Epic Racing around the World

You’d think by now the nature of Monavie/Cannondale’s racing and travels would seem second nature to us, but each week I struggle to keep up!

We’ll start with the ladies:

Four Cross and Down Hill Huckster Leana Gerrard blazed another victory in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. She’s too fast for photos…so far.

Next up, Triathlon action in Southern California. Temecula, to be more specific. Monavie/Cannondale’s Utah regional Xterra triathlete Rachel Cieslewicz traveled to Socal for the Xterra World’s qualifier, held in 100 degree plus temps!

Never one to shy away from brutal conditions, Jamie Whitmore came down to support Rachel and the offroad triathlon community during her cancer recovery period. Maybe it was the desire to hurry up and get the event over with, or quite possible the motivation of having Jamie out on the course supporting her, but Rachel won her category and solidified her spot for Xterra Worlds in Hawaii this Fall.

In conditions not too dissimilar to Rachel’s, but about 250 miles to the north west, outside of Santa Barbara, CA, Pro XC chica Sue Butler attended the NMBS series event in Santa Ynez. A hot, dry, and dusty course held in a field of hills and grass, it was a far cry from the European World Cup circuit, but if you host it, they will come.

Short Track, Cross Country, and Super-D, its the horse shoes of mountain bike racing…keep trying until you hit the podium. Sue only needed 3 shots until she hit the mark in the Super D.

Meanwhile, Blake Harlan found his mark with a 3rd place in the men’s semipro STXC, Bart, inspired by last winter’s XC skiing memories at the 2000 Olympic Cross Country ski venue, won a round of the Intermountain Cup series at Soldier Hollow in Heber City, Utah. Or maybe it was baby Stella hurrying him back to the fort?

Last, and certainly least, I contested, with marginal satisfaction, the Mt Hood Classic NRC road stage race. Let’s just say the training was good, but, I’ll take the views from the trail over the road, any day.

Here we go again….

Washington.

Oregon.

California

Utah.

Our racing and travel schedule wasn’t as diverse or exciting as in the weeks prior, but the team’s been staying busy during the “lull” in the season.

However, there seems to be a bit of disparity in results between the various team members out there…which brings me back to the old adage - Never send a man to do a woman’s job…and in this case, the job was to win, and while the boys were struggling to bring it home, the girls were bringing home the bacon and frying it up on a pan.

Sue Butler brought it on home at the Chain Breaker in Bend, Oregon…

Meanwhile, at the same event, Sager stunk it up for 4th behind the Twin Towers. It was a bit dusty back there…

On the Four Cross and Down Hill front, Leana hauled in the big lettuce after winning the Four Cross and a 2nd place in the Down Hill.

Inspired by my faux-dium performance in Bend and the girls’ performances, Blake charged to 2nd place in the California desert…

While Bart kept the first loser theme going amongst the guys at the latest round of the Intermountain Cup in Utah.

As Phil Liget would say…lately, the boys have been fighting over the lesser placings. We need to do something about this.

Luckily, there’s never a shortage of examples to follow around here.

Tinker gets a write up in Velonews as does Sager for leading the Endurance Points series.

Tinker won a bike race in the South? East? South East? What’s Tennessee considered, anyway? I think its the South. East.

Bart won in Utah. Utah’s just Utah. Though it is fairly west. Sager was 4th in Oregon. Oregon is PacNW, no doubt. Sue and Mitchell have probably had their fill of Nutella and Jamon after a week in Spain.

Read the short of it all here.

Back in 2003 I “found” myself living in Madrid, Spain, for a spell…racing bikes, learning the ways of staying up late, sleeping later, and riding the train to the mountains for some of the best road riding on the planet.

My friend Guille and I went to a mountain bike stage race a few hours to the south east of Madrid during that arid summer.

Hot. Dusty. Desolate.

It reminded me quite a bit of the mountainous areas of West Texas. The race was to be a proper multi-day affair : 3 days of 50k XC stages…not the “mtb stage races” of the US where 3 days really consists of nothing more than a 5min TT, 20 min STXC, then finally after waiting around…a singular XC effort on Sunday.

No, this would be real racing.

5k’s into the event, I can’t remember what happened, but there was a major mechanical meltdown that wouldn’t allow me to finish the point-to-point stage. Bummed, no doubt, but at least I could “ride” the rest of the stages if the bike could be repaired. 5pm on a Friday in a remote part of Southern Spain…that wasn’t happening.

Our race hotel, as with all hotels in Spain, had a bar on the bottom floor. Being savvy travelers, we picked a room with a balcony that opened up - cool air in the summer is a life saver. Problem - this balcony opens up above the bar’s front door. Bars on a Friday, in Spain, don’t even start partying until 2am…and rarely slow down before dawn.

Sleep would be a challenge. And then it got loud. Late in the night/early in the morning, shouts, yelling, and chaos disrupted our fitful sleep…bodies flying through windows and shattering glass on the ground. Women screaming and men yelling. Onto the balcony we flew to see drunks scrambling up from the pavement and a crowd gathering.

Flashing lights. Cops. Firetrucks. Crying. Dawn wouldn’t arrive soon enough.

Completely disgusted with my situation, I told Guille I’d simply ride my broken bike the estimated 20k’s to the train station and take a 3hr train ride back to Madrid - I’d be home before noon, get in a ride, and could do a local road race on Sunday.

Travel bag on my back and a high five to Guille to ride like el viento in his race, I was off before sunrise.

20k’s became 40k’s before the train station appeared, and if you’re familiar with the Spanish and their approach to red tape, when a conductor told me I couldn’t take a bike on the empty (and direct) train back to Madrid, and that I’d have to wait another few hours for the train to Valencia, then wait for the train that would take a bike (and me) back to Madrid…arriving 12hrs later that evening, you can understand the virtual bond I have with Guille. Yo soy enfadado, would have put it mildly.

And I place eternal blame on him for that ordeal.

Payback.

Its best served cold. That story happened in 2003. 5 years later, I’ve put Monavie/Cannondale rider Mitchell Peterson in his guest room all week while Mitchell waits for this weekend’s World Cup in Madrid. Guille has to entertain him. Feed him. Dodge his flying limbs.

Enjoy the ride, Guille!