Various vicarious things

It's been three weeks since the Epica and I'm still awfully fond of the memories. So fond that I remain convinced about doing it again next year. So convinced that I can do things differently that I've ordered a steel hardtail 29er (which is in the LBS just now, but I'm so taken up with the school theatre production that I won't have time to pick it up and put it together until the week after next (report and pics will be posted) ... which is another story about what could possibly be so demanding that I won't have time to pick up the new bike I've pining for ... which is a story about me and priorities ... which is about habits of mind that are hard to break). In the meantime I've returned to commuting with my crossbike commuter, a set-up that I'm convinced is best for commuting in all weather in and in all terrains. (If you regularly need a fatbike to commute, you're probably living somewhere North of 60'.)

Canadians training in California (l-r): Jason Wiebe, Karlee Gendron, Danick Vandale, GeeVs, Chris Prendergast. (pic by Jayson Gillespie)

On the vicarious front GeeVs has begun her racing season in the southern states. After training for about a month in California, in Oxnard just north of LA, she now lives with a teammate in Tucson, Arizona. Her first race was the Valley of Fire stage race, last weekend in Overton, Nevada. She raced in the Cat 1/2/3 Pro category, as a Cat 3 rider and placed 7th in the Time Trial, 24th in the Crit (she was ridden off the course by another rider and lost the main pack), and 5th in the Road Race (sprint finish with same time for places 2 through 7) for 9th place in the GC. Pretty good considering there were US pro cycling team members in the field.

Yesterday she road the Old Pueblo Grand Prix criterium in the Cat 1/2/3 Pro race (the only women's race). This race is a pretty big deal, since several pro teams compete: Optum, Vanderkitten, Colavita. GeeVs rode on her own, wearing the Manitoba colours, and placed 21st out of 36, a result that made her very happy. She was fully prepared to have her ass handed to her, but she felt strong and able to manage the pace of a 50 minute race averaging 38 km/h over a technical 6-corner course, all while racing without teammates.

Road racing on a bike is not a solo sport at the upper categories. If you consider that teams like Optum, et. al. have six or seven riders each in the field who all work together to pull their best rider into the best position to sprint to win at the finish (for example, Optum's Canadian Leah Kirchmann placed 3rd in this year's race - a race she won last year), riding alone in that pack could be daunting, but GeeVs stayed with them and learned a lot about racing in a pro peloton. And GeeVs does not consider Criterium-racing her strength - she's more likely to have success in the road-race and time-trial disciplines.

The end of all this is that GeeVs license has been upgraded from Cat 3 to Cat 2, which is exciting, especially after only 10 months of bike racing experience! Proud PauPs? Yes. Indeed.