Bike racing is a strange thing.

Sometimes I really marvel at what one does to race a bicycle. What normal person spends hours upon hours training within inches of 4500-lb speeding vehicles, descending at breakneck speeds on a rubber contact patch no wider than a pencil, getting up at 4 am to drive to Orinda to make an 8:10 race start? None you say. . .you are correct!

This past weekend was one of my favorite races on the calendar, the Berkeley Hills Road Race. I have not done this race as often as I would have liked, but this year it worked out and I was stoked.

Racing is funny -- you train and train and have the best intentions of things going your way. Every race you have this dream of being able to throw your arms in the air and scream with joy because you were the first one to cross the finish line. To do this you need both luck and talent -- but for the most part I think it is more about luck than talent. I was ready for a great race. I had had a solid week of training, the race was on Sunday and not Saturday so I did not have to miss work, and the weather was to be pretty nice. All of these things were true but just when you think you have it figured out and life is going your way. . .oh darn here comes that head cold you were not expecting!

I really wanted to race. So, in spite of my ill-timed bug I decided to race. I went “easy” on myself and chose the Masters 35+ race which was 50 some miles instead of the Pro 1-2-3 race which was 70 some miles.

It is really an amazing and empowering thing to show up at the start line with a bunch of gals who are still racing bicycles well into their 60s! And let me tell you these gals are fast! As an older athlete some of the snappiness might be gone, but the speed, endurance and shrewdness are oftentimes better than with the younger racers.

It was a great race. Hilly, windy and hard! As for me, well. . .I set my goal to finish with the lead group. . .mission almost accomplished.

As a racer my biggest challenge is patience -- the same challenge that presents itself in my day to day life. It is kind of funny how themes keep repeating in all facets of our lives! I was really patient for the first two thirds of the race. Stayed with the climbers on the hills, descended well and rode the flats well. But then I got excited. On the finishing lap I closed down a couple of attacks, made an attack of my own and then realized my legs were getting tired. With less than 5 miles to go the group let a rider off the front. Everyone just watched her ride away, nobody chased. I was too tired to think about closing the gap myself and everyone else just looked for someone else to do the work as there was one big climb to go. We hit the last climb, aptly named Papa Bear, and all hell broke loose. It just becomes about survival. A quarter of the way up my legs and lungs say “LATER” and a gap opens. I see the lead group riding away. . .oh they are so close and I am so close to my goal. . .just finish with the lead group! All I could do was watch them finish in front of me. . .so near but yet so far. . .again!

At the end of a race you have several choices, you can be really bummed because things did not work out as you had planned, or you can ask yourself that ever important question that always comes up when you are leaving the house at 4 am or puking on a climb. . .did I have fun? As long as that answer is yes. . .you know you are doing the right thing even if it seems crazy.

Gorry Details at the Pitt Crit!

The course was great - it was short, some good corners that twisted around restaurant's and downtown streets. There was a good crowd and the announcer, Brad Sohner and DJ, Ryan Dawkins made for a fun vibe!
The finishing straight was long, and had a strong headwind which made positioning really important. The corner heading into the finishing straight was a tough one - if you were in the back it was a lot tougher because 1. you had to close a gap, and 2. you had to face a lot of wind! The start of the race was really aggressive! It strung out early on, and Devon had great positioning! She suffered the with the best for the full 75 minutes sprinting it out for a solid 8th place. Great job this weekend Devon! =)

Repeats up Baby, Moma, and Papa Bear - Berkeley Hills Road Race

Ok, so I was pretty fired up to race this one. I had made the decision to race it, the night before after getting dropped like a bad habit at the Pitt crit. I fully knew it wasn't necessarily my type of race - and there was no way I was going to win - or stay with the lead group. At this point - I have realistic expectations - i'm just not there yet. That said, I knew it would still be a good test for me because there was going to be a strong 3 and 2 contingent there, who would certainly push me and force me to face the hurt head on.

I had never done BH, but heard quite a few stories about how challenging it is, primarily due to the climbs (baby, moma, and papa bear). Not pre riding the course can be a little challenging mentally, because it's difficult to know how hard to go, when you can recover, etc.

I got to the race with a solid 1.5 hours to get ready. Pinned, hydrated, threw five gu's in my back pocket and was on the start line with a couple min to spare. It was a neutral roll out to the course - which is always nice. I was right behind the moto, and felt like I was getting high from the fumes! Jane Despas didn't really smile when I made a joke about it, so I decided to shut up and get ready to hurt. She clearly had a plan from the start line - right when we rolled out on the course, she quickened the pace and road away from the field. We all let her go, knowing it was going to be a long 70 miles with hills and wind. The group was a decent size - probably 30-40 women. I didn't really want to do work, so I tried to sit 5 wheel. Then, I drifted back when I noticed none of the big girls were there. I thought it would be a good time to observe, and see how they managed their way around the pack. Sure enough, when we got to the first hill a Fremont Bank girl (strong team) went to the front. This must be "baby bear" - I followed her lead, knowing they were good climbers, and knowing i'd need to be as far in front as I could to allow for some drift back if I wanted to stay in this group for awhile. The pack surged up the steep kicker, and I felt like my heart was going to explode! I could see the top, so I dug DEEP and pushed through - phew! made it and coasted down the back side - breathing hard.... But, I was still there. Even though it was only the first lap - it was a little victory. I faced the pain and pushed through it.

The course was really beautiful, lots of rolling green hills, a reservoir, and nicely paved roads. Pretty epic....until we hit "moma bear", a long long quasi gradual climb. The climbers moved to the front and I followed. This is where it got freaking hard. I was dying at the top, and drifted all the way to the back...i'd tried to hold wheels but just couldn't - and was joined by quite a few who had fallen off as well.

There were 4 of us in my little chase, some behind and a couple more in front. The main group was only about 100 feet in front of me when I hit the decent - but that was enough...they held and grew the gap as the climbers attacked again on "papa bear" the final climb on the lap.

The thing is - I was hurting plenty in my little group of 8 - that grew to 12 by the end of the race. It was super hard on the climbs - women drilled it, and it was all I could do to stay on. We dropped a few people too.. It was a little sad when we rolled through the finish, and the guy was like - only three more times! I was like SHIT! This is going to be a long day!

By the end, I was toast. I drove home, showered, ate, watched an Adam Sandler movie, ate, watched another Adam Sandler movie, ate, slept, ate and slept again - for 10 hours!

I'm glad I did the race, and felt good about sticking a super hard 70 miles out. I don't know what I finished up, but don't think it really matters. I needed to hurt a little, and I did. And it felt good to see it through to the end.

How to Sprint

Basically, Mark Cavendish is a beast. This is kind of a nice video to keep in mind, when doing your sprint workouts. ;)

Fun starts when the sun goes down - Twilight Crit in Pittsburg

On tap this weekend is the Pittsburg Twilight crit! We should have a couple racers out there in the Womens Pro 1/2/3 race, so if you happen to be in the crowd, make sure to give us a shout or two of encouragement. Just no beer hand-ups, it's not a cyclocross race ;).

Here's what the course will look like. There is a restaurant on turn four, so I you want to feed two birds with one seed, take a special someone to a nice dinner AND watch the womens race - make sure to reserve your table in advance! Oh, and save me a seat because i'd like to stay and heckle the mens race that starts at 8 pm!



You can find more info about the race at their website. Hope to see you there!

In the Money at the Wente Criterium

Race: Wente Criterium
Results: Devon - 1st Court - 4th

The nice part about racing - a new race means a fresh start. Everyone is always an equal on the start line, and there's always opportunity to dig deep and make some magic happen. I was done feeling a little bad about the previous day, after revisiting the pity party on the way to the race with Devon (who totally pulled me out of my slump), and things really turned a corner when we started to talk about winning primes - oh yeah!

Crits are kind of my favorite. They are only an hour long, and usually really exciting with lots of fast paced action, opportunities to win prizes like bottles of Ahava lotion, yummy Riesling wine, t-shirts, and earnings made out of chain-links! Who wouldn't want a pair of those!

Our plan - to win primes and get one of us in a break. We roll up to the race with sunglasses on, stone cold faces oozing intimidation, blasting "I could not ask for more" by Edwin McCain - fail! We ARE a bunch of dorks! We couldn't help but bust up laughing when we parked the car...good times.

We had plenty of time before the race - two hours to meander, register, pin, pump, and warm up. Course was pretty straight forward with some sweeping turns, bot dots, wind, and vacant parking lots. Not really sure why this race has such a bad reputation it has with crashes etc. It was nestled in a nice little business park in Livermore - don't ask me exactly where, I just drive the car like a robot while Devon navigates..it's good teamwork.

The group was on the smaller side, but very strong. Many of the Norcal greats were there including Mary Maroon, Mary-Ellen Ash, and of course....Bike Station Aptos! =)

Out the gate, Mary Maroon launched an attack - whoa that was a wake up call! Howdy lactic acid in the legs! We chased it down pretty quickly, and i'm pretty sure the entire group took a deep breath all at the same time - sigh. It was pretty windy, and the back side of the course lent itself well to drafting. The long finishing straight however was down wind, which made for exciting Prime attacks and of course, and exciting finish.

Round and around we went. On the second prime, I heard a voice from right behind me say "GO", I kind of thought it was God - so I quickly got my act together, pulled out, and sprinted like a bat outta hell! I flew through the start finish only to see the bell man yelling Prime lap. Wait!?, I thought to myself - did I just sprint for nothing!? Oh, man - i'm a real dork... I had a pretty nice gap on the group and knew it was all or nothing. Either I let them pull me back in, or attack again and keep the throttle steady. I was going for it. I had to win at least one Prime! So, i did - and managed to stay away. That was totally awesome, and probably the highlight of my race - other than my teammate taking the big WIN.

After that, Devon and Mary Maroon attacked. I had a job to do and was sticking to the plan - we had Devon in the break!



I just chilled out, and prepared myself for the final sprint. On the bell lap, I tried to figure out where to position myself, and out of the last corner gave it all I could. With about 200 meters to go something happened. All of the sudden I had no resistance - my chain fell off to the outside of my bike and I uncontrollably fell forward - chest to handlebars. Not sure how I didn't crash out. Totally taken off guard by what happened - I tried to remember how to pick up my chain. I shifted to the little ring, began pedaling and sure enough the chain flipped over. In a matter of seconds I had picked my chain up, spun quickly to finish the sprint out and surged to the line for fourth place by a hair. Holy crap! I survived the Wente crit!

After a cool down lap on the course, I caught up with Devon and the crew to get details on how it went down - sure enough Gorry came through with the win for the team. I knew she had it in her all along, and knew it was going to be a great battle between her and Mary Maroon - an amazing Nor Cal racer and great competitor.

We finished the afternoon on the podium with all our cool prizes that included wine from Wente Vinyards, a massage that Devon insisted we split - 10 min each, a lotion and soap package from AHAVA (it smells really good), and gift cards to the Wente Vinyards restaurant - which turns out are only good Mon-Thurs, one at a time - like that will ever happen!

We ended the day with an amazing dinner with fellow racers Mary-Ellen and Holly at a great all you can eat salad joint - Sweet Tomatoes - we ate and ate and ate, as evidenced by our pictures...

Great way to end an awesome weekend of racing our bikes. Can't wait to do it again come Saturday.

Thanks for reading.

Racing for Wine and Glory

I think we're pretty fortunate to live in a region that 1. has so many races - I mean, I can find a race pretty much every weekend day through Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter (CYCLOCROSS) within a couple hour drive from my house; and 2. to have such enthusiastic ambassadors for the sport, who spend their weekends putting these races on. I know the registration fees are high, and the prize money isn't the greatest..but the fact is - it takes a lot to put on a race, and there are a ton of volunteers who sacrifice their race days to make our race days happen. So, thanks to you mr. or miss or mrs. race day organizer who wake up in the morning, cup o coffee in hand and brave the 100 mile hour winds (yeah i'm exaggerating, but not by much) of Wente* to make sure there's someone in the reg tent, on all the sketchy corners, in the follow car, and on the sidelines yelling - don't give up Courtney you're doing great (as i'm off the back chillin' enjoying my 35 dollar "ride"). Not sure who that was, but thanks for the encouragement!

There were two of us - despite our efforts to recruit Beth out to race with the us on Friday night...she had to go take "pictures" of the "ocean"...whatever...like she's a professional photographer or something...Oh, wait - she is and here's her pro blog.

Beth set us this picture from her twilight photo shoot - thanks for the pre race inspiration teamie!




Beth is currently taking bookings for weddings, and adventure photo shoots - hit her up if you need someone to document your adventure or corporate outing. She's rad, and very passionate about pictures.

When we got to the race, it was 52 degrees and WINDY. Oh my i've never seen wind like that at a race. I'm pretty sure i saw a few little climbers flying through the air to registration. The course was pretty brutal - around 1500 vertical feet per lap - and it was sneaky..it wasn't like here's the big hill you have to climb - it was rollers, and then descents, and false flats into the wind. We had to do 4 laps for a total of 60 miles. Well, to say the least it wasn't my day in the saddle. We all have them. I fell OTB with two to go, and after trying to drill it in the wind to catch back on, decided - yeah, looking at cows and baby sheep and pretty green hills was way more fun. I called it a day, and figured i'd yell at Devon a little, since she was in really good position and killing it in the race.

I got out of my cham-wow, packed up the car, and thought playing follow car would be fun. I even took a little video of the race finish. I tucked in behind the lead womens group in the Honda Element - The Official, Legitimate, Professional Team Car, and watched the end of the race unfold. Attack by Fremont bank, Counter by Webcor, Devon throwing it down - the pack shattered by the last climb and vicious final efforts. Devon ended up a hard earned 4th place for the day - super proud of her. It was a really hard course, and she had very challenging opponents!

* I think Wente should be a place and a winery. So, i'm going to refer to Wente as a place in this post.