Il Giro Heavy

He's not Russian and he's not Italian-He's Jimmy! Jimmy won the Giro in grand style with a constant "HA"Laugh. It was good to see. Charlatte'sville got shut out of the podium, but did hold the pink jersey for two days with Buschi and Juanderson. Carpong was second overall and the JV squad captain, Kyle, won the climbers Jersey. Pretzel Pete won the sprints.

The riding/touring around the Blue Ridge Parkway is amazingly beautiful. There is boatloads of climbing and some singletrack. Whetstone Ridge and Torry Mt. being the major highlights for singletracks.

Big Thanks to the Giro guys especially Marty, Christian, Kinley, Overbay, juan, critchie, the cooks, cleaners and pushers. They put together a real down home race with an international flare to it. The food and soda stops were so classy as well as the T-shirts.

Stay classy Charlottesville!

I am a lame blogger, but....anyway

I am a pretty lame blogger because the updates are getting farther and farther apart. And maybe my life isn't quite as interesting as it used to be when I was racing all over the world. But I still get to ride my bike in very beautiful places, like Canaan Valley!

I got to ride with the BWB boys on their Tuesday ride. The trails on Canaan Valley Institute land are really fast and fun. The days of losing a shoe or demolishing your drive train are hopefully over there.

Driving up there, I was a bit astounded to see the Corridor H pilons all the way to the base of Mt. Storm. I drive a car and like to get places pretty easily, but when I saw the scar on the land and thought about how small the world is getting it made me a little sad. I want people to have work and come see beautiful Canaan, but at what cost ? Plus there are so many windmills in that area now. The viewshed is changing for sure. Now why can't some of the power generated there stay there . Why can't these small towns have their own windmill for sustainable and affordable power?

Oh, I forgot, maybe my life is pretty exciting...I get to do the Giro D'Ville this weekend. The Giro is a local event put on by some latte lovers and italiano wantabes in Charlattesville, Va. It is a four day ride with a TT, two 8 hour days and one 6 hour day in around Sherando. A sag brings your camping and other gear every night to the new camp spot. Long live Pink!

SDS 2009

Stokesville-Douthat-Stokesville is a two day tour through the George Washington Forest to Douthat State Park and back. Its mostly off road. It is organized by Chris Scott of SMTouring. We camped out at Stokesville on Friday night, then started riding at 5:30 am. We saw the sun rise over the burg.

We rode out of the campground to Stribling Springs, then Hankey's to Dowell's Draft. Then it was all of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail to the lunch stop next to the Cowpasture River. From there it was a road ride to the back entrance of Douthat State Park. We all climbed up the infamous "Little Mare". It was a long, long steep climb, but it was in great shape. I flatted and kept pumping it up to hope the Stans would seal. I started to get worried being towards the back like a lone sheep in a forest of wolves! But I made it back to the group and did a proper innertube change.

I felt good enough to do the full day's ride. It was great riding with Churtle who is going to be on my team for the 24 Hours of Big Bear in June. She has mad, mad endurance and is the Women's Leader.

We made it to the Creasy Lodge in Douthat to hot lasagne and hot showers and of course Dandy Oates' natural light. Tim and Ruby pulled in moments later. Tim worked on my bike and cleaned it up, which always makes me very happy. I did put on another tubeless ready Super X. Some of the last of the stash from my days with Trek.

Day 2 started out with a trail directly behind the lodge. Tomi started the day out rough with riding over Chester's dog shit and then endo-ing into a creek crossing. But he laughed his singlespeed all the way to the top of Beard's Mt. Once we got out of the park we were way out there in the GW. The views were amazing. I was too strapped to be stopping to take pics, so I just took pics when we stopped.

The road ride to lunch was so scenic. I was surprised to see the crew ramping it up over the hills, but I forgot there was a sprint sign and bonus points up for grabs. Lunch was heaven sent again with steak and lasagne leftovers and my favorite, mountain dew.

Pat Miller and I rode with Tim "freshlegs" Richardson up to the Elliots trailhead. I busted my butt to stay with my boyfriend so we could ride together and then of course was shelled for Elliots and Crawfords. Elliots has one of my favorite downhills. Its just awesome. The rest of the ride isn't that special for me, but I do love the view from the tower. Crawfords' is even less special with the 5 hike a bike hills. Which were all rideable by freshlegs. Yes, Tim cleared all the bitches. That is hard to do for sure.

I flatted on Elliots and decided for the way that I ride now, I don't think that racing tires are for me. But I had an awesome ride down Chimney Hollow and then spun home mellow on the road while the rest of the crew went up and over Dowells and into the back of the campground.

This morning my neck is really sore from craning and carrying the heavy camelback. And I was having some really weird pain in my foot at the base of my toes. I think that is related to the broken leg somehow. But I can bend down and basically can't wait for the Giro! I thought a lot about how lucky I am to recover fully from my broken leg and to be able to do all the cool stuff that I do.

Donate to support trails

Hi Everyone!

My first race back after my broken leg is going to be the Hoo-Ha at Massanutten on June 6 and 7. This race has been going a long, long time and is an awesome course. But the main reason that I'm doing it is to be part of a team that helps raise money for the trails. I've had so many great rides and races on trails built and maintained by clubs like SVBC. Now its time to give back.

If you can please donate to me or to the SVBC/IMBA team. Any amount helps with building and maintaining trails, advocacy, and opportunities for cycling. The link is http://go.imba.com/site/TR/Volunteerfundraiser/TeamIMBA?fr_id=1200&pg=entry

2009 Massanutten Team IMBA Hoo-Ha! Details

Come join Massanutten Four Season Resort and the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition as they host a weekend of fun mountain bike racing and celebrating. The 2009 Massanutten Hoo-Ha will also be a great opportunity for you to jump on board with your favorite IMBA Team and help raise money for IMBA and your local IMBA affiliated club. Just think…if you raise or help someone raise over $500 your IMBA affiliated club will get back $750 thanks to the great support of SRAM (check out the details: http://go.imba.com/site/PageServer?pagename=TeamIMBASRAMGrant) There will be many perks to being on TEAM IMBA making it well worth your fund raising efforts, just check out some of the prizes(link: http://go.imba.com/site/PageServer?pagename=TeamIMBAPrizes) and benefits below.


Want to be part of the action but don’t want to race or be on TEAM IMBA? No worries help raise money or donate to one of your TEAM IMBA riders, helping them and your local club reach their fund raising goal. The Massanutten Hoo-Ha event is fun weekend regardless of your racing desires, come out Saturday and ride the course or watch and help with the SVBC Super D event. Sunday is another great opportunity to watch and volunteer, or maybe bring your kids and have them participate in the free kids race.

While at Massanutten check out some of the new trails that have been built in the past four years. The newest trails at Massanutten represent a great partnership between a local club (SVBC) and a private land owner (Massanutten Four Season Resort). What was once an area that was closed to local cyclist is now open to SVBC members and those participating in the Massanutten Western Slope Trail Partnership (link: http://www.svbcoalition.org/massanutten.php) .