My Friends and Family Make My Birthday RAWK

This year, Aimee, Kate and Molly took me to eat at Noni's in Atlanta, for my birthday. http://www.nonisdeli.com/


Me, K2, Aim and Super Mo

The food was spectacular, but visiting with friends was the best.



We raced so many team endurance races, xc and off-road tri's together. Then, we started Sorella Cycling and had meetings every two weeks to get that off the ground. So, now it's kind-of weird that we don't see each other every weekend, anymore. I really miss these guys, but we do get together for evening rides and girl trips.


Farmer Aimee, inspecting her garden.


Aimee is due to have a little xc/paddler/camper in December. She and Rob are very excited. It's been over a decade since I've held a little baby, so this should be fun!


Another great birthday that I got to share with my friends. Thanks so much chicas!!

**
Birthday with the fam:

Shey rented my car for me to travel in Colorado and that was an awesome birthday gift! He RAWKS and I had such a great time traveling with the boys! Then, when I got home, we all (including the dogs) headed over to my favorite local coffee house for dinner. Yummmmm! So, I got to spend the evening sitting outside with my three favorite guys and my two favorite dogs and drink my Black Dog Mocha. Heaven, for sure. It was a great day with a great family.

Colorado traveling with my favorite guys!

Everett and I had a GREAT Colorado trip!!!!! Our rental car was a Kia and we had to curl up a bit to sleep in it, but it had lots of room for our gear.


First stop was for frozen custard, yum!



This says it all....


We flew into Denver, then headed straight up to Fort Collins to tour the New Belgium Brewery.


Bikes were EVERYWHERE.

They had these really cool pieces of beer art, set up along the hallways.

By noon, the place was packed and it was cool to see more people show up on bikes, than in cars.

Another cool piece of art at New Belgium.

I bought this super cool hat there, too.

Everett picked out this 'afro-winged-dude-on-a-bike' shirt.

This is the lab at the brewery.

The drive from Fort Collins to Estes was awesome. Beautiful mountains and valleys. We walked around Estes and enjoyed the scenery.

We slept the first night in Roosevelt National Forest. They had sprayed an insecticide/or herbicide recently, so we slept in the back of the car, instead of the tent.

In the morning we headed through Rocky Mountain National Park. We would try to meet Jansen in Granby by lunch-time.

Still snow at 11,000 feet.

You could get hot cocoa here.

We were excited that we saw one of these guys on the side of the road, then Jansen told us he saw a ton of them and it looked like they would start dancing like the gofer from Caddyshack.

This girl talked to Everett. I was so happy to see my elk!

We stopped along the way to check out some spectacular views. The drive was AMAZING! Wilderness everywhere with very few buildings on the property. Lots of trails to hike and cyclists riding the roads.

Every where we looked there were views like this.

We met Jansen for lunch in Granby and it was great to catch up on all the stuff the guys had seen and done.

It's amazing that a sponsor would not follow through on their contract to support a junior team, but that is just what KHS did this year! Notice they are whited out on the jersey.....

Little pump track for the kids to play on at the nationals venue in Grandy.

After the races, we headed back to Denver and stopped at the continental divide along the way.

The three amigos, again!

The Kemps had a condo at Winter Park. We stopped to check out the town on the way to the airport. They had a pretty cool skate park in the middle of town and there was a bmx demo that day.

We ate pizza, then watched the bike parade. This tropical bike was pretty cool.

Cool sign at the airport.

We had a really fun trip, as always.

Quick Update from XC Nationals 2009

The southeast was well represented at the XC National Championships in Granby, CO.


The altitude was difficult, but the guys pushed through it for some great results. The xc course was still being decided the week of the championships and the short track was a surprise the day of the event.

There always seem to be issues at these events that you would not normally see at a regional event. This year USA Cycling decided that all the amateurs would get assigned numbers above 500, and there would be no grouping of numbers. Meaning a beginner woman could be # 903, junior 10 yr. old #904 and an expert man # 905. They were supposed to mark the guys' categories on their legs, but they didn't and it was too dusty for it to have been read, anyway.

This meant that, unless you personally knew your competition, you and your support crew would have an extremely hard time deciding which racers were in your category. Stressful, to say the least, with that many racers on the course at the same time.

On a positive note, registration was very well organized and ran smoothly.

Here is a brief update with more coming later:

XC

cat 1 17-18

Seth 5th Seth was strong and steady as usual, with a good rhythm on the climbs.
Wes 7th Wes was climbing like a maniac and did a lovely superman off one of the descents. He also stopped to tighten his cleat. Yes, he is detail oriented.

Junior 13-14

Jansen 2nd Jansen had a very rough start from the back of the pack after having a run-in with one of the officials during the start chaos. The same official intentionally stepped in front of him as the others rode away, and he was forced to run the first climb. He rode strong to catch up to the leader and was proud of his solid race.

cat 1 19-24

Jafer 2nd Jafer flew in on Fri and raced Sat morning. That is tough with the alt change. He was strong and rode smart on the descents. He had an exciting sprint to the line with both guys giving it all they had. (see the pic below, the 3rd place guy went down right after they crossed)

Cory 4th Cory was the mountain goat of the team. He was climbing extremely well and kept reeling the top two in on the long steep climb by the start. (it must be the superman boxers)


cat 1 35-39

Andy 2nd Without knowing exactly who was in his category, Andy worked hard to catch who he thought was in the lead, then rode smart to the finish. He found out later that there was one more guy, 12 seconds ahead.



Super D *** Seth 1st, Andy 3rd
Short Track *** Seth 4th, Cory 5th, Wes 7th

Rebecca 1st cat 1 30-34
Krista 10th pro women
Brent 9th cat 1 19-24
Chase 11th cat 1 15-16
Torre 5th cat 1 Masters 50+
SS Travis 4th (and 8th 19-22 elite), Fuzzy 5th, Dejay 13th, Danger Dave 16th



Seth on the first climb at the start. (Yep, this is only 1/3 up the FIRST climb)


That is Wesley's game face.
When he supermanned the steep descent, he landed in a mound of powdery dirt with a "poof".


Hydrating before the start.

Jansen crossing the line.

The guys came down to support J during his race. Wes was on the climb with a loaf of bread to swing and hit him.......for good luck. The other riders around the RV were cracking up at all the great pre-race advice that Cory and Wes were dishing out. Wish I had a video camera.

Jansen updating Shey about his race.

Jansen podium. Sweet socks.

Jafer sprinted through the finish. That is the 3rd place guy going down behind him.

Cory coming through the finish.

Wes is updating Cory about his position and the guy who was leading by 25 minutes because he accidentally took the wrong loop.

Jafer and Cory on the podium.

Andy right after his race. He rode very well.

Andy on the podium.
The guys came out to see Jansen's bling.

The guys got in trouble for leaving the RV in a mess. This is the "We're in trouble" face.

More later. Need to catch up on sleep.
***

Cycle Youth Nationals Road Trip Colorado

Jansen and the guys are having a lot of fun and the ride time has been good.



I heard that Wes cried when he had to leave Paco...not sure if that's true or not. "True Story Cory" got his hair cut just so his head would fit in the video blog.


Andy (aka: hey, I bet you can wear an xs) flew out to meet the crew and is there for the course pre-ride.



It sounds like Bob is in heaven with 5-7 hour long rides every other day. This leaves the boys with time to clean and wax the RV. I'm sure they even have dinner made for him when he gets back.

Everett and I leave in the morning (hopefully) to meet them. We will see a few sites, then hit Granby on Thursday.

Anet will miss the fun this year, but she has been racing and traveling up a storm, so I'm sure she needs some down-time.

*

*