The racing actually went pretty well. My teammates swept the top-three spots on the podium both Saturday and Sunday. Katerina took her first cross-country victory and won again in short track. Here’s the podium shot

With about four laps to go in the short track I rode myself into 5th place–the bottom of the podium. Then somehow Kathy Sherwin, Heather Holmes, and Emily Batty all started going faster and I finished up 8th. Not bad.

During the cross-country event, I wound up in sixth with a lap to go and then my calves started to cramp on the downhills. The cramping subsided a bit for the climbing and I was at least able to keep pace with the Trek rides, Jenny Smith and Mikal Dyck, who caught and passed me right before the final climb. Then the calves started to cramp again on the last downhill. Then my hamstring cramped and I couldn’t keep my right leg going up and down (it wanted to go side to side). Luckily I made it to the line in 8th place but Jenny and Mikal put a minute and a half on me in the last downhill.

Anyway, the weekend was a success. Now I get to train some more.

It’s official, my teammates are going to Beijing. Catharine received her official invite today and while USA Cycling hasn’t made any announcements–Georgia’s going too. It’s pretty amazing to be a part of such an accomplished team. While I’ve personally contributed zero points to making Team LUNA the best women’s mountain bike team in the world–second year running–at least I can brag about my teammates.

Georgia, Catharine, Katerina, Waldek, and Chris just returned from a month-long Europe trip, taking on two World Cups and the World Championships. My teammates rolled in some impressive results from World’s with Catharine placing 6th, Georgia 9th, and Katerina 12th–career best finishes for them all.

What have I been doing? Trying to win Boulder Short Track–it’s been two years since I’ve pulled off a “W” on my home turf. Next time I’ll have stake out a first row start position, and not fall asleep on the line. Brian Alders and Cu Cycling have done an excellent job reviving Wednesday night short track. So if you’ve got nothing going on Wednesday evening in Boulder, then race!

Anyway, I have a NMBS race to think about (or not think about). I’ll be dreaming about switchbacks, singletrack, purple flowers, dust, and starting fast. Wish me luck!

Opening Gallery Reception | June 27 | 5-7 pm
In the Dairy Center for the Arts Galleries | June 27 - August 1, 2008

In Focus
“Flesh and Stone”
Shannon Forsman

Artist Dialogue | July 9 | 7pm

My sister, Shannon, has an opening for her photography show next week at the Boulder’s DAIRY Center. Her subjects are rocks and climbers. She’s got some truly amazing photos and her show will up through the month of July. The DAIRY Center is here.

This year I can’t share any first hand accounts of what happened at the U23 World Championships in Italy. I’ve been hanging around Boulder, recovering from the Nature Valley Grand Prix and a head cold. One of the stories I failed to share earlier this year is how I botched my chance to automatically qualify for World’s not once–but three times. I won’t get into any details but here’s some advice–always finish the important races, no matter how crappy you feel. Anyway, I’m still going to share the results of this year’s U23 race. If you’re not familiar with any of these names, I’ll go ahead and highlight all the ladies who have 1) won a World Cup this year or 2) finished in the top-10 of a World Cup. Then you might wonder, wtf happened?

1 Tanja Zakelj (Slovenia) 1.35.31
2 Nathalie Schneitter (Switzerland) 2.59
3 Aleksandra Dawidowicz (Poland) 3.15
4 Nataliya Krompets (Ukraine) 3.43
5 Caroline Mani (France) 4.04
6 Emiliy Batty (Canada) 5.00
7 Julie Krasniak (France) 5.54
8 Julie Bresset (France) 6.11
9 Maaike Polspoel (Belgium) 8.05
10 Daniela Campuzano (Mexico) 8.09
11 Stephanie Wiedner (Austria) 8.12
12 Hanna Klein (Germany) 8.18
13 Chengyuan Ren (People’s Republic of China) 9.31
14 Katarzyna Solus (Poland) 10.13
15 Silke Schmidt (Germany) 12.05
16 Alexandra Engen (Sweden) 12.46
17 Laura Metzler (France) 14.08
18 Vera Andreeva (Russian Federation) 15.34
19 Jamie Dinkins (United States Of America) 16.14
20 Tereza Hurikova (Czech Republic) 17.16
21 Anja Gradl (Germany) 18.13
22 Judith Pollinger (Italy) 19.31
23 Iryna Slobodyan (Ukraine) 21.09
24 A. Serrano Rodriguez (Ecuador) 23.09

Anyway, I’m happy to see Emily Batty had a good race. It must have been those Mt. Lemon repeats earlier this year…
Well, a part of me wishes I raced in Italy yesterday but I’ll be out there next year.

Somewhere between La Vuelta de Bisbee and the present I’ve flown to California a couple times, once from Colorado and once from Arizona. I’ve also driven the distance from Tucson to Boulder three times and moved out of my apartment and back home. A few weeks ago I started a couple of summer courses online–government and nutrition. Sometime in May I raced Collegiate Road Nationals and did well enough to find myself on the Ryan’s Collegiate All-Star Team (a composite squad) racing the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Oh, last weekend went pretty well at the Teva Mountain Games–TJ did an update for me. So here I am, in Minnesota and happy to say I’ve kept the rubber side down, haven’t been time cut, and actually sit somewhere in the top-50 GC. There’s one criterium left but this particular crit has a climb with a 20% grade. I guess if you’re not one of the top climbers in the country, it’s not a matter of if you get dropped but when. Amanda Miller, one of my teammates for the week has some good blog updates about the racing so far. Since she’s not a slacker when it comes to blogging, I’d suggest reading her posts and not bother with mine.

But I’ll post a picture from the time trial. I went about as fast as I look.