Gratitude

Every time I come home to Boulder, its the same peaceful feeling. There are other very cool places in this world but I have a hard time imagining leaving Boulder. When I am gone I miss the mountains, the goofy people, the thin air, the great friends, the trail, the quaintness, the harsh sun and the cool evenings, the million cyclists on Hwy 36 any day of the week, The Cup, the climb to Jamestown, the bike path, the Chautauqua, the lack of traffic, the Happy Thursday cruiser rides (watching).... my soul is just happy in this place. I am so thankful I live here and still don't take it for granted after all these years.

Elke on a Mt. Sanitas hike the morning after I got home. Tradition.

When I am traveling I sincerely appreciate all the people I meet who are so willing to help out of the kindness of their hearts. I/we have been so lucky to make connections around the world and the US with people who go out of their way to help. It's the only thing that makes this whole professional bike racing thing work. Without the meals, the beds, the helpfulness, the interest, the laundry facilities, the friendship, the kitchens, the directions, the connections... it just wouldn't be possible.

My Amsterdam friends who went out of their way to take care of me with meals, local insight, rides, borrowed cruiser bike, a map (which I lost), and even an Olympic Stadium tour. Thanks John and Charlotte!

Shelley and I were also fortunate enough to have someone let us "borrow" their house in Manchester. Having a kitchen and laundry and space... it was such a blessing! No pictures but thank you Ema.

If you are ever in a situation to help a traveling athlete of any kind, please do. These athletes aren't traveling on a dime for the fame or money. If they were, they probably wouldn't be looking for your help :) These athletes are doing it because they are chasing a dream!

Thanks for all those who are helping my dreams come true.

Homebound

Sitting in the Manchester airport and desperate for internet, I gave in and paid. So, that one huge latte for 2.5 pounds and internet for 5.0 pounds. At the current exchange rate this hour of entertainment will cost me about $100. Ok, not that bad but OUCH the exchange rate is not favorable for my precious American dollars.

This weekend had some great moments and some disappointing ones as well. From the help of my sweet teammate and sport psychologist, Shelley, I am recognizing these kind of moments as the ones that make me better. More on sports psych in a couple days.

The picture above highlights the great moment of the weekend. Shelley podiums in the scratch. We all (myself, Shelley, and Coryn) made the final and devised a couple plans. One of our plans worked and it was rewarded. The enlightening moment was when Shelley and I realized that we could have done so much better and we still made some errors and yet we still pulled out the podium. Wow! My personal results (finishing last of the finishers) don't tell the story of the race. Anyone who races bikes and understands tactics will understand what this means but for those who don't.... simply, when you lay it out there for your team and do your job you are not racing for your own top finish but the teams. I was excited about Shelley's finish as she was. For real!

Thanks to all the staff at USA Cycling for taking care of us... we love Chris De Vos!

I raced the keirin yesterday. Round 1 was a tough draw but of course they all are at this level. There were 6 of us and only 1 went through. In my heat were 2 world class (oh, and world champs) sprinters in Anna Meares (AUS) and Yvonne Hijgenaar. Anna took it from the front and nobody was able to come around. I had my own personal goals for this race and felt good about the result. I ended 3rd and 4-6 were no where around. It was a good sign of my speed despite doing all this endurance work the last month. The next round was my disappointing moment of the weekend. I needed to finish 1st in order to move on. Not knowing much of anything about the girls in my heat, we picked my strategy the best we could. Unfortunately, the wheel I picked and the moves I made weren't good enough. I learned a good strategic lesson though that I know will help me in a keirin in the future- definitely one for the memory bank. It wasn't my speed or my legs but more my racing decisions. It is good to know that the Dutch girl who won that race ended up making the final and placing 4th.

Who's tall? Me? No. They are short. Above: Shelley, me, Coryn.

I miss this guy in Colorado! Above: Des Dickie, one of my former coaches who now coaches the Hong Kong Team. For all those who know Des, he is looking good and healthy. Besides not speaking the language and not loving the food, he is really happy coaching his team and being rewarded with some great results.

The countdown is on.... about 17 more hours until I can see my puppy!

Manchester... backwards to Amsterdam

My internet has been spotty, at best. In Amsterdam the internet was available either by shared computers in the lobby with a time limit of 20 minutes or by pay-per-minute in the room. I dare all of you to time limit your internet use. You will see which websites take priority. My time was occupied by email, Cyclingnews, FixedGearFever, Twitter, and Facebook. The blog did not make the cut. Plus, didn’t have a good way of loading pictures and who wants a blog without pictures.

Now in Manchester and at our host house we do have wireless internet. For some reason, Shelley’s computer is the only one that works with it though. The first night there was 4 of us here all splitting internet time. Same situation, bored cyclists with nothing better to do but wonder when you will get the computer next.

It’s Thursday morning and I have some time to the computer and nothing has changed on Facebook… so here we go! Brief update of the past several days.

We haven’t done much since arriving in Manchester. We have gone to the track (sweet!) and eaten Indian food on Curry Mile (yum!). Our team manager, Nicola, has been having passport issues and has not been able to leave the USA yet. She is super frustrated and Shelley and I are figuring all these World Cup things by ourselves- how to get accreditations, how to cook our food by ourselves (seriously, Niki is the best), how to drive on the other side of the road, etc. Luckily the National team is here and the staff has been willing to help Shelley and I out with all the other stuff.

Amsterdam:

I had one day in Amsterdam to wander around after racing. My adopted family, who I will introduce in a bit, lent me a cruiser bike to ride into the city. One of my favorite things to do in a new city is to just wander with no purpose or direction. I feel like this is the best way to learn and feel the city. At the start of the day my adopted family gave me a tiny map, one that was torn out of the front of a phone book. Somewhere along the way, that map found its way out of my pocket. When I recognized this I didn’t care much because I was pretty confident I could find my way back to where I needed to be. As I started to head back towards my family’s house, I realized I needed the map. Well, I thought I would just stop and buy a map as I got towards the outside of the city. Two factors- it was Sunday and nothing is open outside the tourists areas on Sunday AND nobody sells maps outside tourists areas anyway. Several long and expensive phone calls, a train ride with my bike, long after the sun went down, I finally arrived back where I started. My relaxing day wandering the city ended up being an epic adventure with me on the verge of tears. My adopted family ended my day and my Dutch visit by taking me out to dinner at Meuder’s (Mother’s), a traditional Dutch food restaurant.

A cute couple riding their bike. You see this all the time.

ya...

A quick summary of Amsterdam… tiny streets lined with canals, bikes, coffee shops, and buildings that look like they might fall over. It always shocks me how old European cities are. Our country is a infant in comparison. Pictures don’t do justice on how cool this place is but I can try.

How old does concrete have to be before it starts wearing down this much? Old.

Can't go to Holland without a picture of a windmill.

Racing:
Eva and I ended up finishing 3^rd overall in the 6-day. I am very pleased with this but left wanting more. It took me a couple days but I figured out how to race the Elimination races and ended up finishing 2^nd the last day and had a couple 3^rd places for the week. The skill level in the women’s Madison was better then I expected. The speed of the races was good too. I only wish we either had a longer race or a third race each night. I know that sounds weird coming from me, the sprinter-endurance girl. I am really hoping to get to race the Rotterdam 6-day in January because I feel like I learned so much over the course of the week. 6-days are great because you race, may mistakes, and have a chance the next night to correct your mistakes. You don’t have to wait another month or week to try something new.

Getting ready for quick ceremony.

Ceremony for winners!

I am trying to keep this short which is really tough. I could write so much more about the racing, the city, the people, etc. If you have any specific questions, write it in my comments and I will try to answer them.

Shelley and I are busy making meals ahead of time for race days... then off to the track. Last day of workouts before racing starts!

Whirlwind Day #2 & #3

Racing is great. Tough. Different style from the US.

On day 2 my partner and I took a lap with 2 other teams. This put us 1 lap up on most teams but 1 lap down from the leaders. There is 1 or 2 other teams that have more points but no lap. Therefore we must keep a keen eye on those team. If they lap we move down in the overall placing. That’s a lot of lingo for you non-cyclists.

Day 3 we struggled at first because we once again started in the back. It’s total chaos back there and is great for practicing my survival skills. We were able to protect our lap and managed to finish 2^nd in the bunch sprint and 3^rd over all. Eva and I are getting really good at communicating. Each day we improve drastically. Yet, we still manage to miss exchanges at critical moments. Today we missed an exchange at about 10 laps to go which left me stranded out there for a while.

Today is day 4 and I look forward to a better day. Yesterday my head seemed to be in the clouds. I wasn’t nervous which isn’t always good. It seems to me that if you aren’t nervous then you aren’t really excited. Too many nerves is bad but too few is bad too. Yesterday, I had no nerves and, therefore, no adrenalin.

I finally slept a whole night last night. The last 2-3 nights, I can’t keep track, I have fallen asleep at 5am. Last night I took 2 Advil PMs and slept for about 10 hours. It should help my head today!

The other US contingent showed up today. Although I haven’t seen them, it’s nice to know they are here and I will have some more companionship the next couple days.

Eva and I.. my Dutch partner.

More pictures and reports later… internet is expensive and slow!

Night 1

1 down and 5 to go. I was glad to get the first night under my belt. I had some extra nerves and general anxiety about racing in a situation that was unfamiliar.

We ended 4^th overall on the night. We each raced individual elimination races which gain points towards the team if you place in the top 5. Eva did her job and got some points… I, on the other hand, didn’t. I got in a bad position and eliminated in the middle of the pack. There really is a different style of racing and that was a wake up call for me.

Our Madison together was FUN! We made plenty of mistakes and will clean those up and do better next time. Here were a couple of the learning points:

- don’t miss exchanges. We missed 2 which left me stuck in the race. A team never wants to miss exchanges and really don’t want to leave the sprinter in there in such a high paced race for that long. Eva learned from those misses and we won’t make those mistakes again.

- I needed to be more aware of the lap counter. It was different here because we raced it like a scratch race with time counting backwards and then when the time ran out we had 10 laps. Well, I wasn’t really paying attention. By the time I thought to look up there sign said 2. I thought it was 2 minutes but it was 2 laps. Oops! Our plan was to have me in there for the sprint but instead I threw Eva in thinking we had 2 minutes on the clock. She finished 4^th which was great but that wasn’t the plan. I guess it would help if I spoke the language since the announcer was counting down the laps. But, of course, I didn’t understand at all.

- I was the one who started the race and Eva started on relief. We needed to start towards the front. I had no problem with this but some instructions from a race director before the race had me confused with the rules on moving up at the beginning. I ended up towards the back and that was a mistake. It was a fast race and hard to move up!

Had to include this picture. They do sprinkles on bread as a savory treat. Hmm...

I got home last night and couldn’t sleep until 5:00am- I slept from 5-11am. I think I was on sensory overload and my mind was racing about the racing and what I was going to do differently the next race. Tonight I take an Advil PM!

I am going to try and attach some videos… hopefully it will work. I left my real camera in the hotel room and all these pictures and video were taken with my iPhone.

BTW- reason #42 I really like Europe- even average hotels have really nice Grohe bathroom fixtures. None of this American Standard stuff.

Bikes and Dikes

Travel was somewhat flawless except that my bike didn’t show up on the same schedule.Luckily it has shown up and all is good. This is why 1) you always travel one day earlier then you think you need to, and 2) you always carry on your shoes, pedals, and helmet. You can always borrow a bike!

The first 24 hours and my sleeping patterns were all kinds of messed up. I followed all the rules but the body didn’t cooperate. I am writing this now, after 2 nights here, and I think I am all set. I slept 10 hours last night thanks to the help of my friend Advil PM.

To recap the first 2 days here, I will just show some pictures in no particular order because internet is paid by the minute and I don't want to waste time!

Bicycle parking deck. Everyone rides here!

Waterways everywhere. The city is below sea level.

Love small Euro streets. Don't need big ones when there aren't SUVs!

This is the bicycle parking deck from a distance. 2.5 stories of bicycle parking.

Eva, my Dutch madison partner, standing next to the track. 48 degrees I think.

Eva in the cabin area. Each madison partner is given a cabin. This is the only area in the infield for cyclists. The rest is for paying customers. Oh, women are not given cabins. We are relegated to the locker rooms outside the infield of the track.

Name tags above the cabins. Bos!

Our sponsor for this week of racing.

Every velodrome needs a bar in the infield.

Now, it’s the morning of the first day of racing. Tonight will be a show! For people who don’t know 6-day racing, I like to describe it like boxing in Las Vegas… its all about entertainment. The big names are here and the promoter expects everyone to put on a show. Don’t get me wrong, the racing will be tough. But, it will be fun too!

A couple random thoughts-

- Dutch people are incredibly nice. All of them.

- I am actually enjoying instant coffee. I brought my press but haven’t used it yet.

- My Swiss roommate and I can hardly communicate.

- Internet is not the same as in the US.

- Live cycling on TV!

- The manager of the velodrome wore a Uni of Colorado jacket yesterday in honor of me/them. I still can’t believe they won.

- Congrats to Lorraine Jarvis!!!! Masters World Champion in the 500m. So proud!

Next up...

http://www.zesdaagseamsterdam.nl/

October 19-24

I will be competing with teammate, Eva Heijmans, who won the Silver medal at the Dutch National Championships this week in the Points race. We will be representing Procycling, Europe's #1 cycling magazine.

What is a Six-day? Six-day racing is now predominantly a European phenomenon, particularly in Belgium and Germany. Spectators may also be entertained by live music, and have access to restaurants and bars. Riders compete as a team over six days in a combination of individual events, such as points and scratch races, and as a team in a nightly Madison.

Current Start List for the 2009 Dames