Our Tea-totallers are on a winning streak. It began with Laura VanGilder racing a bunch of criteriums in the Georgia area (I wasn't there but I read about it). She finished a 3 day racing stint with a win in Roswell beating speedy sprinter Tina Pic in a head-to-head match. I met up with Laura in New Mexico, and the entire TEAm Lipton was charged up with this stellar result. We kept up the great performances the rest of the month. Kristin Armstrong won 2 stages and the overall title of the 5 day Tour of the Gila stage race in Silver City New Mexico. Then, 4 of us went to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Joe Martin stage race. We were extremely outnumbered but managed to pull off 4 podium results, and I got TEAm Lipton a win during the last day in the criterium – yeahhh. That was my first chance to practice my sprint:) It was a bitter sweet win though because our extraordinary TEAmmate Kristen LaSasso broke her collarbone that same day. UGHHHH!!!

On a side note - The cool thing about these two races was that my hubby was around:). He is rider/director for a team out of Denver called Einstein bagels/Mob Cyclery. One of their sponsors is Baked Cheetos which is a Unilever product. Hey Lipton is a Unilever product. Does this mean we’re related??? Hope not because I don't want to be related to my husband:). I sure like having him around though and I got to hang out with him and his team while in Arkansas. Man, Unilever has 2 great teams out there:)

So I've pretty much been spoiled. I've seen my husband for 2 months during the racing season. This is unheard of. Last year I only saw him 5 days a month from January to October. Life is wayyyy better this year.

One day rest and then the 4 day tour...

Day 1 was an 11k Time-Trial (TT). I had my best TT ever! I finished 2nd and was ecstatic. It was one of my favorite courses! I love technical crits and this TT was 2.5 laps of a crazy circuit-perfect. I had a lot of fun doing it. I felt like I was flying thru the circuit and analyzing every corner. My teammate Kristin was 3rd but had a bummer ride because some darn cars decided to enter the course during her effort. She turned a corner and entered a traffic jam. Thousands of cars (okay a big line of cars) were on the course and she had to stop. Arghh... I couldn't believe she got third after all that. I guess that's what stud muffin tea drinking time-trialists do. She even eats stellar muffins and drinks a lot of iced tea so this must really mean that she’s a stud muffin tea drinker. Those muffins and antioxidants just fight against all odds. Good job Antioxidant muffin. That’s our TEAm Lipton TEAmmate

Okay, so now were in a weird predicament. I'm the G.C. rider when normally Kristin is in this role. She's a better time-trialist and climber so that makes her a wickedly strong G.C. rider. My climbing is okay. I can get over most obstacles, but I'm usually hanging on for dear life. My normal role is to support Kristin either before the climbs or to set her up for the hard part of the climb. This TT result put us in a weird situation. The next stage is a road race. There are

3 spots to get time bonuses to help G.C. riders move up in standings. Then, after those 3 sprints, there are 2 big ol climbs. The time bonuses occur at the same time as the sprints for the sprinter competition, so in our pre-race meeting we thought sprinters would go for this competition thus nullify time bonuses for the G.C. riders. We decided that I shouldn't waist my energy sprinting against sprinters and blowing myself up before the climb. It was more important to just get over the climbs. So this was my focus, getting over the darn climb. If I didn't, the race would be over for me. We really didn't know who we’d be racing for(Kristin or myself) because we didn't know how I'd fare on the climb yet neither of us were going for time bonuses. Arghh, little did we know that the other G.C. riders asked the sprinters not to sprint for the time bonuses. Therefore, Trixie Worrack cleaned house and got almost all the time bonuses. She moved to second while I stayed fixated on saving energy for the climb and moved down to third. Kristin sat back to see what I could do, so her arms were tied too. Hindsight, Kristin or I should have adjusted the plan and sprinted when we saw the other G.C. riders going for it. It was my call and I failed to make a call. Making calls are a lot more difficult when you’re leading the crew - I learned that this week. It was hard for me to re-evaluate the plan and switch direction mid-race. Kristin finally said, “Kori, sprint for the third bonus”, but by that time it was too late. The damage was done. I made it over the climbs, and then Kristin and I attacked like crazy to get away from Thorburn, who was leading the overall. We didn’t get away and we didn’t get time bonuses, so we moved down in G.C. Now 3rd place was being threatened because of these darn time bonuses. Arghh. Okay, I was kicking myself a bit for being hesitant and not going for the bonuses.

Day 3 is a crit. Our director approached me and asked me if I was willing to be the leader for this race. I assumed responsibility and the time bonus game began. Here's my sprint training at work.

Day 4 was the final day. A road race. I'm still in third position. Judith Arndt has had some podium stage finishes and is nipping closely at my heel. Our goal is to keep TEAm Lipton on the podium. The plan consisted of the TEAm setting me up for time bonuses while Kristin would try to counter after the bonuses. Hopefully, she would get in a break and try stealing that leader’s jersey (since we immediately hit a 2k climb). Well this plan worked for the majority of the race. After the 2nd time bonus, Kristin countered up the finishing climb. She got off with a group of 8 and stayed off for the majority of the race. She was the leader on the road (meaning that if that break would stay ahead of the group she would win the overall title for the tour). Webcor (the team that had the leaders jersey) used up all its energy and with 6miles to go Thorburn(the team leader) was left chasing alone. Kristin still had 30+ sec and things were looking good. That's when Team Nurenburg decided to give er a go. They put their team out front, caught Kristin before the last time bonus and the group charged up the finishing climb. Judith was strongest on the climb. She won the stage and stole my podium spot. We had a good race and gave er a go that final day. TEAm Lipton is definitely an international force, and I learned a lot of lessons from the week. Good job ladies. Bye TEAm. Now I’m off to Brazil for a national team trip.

Standing at the beach on a little island in Brazil among 1,200 odd athletes ready to jump into the ocean just as the sun was coming up over the horizon was one of those moments I will forever treasure. When people ask me how I can get motivated to do my 24th ironman race, I only need to think back to moments like that! To experience the energy, the beauty, the anticipation, the excitement that filled the air – that’s why!

Got beat up in the swim quite a bit more than usual, so I was thrilled to exit the water and see a 1:03 on the clock; this was a PR for the 2.4 mile distance for me and a good way to start my race. After a pretty speedy transition, I was off on my bike. I had elected to wear both my TEAm Lipton arm warmers and jersey as the morning air was nippy and I figured the arm warmers could always be peeled off later if need be. The course was terrific and the road surface excellent, so that combined with me feeling great on the first loop of the bike course, I arrived at the mid-way aid station in a speedy 2:37 and started dreaming of a sub-5:30 bike split for the 112 miles. Not to be, though, as the winds picked up on the second loop and I started feeling the effects of not having done enough long-distance training. Entering an ironman 4 weeks before race day and thinking you can cram months of training into two weeks isn’t exactly the way I would recommend going about it… That said, I finished the bike in a very satisfying 5:40ish time split and headed out on the run in good spirits.

Right off the bat, I knew the marathon was going to be painful. At the first turnaround, I realized I was in fact leading my age group and that was all the encouragement I needed to dig deep and keep chugging along with the sole goal of not giving up my lead. In the end, experience and muscle memory carried me through to a 10:53 finish, giving me the age group win with a comfortable cushion and a big trophy to bring back to the States. All in all, a terrific trip to a new continent for me and a very satisfying race experience to boot!

May 28th, 2006

I am well past due now for my first TEAm Lipton Journal, so I will do my best to cover some of the fun and exciting adventures of late. Though I may not have traveled to quite as many countries as Meredith in the past month, my suitcase is still in a constant state of disarray somewhere between half unpacked and half packed and spread all over the room. I am currently writing this letter en-route to the East coast for a 3-week racing extravaganza. For those new readers who are just learning about the life of a professional cyclist, the racing season traditionally shifts from spending the Spring months racing on the West coast, to the mid-summer months traveling all over the East and Mid-West. As a Colorado girl, I always look forward to escaping the snow and heading to the California sun in the spring, but somewhat dread the sweltering heat and humidity of the East coast in July! Regardless, life has been pretty good so far and I wanted to share a few highlights from the past couple of months.

For the first time in a long time this April I chose to leave my skinny tires behind and get back to my dirt roots as a mountain bike racer. I headed solo to the Sea Otter Classic where equipped with a shiny new Fuji Mtn Pro, I decided to mix it up on the dirt for 4 days of great racing. As a female road racer, it has been disappointing to watch our once epic stage races (Solano, Sea Otter, and Redlands) slowly whittle away or completely disappear over the years. What used to be a fantastic and challenging 2 months of spring racing in California has gradually thinned out making way instead for bigger international men’s races such as the Tour of California. So, hoping to get more days of racing in my legs, I opted to branch out and try a mountain bike stage race. As it turned out, I chose a pretty hard weekend to make my mountain bike return. Weeks of rain had saturated the race courses turning once fast and furious routes into pits better suited for mud-wrestling than bike racing. My roadie legs were pretty shocked when the time came to run multiple parts of the course for fear of diving front tire first into a deep, unforeseen hole (which I ended up doing multiple times anyway). Every afternoon post-race I think I spent more time washing my bike and clothes than I spent actually racing. Though not great for competition, the mucky courses made for some great spectating, and hundreds of people came out to watch us battle through the mud. The cheers from friends and strangers helped me motor along, and eventually make it through a very epic weekend of mountain bike racing. My poor shiny new Fuji and I were a bit worse for the wear but still happy we got to flex our muscles against the best of the best.

After battling it out on the muddy slopes of Northern California, my next adventures took me to the big city for Bike Town USA/ Tour of the 5 Boroughs in N.Y.C. Now I am far from a big city girl, so visiting New York is always a fun treat. On this particular visit, my teammate Sarah and I represented our great sponsor Lipton and lent a helping hand distributing 50 bikes to very deserving New Yorkers. If you are unfamiliar with Bike Town USA, it is a fantastic joint venture between Lipton and Bicycling magazine where bikes are given to wonderful people looking to make some healthy changes in their lives. After a morning spent helping the recipients get all set up with their new bikes, we headed to the finish line of the Tour and participated in all the fun Lipton Live Well Challenge activities. When it was all said and done, I felt like a celebrity jet-setting back and forth to New York City for the weekend! Unfortunately it was back to reality and my half-packed suitcase on the floor of my bedroom. With only a day to pack again and head for La Belle France, the next batch or stories will have to wait until my return. Thanks for reading,

Before my June travels, I had to first prep my honey and then myself for the upcoming trip. I said, “Honey, I’m going to be gone for 6 weeks.”

He said, “Are you crazy its only 3 weeks.”

I said, “After all the time we've spent together, its going to feel like months.” I was right. It felt like years. Not being in the U.S. for part of the trip made communication difficult. I was sick for a lot of the travels and I missed having Jack around to stabilize all my emotionally swings during chaotic moments. Having limited phone time only accentuated my emotional swings. I had a lot of tears happening this month. Can you imagine that? Sorry everyone who dealt with those TEAm Tears. I finally saw Jack at the end of my travels. He was in Minnesota with his TEAm, and sure enough he thought 6 weeks had gone by - told ya it would be long!

Okay, now right before I leave who gets sick? My hubby! Do I avoid it? Nope. Basically, I fly to Canada with congestion. The congestion decides to become a runner. Little congestion ran all the way to my ear during flight. Darn it congestion get out of my ear. It said, “Hell no, we’re having a party hear and there’s a lot more space to run hear (I chose the word hear instead of here because I couldn’t hear). For the next 3 days, I thought my ear drum was going to explode. Arghh. Anyways, I raced the Montreal World Cup with an exploding ear drum. I drove the entire peleton (group of riders) crazy. I was trying to spit all my infection out every time we approached the big climb on the circuit. The only thing that would thin my mucusy head was water, so whenever I went thru the feed zone I sounded like a crazy woman. I was screaming, “water, water!” to our souigner Benny. I scared all the spectators. Yikes. My teammate Meredith was going to shove a cotton ball down my throat by the end of it. Maybe that would help some? In the midst of all my head chaos, our darn ol’ team had a podium result. Kristin was 3rd in the World Cup and I got 10th. We were all happy for that. After the race, I was searching for medical so I could get antibiotics. Everyone speaks French in Quebec, so I think I was a bit confusing. Why do you ask? Well, after I found the event doctor and left with my prescription, the ambulance found the TEAm Lipton car and wanted to haul me off to emergency ...opps a little miscommunication happened there. Maybe I was too much of a drama queen. I guess that’s part of the business. You deal with women cyclists, then you deal with drama queens I was on antibiotics for 10 days but started to feel better when the tour started.

Since the last time I wrote, my life has been quite a whirlwind. I traveled to Europe and managed to visit 8 countries in 2 weeks, during which time I raced 2 World Cups and a 4-day stage race in the Czech Republic. From Europe I flew straight back to the US and raced the 5-day Tour of the Gila in Silver City, NM.

Let me break it down for you a little bit. On April 15 I flew to Europe to meet up with the US national team to race 2 World Cups – Fleche Wallonne and Tour de Berne – and the Gracia-Orlova tour in the Czech Republic. This year was my 4th year riding Fleche so I had a pretty good idea what to expect. I knew that one of the last hills before the Mur de Huy (the tough finishing climb) was usually where the peloton shattered, so my job was to get Tina Pic to the base of the climb in good position. I did my best to get her there and then blew going up the climb. I ended up riding the last 25km by myself, which wasn’t much fun, although it was kind of cool riding up the Mur de Huy alone with the crowd cheering just for me. Overall, it was a nice day for a race, especially in the springtime in Belgium and it was great hearing the crowd on the Mur de Huy. After the women’s race was over we were able to see the finish of the men’s race, which is always cool to see.

From Belgium we traveled to Switzerland for the Tour de Berne. That race didn’t go so well for the team as Tina was caught in a crash and myself and Rebecca Larson cooked ourselves trying to get her back to the peloton. That left Tina with no teammates going into the last lap and she definitely could have used us at the finish.

After a great stay in Switzerland, we drove to Austria where we stayed 2 nights before moving on to Czechy. The hotel we stayed in was awesome – the same hotel the world's team will stay in for the race in Sept. Beautiful area, epic riding, wonderful and relaxing.

Finally the day before the Czechy race we drove to Gracia. It’s not the nicest place to be considering the race is based around a nuclear power plant, but we did arrive to find our hotel much more pleasant than we were expecting. That was a bonus. The racing started off well but only went downhill for me. My legs were feeling very empty and I was more discouraged day after day. On the 3rd day we had a double day and during the first stage I was struggling so bad that I had to pull the pin. My race was over. My legs were just telling me “no more”. The rest of the race went on in the rain and in the afternoon the girls had their TT in the rain in Poland. Not ideal. The weather was crappy again the last day so I was content to stay in the hotel and wait for the finish so that we could head off to Prague. We spent the night out in Prague (not getting too crazy) and had a really good time. Prague is one of the coolest cities I have been in and it seemed like a completely different country to where we had been racing. I highly recommend a visit to Prague – I know I would like to go back one day and have more than just a night to see the city!

Early the next morning we flew out of Prague and I flew straight to Tucson with Benny, our soigneur. The next morning we met up with the rest of the girls to get prepared for the opening TT of the Tour of the Gila. I knew that racing at altitude is tough but I wasn’t sure how I would respond with jet lag and bad legs to boot. Amazingly, I made it through the TT with a relatively good time, all things considered. The next day Kristin won the stage and took over the leaders jersey so our work was going to be cut out for us for the rest of the tour. In the end, the TEAm rode a great race and dutifully protected our leader. Kristin went on to win the epic Gila Monster stage and sealed the overall win of the tour. It was a great all-around race for the TEAm and a good morale boost going into Montreal in a couple of weeks.

Now I am settling in comfortably in Belvedere, CA for the next couple of weeks. The training in Marin is fantastic and the peacefulness of the lagoon is soothing. After a hectic start to the season, I am glad to be in one place for more than 5 days. Plus, I am wrapping up my first rest week since the start of the season, which was much needed. But soon I will be gearing up to help TEAm Lipton win the Montreal World Cup at the end of the month.

I’ll be back in June with another report from Montreal and Philly. Til then, happy days and smiles.

Meredith