Mid-A Bellas Together At Last!

The Velo Bella's managed to get together for the last road race of the season, the Carlisle PA championship!

The sun was still sleeping as we headed out of town, but by 7am, it was dawning to be a fantastic, and uncharacteristically chilly August day! It felt like a crisp fall morning as we stepped out into the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside.
Nikki and new Bella Zina were the first to arrive, shortly followed by the Styer gang--Hillary, Morgan and little Podium Boy Ethan.

There were 14 Cat 4 racers, 2 of us Bellas. This would be Hillary's first ever road race, only Nikki's second. Zina and Morgan were our support crew, decked out with grass skirt flair! Regardless of how painful the race was going to be, we knew that the Bellas would show everyone how to have fun!

It was a short neutral roll to the start and then we were off. The course was 5 times around a 5.4 mile loop in the Pennsylvania farmland. There were a few very gentle undulating hills, with 3 or 4 very technical 90 degree turns, and one very steep 300m hill on the back side.

The first loop was definitely a warm-up, we were going very very slow. Half way into lap 2 the local PA team made an attack for the hill. Nikki and 3 other gals sped off to catch her, but couldn't keep the pace up the steep hill. So, there were 3 girls off the front, and a middle pack of about 8, and 3 or 4 girls who had fallen off the back end.

The race stayed pretty well broken up through the end. It was a great race, and we had a great time! Hillary finally did her first race and we're all very proud of her! The Cat 1/2/3 race had no breakaways, and ended up being a sprint finish, despite Melanie's hard efforts to get the other girls to work and put some excitment into the ride. In the end, Barb sprinted away with a second place finish, beating out many of the Cat 1/2 girls! GO BELLAS!

Race Results

Photos

My First Triathlon

By Sheryl

Darleen and Sheryl in their First Relay Triathlon

This season has been kind of crazy. I haven't done any bike racing and we moved again for the second time in two years. So, despite having almost no time to train and not knowing how to swim, I decided to try a triathlon near my new home town.

The Wilkes Barre Triathlon is olympic distance. I was smart enough to know I needed help for this one, so I enlisted my cousin and honorary Bella, Darleen, to do the run. I took 6 weeks of swimming lessons, attached some aero bars, got my totally awesome Bella tri kit, and I was ready to go!

The triathlon was this past Sunday and there were about 500 competitors. Nervous, but excited, I got my race numbers painted on, and I jumped into Harvey's Lake for the swim. 0.9 miles of open water swimming is a whole lot farther than I thought! Not to mention, everytime I put my head down into the water to swim free-style, I would see the waving seaweed, get totally disoriented, and panic. I ended up swimming the whole distance backstroke.

I had a reasonably good swim to bike transition, but with the shaking fatigue in my body from the endless swim, I struggled on the hills. I was never so happy to see my runner waiting in the transition zone after cycling the 25 miles with my heart rate about 190 bpm!

We finished 4/5 in the women's relay field. I am just grateful that we did finish. Next year I am going to try it again and race as an individual...and you can bet I will be practicing swimming in open water!

Shue Racing for the US NAVY!

Mid-A Bella Nikki Shue was selected as a member of the Navy Women's team to race in the Armed Forces Triathlon championship!

Each branch of service has 6 men and 4 women on their team. Well, turns out that Andy Baldwin "The Bachelor" was on the Navy team! Yikes! He's as hot and hard-bodied as he was on TV, and a very nice guy, and actually a pretty good triathlete to boot! And I can neither confirm nor deny if I had anything to do with his recent breakup with Tessa.....

Friday dawned, and after another fantastic swim (sans wetsuit) in the Pacific Ocean, we headed to get our uniforms issued. Oh the schwag we got! Race kit, extra bib shorts, running shoes, polo shirts that were WAY TOO BIG, backpacks, arm-warmers, socks, on and on and on! It finally hit me; this was the big time!


Saturday arrived much too quickly and I was filled with more angst than I've ever had pre-race! there were only 75 racers; just 23 women. How the hell was I going to save face!?! I decided I only had three goals for the race: not be last, Beat Army!, and revel in the fact that I was racing with Elite athletes! While it wasn't my best performance, I can happily report that I met all three goals (but just barely!).

THE SWIM (31:01)
The thing about ITU/draft-legal racing is that it basically negates the bike leg of the race; if you aren't out of the water with the rest of the pack, you are screwed. I had a great first loop, and when I jumped back into the water for loop #2, I was right in the middle of the pack, well on my way to a PR. Unfortunately, I somehow failed to make the turn around the last bouy to shore, and I continued down the coast heading to San Diego....by the time I realized my mistake I was a good 300m off the back. Pathetically, I was 72/75 on the swim.

T1 (1:38)
Fortunately, teammate Kristen was still in transition when I stumbled to my bike, and we were able to work together to close the gap. Horay for Kristen!

THE BIKE (1:07:05)
As I said before, the importance of the bike is significantly reduced in a draft-legal race; unless that is, you need to crush the bike to catch up to the pack. Kristen and I hammered like I've never hammered before. We had a headwind coming off the ocean for half the course, and it was a 4 loop course! We did two loops ourselves, then caught a USMC gal who tagged along in our pace line, and on the back end we picked up fellow Navy teammate Lindsay. Unfortuately, neither the Marine nor Lindsay were experienced riders and they tapped wheels. Luckily, noone went down, but Kristen and I decided it was time to make a break. So, on the final lap we charged ahead and ended up passing 3 or 4 other riders right before coming into T2. I moved up significantly in ranking to 59th place in the bike (14th Female).

T2 (1:00)I got off the bike to run to my rack and nearly fell to the ground. My legs were toast. No, they were jelly. I knew I had absolutely nothing left, and this was going to be the worst run/race of my life!!

THE RUN (do I have to tell you? 58:34)
The Run. The--long, straight, into the headwind, up the sanddunes, down the sanddunes, back around the sanddunes, and up the sanddunes over and over again--Run. Thank God I had my friend Catherine there to cheer me on, and make me smile 5 times as I slowly turtled my way back and forth, back and forth, back and forth across that course. It was brutal.

THE END 2:39:18
I was being passed left and right, and there was nothing I could do about it. The brain wasn't computing with the muscles. It just wasn't happening. All I had going for me was that there was one Army chick behind me. And that's where she stayed!
I finished second to last, within one minute of my teammate Lindsay and 3 other girls, but a good 6 minutes ahead of the Army girl. And, technically, it was a PR. However, considering it was draft-legal and pancake flat, I should have been in the 2:25 range.

Overall, the Navy Men's team took the Gold, with Elite triathlete Tim O'Donnell taking first overall (1:49:32), followed by Tommy Brown in second place (1:56:12). The fastest female was former Navy-turned Marine Justine Whipple (2:05:45). The Bachelor beat that with a 2:05:05, so he is definitely legit! The Navy Women's team was last, but we did get Rachel Beckmann on the podium with a 4th place finish (2:15:55) and a spot at the CISM World Championships in India in October!


I had a fantastic time, and was lucky enough to race with some very elite athletes--look for Tim O'Donnell and Justine Whipple to be in the Olympics in Bejing next year!

BELLAS COMPETE AT USAT NATIONALS

I know, I know, it's been nearly a week, and I'm behind on my race report! Well, wait no more, here it is:

I arrived in Portland, OR on Monday, with a full week of visits and vacations to get in, as well as some taper workouts. I drove to the course on Tuesday and took a slow, easy one-loop ride around the bike course.
It was unbelievably scenic! The excitement of making the Age-Group Nationals was coarsing through my veins, and I was inspired to see other triathletes riding as well.

Thursday brought two more Bellas to the venue, and the three of us--me, Raja (San Diego) and Ashley (SLO) did another easy single loop of the course in the Oregon drizzle with a smoking-fast guy named Kevin (who ended up taking 4th place Clydesdale). We were definitely ready to race by this point! The girls then headed to McMenamins Grand Lodge for the biggest carb-loading dinner ever! We couldn't even come close to finishing all that we ordered: smoked salmon, freshly fried calamari, huge garden salads, and 3 heaping bowls of pasta!!


Finally, Friday dawned, again rainy (it is Oregon) and we went to packet-pick up and bike check in. After protecting our bikes from the Oregon weather, we headed off to Hagg lake to get in one final swim. I went sans wetsuit, and everyone thought I was crazy. The water was crystal clear, no silt, no marshy grass, and unbelievably clean and refreshing! After the swim, Raja and Ashley headed back to their families, and I went with my friend Scott, also from the DC area, to the Macaroni Grill for one final pre-race meal.

One of the things I miss most about Oregon is with it being above the 45th Parallel, the summer days are long! The sun was peeking up at 4:30, and twilight didn't fade until nearly 10 pm! I had a horrible night's sleep, even though I went to bed early, I never fell asleep until about 3:30, and with the alarm set for 4:30, it was quite the restless night. I arrived at the lake just before 6am. The caliber of athletes was unbelievable, everyone seemed to be picture-perfect and in top physical racing condition! It was very intimidating! Of course the usual "I'm undertrained, not worthy to be here, should have run more hills, should have ridden more hills" thoughts were running through my head, but at this point, all I can do is hope to have a great race and enjoy the moment that I had actually qualified for this race, and deserved to be here, with the best amateur athletes in the United States!

SWIM (~0:27:00 exact time unkown thanks to incompetent USAT timing)My wave started 1:15 minutes after the official race start, there were 65 women in my wave.
It was a chest-deep water start. I stayed to the near side of the bouys (all left-hand turns) and we swam directly into the rising sun. I fell off the front pack before we reached the first turn, and by the second turn I was being passed by the 40-44 men who started 4 minutes after us. It was a long, slow, swim for me. Not sure what happened, but I was really struggling on the swim, and while I'll never know for sure, I was definitely towards the back of the pack.

T1 (~0:3:00 exact time again unknown)
It was a long run from swim out to get around transition to my bike. I struggled getting into my bike shoes. Next year's goal is definitely to learn how to get into shoes on the bike.

BIKE (1:16:47)My plan was to go all out on the bike, ride as hard as I could, embrace the suffering, and just keep going until it hurt so bad I simply couldn't go any more. This course had two options: UP and DOWN. There was only one section that was flat, and it was about 1/4 mile long. Everything else was up or down! It was a really fun course, and while it did hurt, I enjoyed it. Apparently there was over 1500ft of climbing all told.

T2 (0:1:20)I was close to bike in, so racked my bike quickly, grabbed my Velo Bella "flair", hat and racebelt and was off.

RUN (0:52:01)As with the bike, the run had two options: UP or DOWN. And there seemed to be a helluva lot of UP! Seven hills in all, I believe. I did my best to push my legs up the hill out of transition to gain speed heading down the first long hill. But by the third hill on the out-and-back course, my hip flexors were screaming. I was getting passed left and right by the 40-44 Women, and really cursing that I hadn't run more hills back in DC. At one point I remember commenting to myself on the lovely wild roses growing alongside the road...my concentration was waning and it took everything to hit the turnaround and head back. I was upset that there was only water on the whole 10K course. I was dying for gatorade.

FINISH (2:40:02)
I believe I lost about 3 spots on the return portion of the run, but somehow I (as usual) found my final kick at the last little hill coming into the finish line, I finally felt good and stretched out my legs and had a strong finish. Turns out I actually had a Personal Best. It was only by 35 seconds, but considering I took a full 5 minutes off my time at the not-quite-as-hilly Columbia last month, I know that I've improved and will smoke this time on a flatter course!


All in all, the race was a wonderful experience, I finished 43rd out of 65 women in my age group, and am definitely going to do my best to qualify for Nationals again next year!

Overall Stats:
Overall 760/1061 finishers (1300 started race)
Female 279/475
F 35-39 43/65 (winners time 2:12:41)


USAT Age Group Results

Race photos

Shue Heads to Nationals!

On June 30th, Our own Nikki Shue will be heading west, to Portland Oregon, for the USA Triathlon Age-group National Championship Olympic distance race.

And you know she'll be sporting the brand new 2007 Velo Bella Tri Kit! OOH! LA! LA! BELLA!

Her wave, F 35-39 begins at 8:28 am (PDT). For more race details, click here!

Make sure you stay tuned, and check back for the blog update!

Where in the World is Sheryl?

Sheryl with Rebecca Larson, Carmen D'Aluisio, Sarah Caravella, Kat Carroll, Shannon Hutchinson-Krupat, Felicia Gomez, Catherine Powers and Micah Rice of the Aaron's Pro Women's Cycling Team

Although I have not been racing 'yet' this season, I've still been at the races. This year I am the team physician for Aaron's Pro Women's Cycling Team (you may recognize some of their riders as former Velo Bellas) and this role has been keeping me busy off the bike. This past weekend was the Commerce Bank Liberty Classic in Philadelphia where I played soigneur in addition to doctor. I now have a huge amount of respect for the individuals who serve as soigneurs as well as the riders who are constantly on the move from one race to the next with very little support. I now know what it is like to fill, ice down, and transport 40 various concoctions in bottles...and that is just the beginning.

Maybe some of those concoctions will help me out during my first triathlon in August???

Nikki races Columbia Tri

Columbia Triathlon is the unofficial start of the triathlon season here in the Mid-Atlantic. With over 1900 paid entrants, it's by far the largest race in the region! Only 1300 or so actually started the race, but that's still quite the field for a non-Ironman event.


Five close training-mates and numerous DC Tri-Clubbers made the trek to Columbia, MD for this race. Myself, Michelle, Jason, Jean, and Mayor Fenty (yes, I consider Mayor Fenty to be my training-mate--he may not immediately agree, however!) all awoke to a beautiful sunrise Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the clouds soon covered the sky, and a dreary steady, slow rain descended upon us as we set up in transition. I, once again, was not "in the game" at morning's start--I forgot my visor and my favorite running socks! Alas, a quick trip back to the car revealed that I had secret stashes of both, so I ran back to transition for a final switch in gear set-up and was ready to go!

The pros started at 6:45 am, and right as they were about to exit the water, the National Anthem was being sung over the loudspeaker--Jean and I still have over an hour before our "old lady" wave started.

SWIM: 26:59 (3rd out of water)
Finally, at 8:03, we entered the quite comfortable water (~62 degrees), and took care of "pre-race jitters" and waited for the horn. I suddenly found myself at the front of the massive wave of over 150 women and had to swim for my life! I decided to tuck in and just find some feet to draft behind. Turns out that plan worked out fairly well. This was a PR swim for me.


T1: 2:45 (4th out of T1)
I had some issues with my shoes, I remember staring at my toes willing them to get into my socks, but it was not easy!

BIKE: 1:21:34 (2nd on the bike!)
The rain had caused the roads to be very very slippery, and I hadn't even gone 2 miles into the course when I saw some poor guy covered from shoulder to ankle in road rash. Little did I know my own training friend Jason would suffer the same fate at the end of his ride (and crack his carbon Kuota, boo hoo!). I felt very good on the bike, but never saw any other women in my age group. I kept worrying whether I was first (highly unlikely) or last!! I felt strong, and I pushed the bike hard. I don't think I can improve much on the bike. I had an 18.8mph average here.

T2: 1:21 (1st, hello!!)
Again, fastest in T2.....

RUN: 52:45 (5th--can you say need to do more brick?!)
OH MY GOD! Enough with the hills. This was absolutely THE WORST 10K course I've ever been on. It may have been scenic, apparently it went around the lake we swam in, lots of lush, green trees, and through some pretty affluent neighborhoods, but I pretty much missed all that...on account of being MISERABLE running UP hills, and then DOWN steep hills. There wasn't a single flat portion to this race! OK, at the end, running over the causeway/dam at the very very end of the race--that so doesn't count!!!

FINISH: 2:45:23
What can I say, goal was 2:45 or less. I probably had :23 in me, but it's so hard to race when you have noone to pace off! You can break it down any number of ways:

474/1440 Overall
72/472 Female overall
14/105 in my age-group (F 35-39)
2nd Place Female Military

Unfortunately, this race only awards the #1 Female Military (LAME!!!). Next time, I will do better!!!!

Kick off to the mtn bike season!

Velo Bella and Kona make a great pair...and Michael Kirk shows it!

At the Greenbriar mountain bike race in Maryland on April 30th, the Velo Bella-Kona Mid-Atlantic team was staked out on prime real-estate under the shade of a big ol' tree and with beautiful views of the mountains, lake, and the Trek-VW team....

But alas, our minds were on things other than lycra-clad gents. We were there to race our bikes over the hills and rocks typical to these parts of the western pan-handle on the north-western edge of the Blue Ridge.

Super-mom Hillary not only looked after everyone making sure we all had everything we needed, she did feeds for more people than she has hands and helpers for, she helped Alicia get ready to race, she supported hubbie Morgan for his race, and she dealt with the pre-race jitters and raced her very first bike race. I'd say that's a full day. And she came home with a medal. Not bad for a first-timer.

Meanwhile Alicia, with more confidence and speed every-year, came out once again to reclaim her Maryland state championship title in the junior women's race. Later in the day, Melanie raced in the expert category and took home third place in her category.

Kinetic Sprint Race Report

First Race of the Season!!

The Kinetic Sprint is the first open water swim of the season in Virginia. And for good reason.

The venue is beautiful, about 1.5 hours south of DC into Spotsylvania County (read "the backcountry of Virginia"). It was spectacular, right on the water! What a great excape from the city, work, and all the stress of late!

We woke bright and early to a freezing cold morning, and to water temps of 55 degrees! But, if DC Mayor Adrien Fenty could do it, well...



There were 600 racers for the sprint, more than twice the previous year, and Nikki found herself racing in the largest, and most challenging, field of the day.

SWIM (750m): 14:25 (14th)


T1: 1:50 (4th)


BIKE (18mi): 52:42 (5th)



T2: 0:56 (1st)



RUN (5K): 25:53 (7th)



FINAL: 1:35:44 (5th/33 age-group, 27th overall)
Fifth place hurts; not good enough to podium, but close enough to know that it is achievable! Oh well, it was the first race of the season, it was a much bigger field than anticipated, and it will hopefully serve as motivation to train harder!!

Dropping Trou' at Jeff Cup!

It all started innocent enough! A road trip for a road race. What was supposed to be a Mid-Atlantic Velo Bella Team first race of the season turned out to be a solo affair for me! With one teammate jumping ship, and another in the middle of a last-minute move, I headed down to Charlottesville, VA on my own.

Once there, I met with a gal named Denise, whom fellow Bella Melanie and I had met a few weeks earlier at the Quicksilver training race. Denise, her friend Dave and I met up for a fantastic dinner in historic downtown C'ville. The weather was fabulous--a wonderfully warm early spring evening, reminiscent of a mid-summer San Diego night! Dave and I loaded up on carbs, while Denise went for the fiber and protein. After a quick trip to the grocery store (no thanks to the poor directions of the very rude convience store clerk), we were back in the hotel and off to bed early.

Being all too familiar with the early mornings of Triathlon race day, it was a wonderful treat to sleep in until almost 8:30, as my race wasn't to start until 12:30! I cleaned my bike, packed my things, and headed down for my usual pre-race meal of oatmeal, coffee, banana, and toast. It was cool outside, but not a cloud in the sky. A beautiful day for a ride!

I arrived at the race base camp with plenty of time to spare, registered for the Women's Cat 4 race, and met back up with Denise, who'd gotten up early to watch Dave race at 9am. We sat around and by 11 were starting to get ansy. We met another gal named Julia, who was also unattached to a team, and the three of us headed out for a 25 minute warm-up ride. By this time, the weatherman should have been hiding in shame--it was not going to be a high of 68 like he predicted. It was well over 75 degrees and it wasn't even noon! Poor Julia had a long-sleeved Under Armor jersey on and was melting. After much convincing, Julia changed into an extra jersey I had, and between me, Denise and Julia, we were quite the VB Pink site!

High noon, and 100 women were lined up on the shadeless asphalt, waiting for direction. 12:30, well past race start time, and we still had no idea. by 12:45, the nutrition I'd taken was wasted, we were all starting to run out of liquids, and the porta-potties were calling. But we didn't want to miss the 3 mile "roll out" to the start, so noone dared leave their ride. Finally at 1:15, the race director made her appearance, and we headed for the start. Once we arrived, we had 7 more minutes to wait between waves. I looked around and the girls were dropping like flies! No, not like you think--noone fainted, but there were no porta potties, and well, when you gotta go, you gotta go! Everywhere around me girls were just squatting and taking care of business! There were cops, mothers, fathers, kids, everyone around, but wow, I had never seen anything like it! It was hillarious! About this time I decided that I could no longer ignore nature's call, and so I dropped trou' with the best of them! Ahh, relief! I was now ready to race!

Or so I thought. Man, these biker chicks are FAST! We averaged 25 mpr for the first 10 mile loop. Right before the race I was told "no matter what, no matter how much it hurts, stay with the pack!" And I tried. I hung on for 1.5 loops, about 15 miles, but my heartrate was over 180 the entire time, I just couldn't hang with these monster women! So, I fell off the front pack, but we had left the rest of the field so far back, I suddenly found myself in familiar "time trial" territory, and finished the remainder of the course alone.

That is, until the last 200m of the race. I knew they were there, I could feel them creeping up on me, but I siimply had nothing left. There was no way I could fend off a pack of 5 working together when I'd done 15 miles of solo rolling hills, headwinds, and one monster hill. With less than 20 feet to the finish, 3 of the 5 passed me and I squeaked in at #18.

Top 20 was my goal, I will now have a USA Cycling rank, but wow, road races are HARD!

Complete race results here

Photos here

Bikeman.com and VB Mid-Atlantic

The Mid-Atlantic Bellas are pleased to announce our new partnership with the great folks at Bikeman.com.

Mid-A Bella Winter Retreat

The Mid-Atlantic Velo Bella Inagural Winter Retreat was held in historic Gettysburg, PA on Feb 17-18th, at the home of our gracious hosts, Morgan and Hillary Styer.

The Bellas--Melanie, Nikki, Olivia, and honorary Bella Jen--arrived Saturday morning and met for the first time around the kitchen with a hearty lunch. Hillary and Morgan suprised us all with custom-designed Mid-A Bella backpacks that are very envy-worthy Shwag!! We had a packed agenda planned, so as soon as Ethan's babysitter (Hillary's little boy) arrived, we headed out on our adventure.

With the recent winter storm, we thought what better way to start the weekend off with an afternoon of sledding at the local ski mountain. Unfortunately, great minds think alike, and greater Pennsylvania had hit the slopes! So, we decided to postpone Melanie's first-ever sledding adventure and make the best of the situation. So we decided to go wine tasting!

We arrived at the Adams Country winery amidst a Mardi Gras party complete with beads and homemade chili. The chili warmed us up and the wine finished us off! It was a great afternoon. We found out that the local "civil war" wineries have a promotion to get folks to tour all of the wineries along the Mason-Dixon wine trail--perhaps we should go on a "Tour de Vin" around the local vineyards? On bikes? Maybe not. . .

After our afternoon of sipping wine, we headed back to the house to do what else, but bike! So, Honorary Bella Jen, resident Spin instructor aka Torture Queen, took us for a wild ride! We had 6 bikes in the living room, and an audience of one--little Ethan sat in his high chair looking at us all like we were crazy. So we sweated to her i-tunes and had what we unanomously agreed was the absolute best trainer workout we'd ever had! And it was fun too!

We finished off the evening discussing the future for Mid-A Velo Bella and had a fantastic homemade dinner stright from the culinary creativity of Chris Carmicheal; cranberry glazed chicken breast with mashed sweet potatoes and salad. Yum Yum!

After a good night's sleep, we awoke early to head back out into the winter weather for another chance at inner-tubing. We first stopped off in downtown Gettysburg at the local diner for the $2.95 local's special of 2 eggs, 2 bacon, and 2 pieces of toast with hash browns. Another yum yum! And of course, what trip to Gettysburg would be complete without sighting local civil-war era "re-enactors"!?

We finally headed back up the mountain, rode the sledding bus and landed ourselves at the base of the mighty sled hill. For the next 2 hours we had what can only be described as "thirty-somethings pretending to be sixteen" fun. And boy did we have fun!

All in all, the first winter retreat was a complete success! We are talking about a mid-summer's retreat as well, so stay tuned! For a look at the rest of the pics, just click here!

Winter Solstice

Although we are cold as ice right now, we are looking forward to the kick off of the season with the


We'll be out there volunteering, drinking hot cocoa, and racing too. We look forward to seeing new faces and race-veterans too.

Nationals, Now Worlds

The Mid-Atlantic Bellas had a strong showing at Nationals with Dee-Dee taking the national champion title in the Master's 30-34 age category and an impressive race for 4th in the Elites. Based on her consistently strong results all season long, it was the icing on the cake for her to be selected to race in the World CX Championships. We are all so proud of her and her supportive family. Good luck Dee-Dee.

Ready for Cyclocross Nationals

The 2006 Cyclocross Nationals will be held in Providence, RI Dec 15-17. Mid-Atlantic Bellas Deidre Winfield and Melanie Swartz will be participating in two events, the Women's Masters 30+ race on Friday, Dec 15 and also the feature race on Sunday, Dec 17, the Elite Women's race. Both racers have earned a front row start position assigned by UCI ranking. They are proud to be representing one of the biggest and most well-known women's cyclocross team in the U.S. and the world, Velo Bella-Kona. Check Cycling News and Velo News for race coverage.

2006 MABRA CX Champion

The 2006 MABRA Cyclocross Championships were hosted in Taneytown MD, 26 Nov by Tracey Lea and crew and M-Street racing. Although this was one of the less attended races, the level of competition was still high for a MABRA series race. In an attempt to redeem local bragging rights of a MABRA championship title after missing out on the series title the past two years, Swartz took off from the gun and never looked back - well she did but she was trying to ensure that her lead was only growing with every lap of the muddy course. Newcomers to the local cyclocross scene Marjan Huizing (DC Velo) and Jessica Hill (Trail's End) rounded out the podium. The cyclocross season continues with the last local race, the Capital Cross Classic, to be held Sunday, Dec 3, at Lake Fairfax park in Reston, VA.

Shue survives Ironman 70.3 World Championships!

Thank you EVERYONE for your support and words of encouragement in the race of my lifetime! I was undertained, overworried, and really concerned about my performance, but in the words of the oldest woman who raced last weekend (78 years old and finished strong) my goal was to "show, go, and finish". And I did!

The whole experience began Thursday evening at the opening ceremonies/pre-race dinner. Members of the local JROTC paraded in flags of every country represented, nearly 100 countries. It felt like my own mini olympics! The most athletes were from the US, followed by Brazil, England, and then Mexico I think, coincidently the country in which I qualified to race in the championships! There were racers from each of the 50 states, and the District of Columbia (wait, that's me!!!). Then they gave us a preview of the FULL Ironman race completed on 21 Oct in Kona, HI and to be aired on NBC on 9 Dec. Why did I pay nearly $1000 to do this? That would only be the first time I would ask myself that very question . . .

Friday came, and I went to check in my bike. On my quick spin around town ensuring I'd reassembled my bike correctly after disassembling it to fly on the plane, I was flagged down by a group of "goth" looking high-schoolers who asked me "What is your purpose?" as they flew by in their gas-guzzling SUV. I really had no answer for her. A minute later I caught her at a red light, and she again said "no, really, why are you riding bikes all around town?" I explained to her the race in the space that a red light allows. She replied "Oh, so you're training or something?" Not really. . . .but Saturday the question of my purpose came up a few too many times!

After a fantastic pre-race meal, I hit my bed around 8:30, ready for a full night's sleep. I awoke many many times in the night, wondering when 5 am would arrive. When it did, I was so not ready for it. Alas, the alarm went off, I got up and readied myself for the day ahead. The dawn was warm, wet and humid. My bike was doused in dew, and the eastern sky was red with the rising sun--what's that saying "red sky in the morning, Sailor take warning?" Fortunately, the winds were dead, and the sea was the calmest I've ever seen. There was no surf, it was like wading into a pool. Absolutely perfect race conditions all day long prevailed!

I watched and waited as the men's pro, women's pro and 4 age-group men waves hit the beach. Finally, it was time for all 400 women competitors to start our race. Not being an especially fast swimmer, I chose to be in the middle of the pack, near the bouys. Apparently that was a good strategy. I had my "fastest" swim ever, finishing in just over 38 minutes. Mind you, pros finish in 20 minutes or so, so I'm not ever going to win the swim! But I was very happy with that, and ran as fast as I could to the eager volunteers who expertly stripped my wetsuit and I was off to the transition tent.

I quickly reached my bike, grabbed the helmet and was off. I was forewarned that the bike course was fast and flat, and that the greatest error would be to push big gears. So I made a strategic decision to stay in the small chainring the whole time. Big mistake. I had probably the worst bike ride ever. Okay, maybe not the worst, as I passed 3 folks who had far worse rides than I; the first guy had a demolished disk wheel at mile 5 (about $2000 down the drain), and then at mile 20 there was an older man bleeding from his head and the paramedics were checking his neck for injuries, and finally I saw a poor lady laying on the asphalt with her arm bandaged up and she had just given up. No idea how a straight, wide, course could be so dangerous! For the first time in my race career I was being passed on the bike. But I maintained that I was going for the steady pace, ensuring I had legs left for the run. I finally crossed the "bike in" at a deflating 2:57 or so. The men pro's were only miles from the finish line as I transitioned to my running shoes.

The run. What can I say. My legs didn't want to move. Period. I quickly realized that it was going to be 13.1 miles of sheer willpower, because I had wasted my legs with the high cadence I'd forced myself into on the bike in the small gear. For those of you who think that Florida is flat, let me tell you otherwise. The race director managed to find the steepest bridge in the greater Tampa area. And he managed to make us cross it not once, not twice, but FOUR different times. My nephew has a motto, "try harder" and I grabbed hold of that motto and went with "tri harder" as I ran the slowest mile splits of my running career. Ford, the corporate sponsor of the race, had an 11-mile marker text messaging motivational station for the racers. I took the liberty of sending myself a message the day before, so as I crossed mile 11 I saw my signature motto "Suck it up princess!" which made me smile for exactly 10 seconds. Then the pain in my IT bands returned.

But, mind over matter, sheer will over physical pain, and I rounded the final corner, and heard the voice of Ironman, Mike Rielly, call my name as I came down the final gauntlet. I had done it, I finished the 70.3 World Championships and I was a HALF Ironman!

I once again reaffirmed that those people who do the full Ironman are just plain crazy!!!

I stumbled through the finish line with my finisher's medal, shell lei, and rice and beans, only wanting to get to the hotel and shower. Once that mission was accomplished, the adrenaline rush that had been so lacking during the race finally kicked in, and I went out and celebrated with my former San Diego teammates until the sun came up the next morning--yes, 24 hours of Ironman fun! Amazing things our bodies can do when we push to see just what we're capable of!

As for what's next? Right now I'm looking forward to the gluttony of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We'll talk more come New Year's!

RACE PHOTOS HERE

Shue to take on World at Ford Ironman 70.3 World Championship

Mid-Atlantic Velo Bella-Kona triathlete Nicole Shue will compete in the inagural Ironman 70.3 championship race Saturday November 11th in Clearwater, Fl. Join her fellow Velo Bellas in cheering her on as she completes a 1.2 mile open ocean swim, 56 mile time-trial bike race and 13.1 mile half marathon, totaling 70.3 miles of fun! Watch the race live as it unfolds beginning 7 am this Saturday! The race will also be shown on NBC March 31st, 2007.

Winfield Top 10 in USGP, Swartz Tears Up MABRA

Winfield, with her two top-10s this past weekend at the cyclocross USGP in Boulder, CO, is in the top-10 of overall rankings for the prestigous series.

On the local front, Swartz won the two local MABRA cyclocross races in Leesburg, VA and Sykesville, MD in an attempt to reclaim the MABRA series lead she had won in 2004. Swartz finished second in the MABRA series this year. Check out the recap in Velo News