Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother’s Day! Here are the flowers I sent my mom, they are gerber daisies, her favorite flower… and her favorite dog too! 
 
Sponsors
Supporters
Links
Wham, Bam, BLAM… that about sums up how you feel after the first three stages of the Joe Martin Stage race. What makes this race so tough is that the stages are all so close together, making little time for recovery, that your legs just feel like jello. Stick a fork in me, I’m DONE! 
Friday’s stage starts at 2:30pm- a 60 mile road race with a 9 mile climb in the middle. It was a fast stage. We finished under 2.5 hours… considering how windy it was that day and the climbing we had in there, it was fast.
Saturday we have double the fun. EARLY morning start- 8:10am- so we have to wake up at 5:45am to scarf down our breakfast and head out the door. FUN FUN FUN. 72 miles later, we load up and drive home for showers and lunch and a short nap before packing up and driving one hour out to Devil’s Den State Park for the 2.5 mile uphill Time Trial. Whew. I’m tired just thinking about it all.
But I think that is what makes Joe Martin such a great race. It’s a real challenge to see how your body reacts to the aggressive racing, and with the time trial after two road stages it really makes a difference in how the race is raced. With no set GC really, all the teams are going for it.
My teammate, Erinne Willock, rocked the time trial today! She’s now in the leader’s jersey by 6 seconds over Dotsie Bausch. We’re going to have a FUN race tomorrow that is for sure.
I had some bad luck in the TT, flatting one mile in. I had no choice but to ride the rest of the TT on the flat wheel. Luckily it was only 1.5 more miles up to the top, if it had been a long time trial I would have really been in trouble.
Here’s the report from Cycling News about today’s time trial.
Time for some rest because tomorrow is a big day for Webcor-Platinum!
I’ve had a pretty eventful week in Arkansas. I arrived in Little Rock on Monday evening to meet up with my new team, Webcor-Platinum, for the Joe Martin Stage Race. I came in early to meet the girls and get dialed in on my beautiful new Orbea Orca. It’s the best bike I have EVER been on… thank you so much to Justin and all the folks at Orbea for taking care of us while we were in Little Rock.
Erin, Betina, John and I all loaded up and drove to Fayetteville on Wednesday afternoon. It was a three hour drive, but it was raining all day so we didn’t really mind it. I took a nice nap on the way and we arrived at our host family’s house just in time to go out and do some grocery shopping then have dinner together.
Our director Karen and Cat, Felicia, Amber and Carl all came in on Wednesday night from the Fayetteville Airport. They were brave! They came in on a bumpy prop plane flight from Denver. Whew… at least none of them threw up on the way here!
We went and pre rode the TT course as a team yesterday, and now we’re getting packed up and suited up to start the race this afternoon at 2:30pm. The first stage is point to point and we have to drive an hour or so out to the start… so we’re leaving and having our team meeting once we get to the start. We have 60 miles and a 9 mile climb in the middle of the race… should be a tough start to the weekend, but I know that all the Webcor-Platinum girls are riding strong and are ready to face the challenge.
As you can see, we’ve had a pretty un-eventful week which is nice leading into a stage race. We’re all rested and ready to go! I’m happy the racing is starting so we can get this show on the road. More to come later… now it’s time to get ready for a tough race.
Alisha Lion competed in her hometown of Morganton, NC at the May Day Biathlon, a 5k run and a challenging hilly 35k bike. She won the event and broke the 10 plus year standing record by over 3 minutes. Her time was 1:08:06 (hr:min:sec). Alisha ran the 5k in 17:30 then hopped on the bike for a 49 minute split.
>>Read more about Alisha’s take on the event in her blog.
>>Read race report posted by spectator and cyclist Greg Kiziah on Magic Cycles Ride Forum
Today was the May Day Biathlon in Morganton, NC. I grew up in Morganton, not even 10 miles from the start of the race at Freedom High School.
see more pictures from the race here
Instead of being the warm, springy weather that I’ve enjoyed all week long in North Carolina, I woke up to cold 50 degree rain… reminiscent of the European spring weather I had been experiencing in Munich. Okay, well I guess it followed me across the ocean!
The race started at 8am- wow that is early- so I got up at 6am to load up the car and head out the door. I had to get my time trial bike worked on because I had just put it together the night before and the brakes were rubbing and yeah it was a mess. I didn’t have the tools to fix that. Luckily some really helpful guys from Fleet Feet Sports had a tent up and fixed her up for me. I rolled around in the parking lot to make sure my handle bars were where I wanted them to be and then set up my transition area before my warmup.
My favorite thing about this race was that my mom and dad were there. My dad actually ran the 5k portion of the race (you could do the 5k and not the bike) so we warmed up together. Just like the good ol’ days when I was back in High School and we ran together all the time…
My mom was on the sidelines yelling and taking her great race photos. I can always hear my mom cheering for me no matter what. She’s the best cheerleader I’ve ever had.
My friend Jenny Trew was also at the race. She was such a trooper for waking up at 6:30am and rolling out of bed and eating breakfast on the run to watch me suffer in the cold and rain. I think she did more suffering than me sitting and shivering in the car… ugh. It was nice to have her there.
I came through the 5k in a 17:30, then fumbled through the transition (seeing as of course I hadn’t practiced that part at all… I like to think it makes the race more interesting and challenging! hehe) and hopped out on the bike for my 35k suffer fest in the rain.
Crit racing has never really been my forte, but I love me some fast crit racing for a great challenge. I’m always up for working on my weaknesses and this past weekend in Georgia was a perfect way to get some crit racing in the legs after my flight across the Atlantic.
I never ever say “it’s just a crit…” because crits are hard! They are fast, unpredictable, and all about position. Again, weaknesses that are good to work on.
A great big congratulations to all the Kenda Tire ladies that raced this weekend. It was an honor to race with you one last time before moving to Webcor-Platinum for the rest of the season. I look forward to seeing you all again at Joe Martin!
photo by Bill Parsons
I give a big THUMBS UP to my ‘mate Kelly Benjamin for a fantastic weekend of racing. She finished 4th in Athens and turned around and finished 3rd at Roswell! Great Job Kelly!