Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Last month or so..

Hey.

So We finally got internet at home now! Yay!! Only took 2 months but here I am!!
Quick rundown, Auckland 1000 started off pretty well. I was feeling really good and really enjoying the race. Then after the last turn to the finish about 1.5 km to go, I got a puncture. Got a wheel change, and managed to finish 4th, so a little frustrating but the $250 prizemoney for 1st wasn’t quite worth riding the $2000 carbon rim to the finish! :)
Auckland champs about 3 weeks ago….. Man I thought I was going to die on the first lap…. I felt terrible…I’m glad I kept going though as I started feeling better as the race went on. I can’t say it was an enjoyable race, in fact would prob go as far as to say I was hating it!! So for me, sounds so dumb but just to finish was a good result, and to get 3rd was even better!!
Since then I have been training a bit for the Oceanias coming up next week, and originally I was going to do the road and track events, but looking at the schedule I think I made the right decision to just do the road. Think the event I am most exctied about is the TT. Lately I have been trying to improve in this event. For the past 12 years I have hated it, but now I think I rather like it! Still alot of improvement to be had but hey, will go with the flow..
Mike’s at the Tour of Southland at the moment. Flat feels kinda empty :( So wish I was there. It seems like there is soo much drama!! Looking forward to being down there next week!! Not so much hanging out in Invercargill though, jsut being round some racing will be good!
Ok thats all for now.
Bye :)
man blog website has changed I dont even know how to post this now……grrrr

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Random …..

So I was gonna do another report on Saturday, but I thought that was just too sad!! So now its Monday nigtht and I have nothing better to do!! And plus today has been a major CBF day.. training wise, the most exercise I got was just walking across the road to buy a memphis meltdown…… yum!! soooo good! At least doing this update I will feel like I’ve achieved something! ha..

Yeah so still got no internet here so its back to mamas house to upload this at some stage this week!!

So when I got back I thought it would be a good idea to do the Auckland TT champs. 3 days after landing. So after crossing the line in Canada 2 weeks earlier I rode once for 1 hour in in 35degree heat! Lining up in Aka aka it was a rather different story! Holy crap I dont think I felt my body the whole time I was on the bike, I knew I was creeping as I was barely puffing, but I could not move my legs any faster! I thought it was pretty funny!! You know its bad day in the office when you get asked if you had a puncture!! hahaha… I was like nah mate just felt horrible.. hah anyway, after the race there were kids running round bare feet, and I was piling on every bit of clothes I had to try and get warm… the heater in the hall was mine!! all MINE!! Man I was frozen to the bone! Crouching next to it for 20 min solid!! yeah ,pointless story ……
Anyhow, so basically I have been back now for just over 3 weeks and pretty much had that time off the bike,chillax and work as much as I could!
I had another good idea…. I’ve decided that this weekend I will do the Auckland 1000, they’ve put on a separate race for women, so it’s cool to make up numbers!! So see what happens!!

Anyway, I’m off …
Over.

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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Tour De Delta & Tour De White Rock

Well… Hey there!!

So this has to be the slackest report out!! Right now I am sitting in my new flat in Auckland on a Saturday night with nothing else to do but to update my blog while waching Americas funniest videos! Nice!! wish you were me??
So I’ve been home for the past 16 days!! Oops, so taken me all this time to update the last 2 races with the Jazz girls!! Tour De Delta and Tour De white Rock, Vancouver Canada!
I got to drive up from Portland with mikes team in the Range Rovers, it was pretty cool! Only like 5 hr drive! While the rest of the girls flew up from California!
Malindi and I were in the same house, staying with Maria and John, whom the team’s stayed with before! So they were pretty happy to have us back for the week!

Tour De Delta
Stage 1: 3km prologue! 4 of us were in the top 10 today. Pity no one quite got on the podium, but not a bad position to be in right now
Stage 2: 1 hr crit. Having Steph the local Vancouverian (is there such a word??) in our team the plan was to get her the win!! Unfortunately it didnt quite work out to plan! But none the less, Jazz was 1,2,3,5 and 6!! Not bad!! Lauren, and Dotsie had a wee breakaway going, and Malindi and I set up Steph for the 3rd!! We pretty much cleaned up every preme on offer too!!
Stage 3; 86 Km road race: Today there were QOM points and Sprint points up for grabs on almost every lap. My job was to go for the Hill points and Malindi was going for the Sprints!! After 9 laps, we were were set up for these two categories too!! We were now going for the time bonuses in the finish and to try sweep the top 3 GC spots!! It turned out that I managed to win the stage, Steph was 2nd and Dotsi 3rd!! Greedy maybe, but hey it was a blast!! The team worked sooooo well together and things could not have possibly worked out any better. Byt the end of the 3 days we had. The Young rider and the overall leader jersey! Top 3 spots on GC. 2 stage wins, the QOM jersey, Sprint Jersey, and Overall top team!! Wicked ay!! Needless to say we were on a buzz and Looking forward to next weekend!!
The week was spent pretty much hanging out at the house and a couple of trips to the shops!! I think we all deserved a little shopping after all the Prize money we had won!! :) But nothing major was happening!! I should have gone to have a look around Vancouver….. but … maybe next year!
Tour De White Rock!!
Stage 1: 750 m Hill climb. I would give you the details of this hill, but I cant really describe it, just UP!!! and up and up!! really steep! Basically they run it like a 2 up time trial. You go balls out and hope you get in the top 5 where you line up after everyone has gone and do the hill again! Luckily Jazz has one of the best hill climbers in the business, and Dotsie easily cleaned up!! I managed to get 2nd by riding my own tempo and just waiting for the other 3 to blow 300m into it, after exploding out of the block like they were doing a 500track race!! sheesh!!
Stage 2: Criterium! Well with the tour based on a points system over the 3 days we knew exactly who we had to look after to keep the girl in the top positions. By the end of the day we had managed to clean up all the premes and another 1st and 2nd in the stage with myself and Lauren!!
Stage 3: Far out, this was a tough wee circuit! Think we did something like 8 laps! Dotsie was going for the QOM points, and we knew with a top 3 placing in the stage she would move int o 2nd on GC!! So basiclly 1.5 laps to go Susy launched her and she was off on her merry way!! I was fortunate to win the bunch sprint which meant we had secured the tour win!! yay us!
I wont lie this would have to have been the best 10 day of racing ever!! It was soooooo much fun! The people were so excited to see the Jazz girls back (as in the past they have always done very well at these two events) and the atmosphere was wicked too!!
Sadly this was the last race for the season, and everyone pretty much went their separae ways that afternoon! Chris and Susy flew back to NZ, and I was off back to Portland/Bend to hang out/ help with mikes team for a week before heading home!!

The last week in was spent in Bend, following the Cascade Classic. A 6 day tour. Can’t say I was jealous not racing, the heat was insane and It was nice to know there was no pressure to perform, my time was done!! Probably the highlight was being able to float down the river in these little single blow up boats!! Seems to be the thing to do there as there are heaps of people out doing the same thing! Mike thought it was a great idea to float donw on a little pink lilo the half sunk as he straddled it.. half way down the river he was blue, teeth chattering and I think hyperthermia starting to settle in!! Needless to say I had to rescue him and drag him into my little boat!! heheheh…….

Back soon
Over :)

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Past couple of weeks!

Hey,
So I have been hanging out with Mike in Portland OR for the past 3 weeks and it has been wicked!!  Time flies when you’re having fun!
Over the weekend I headed back south to meet up with the Jazz girls in Monterey.  We had 2 days of racing. 
Day 1 = 100km = 9 laps.  It was a hard wee circuit, didnt realise there was going to be a 1 km climb every lap. But for some reason this time round that did not bother me, I actually felt really good up the climb and was confident we were going to pull off a great result. Basically every lap the field got smaller and smaller til Lauren and I were left with one Le Grande girl, and pretty much worked her over big time! Lauren got the win for the team and I got 2nd.  Pretty stoked really! 
Todays circuit was through the Army base.  Basiclaly you had to have ID and a security check to get through the gates. I had a wee giggle, when we showed up there was a line of cars and riders waiting to get checked in and we just rode straight in. A guy from another team was like, man 5 girls just rode in, and no one got screened!  Why we have to wait!!!  Shame! So anyhow the course went through the base on these random roads with “potholes” which I also refer to as craters!! If you hit one you would dissapear forever!. Before the climb there was these old burn out sheds onthe right, and a sign saying “gas chambers”…. freaky.  And just to make it a bit more interesing there was a low secutiry prison, and as we were racing by the guys were outside, doing their weights andbuffing up!! Susy  recons a couple were flashing their chests and yelling for her!! hahha… the cheer squad!

Day 2 = 55min Criterium.  Coming into the race today I think we were quietly confident, well I knew we could podium for sure, after yesterdays performance!  So from about 5 min into it Steph was on the go the whole time! attacking/covering/blocking/countering…… Susy was taking flyers…. (picking up a toilet roll as a preme along the way, but not just any toilet paper, it had Sarah Palans face on it…. hehehe, well I think its funny) Anyhow, basiclaly long story short, I ended up in a break with 2 others and 2 laps to go it was down to 2 of us, and then it was just me…. crossing the line…. alone!!  I’d won!! yussss!!  Actually did a little salute…. maybe a little wobbly but it was there!! haha…
So yeah that was is a great weekend in racing and deffinitly a confidence boost for tour of Delta and Tour De white Rock coming up in Canada this weekend!!   In the past the Jazz girls have done extremely well so here’s hoping we can make history repeat!!
For now I am back in Portland till tomorrow then we are off on the 7 hour drive!!  My Favourite! 
The tour has been on TV here ALL day EVERY day! Its been crazy, and its funny during the add breaks the riders and teams have adds and they like slag each other off…  I guess you gotta see them to find it funny!!
Don’t forget to check out www.jazzapplecycling.com for more updates!

Back soon
Over
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Monday, June 22, 2009

Nature Valley all done!

Hey, so quick rundown on the rest of the stage in Natre Valley!!

Stage 3 Thur; about 95km.  1 big loop, then 4 smaller finishing loops. Ok so today was pretty sweet, once we got going I started to feel better. Everything was going pretty smooth till we hit the gravel road that took us to the finishing circuits. I knew I had to be near the front coming up to the right turn, but what I didnt realise it was onto a tiny almost like a driveway road, even the leading motorbike missed it, and it was slight chaos in the peleton.  Most of the people that were near the front ended up half way back and had to unclip etc.. I was on the wrong side of the road moving up, and had to do a complete U turn and was basically dead last wheel going into the gravel…  by the time we hit the finishing circuit a couple of us were way off the bunch… anyway it was a pretty frustrating day…. finished with a  small group!!

Stage 4 Fri:  crit. 1 hour. dead flat. Man these girls can ride!! Again starting almost last wheel I didnt exacly give myself the best opportunity…. It was strung out from the start to the  finish!! Thankfully I stayed upright and finished safely in the bunch! The highlight of the evening was the time we spent at the Jazz Apple tent, promoting and giving away apples!!  I really enjoyed that! We actually got to meet the Kiwi growers that were in the US for a bit!! They were buzzing we were there and likewise for us too!!  They were cool!!

Stage 5 Sat:  145km.  Pretty flat. 1 long loop with 4 finishing circuits (1 massive hill about 700m long steeeep) Quite a few attacks and about 100km later, finally a break got away with our own Dotsie!! It stuck right to the end with Jazz  finishing 2nd!! Not a bad day in the office!!! The team worked well today and backed each other up all the way!! So it was awesome to podium! The other major highlight was hearing that Mike placed 3rd in the stage and was now in the young rider leader jersey!! yaaaaayyyy!! :)

Stage 6 Sunday! 13 laps  of a really cruel way to finish a 5day stage race circuit!! That’s just evil!! Start off stright up the hill, basiclaly the only bit of flat was about 200m around the start finish area the rest was either vertical uphill….almost vertical uphill mixed in with slight uphill with a touch of downhill… so perfect for me really!! hahahha not…. nah seriously it was pretty cruel but I actually really enjoyed it… the crowds were insane!!! The hill was packed with spectators and it was just like in the TDF where they clear the road just enough  for you to squeeze by!! it was awesome!!  After our race it was the men!!  I was so nervous for Mike, pressure was on to retain the jersey!! oh he did so well, ended up 3rd overall on the young rider category with his team mate taking the honours!! So it finished off the tour on a high… well for me ayway.

So right now Im in Portland Oregon, (where Mike’s team is based) and finally I get to spend more then 4 days in one spot and I am stoked!! 2weeks all up actually!  The first thing I notice is the change in weather!! One day its got and humid and the next its wet and cold :( kinda reminds me of Belgium last year!! 

Ok thats all for now folks, back soon!! 
Posted by Duv Duv at 01:45:24 | Permalink | No Comments »

Friday, June 12, 2009

Tulsa tough day 3 (delayed report 2 weeks)

Tulsa tough - Day 3   (delayed 2 weeks)


So today was a stunner once again!!  Not only was the sun out baking, its was by far the most testing course of the 3 days!! It’s called Tulsa Tough for a reason!!!

The only flat part of the course was the start finish area which was about 400m long and then a hard right into a steep 250m climb, then a few more steps up and up, hard right and slight down hill and a sharp right hand turn down a steep hill to the finishing straight!! 

 You would think that on such a dangerous corner is where the carnige would happen, but no, seems that the girls in our bunch have a special talent in crashing on the uphill!!! Thank god the Jazz girls don’t posses this talent and were fortunate to get through the races in one piece!!

So anyway the race was 60min!!The pace was on from the gun, and pretty much within 15 min or so the bunch had whittled down to 30 riders or so!! Lauren and Dotsie were right up there, covering and countering moves!! It was awesome to see!! 

 Malindi, Steph and I were on the climb showing our support (from the sidelines at this point)!! There was a huge party atmosphere, with on house having a DJ and the occupants dressed up in speedos, sparkly suits, pink wigs, and needles to say they were rather merry and barely standing at 2pm!!!   The big screen was in perfect position, we got to see the whole race and managed to steal a bit of TV time too!! Parading around in our snazzy Jazzy skinsuit!!  :)

So back to the race! Watching Lauren so strong and dominant in the pack was like a proud mama’s moment!!  ”shes with me”/ “that’s my girl” type thing!!  She finished 8th overall, a great result and a high to finish on!!  Philly here we come!

Over
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Fun Fun Fun!

So, continuing from the last blog update!!

I ended up spending more then 8 hours at  Philly Airport in the end. The 2.45pm flight didnt leave till like 6 pm, then spent another hour on the runway for our spot in the line…. and luckily I had managed to change my connection in Chicago to a later fight or I would have not made the race!!  Once I landed in Chicago I was basically sprinting to the next gate, where I was the last passanger on board!! (that flight was also 2 hours delayed) but before I got on to the plane I told the lady I that I HAD to have my bike on board this plane as I had a race at 8am the next morning… blah blah blah… Anyway Southwest Airline were so good as they held the plane up a bit more as the pilot announced “we are just waiting for one more bag from the Philly connection to be loaded then we are off”…..   Up until this point its kinda funny as I didnt even really panic all day, I mean what can you do, it happens……  The only thing that cracked me once I got onto that last plane was that there was only 1middle seat available and the stupid white trash lady did not wanna get up, she was expecting me to climb over her to get tot he seat, and its not like she was a stick insect either….. grrrr… its such a small thing, but I was tired and that just CRACKED ME….. made her get up and move the F handbag and drink she had on MY seat!!   (sorry  sounds so stupid, but I had to let it out) ….
Anyhow I made it to the host housing!! Freaking HUGE house and absolutely amazing!!  Unpacked my bike and was pretty much all go for the 6am wake up call!!!

Stage 1 WED:  6 mile TT.. Well the aim for me was to just ride the TT and finish within the time cut!!  I was on my road bike which was sweet as….. basically went for a spin……. towing a  trailer…. man I felt like crap.
We got to go home inbetween the stages and it was straight to be for me (after a shwer of course) 2 hrous boof down!!

Stage 2 WED: 40 lap crit.  inner city.  It was fast and strung out right from the start.  I of course had the best position in the bunch….. if we were going the opposite way that is!!  I was basically the LAST wheel…. anyway again all I had to do was have an easy ride and try recover from the previous days travels.  I am pleased to say I finihsed in one piece and actaully felt really good once I passed all the randoms and was safely in the bunch!!  So thats a good sign!!

Back tomorrow with rest of it!!
Over ….
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Leaving Philly….

Hi

So, I am sitting at the Philly Airport waiting to fly to our next race!! Nature Valley! Because I was a late arrival to the team I am flying alone this time and will meet the team there! Now I know I am supposed to be a grown up here, but the thought of driving to the airport this morning in the rental car was still pretty nervewrecking. This is a big place and sooooo many signs/east/west.blah blah… but I am pleased to announce I am here alive and well….. I did however manage to get here 3.5 hrs early and now am sitting on the ground typing away trying to amuse myself till the battery dies….

I thought I could get away with eating my ready made lunch/wrap type thing with out dripping it all over myself….. but how wrong was I…. maybe I could kill another 15min trying to clean the sauce off the white t-shirt…. hmmmm……As someone would say….. Messy pup!!

So yeah, Kutztown was pretty cool!! Its about a 30 min ride to trexlertwon where the summer track season goes off!! I was here in 2001 for 3 months and have some great memories of the place…. Met some cool people!! Anyway, so I actually enjoyed sleeping out in the motor home, was like my own little hideaway! The team left this morning at 4.30am, while I was like hehehhe suckers you have to get up so early!! Once they left about an hour later the thunder and rain came down…. so needless to say the fear of getting struck by lightning was back and I got up soon after….

Philly was a pretty wicked race!! First of all there would have been at least 15 Kiwis taking part in the race (men and women)…. so it’s a great time to catch up!! Our goal for the day was to get my team mate Ruth into the QOM jersey…. and that we did!! It was a hotly contested competition,. But we managed to pull it off!! (for a more detailed race reports and photos please check out www.jazzapplecycling.com) I love it when the plan works to a T!!!

The other major highlight was the womens peleton, PASSING the men, about 3 laps into the race!!! bahahhah…. shame!! There were a few words exchanged on the way!!! Dont think I should write them on here, but basically the men got hassled big time!! ha!! If you think about it some of those guys get paid more than the yearly budget for a womens team!!!

Anyhow! My battery’s about to die, only 2.5 hrs to go…….. ohhhhh!!! :(

Back soon!!

Bye


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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

America - Jazz!!

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Hey there

So as promised here is the update….

Righto, so as you might have realized I have joined the Jazz Apple cycling team! It was a bit of an unexpected event, but it has turned out great!! The original plan for the year was to take it as it comes and up until like 7 weeks ago I was going on a trip to the US to visit Mike, a couple of emails to Susy asking if I was able to join them for a few races…. etc… And things just went on from there!!

I arrived in Monterey California last Saturday, greeted by the team manager Chris Drake! It’s been 9 days now and I have managed to:

Shift houses/accomodation :5 times (absolutely amazing team host housing, a MASSIVE change from my last year in Europe thats for sure!! People are so nice and friendly here too!! Actually smile and are excited to have us here!!

Race : 4 times ( 4x 60min crits)

Plane trips :4 Right now we are flying to Philly for a major event on the 7th June

Tangled up in crash (but not go down by some miracle) :1 amazing that a bunch of girls can corner at like 45km/hr but take each other out on a straight bit of wide road, right past the start finish line!! I had nowhere to go and piled straight into a girl already on the ground, but somehow I didnt go down, all I know is that I was sliding along, on my cleats totally upright and using every bit of my inner thigh strenght not to end up on the gound doing the splits!! So I just gradually slowed down and just tipped over, managing to hold myself up with one finger!! hahah I looked round for my bike and realised it was like 5 meters back!! I had to crack up, no idea how I managed that one, but the only proof I have is a tiny scratch on my ankle!! waaaahhh!!

Number of kiwis spotted at races so far : 3, Huck, Toni, Jas!! 4 with Liz! More kiwis to be spotted this weekend in Philly!!

Promotianl work for Jazz Apple ; 1 at Wholefoods! Pretty good fun!!b basically just spend a bit of time in the shop talking about and promoting the apple..

Witnessed a demolished team bike!!: 1 Malindi had a bad spil on the first night of racing and the bike was totally stuffed! Forks completely snapped, and considering state of the bike she’s come of pretty good!

Anyway, it’s only been like 4 races (crits) so far, but man its been soooooo much fun!! The crowds and the atmosphere here are totally different to Europe!! people are loving the fact that there is a race on, and the mens and womens races are on the same time so thats wicked too!!

Gotta, go… be back soon! Kutztown here we come!

Over

Posted by Duv Duv at 20:26:55 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday, May 29, 2009

America - JaZZ Apple!!

Hey there!!

I am so sorry for not keeping you guys posted, but so far I have not had a chance to even get on the net!! I have arrived in the US safe and sound and everything is sweet!!  

The team host housing is AMAZING and the people are sooooooooo friendly…   

So next time I have the net at the house I promise I will do an update!!  (sorry Mierelle) 

Racing tonight, so I better go, but will get back on here soon!  Im the mean time please check out the team website!! :)
wwwjazzapplecycling.com
Bye for now!  
Marina
Posted by Duv Duv at 20:47:49 | Permalink | No Comments »