Originally, we were to race a 40k out and back, but some recent severe weather washed out a good bit of the road, and the race was shortened to 30k.  I have to say the course was so much better then Picacho in regards to traffic and general road condition;  the wind however seems to be consistent no matter where the course is – a not so awesome head-wind on the way out and sick tailwind to push us home at speeds exceeding 30mph! Unfortunately we lost some horse-power early on when Kim suffered a mechanical, many people would have simply given up after such an early incident, so needless to say we were all impressed by her drive and dedication when we saw her not too far from the turn-around.

Thanks to Nippy and SW Hand for putting on the race! Great day ladies, it was awesome riding with all of you! Rock on!

- Heather

This past week however, and increasingly in the past few months, I have been on the road for work – which has been AWESOME! Give me a laptop and an air-card and call me productivity! What sane cyclist wants to be in Phoenix in the summer anyways?

I returned today from Temecula, and while I don’t think its quite Napa, the riding was awesome and the weather was spectacular – 95 and sunny! The roads were rolling to downright mountainous, there was little traffic in the rural regions and best of all, there was SHADE!

I had never heard anything good about the Inland Empire but I am sold on the plethora of excellent riding!

This morning may have been the best of them all. Barely above the horizon line, the sun shone through the foggy vineyards like something out of a movie, and I quickly found myself lost in my ride. Then I realized, disappointed, I hadn’t visited any of the aforementioned vineyards. I’ve decided on my first trip back, I’ll try this one, but only to compare a glass of its finest to the sweet taste of ascending its namesake!

Looking forward to AZ State TTT this weekend! That’s it from the road for now, ride hard, be happy

I’d like to bring your attention to a worthy cause here in Arizona.  A young cyclist by the name of Thomas Jondall, with whom I’d had to pleasure to ride, is seeking support to race his bike in Europe with the US Junior National Team.  Thomas is not only a very talented athlete, he’s a great kid with a lot of heart and potential.  He’s worked very hard to earn the opportunity to race in Europe, but he needs a little dough to make it happen.  I am personally going to contribute, and I’m sure he would appreciate any amount you can give, whether is $5 or $50.  To learn more about Thomas, read on or visit the Thomas Jondall Donation Page.  Thanks!

Hello,

My name is Thomas Jondall, I’m 18 years old and I race for Landis/Trek White Mountain Road Club. I’ve recently been selected to race in Europe with the US Junior National Team. The team will be racing some Kermesses in Belgium and then go to Italy for the Giro della Lunigiana UCI 2.1 and Giro di Basilicata UCI 2.1. It has been an exciting year for me and I’m looking forward to this new challenge.

After a lot of racing in AZ this spring I took part in the USA Cycling Regional Camp in Flagstaff AZ.  I had a very good camp and in the end I was the #1 rider. Because of this result and a 3rd place at the U.S Junior National Time Trial Championship, I was selected to race with the U.S National team in the six-stage Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada. There I was able to help my teammate pick up the best young rider and sprint jerseys. Along with helping him I was the highest-placed rider for the US team in the overall classification in 6th place. Based on my teamwork and result at the Tour de l’Abitibi was invited on this European project.

This project will cost around $2.000 including airfare and incidentals. WMRC has helped me set up a PayPal account for donations at

WMRC will also cover the PayPal fees to enable the full donation to go to me.

Thank you very much and I appreciate any support.

Sincerely,

Thomas Jondall

More stories from this year about me can be found at:

USAC Development Wrap-up

Bicycling Magazine, August 2010, issue:

Scottsdale Cycling Festival Face book bio

Donations can also be made out to WMRC and mailed to:

Landis Cyclery

c/o Thomas Jondall fund

1006 E. Warner Rd. Suite106

Tempe, AZ 85284

Thank you for supporting America’s developing cyclists!

XOOD is a natural, healthy energy drink with no added sweeteners and no artificial colors or flavoring. It is composed of a blend of maltodextrin, whey protein, fructose, electrolytes, and vitamins meant to go easy on your digestive system.

XOOD is a product of HeartWise Fitness & Nutrition and was developed by two cardiologists who sought to provide endurance athletes with a nutrition product composed of only high quality, natural, heart-friendly ingredients. One of the founding docs, Sal Tirrito, is an Ironman athlete and an occasional writer for our Doctor’s Corner section of Women’s Bike Talk.  Lou Lancero, the other founding cardiologist of XOOD, is also an avid bike racer and triathlete.

XOOD is available in three varieties:

XOOD Green Tea · Lemon, with a natural source of caffeine from green tea extract, designed to energize your workouts. Personally, this is my favorite flavor of XOOD.

XOOD Pomegranate, which contains  polyphenols from natural pomegranate extract, designed to act as powerful antioxidants to cleanse the body of toxins built up during sustained exercise and reduce oxidative damage.

XOOD  Mangosteen, which contains mangosteen, a unique tropical fruit with anti-inflammatory properties thought to  revive tired muscles, as well as to decrease fatigue and gastro-intestinal issues.

Although XOOD is not as well known as, say, Gatorade, it’s definitely worth giving a shot. In my opinion, it does not disappoint.

Xterra Mountain Championship is not a race for the faint of heart. With 3,600 feet of climbing on the 15.5 mile mountain bike and 1,300 feet of uphill on the 5.75 mile run, this course is a duesy. Not to mention the altitude… Only the one-mile open water swim in Lake Nottingham is of “normal” caliber. Needless to say, I had a great race and used my small stature to ascend the climbs like a billy goat on both the bike and run. Thanks to Specialized and all of our wonderful sponsors for helping to make my race a positive experience.

For some of my other recent race results, check out the Crankworx cross country race from July 31st and Xterra Indian Peaks from today, August 8th.

Via Cyclelicio.us

As I have a tendency to fall off my bike on occasion, I have dealt with my fair share of injuries over the years as a cyclist.  Various injuries, surgery, etc. tend to alter how you sit on the bike, and given the repetitive nature of cycling, it’s important to ensure that you are positioned correctly on the bike.  At the beginning of this season, I was coming back from a long rest to try to recover from some crookedness in my hips.  Naturally, I wanted Don to check out my bike fit to make sure I was in the correct position.  Bike fitting can help prevent injury and also help you increase power on the bike, so I highly recommend it! I visited Don in the awesome bike fit studio at Bicycle Haus, where he looked reviewed my flexibility, body structure, bike position, cleat adjustment, and more.  Don’s fit definitely helped improve my riding this year, and I must say, it was pretty cool to have lasers and cameras pointed at me while I was riding and project it onto the big screen.  So for anyone in Arizona, stop by Bicycle Haus sometime to get a bike fit from Don Williams.  While you are at it, you can enjoy the fancy bike fit studio at Bike Haus and maybe even get a massage!  You will definitely be glad you did it.

Please note: one should wear bright pink Recovery Socks during a bike fit…

Checking myself out on the big screen.

Don enters my numbers.  I have lasers pointing at me.  Sweet.

Don puts cleats on my new Specialized Women’s BG Pro Road Shoes

Even my dog thinks bike fits are cool!

Bend, as beautiful as it is, apparently happens to be troublesome and mischievous.  Every year that I have gone to Bend (3 years running now), something (or things) out of the ordinary has happened.  Year 1 – I got some strange rash that was diagnosed as shingles and didn’t finish.  Year 2 – On the drive to Bend from Tucson, our bike rack broke on the interstate, the car broke down, and I developed a weird breathing problem.  This year, which is year 3 at Cascade for me, the mischievous nature of Bend seemed to culminate in lots of weird events, which made racing difficult and/or impossible for some of us.

But for starters, Bend brought some good luck.  Two of our riders were contacted to ride for their national teams in Europe and were unable to race Cascade.  Chloe Forsman can currently be found racing for the US National MTB Team in at two European World Cups, and Cara Gillis is racing for the Canadian National Team in a variety of stage races and one-day road events around Europe, as well.  So in that regard, Bend was very good to our team.  Congrats, ladies!

However, for the rest of us, Bend remained somewhat unruly.  First, two riders were unable to make it due to a house flood for one and a family emergency for the other.  When the rest of us arrived in Bend, Ari opened her bike bag to discover that the water bottle cage had been ripped out of her frame, causing a crack in the carbon, and her disc was also smashed.  She subsequently rented a bike from Sunnyside Sports (who were a huge help, thanks!).  The bike’s name was Patty (like from the Simpsons).

Next, Ari came down with a fever due to some strange, undiagnosed virus.  She suffered through the prologue and the first stage before we took her to urgent care.  I arrived in Bend after dealing with a hip injury for two weeks and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to race.  I finished the prologue and the first stage, and then immediately got sick!  Jenna Rinehart, a guest rider, was also battling a head cold.  I finally had to pull out of the race after the second stage, which is a good thing, because I later learned I had bronchitis.  If injury and illness weren’t enough, we had some fun mechanicals, as well.  Jenna’s rear shifter broke mid-ride on the way to the time trial.  Good thing I had my TT bike, so Russ – our awesome mechanic – poached the shifter off my road bike for her TT.  Various other parts were broken, etc., etc. throughout the week, which took us back to the bike shop over and over again.

Meanwhile, there were some pretty bad crashes in the peloton on a few stages, which took a number of great racers out.  Best wishes to all of them for a speedy recovery!

Anyways, by Stage 4, our team had been whittled down to three riders – Judy Jenkins, two guest riders – Jenna Rinehart and Anna Barensfeld.  These ladies toughed it out the rest of the week with some great finishes – Anna 33rd GC, Jenna 36th GC, and Judy 75th GC.  Despite the much diminished size of our team, we were still a force to be reckoned with, and the remaining ladies rode like champs.

Meanwhile, Ari, Russ (our mechanic), and I entertained ourselves in the feed zone, while our awesome team director Maggie took care of the ladies in the caravan.  Since I wasn’t racing, I had more time to take photos!

Anyhow, Cascade was the last big NRC stage race on our schedule for the year.  Despite some of the troubles we encountered at Cascade, our team had tons of good luck all year.  All in all, it’s been a fantastic year for Specialized D4W!  We definitely have some good momentum, great results, and are looking forward to a bigger and better 2011!  Many thanks to Maggie, her husband Don, and Russ for the great support at Cascade, and thanks to all of our great hosts in Bend (sorry we got one of you sick…). 

We started Owen on the Specialized Kid’s Hotwalk.

He got his balance bike when he was 2 1/2.  It took about a week to convince him to get on it, but once he did it only took a couple of days for him to get the hang of it.  He was cruising around the neighborhood with his feet high in the air, jumping curbs, and going off road in no time!

A balance bike is a kid’s bike without training wheels or pedals.  The idea is that balance is the key to riding – if they learn balance, adding pedals is pretty simple – no training wheels required.  Here’s the part where I admit I didn’t believe it would actually work.  He learned the balance quickly, but you see much older kids out there who can’t ride without training wheels – could it really be possible a 2 year old (2 3/4 by the time I bought the Hotrock) could do this?  YES!

Here’s a quick video if you’ve never seen one in action…

A quick aside for those of you wondering why we didn’t opt for training wheels.  As most of you parents out there know, what works for one kid may not work for the other.  In our case, Owen seemed ready and able to do it and the training wheel bike just didn’t work very well for him and what he demanded in performance from his ride (long story).

He’s now on the Specialized Kid’s 12 Hotrock.  It comes with training wheels, but we took them off before he ever saw the bike.  We decided he would never know it was an option and, therefore, never think he needed them.  (I did give him a tricycle while he had the Hotwalk so that he would know how to pedal.)  With his dad following close behind and giving a push when needed, he rode sans training wheels on the first try.  It worked for him!

I’m sure there are a multitude of different variations to what we did with these two bikes to get your child riding.  I encourage you to give it a try, if you have even a suspicion that your child is ready. I’m happy to answer questions about how it worked for us if you still have some.

Bicycle Haus sells the Specialized line of bikes, and BikeKidShop.com sells Strider Balance Bikes as well (a little different than what I used, but looks like a good option as well).

Photo credit: Cycling News / Matthew E. Moses

The team rode really well at Nature Valley in defense of the green jersey, as well as overall.  We were once again the top-placed amateur team in 7th place out 14 teams, placing just behind the top pro teams overall.

Chloe has a great NVGP report with some photos, as well.  Enjoy!