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.

Getting Gritty at CCCX

We had another wet weekend here in Santa Cruz. At one point on Saturday night I was a little afraid for my life. Thought Cole and I were going to be washed out to sea! Wet or dry I had the best of both worlds - weekend at home and a fun day of racing! On tap - Central Coast Circuit race with two awesome teammates Joanne and Devon. One of the greatest parts about having a teammate is when you don't want to race or are simply hiding from the clouds and cold under warm covers, and looking for reasons not to leave the house, a good teammate will say "well i'm going rain or shine, cause what else am I going to do?" Which is usually enough to kick in the competitive juices and ignite that little fire that keeps the passion to push through a little more pain burning.

I was really impressed by the group of women that showed despite the less than ideal conditions. And, i'm SUPER glad I went because as it turns out it didn't even rain! I would have felt really bad about staying under the covers due to "bad" weather...geesh!

The race was really exciting and fun with three of us Bike Station girls in the field. We had a few surprises up our sleeves, and experimented with some fun team tactics. Devon busted out a mad sprint at the end for the big victory, I got fourth place and JT took a solid 8th. Go team!




Had to add this one - we had fun out there. =)



Thanks for reading!

New LOOK Blade Pedals!

Im super stoked to announce LOOK as our official road pedal sponsor. We recently put the new Blade pedals on our road rigs, and love them. They have a slightly wider platform, and very innovative carbon spring that makes the pedal slightly lighter, but more importantly creates a very unique and snappy engage compared to a conventional Keo.



I like how secure my cleat/shoe feel when I clip in and know my foots not goin' anywhere in the field sprint!

The pedals also come with an extra set of cleats, and cleat covers (bonus!) which I thought was a really nice touch.

We continue to "LOOK" forward to riding this and other product from the French company.

New Sponsor - William Hopkins, The Foot Doctor

Big thanks to William Hopkins and his team at The Foot Doctors, in Watsonville. We spend a lot of time on our feet standing, walking and of course pedaling our bicycles, and are happy to have the support of Dr. Hopkins and his team of experts. If you haven't checked them out, here's a link to their web site and list of services they have to offer.

William is an avid cyclist himself, and can be spotted riding his super awesome Pinarello (black and neon - hot!) around the hills and farmland of Santa Cruz County!

Final Day of Merco

First of all, I want to thank all of the people who encouraged and supported me throughout the stage race. The kind words, advice and direction meant a lot and helped me get through sore legs, some broken heart feelings, and fatigue. Thanks to my coach - Brian Conant, my teammates - JT, Devon, Beth, and AMJ - and all of my great friends. Also, big thanks to Trey and Roman for covering the shop while I was out!

Final race report - Almond Blossom Road race - 72 miles - place 24th

Packed everything up the night before because I knew it was going to be an early morning. I tried to go through my equipment a little, because the poor bike, wheels, chain, etc were definitely under some stress. I can see how having a team mechanic is helpful at the bigger races! My bike wasn't shifting great, but I showed her some love and hoped for the best.

I was feeling tired, and pretty heart broken after the cirt - which i was pretty excited for. But, a good friend reminded me that there is always tomorrow - and so I did my best to put the past behind me, and look to the final day - a solid 72 mile RR with rolling terrain. It was all or nothing - i mean seriously - what did I have to loose!?

Alarm went off way too soon. I looked at Cole, who was in a sleep coma on top of me, but peeking through a little slit of one of his eyes as if to say "really??!!". I was up and out the door in less than 20 min, off to you know where - Starbucks! Glad I woke up early, cause they didn't open till 6 am..nice.. waited around for my vente coffee and instant oatmeal, and then plotted my course to the race start.

My brain just felt fuzzy as I drove the same farmlands i'd been driving all week long. I was sleepy, tired, and really questioning my sanity at that point in time.

I got a sweet parking spot, front and center and proceeded to sign in, get some free food (powerbar, drinks, etc yay!), and then back to the car to warm up. Clouds looked threatening but no rain yet.

Sure enough - start time was there, and I was shoulder to shoulder with the same women i'd been racing against all week. I couldn't help but remember the story JT told me about Teutenberg - how she yelled at Kristen Armstrong when she started racing on the road. Great, here I am the only Cat 3 racer in a group of pro's - i'm probably going to get shoved off into the ditch by Tuetenberg... here goes nothin!

Race started along with the rain. Kind of reminded me of cross, which made me excited a little. My goal - to hang on to the end.

The race was FAST! we did 72 miles in 3.07.21. Talk about having to pay attention! At first I stayed towards the back, until I realized I was getting tossed around like a YOYO - then I moved up to mid pack where the pace was a little more consistent. It was raining and really hard to see and everyone was SUPER close together. Kinda freaked me out a couple times when I hit a center line reflector - made an awful sound and bumped my entire rear end almost sideways...nice. One thing i noticed is that in a P123 race - you command your space or get walked on and shoved out of the way..kinda crazy, but you have to be confident and claim your little area, or wheel that you're following - or someone else will.



There were a lot of attacks, a couple breakaways and the pace always picked up as we drew near to the finish - I think they wanted to show off so they throttled it every time. When we came up on the last lap, i knew my moment of truth was coming up. I'm not really religious - but I said a little prayer to the people I usually pray to. Then, somehow I was third wheel! I sat there in the draft of an HTC and Tibco girl for about 15 min - nervous as all get out. Again, I heard JT's Tutenberg story in the back of my mind. I'm kind of afraid of her - she's big and SUPER fast. =)

That was probably the coolest moment of the race for me. It was raining, the final lap, I was still there, and the entire field was behind me. Rad.

Then there was an attack, and another attack, and another attack - I hung in there mid group. We headed into the final turn, and the group picked up. Still there... with 300 meters to go the pace increased yet again, and someone broke - 100 meters to go the field sprint and I passed some Cat1's! Holy shit! What a race. So glad I did it, and showed up. My heart was full, no more heartache. That's the cool thing about racing. There's always tomorrow, there's always another race. End result - 24th place and same overall time as the lead group. Merco box -

Beth Welliver gets into the Leadville 100!

"It’s an uphill battle. Even downhill"

This is big news! I know a 100 miles doesn't sound like a lot when you're logging hours and miles on the road bike..but when it comes to a mt bike let me be the first to tell you - IT IS! Let alone, a 100 miles of mountain in Colorado...at altitude!

This will be a great challenge, and one we all believe Beth is certainly capable of achieving, and knocking out of the park! She just may have to borrow my scalpel...hehe.

If you haven't heard about the race, or watched the movie "Race Across the Sky", with none other than Lance Armstrong - here's a little description i took from their website. Thanks Leadville people!


"Determination. Guts. Insanity. If you don’t have them, stop reading now. Leadville events aren’t for everyone. They’re for only the toughest athletes looking to challenge themselves — and impress the world. Set 13,000 feet up in the treacherous Colorado Rocky terrain, the strong may survive, but only a few will leave with their pride.

Race Description

This is it. The race of all races. 100 miles across the high-altitude, extreme terrain of the Colorado Rockies. Created for only the most determined athletes. Starting at 9,000 feet and climbing to 13,000 feet, you’ll be challenged to catch your breath — while the views try to take it away."

Neat facts about Leadville the town -

Situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet (3094 m), Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States. A former silver mining town that lies near the headwaters of the Arkansas River in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the city includes the Leadville Historic District, which preserves many historic structures and sites from Leadville's dynamic mining era.

Top finishers in past years -

1. Rebecca Rusch, ID 7:47:35

2. Amanda Carey, ID 8:12:54

3. Anne Gonzales, CO 8:45:46

4. Natasha Hernday, CA 8:47:35

5. Lisa Isom, CO 8:47:51

6. Kelsy Bingham, UT 8:53:57

7. Rachel Farrett, CO 9:27:57

8. Jane Rynbrandt, CO 9:30:47

9. Johanna Mickle, CO 9:32:41

10. Kathy Kallner, AZ 9:32:50

Ron Riley (Team Bike Station Aptos) Race Re-Cap

Our very own Ron Riley beat his long standing nemesis Buz Brockway in 70+ cat 1 for first place in Sagebrush Safari, Kenda Cup #1 outside San Diego last Sunday despite the less than ideal weather conditions that included snow, ice, mud, and several chilly stream crossings. The weather was so bad, the original course was converted to a short loop which took a lot of effort to put together - way to go Kenda Cup race organizers!





This was Ron's debut of his new Scalpul 1 which he said performed perfectly under harsh conditions.

Congrats Ron and way to represent BSA on the podium!

Golden Gate and Jingle Cross - BSA in full force!

The weather has been setting the scene for some epic cyclocross, the Bike Station Aptos team has been out in full force representing in style on both sides of the country!

Devon flew East this past weekend for three days of cross at the UCI Jingle Cross Race in Iowa taking an impressive 3rd place on day two, with some of the best the Nation has to offer. Her former teammate Amanda Miller (Hudz Subaru) took 1st on day two and three - Way to go Amanda!

Good luck to Devon as she takes them all on again this weekend In Portland!

Malia, Johnny, and Courtney held the fort down locally at the renown Golden Gate Park race put on by Pilercitos Cyclesports. Tom Simpson and his dedicated crew put on a great race, as always. Courtney battled it out for 6th overall in the womens A's against some stiff competition. Malia suffered a catastrophic blow to her rear wheel that made the race a tough go, Johnny and Ron hammered hard in their respective categories.

Next up for the local crew is the exciting Bay Area Super Prestige series finale out at Coyote Point this Sunday. Then, everyone is off to Bend for Nationals where the rubber meets the road...or should I say MUD!

Thanks for reading, enjoy the photos from local photographers including Joe Fabris, Ted Ketai, Ja Heidi, and Rod Amberlang.

More UCI Adventures with DnC - Colorado and LA Cross Maddness!

It's hard to believe the 'cross season is half over, with a little more than a month and a half until Nationals in Bend, Oregon. We've been hard after it with some great racing and results abroad in Colorado and Los Angels. Devon has been rocking it out, consistently grabbing top ten, the whole shot, and spot on the podium. Her positive attitude, grit, and perseverance is remarkable. If you don't take my word for it, just check out her recent "Bloody Knees (mom, don't read!)" post on her blog.



The trip out to Colorado was an amazing experience despite a few sniffles from a cold and adjusting to the altitude - lining up shoulder to shoulder and riding with some of the best in the country and world was an honor and great opportunity.

Results from Day One
Results from Day Two

Dorothy Wong put on another great race in Southern California last weekend. If you haven't met her or don't know what she's doing for the sport of Cyclocross in So Cal - check her out on Facebook. She's cultivating quite the cross scene down there that (shouldn't say it but i'm gonna) is rivaling Nor Cal. =) A little competition is good..




We stayed with an amazing host family (the Wards) who adopted us as their daughters for the weekend. What a treat! I think Aaron and Spencer, their 8 and 6 year old boys liked us too. Despite the fact we were girls... Maybe it was our mad Nerf Gun war skills that finally impressed them!



Dorothy and her crew set up a killer, technical cross course in Griffith Park. One of the coolest parts about the race (there were many) was you could see the Hollywood sign from the Griffith Park Observatory. What a great warm up/cool down loop that was!



First day proved to be successful for both Devon and I. Devon took 3rd place overall, and I squeaked in to the 9th spot after overcoming a mechanical with my bike. The second day I was a little more determined to move up the ladder, and tried to bring my pain threshold up a bit. The mantra - ride as hard as I can, for as long as I can. It worked - got 7th overall and more UCI points! Devon snagged the 4th spot on the podium, battling it out with household cross names including Sue Butler and teammate Kathy Sherwin (Hudz Subaru).







Next up on the schedule - Night race at Coyote Point this Saturday and hyper local Surf City race at the Fairgrounds. Come out with a cowbell or better yet, jump in the race!

CD

Central Coast and Pilercitos Crossin'

First Off, I think Keith and Rod have earned a big shout out for being two huge cross promoters in our area. They've have and continue to do a great job running the well organized Central Coast Cyclocross series and new this year, blog. If you haven't checked out their blog - do it, there's a ton of great pics from local races across the Bay Area.

Here are some pictures from a few of our own at the past few Bay Area weekend races. Malia, Ron, Kurt, and Johnny have been representing in BSA black, red and white!







Overall CCCX race standings can be viewed here.
Overall Pilercitos standings can be viewed here.

Keep up the good work you guys!