The racing season is in full swing. This past month the racing scene hit the East Coast full force. Our TEAm was split into two so that we could attend the World Cup race in Montreal and still send a hit squad team to the criteriums in the Mid-Atlantic states. My contingent was the hit squad which included myself, Lara Kroepsch, Sarah Caravella, and Katie Lambden. We started our six events with Bike Jam in MD and began to get reacquainted with one another after some time spent apart. As we raced through the mid-atlantic states our results improved with each event and the TEAm began to race stronger despite our small numbers in comparision to other teams.

Along the way we were supported by many fans. We fondly call them “Super Fans” and each of us seem to have some. My own “super fans” are the Rineharts from Bethlehem, PA. They happen to not only be my personal super fans but super fans of the sport as well. They began spectating cycling races in 2000 and have continued to follow the sport despite the fact that they have no relatives who are racing. They truly enjoy all aspects of the sport and have traveled across the country to watch the San Fransisco race and even Bermuda. They always plan some sightseeing in as well and make the most of their travels. Their season begins in the spring with collegiate racing and continues through the cross season. You can find them out in every type of weather cheering wildly for their adopted cyclist. It is incredible to have that kind of support following you throughout the season. It is wonderful that they have fallen in love with a sport that we all have as well.

Another “super fan”, and I know there are many more out there, is Dawn from Altoona. Dawn and her whole family religiously follow the women’s peleton throughout the season. While their travels are limited to the PA area, you can always find them on the sidelines cheering support of their favorite riders. Dawn will always have photos to bring that she has taken of us at her hometown race, the Tour d’Toona, as well as any others that she has found. It is great to see her happy smiling face as we line up to begin another tough day of racing.

The next “super fan” wevisited was in Minnesota. Bob Mairs has been a true supporter of women’s racing since the first event in Minnesota in 1999. This year TEAm Lipton stayed with he and his father and were treated like royalty. We were escorted on rides daily, introduced to the mayor of St. Paul, and treated to a superb gourmet dinner prepared just for TEAm Lipton. His efforts went beyond anything we had imagined and were certainly ten fold by all of us.

For these “SUPER FANS” to take this kind of interest and to go to the trouble to get to our many events, bring photos, and track us down to give us well wishes is just incredible and greatly appreciated by all of us. As we travel throughout the country our SUPER FANS encourage and support us with their passion for the sport. We are certainly lucky to have them with us each step of the way. Our victories are dedicated to their support. of us throughout the season.

Last month, my season hit an unexpected bump in the road when I broke my collarbone at the Joe Martin Stage race. I will spare you the gruesome details of my crash and share with you a few things I have learned from my accident.

1. Helmets are cyclists' best friends. They really do save lives. So, anytime you get on your bike, even if you are just going down the block, wear your helmet...PLEASE!!!!

2. Get a second opinion before you decide to go under the knife. Surgery is not always the answer. Mother Nature (and lots of TEA drinking) can be a powerful healer.

3. A wise friend told me, “don’t get sad, get mad.” Don’t waste your energy feeling sorry for yourself. Use it to help you recover faster and return to your sport stronger than before.

4. Rest is the most effective medicine, and it is free.

5. Never underestimate the power of human kindness. The encouragement and support I have received from my family, friends, TEAmates, and sponsors, has been tremendous. I want to send out a special thanks to Tutt and Claude, my guardian angels from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Next time, when something unexpected comes your way, remember, things are never as bad as they seem and there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

I was recently honored by an invitation to a women's cycling development camp

at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The camp is designed,

according to the official invitation, to "identify the next quadrennial pool of

potential athletes and begin a consistent relationship in order to assist with

further athletic development." When I got the chance to race in France earlier

this summer with the US National Team, I was told that committing to attend this

camp was a condition of traveling to France. "That's a funny way to put it," I

thought. "Who would NOT want to go to camp at the OTC??"

Of course, this is a tough time of year for many bike racers. I've certainly raced

more this year than ever before, and the last couple months I've felt less than

snappy. The very tough course at road nationals was only the most recent legbreaking

effort in a string of hard races. However, I arrived here in Colorado with

enthusiasm, determined to enjoy every moment of the experience. Even if my

legs didn't feel as peppy as I'd like when facing a battery of cycling aptitude tests,

I was sure Jim Miller and the rest of the USA Cycling Women's Endurance

Program people would understand.

I arrived at the OTC quite late on Monday evening, so the only impression I got

before collapsing in bed was of the reception center and dorm building. In the

morning, I met some of the other camp participants (9 women total) and headed

to breakfast at the dining hall. Walking outdoors, we were met by blue sky and

the stunning bulk of Pikes Peak rising to the west. Even the scenery here is

inspiring.

I had been told by Lipton TEAmmates who attended camp here last year that the

food was incredible, but nothing prepared me for the bonanza of edibles and

Lipton Tea awaiting us. Since no one will be reading this to find out what I ate, I

will limit my description of the feeding frenzy, except to say that it was an all-youcan-

eat, enter-as-many-times-as-you-like, 2-different-types-of-soft-serve-icecream

heaven. Or hell, depending on one's point of view/metabolism.

However, I digress: let me drag myself back to the less delicious but more crucial

particulars of the camp. After a decent post-breakfast interval, each camp

participant had a lactate threshold test in the lab of the sports science center.

Then we were on our own for recovery rides. I left the OTC complex for a short

spin around town. A thunderstorm was brewing, and lightning filled the sky

behind Pikes Peak for a scene of drama and beauty.

Day Two was set aside for field testing with SRMs. USA Cycling mechanics had

spent many hours the night before installing SRMs on each rider's bike. We rode

to the east of town, where the terrain is relatively flat, and did several maximal

output tests (of 10 second, 1 minute, and 5 minute intervals). After lunch and a

brief nap, we met again in the afternoon and rode to the west for a 20 minute

maximal effort up Cheyenne Mountain. On the way back down after a very

painful 20 minutes, I was better able to enjoy the gorgeous scenery.

I had enough energy in the afternoon to walk around the OTC campus and check

everything out. It is an amazing place: chock full of impressively new-looking and

state-of-the-art buildings housing gyms, pools, dorms, sports medicine centers,

and labs. Athletes are everywhere, and it is fun to try and pick their sport based

on appearance. Those impossibly tall boys down the hall must be volleyball

players. And the short ones with tiny necks and misshapen ears have to be

wrestlers. The girls with ice packs strapped to their knees? Maybe gymnasts.

Speaking of gymnasts, I happened upon a men's gymnastics practice while

searching for the ice baths in the sports medicine center. It was so cool to watch

these awesome athletes at the top of their sport. My dad was a gymnast in

college and I made a mental note to tell him what I'd seen.

In the evening we had a discussion with a USADA educational officer, which was

instructive and interesting. This was followed by a presentation on sports

psychology. The sports psych segment was of particular fascination to me,

especially since I've spent a lot of time this year observing my own and my

teammates' personalities and considering how these differences inform our

approach to the sport (see my journal entry on www.teamlipton.com regarding Atypes).

Day Three was our intro to the track. The women's cycling endurance program

encompasses both road and endurance track events, and the track was a major

focus of the camp. I was nervous and excited to try it out for the first time.

Luckily, I've been on a fixed gear before, so the no-coasting, no-brakes part was

familiar. Riding on the banking (which isn't even very steep, since it's a 333 1/3

meter track) was a trip the first few minutes, but I got the hang of it and started

having fun. We rode pacelines and did some flying 200s. I was surprised how

winded I got very quickly in the intense environment of the track. The heat (near

100F) and extreme dryness probably contributed to the burning throats and lungs

we all experienced.

Thursday nights are race nights at the Colorado Springs velodrome, so we

returned in the evening to try out our new skills in some low-key races. A few of

the girls at the camp had raced on the track before, and they went with the B

men. The rest of us got our own "women's development" races. We did a

chariot (standing start) 1-lap race, and 2 scratch events (10 and 15 laps). It was

scary but thrilling to try attacking and chasing with only the pitch of the track to

control speed.

On Day Four of the camp we returned to the track to try the 2 kilometer time

standard that USA Cycling uses to identify riders for international competition.

We started by doing a flying 500 (the first 500M of the 2K standard must be

completed in 34 seconds or less). Then we attempted the 2K (which must be

2:34 or less). Luckily, we were told beforehand that we weren't expected by any

means to make the standard in this practice attempt. Wind, heat, altitude, etc. all

have a deleterious effect on conditions, which is why the time standard is tested

only on the indoor track in L.A. I did my very best (even giving my legs a pep talk

- "Yes, you ARE track legs - don't let them tell you otherwise!") but was pretty far

long of the standard. I really enjoyed the new challenge, though, and would like

to try out some racing on my home track (Kissena velodrome in Queens, NY).

The camp will be rounded out by a one-on-one discussion with Jim Miller, the

director of the women's endurance program for USA Cycling. My appointment is

in an hour, and I'm looking forward to getting a peek at my numbers from the lab

and field tests and talking about what those numbers mean. In the interim,

though, the dining hall calls. I hear there's apple pie on the dessert menu today,

and I'm not missing out.

Its GOAL MONTH! I’m mentally going to be thrashed after this month. Every team has highlighted goals for the year and low-n-behold it all seems to come storming in during the month of June for TEAm Lipton. There’s not one casual race for us this month. The month highlights kick-off with the Montreal World Cup and the Tour of Montreal in Canada. These are huge events for the TEAm since they’re the only international events on our continent. Then, I have my own personal goal of trying to qualify for worlds, so I fly to Brazil for the Pan Am Championships. If I win the road race or time-trial, it would be an extra world’s spot for our country in that event and an automatic spot for me! After Brazil, I go to Philadelphia, PA for the Women’s Liberty Classic Road Race. This is one of the biggest media events in the U.S. and TEAm Lipton wants to give our great Lipton sponsor a good show in front of all those darn cameras. Fuji is also based in that area so we need to have a good showing for our great bike company too. Okay, we need a good show for all our sponsors – Oval, Smith Optics, Shimano, Biemme, Fi’zi:k, Maxxis, Defeet, Cateye, Camelback, Thule, LAS, okay the list goes on and on.

We truly have some awesome sponsors. Thanks for the support. We hope to pay you back with some good p.r. this month. We finally conclude the June stint with the Nature Valley Grand Prix - which consists of one of the most competitive women’s fields in the U.S.

Stay posted and I’ll give you the inner details of my experiences during our goal month. Until then have a great one

In college, my major was Math Education, but I studied Spanish as well. I went to summer school near Mexico City, and throughout college I enjoyed doing volunteer work during our spring breaks. I would go with organizations to Mexico and Latin America. We visited the U.S./Mexico border and learned about issues families faced on either side of the border. I went to Nicaragua for a women’s studies course. We stayed in San Pedro del Norte – the second poorest city in all of Latin America. Education isn’t expected there it’s a luxury. The illiteracy rate is over 80%; basically it’s more than likely that the person you’re next too can’t read. Kids don’t have clothes; you have to gather your water from streams, people hike for hours to visit their neighboring communities. If someone has a talent or gift, they share it with everyone. It was empowering to be in these sorts of communities and to see people with 6th grade math experience teaching their community. If they knew something, they’d share it. It made me question the use of my talents. I was always so scared to expose myself and share my knowledge because I feared I didn’t know enough about anything. Those people encouraged me to never be scared about sharing my talents. There were people with far less knowledge giving way more than I ever had in my life. If I am scared of exposing myself, then my talents are wasted. I love the Hispanic culture where family is the center of life and people always lend a helping hand to their neighbor. There’s a real sense of community – something that’s sometimes harder to find in the U.S. It was truly a learning experience and I feel that all my experiences are richer because of these encounters. It has made me always want to use all that I have.

During college, I was also getting into Collegiate Cycling. When I’d travel to Latin America, I would think to myself that it would be utterly impossible to race a bike in these parts. You need to be flexible with time and not stress if you’re late. How could a race be held? Road conditions and traffic are crazy. How would someone train here? Where would you have a race – everything is so rough, and most of the roads are gravel? I didn't think it would be possible to ride there. I guess I was wrong.

Little did I know that years later I'd be riding my bike in South America. Here I am, 8 years later in Brazil with nothing other than my bike. It will be interesting to compare experiences now that I’m a selfish bike racer I think the experience will be an adventure.

I have a tight schedule. Finish the Tour of Montreal, do awards ceremony until wee hours, then fly out the next night. I have a 15 hr flight and arrive in Brazil at 10am.