Shiny New Shoes Contest

There are some shiny new shoes floating around the peloton this weekend. If you can name the owner there's a prime coming your way. And somebody please step on these dogs because they are waaaaay to shiny!

Hint: They will probably be in front of you!

Hard Core

Have a peek at Chicken's blog for a nice recap of the Kelley Acres weekend ride. All I can add is the CycleLife ladies are truly hard core. Not only have the come out of the gate fast this year, they are using off the bike tactics to slow down the competition. As each one of the ladies rolled in they handed me a little gift bag.

Traditional yellow Peeps flanked by chocolate bunnies and eggs- the pink peeps were devoured in the parking lot
These little guys were unreal - so cute!

This one jumped in the pan

And my favorite..."Hubba Bubba" Clucker

Duck on Bike was back in action after Hubba Bubba laid a few eggs

Race Randomness

Here we go again...Saturday was the local race in Walkersville. We have our Tuesday Night Worlds on this course. I have my legs ripped off every week by the local guys. The prep for the race has been great. All the locals have been training hard over the winter and could not be more prepared. Then came the forecast 25-35mph winds with gusts 40+. Oh yeah...Big girl racing!

Instead of a play by play I am going to share some random observations. But before I get started I feel I must disclose that did not win this race because on the first lap I attacked(I really thought I did) going up to the blinky. The field was on my wheel behind me exchanging recipes and yawning. After that I was fighting to prolong my debut on You Got Dropped . Worked out this time. Then I was scared. Oh yeah and there are alot of other girls going fast. The end.

Now back to race randomness.

Lots of CycleLife ladies this year, lots and lots of them. Some have "Teaism" on their shorts, some have "Specialized". This tells you my positioning most of the race. CycleLife LJ had some interesting head garb under her helmet. A white thing. LJ can wear whatever she wants.

One girl blew over twice before we left the parking lot for the neutral roll out. Pretty funny.

Marni has superhero shoe covers.

Teammate Tracy is fantastic at positioning.

Janet is pretty crafty on and off the bike.

The ladies did a fantastic job of riding safe in crazy conditions.

Sarah Caravella was allowed to register on the day of the "pre reg only" race. Probably the same reason she rolled to the front of the start line very late at Tysons and backed her bum into everyone on the first row. Classic PlainJane said to her"You have got to be kidding me!"

Cockroach Kyle was a great feed zone host after a great finish in his race.

Lumpy had some bad luck again.

Coast Guard Jim was rider of the day - 2 races - won one, top finish in the second

Lucas was triathlete of the day - 1st in Cat. 5

The end. Again.

Jeff Cup-Kenda Race Report

by Tracy Rankin

"Jeff Cup 2009
Bad Day for Earthworms
Good Day for Kendas

It will take way too much brain-power at this point to write in verse, so we’ll have to settle for good ole prose.

First bike race of the season and, as usual, we are all watching the weather hourly. The conditions at Jeff Cup have ranged from 75 and gorgeous to 30 and snowing over the years. And, this year was no different. Oh, for a pocket Jim Cantore!

I took the chance and made reservations at the Doubletree in C’ville. Government rate—sweet! Hooked up with Liz at Chez Epting and headed down 29 past a long stream of strip malls full of Appleby’s and Sheetz gas stations while eeking out a life history from Liz. She cheerfully answered all my queries whilst seriously knitting gloves. She managed two fingers by the time we arrived and I suspect the gloves will be a complete pair just in time for the Fourth of July.

Met up with Chris at the hotel (they had a hot tub—who knew!) and headed out for dinner. Eyetalian is always a good choice and we ended up at Anna’s on Maury Ave. With the NCVC Junior Team and lots of locals exiting with pink and white balloons (clearly—we had missed the real party). And I still have absolutely no idea what Chris ended up with for dinner. There were many negotiations with the waitress and it became too difficult to follow after a bit. While deftly avoiding full-on JW, we learned of the aforementioned association of erstwhile teammate Sue H. and Dave Matthews. Hmmm. My college housemates had absolutely no musical talent, but we did live next door to a colorful local family with live roosters and interesting lawn ornaments.

The morning dawned foggy and gray, the operative words being foggy and gray. Warmish, though, for Jeff Cup—a big 51 degrees! We soon learned from DC Veloer Randy Thrasher that the road just before the finish was strewn the night before with fine broken glass. With very wet roads from the rain the day before, this resulted in several flats in all the fields even before the start! Joyous. The road was also strewn with poor, lumbering earthworms—stranded by the storms. They didn’t stand a chance.

Once off, everybody was a bit anxious, as usual. The first time up the winery hill proved to be the split—again, as usual. Not sure who was pushing the pace, but I’m sure it involved a microscopic little person with 5% body fat. At the bottom of the follow hill, the grouplet hit the tempo gas and ended up with a gap quickly that just widened over the course of the race. I didn’t even look back to see who was with until Lap 3, although I soon realized that Liz didn’t make the break and I was alone with 2 Juice Pluses, 3 CycleLifes and some others. Deidre W. (her thighs are indeed bigger than my waist) and Sondra E. tried a couple of breaks, as did the Microscopic Little Person (not sure of her name—she was in red and black, appropriately) every time we hit the winery hill. I swear once up the hill, the jersey in front of me was sponsored by “Come to Jesus!” (Upon more careful inspection, it was actually Channel 13 News). Not being quite race fit at this point in the season, I got gapped on the last time up the hill, but was determined not to let Stefan in front of me! I crested about 10 meters off and went screaming down the other side to catch the group. Unfortunately, I really had nothing left at that point and simply could only hang on for the final sprint, finishing 8th.

Troll survived unscathed. Smiling to the end.

Post-mortem revealed a 2nd place finish for JH in the 35+. Yay! Chris suffered a flat and Liz sprinted in with the second group."