us it is something that is not to be missed! 

Honored to be here representing our country and our sponsors as we battle it out tomorrow!

:-)

Mary and Mike
Team KENDA - Stan's NoTubes

Our kind of road ride...  Training in NorCAL :-)

Spring in Northern CA...

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