Sima's Blog

Thelma and Louise

2006-06-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Road Tripping from Arkansa to Virgina
May 22nd to 24th, 2006

This is a late entry, and I am taking a lot of slack from my 3 frequent readers that I never update my blog, and that I am always just cut and pasting our team race reports. So here we go...I am going to play a little catch up and fill you on some of my fun adventures over the last 4-6 weeks.

The day after Tri-Peaks Stage Race in Russellville, Arkansas, my teammate Sarah and I had to drive the team car to the East coast for the upcoming series of criteriums. We figured we had ~1200 miles to drive in 3 days, so we'd try to take it easy and have some fun adventures on the way over.

We started the day off with a final ride in Russelville with our new friend and hostess Carol.

We decide to make Nashville or destination for the first night. My friend and former Subway Cycling teammate lives near there. After 7 hours of driving we rolled into a seedy part of town, booked rooms for the night at the Comfort Inn and headed out to check out the excitement of Nashville with Doug, and Sarah.

We met Robbie and his friends Johnnie and Billy at the Flying Saucer, after a few bites we headed down the main drag with all of the Honky Tonk bars.

We got to sing with Elvis

check out cool belt buckles as we stroll by Tootsies.

Mullets are alive and hot in Tennessee. This is my friend Robbie, he told me to "Check out the guy in the back ground with the mullet". Sarah was taking the picture, and she said "Sima check out the guy with the mullet you are standing next to :)". good eye Thelma!

MT Hood Cycling Classic Race Report

2006-06-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Light Press release.

Mt. Hood Classic, Hood River Oregon

By Jim Williams

As the Colavita/Cooking Light Cycling Team was tearing up the recent crits on the east coast and racking up four straight wins in the process, Colavita Cooking Light Teammates Dotsie Bausch and Brooke Ourada were joined by guest rider Stacy Spencer to form powerful threesome that ripped up the Mt. Hood Classic in Oregon.

The 6 stage race had plenty of ups and downs in the profile and the Colavita/Cooking Light team experienced the same at the race. Day one saw Dotsie take second place in the opening prologue only to follow that up the next day with another second place finish on stage 2. This moved Dotsie into the overall leader’s jersey which she brilliantly defended with victories on stage 3 and the time trail on stage 4.

Brook and Stacy played the role of faithful lieutenants and in the process had top ten finishes to add to the team’s success. Sat evening’s stage 5 saw the teams fortunes turn when with 6 laps to go Dotsie clipped her pedal in a corner and crashed heavily, Stacy stopped to aid her teammate and offer her bike but Dotsie knew her race was over. Stacy was able to take a free lap and reentered the race and was able to finish the stage with a podium spot by taking third in the sprint.

The joy of a strong finish was blunted latter when it was learned that Dotsie had broken her collarbone in 3 places. The final stage of the race was a difficult long road stage and both Stacy and Brook rode bravely with Brook climbing with the leaders on the final climb before the pace proved a bit too much. She was able to finish 4th on the stage and 5th overall to salvage the day for Colavita/Cooking Light. Dotsie flew home on Sunday and will be having surgery Tuesday. We all wish her a speedy recovery.

CSC Invitational Race Report

2006-06-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Light Does it again

By Jim Williams

The Colavita/Cooking Light cycling team raced a near flawless race to win the CSC invitational today in downtown Arlington, VA. Tina Pic sprinted for the line after her teammates controlled a very aggressive race that was animated by Cheerwine, Lipton and Victory Brewing.

In what has become a pattern this year, teams started attacking from the gun and putting the pressure on the Colavita/Cooking Light team to keep the race together. The team changed its tactics today and after the first initial attacks countered with attacks of their own to put the other teams on the defensive. Iona Wynter-Parks escaped and forced Lipton and Cheerwine to chase for over 6 laps. When she was finally brought back her Colavita/Cooking Light

Teammates, Meshy Holt, Sarah Tillotson, Gina Grain took turns countering, left in reserve where Sima Trapp and Sue Palmer-Komar to protect Pic in the field. As the laps ticked by Colavita/Cooking Light shifted their focus to setting up their ace sprinter Tina Pic. Sue Palmer drove the pace for 2 laps and handed her duties off to Meshy Holt who kept the pace high and the field strung out, tucked behind was Pic with Gina Grain sweeping her wheel of her competitors. The lead car came around the final corner and reviled a sprint already in full flight. Pic fought Laura Van Gilder for the win and Gina Grain was able to make it 1st and 3rd for Colavita/Cooking Light on the day.

CSC Invitational

1) Tina Pick Colavita/Cooking Light
2) Laura VanGilder (Team Lipton)
3) Gina Grain Colavita/Cooking Light
4) Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine)
5) Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Verducci)Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing

Somerville Criterium Race Report

2006-05-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Light Press release.

Pic and team stand tall at Somerville

By Jim Williams

Memorial Day is a time for sunshine, family, picnics, and parades and all were on hand at the Tour of Somerville, the oldest bike race in the country this past Monday. On a hot and sunny day, racers paraded around the streets of Somerville, and the cycling community came together for a day of racing. The Colavita cycling teams were out in full force as first the Junior New Jersey team, followed by the New Jersey regional team took to the streets to fly the Colavita colors. After the amateur racing was done it was time for both the pro women and men to put on their show.

In the women’s race the Colavita/Cooking Light women were joined by Leah Oppenhemimer, Ashley Kimmet, and Lenore Imhof of the east regional team to form a fordominal force. The racing was fast paced from the start as just about every lap had a prime to keep the action going. Colavita/Cooking Light was selective of which primes to go for as they had an eye on the end and trying to bring home the win in front of their Colavita sponsor at what is the team’s home race. New recruit Meshy Holt did manage to drag race Kelly Benjamin to the line to win the biggest prime of the day for $257 dollars in cash but the rest of the race the team was focused on delivering Tina Pic to the line with the freshest possible legs.

With 3 laps to go the Colavita/Cooking Light team moved to the front to make sure one tried to make a late sneak attack and they then started their lead-out. Coming across the start finish line with 1 lap to go it was Sue Palmer –Komar who had the field strung out at over 30 mph, right on her wheel was the Colavita/Cooking Light stars and strips jersey of Pic. The pace was kept high on the back side of the course and when the riders came into view for the sprint it was Laura Van Gilder of Team Lipton that jumped first on the left. Pic jumped on the right and put her head down for home. Van Gilder jumped across the street to grab Pic's draft and attempted to come around at the finish but Colavita/Cooking Lights Pic held off her challenger on this day. Kelly Benjamin of Cheerwine finished third.
Tour of Somerville

1) Tina Pick Colavita/Cooking Light
2) Laura VanGilder (Team Lipton)
3) Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine)

Kelly Cup Bike Jam Race Report

2006-05-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Light Press release.

Colavita/Cooking Light wins Bike Jam
Baltimore, MD

By Jim Williams

Tina Pic continued her winning ways with the help of her Colavita/Cooking Light teammates. Today’s racing took place in Patterson Park in downtown Baltimore and with the sun out and a strong breeze the weather was perfect for a Memorial Day weekend race. It seemed as if the wind and the long drive form Raleigh where some teams raced last night took some of the normal aggression away and the field stayed together for the majority of the race.

The few attacks that did occur were immediately brought back by the Colavita/Cooking Light Women. With 2 laps to go around the 1 mile course the Cola vita/Cooking Light Team went to the front and kept the pace high. The lead out went into full force on the backside of the course and Tina Pic took over as a few sprinters jumped early into the wind. Timing it perfectly Pic was able to cross the line in first followed by Jen McRae of Comex and Theresa Cliff-Ryan of Verducci Racing.

Kelly Cup/Bike Jam

1) Tina Pick Colavita/Cooking Light
2) Jen McRae (Comex)
3) Theresa Cliff-Ryan (Verducci)
4) Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine)
5) Laura VanGilder (Team Lipton)

Tri-Peaks Stage Race- Race Report

2006-05-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tri Peaks Race Report
Russelville, Arkansas
May 19-21, 2006

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog lately Internet access has been a little limited and I've been slacking since Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansa. But here we go......

After Joe Martin half of the team went home to rest up (Tina, Sue, Gina and Dotsie) and the other half (Sarah, Audrey, Brooke and I) drove to Russelville, Arkansas to compete in the Tri-Peaks Stage Race.

It was 3 hard days of hot, hilly, and long racing. We started out with an aggressive evening criterium, with attacks from Colavita, Victory Brewing,Webcor, Diet Cheerwine and Kate Bates the Australian National Road Race Champion. Sarah was in the key move of the night with 5 other riders, and all teams represented. Kate Bates took the sprint, Rachel Heal of Victory Brewing was 2nd, and Sarah was 3rd.

Day 2 was a 92 mile rode race with an early start of 7:30 am. On the drive to over to the start we went through to tiny villages with each their own distict aroma, the first one smelled like "moth balls" and second like "dog feces". I just realized the moth ball village was proabably trying to cover up the other smell.

anyway sorry about the digression, onto the race reprot... day 2 was quite a long and hilly day, we had a total of~5000' of climbing over 3 climsb, with lots of flat windy sections in between. Going over the last climb a group of ~10 stayed off over the climb which include Sarah, Brooke and I and 5 VB riders, Alisha Lion from Webcor and 2 Diet Cheerwine. We worked until the last 10k, at that point VB decided to attack the group, after multiple attempts Leigh Hobson successfully broke away. Rachel Heal took the field sprint for 2nd and I behind her in 3rd.

Day 3 was the Mount Nebo Road race. Another long road race (82miles) , this one finishing at the top of Mount Nebo which is 2.5 mile climb with the average grade of the last k at 18%. There were 3 other large climbs before the final climb, but plenty of flat riding and rollers before the final climb to keep most everybody at bay until the last climb. Well almost everybody...the hero of the day was Charm Breon of Diet Cheerwine, she attacked after the first climb and since she was not a GC threat (she was 15 minutes down on the general classification), the peleton was content to let her go. She ended up winning the stage!

Catherine Carrol of VB attacked over the 2nd to last climb and Audrey ended up joining her up the road in a small break that had upto 2 minutes on the field at one time, but they were both caught by the leader on the last few kilometers of the race. The final climb was brutal with over 10 switch backs in 1km, most everybody used a 38/27 if they could get their hands on them. one girl even fell off her bike because she took the apex of the corner instead of going wide where it was a little shallower than 18%. Well it seemed like an eternity, but we all made it up the MT Nebo. Charm won, Alisha Lion was 2nd, and Rachel Heal was 3rd.

Overall, it was a great weekend of racing and training in Russelville. We stayed with our great hosts Carol Swindel, and the Davis Family (Sophi thanks for giving up your room for a week). Doug is usually our mechanic, but this week he took on the role of mechanic and manager and we really appreciated all of his work and help.

Joe Martin Stage Race Colavita-Cooking Light Race Report stage 4

2006-05-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Joe Martin ends with Colavita/Cooking Light on podium.
Stage 4 downtown Criterium
Arkansas

by Jim Williams

The Joe Martin Stage race concluded today with a difficult criterium that was more circuit race with a hill mixed with the city streets of downtown. Colavita Cooking Lights plan was to keep the race together in order try and get the time bonus for Dotsie Bausch at the finish line, as she was only 6 seconds down from the overall lead. The ladies of the Red, white and green jersey’s of Colavita/Cooking Light worked hard to control the race but a break containing Alisha Lion of Webcor and Kori Seehafer of Lipton were able to get away and gained a 15 second advantage. As hard as the Colavita/Cooking Light riders tried they could not bring the break back and Seehafer sprinted away for the win. The end result was that Lion moved into 2nd position on the GC and Bausch slipped to third. The disappointments of the days race could not overshadow a great weekend of racing by the ladies who racked up two stage wins, a second place finish and 2 thirds, 3rd, 6th and 8th spots on general classification and 2nd on the team standings.

Pro women Stage 4
1 Kori Seehafer (Team Lipton) 57.25
2 Alisha Lion (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 0.03
3 Alison Powers (Rio Grande/Sports Garage) 0.10
4 Erinne Willock (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team)
5 Tina Pic (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 0.15

Pro women Final GC
1 Erinne Willock (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 6.49.42
2 Alisha Lion (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 0.08
3 Dotsie Bausch (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 0.11
4 Kori Seehafer (Team Lipton) 0.14
5 Alison Powers (Rio Grande/Sports Garage) 0.41
6 Tina Pic (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 0.47
7 Felicia Gomez (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 0.48
8 Sue Palmer-Komar (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 0.52
9 Laura Vangilder (Team Lipton) 0.53
10 Kathleen Billington (TRIA) 1.07

Joe Martin Stage Race Colavita-Cooking Light Race Report Stage 3

2006-05-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Joe Martin Time Trial
Bausch Climbs with the leaders

The third stage of the Joe Martin Stage race always proves to be a decider for the general classification battle, a 2.5 mile uphill ride in Devils Den State park. Webcor riders Erinne Wilock, Alisha Lion, and Felica Gomez set very fast times and it looked as they may swep the podium, but Colavita/Cooking Lights Dotsie Bausch came storming up the hill in a great time to secure 2nd place. Joining her in the top 10 were Sue Palmer Komar in 7th and Brooke Ourada in 8th. Going into the last Stage Wilock holds a 6 second lead over Bausch with Pic in 5th and Palmer Komar in 8th. It should make for some exciting racing on the last stage crit.

Pro women Stage 3

1 Erinne Willock (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 9.41
2 Dotsie Bausch (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 0.20
3 Alisha Lion (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 0.22
4 Felicia Gomez (Webcor-Platinum Women's Cycling Team) 0.25
5 Kori Seehafer (Team Lipton) 0.43
6 Alison Powers (Rio Grande/Sports Garage) 0.46
7 Sue Palmer-Komar (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 0.47
8 Brooke Ourada (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team) 1.00
9 Kathleen Billington (TRIA) 1.02
10 Kristen Lasasso (Team Lipton) 1.07

Joe Martin Stage Race stage 2

2006-05-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Light Press Release

Racing stays Hot in Arkansas

by Jim Williams

Pic makes it 2 for 2

Stages 2 and 3 of the Joe Martin stage race were held Saturday with a morning road race of 70 miles and an uphill time trial in the evening. The morning race saw continued aggression from the Webcor team as they tried repeatedly to get some of their climbers away in a break in order to gain time and foil the plans of Colavita/Cooking Light. Webcor was joined in this constant attacking by the Victory Brewing team as well. While small breaks formed during the day, nothing of any significance occurred until the last 15 miles when Kelly Murdin of Vella Bella slipped off of the front and gained over a minute on the field.

Colavita/Cooking Light’s Sarah Tillotson, Brooke Ourada, Audrey Lemieux, and Sima Trapp went to the front of the field and maintained a steady pace to keep the time gap manageable and stop the relentless attacking the team’s sprinters had to respond to. With 5 K to go things were all back together and the run in to the line began. Sue Palmer Komar did a great job in the last 1000 meters to keep the pace high and her sprinters out in front. In the end Tina Pic narrowly finished ahead of Laura Van Gilder to win for the second day in a row, and she was joined this time by her Colavita/Cooking Light teammate Gina Grain..

Pro women Stage 2
1 Tina Pic (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling team)
2 Laura Van Gilder (Team Lipton)
3 Gina Grain (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team)
4 Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine)
5 Katherine Bates (Nurenberg)
6 Shontell Gauthier (Team Joy Rides/Austin Flyers)
7 Kim Geist (Victory Brewing Team)
8 Dotsie Bausch (Colavita/ Cooking Light Cycling Team)
9 Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing Team)
10 Maatje Benassi (Excel Sports)

Joe Martin Stage Race Colavita-Cooking Light Race Report

2006-05-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Round 1 of Joe Martin goes to Colavita/ Cooking Light
La Fayette, Arkansas

by Jim Williams

The first stage of the Joe Martin Stage race was contested today in windy but sunny conditions. The Joe Martin race is a unique stage race in that the first two stages are road stages followed by the Individual time trail on stage 3. This make for very aggressive racing as the day’s first winner is also the one that pulls on the leader’s jersey. From the gun riders attempted to get away and it was Victory Brewings Leigh Hobson that was able to escape the grips of the peloton first. She was joined by Colavita/Cooking Lights Brooke Ourada and the two worked an advantage of over a minute into the head wind that the riders faced most of the day. The main obstacle of the day was a 10 mile climb up Mt. Gaylor which caused the most pain to the rider’s legs. Both Hobson and Ourada forged ahead with their break, while behind the Webcor team sent their climbing specialist on the attack.

Eventually a group of 4 went clear containing, Rachel Heal of Victory, Kori Seehafer of Lipton, Erinne Wilock of Webcor and Colavita/Cooking Lights Dotsie Bausch. They crested the top of the climb ahead and were followed 30 seconds latter by a group of 25 that contained Kate Bates, of Neurenburg as well as several riders from Victory, Lipton, Cheerywine and a trio of Colavita/Cooking Light riders including Tina, Pic, Sue Plamer Komar and Brook Ourada.

After a 20 mile chase by Cheerywine the 4 leaders were caught and the final 15 miles of the race saw attack after attach go. Colavita/Cooking Light did a great job keeping Tina Pic in the mix and with 1 K to go it was Sue Plamer Komar dueling with Kori Seehafer of Lipton to see who could lead their sprinter out faster. Their drag race in the last kilometer split the field and Laura VanGilder launched her sprint on the up hill drag to the finish. Tina Pic was able to come by her for the win with Dotsie Bausch right there for third. Rolling across the line, spent from their efforts but still ahead of the main field were Seehafer in 4th and Colavita/Cooking Lights Plamer Komar in 5th. Tomorrow riders face a double stage with a70 mile road race in the morning and an uphill time trial in the evening.

Pro Women
1 Tina Pic (Colavita-Cooking Light)
2 Laura Van Gilder (TEAm Lipton)
3 Dotsie Bausch (Colavita-Cooking Light)
4 Kori Seehafer (TEAm Lipton)
5 Sue Palmer-Komar (Colavita-Cooking Light)

Home, Sweet Boise

2006-05-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sketchy corner in the rain
Yipee! All done, lets get dry and have some soup.

(Jana (in the back ground) was second in criterium and won the weekend omnium)

It's so good to be back home in Boise. The weather was great all last week, sunny and warm.

I've been able to get caught up with my friends, hit my favorite coffee shops, work, ride, unpack, and blah, blah, blah.

I got in a few rides on my favorite routes including the rolling hills of our "dump loop" and a nice long climb up "Bogus Basin" on Saturday. After that ride I headed down to the Boise river to soak my legs in the refreshing cool water (one of my favorite things to do after training in the summer).

The rain fall this season has brought the river levels to record highs...see where I am going with this one? Anyway, long story short...I was down by the river and I fell in a little deeper than planned and soaked my whole body not just my legs. Kids, don't try this without adult supervision and without a life vest. Luckily there were a couple of teenagers hanging around who were so impressed with me 'daring' to go into the river, I was able to throw my electronic stuff out of my pocket and into their hands. Can you hear me now? No? right, no cell phone for a few days.

Yesterday was a local criterium, the Treasure Valley Omnium. Unfortunately the weather changed and we had rain all day. Nothing quite like doing a crit in the rain? Really makes you put your trust in your skills and your equipment. The race was fun and hard, there are a lot of girls here that are riding very strong like Jana and Sarah, and other familiar tough girls like Kelly Crawford and Kris Walker that made the racing tough. Heather Albert was sprinting really well too, but she slid out in the first corner about 10 minutes into the race. She was a bit bruised and battered, but will bounce back as always. In the end the race came to sprint between 4 of us and I was able to Jana off for the win.

Thanks for Dobiacco Team and all of the race sponsors for putting on this great event and to Tom Coleman of WobbleNaught Bike fits for the biggest prime of the race...$100:)

The crowds were great, I saw a lot of familiar faces and made some new friends. Thanks for the We have at least 2 groups of junior developmental programs in the area, the Sun Summit club from Ketchum and BYRDS in Boise that are bringing up many young riders. It's great to see the enthusiasm in their faces. Keep up the hard work!

Gila and Anniston Race Reports

2006-05-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Lights wins on both coasts

by Jim Williams

This past week the ladies of Colavita/Cooking Light raced both the Tour of Gila in New Mexico and another group took to the streets of Anniston Alabama for the Sunny King Criterium.

The Tour of Gila is one of the most demanding stage races offered on the NRC calendar each year, with 5 stages and climbs that literally go on for 15 miles. Colavita/Cooking Light Team members Dotsie Bausch and Brooke Ourada, took on full teams from Lipton, Victory Brewing, and Webcor. Both riders had their work cut out for them and as the battle commenced the other teams found that the two Colavita/Cooking Light riders rode with the strength of a whole team. With the solid support riding from Brook, Dotsie was able finish with 4 top ten placings, including a 1st place finish on stage 3 where she took the sprint on a windy and tactical day, besting some of the top sprinters in the field. Overall Dotsie finished 5th on GC and Brook a solid 17th

Meanwhile Tina, Gina, and Iona took time this past Friday to visit Cooking Lights headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. With a tour of the Test Kitchen, and meeting the editorial and marketing staff, the ladies were fired up for racing the next day and race they did. Once again the ladies of Colavita/Cooking Light did their sponsors proud. A break formed of 9 riders halfway through the timed criterium, and with both Tina and Gina represented and Iona patrolling the main field to make sure no one else bridged to the leaders, the stage was set for an exciting finish. Having two fast finishers in the group allowed Gina to win the $300 prime with 3 laps remaining and still do a powering lead-out for Tina. With Gina’s speed Tina was able to climb to the top step of the podium and make it two wins in two days for the Colavita/ Cooking Light team.

At both races the team once again stayed with wonderful host families and the whole Colavita/Cooking light team would like to thank Ron and Vicki Keenan of Athens, GA; Patty King of Anniston, Al; and Don and Vicki Johnson of Silver City, NM for their wonderful hospitality and support, without your help racing wouldn’t be possible. After a quick break home, a full team of 8 riders will be racing the Joe Martin stage racing this coming weekend in Fayetteville Arkansas.

Athens and Roswell Race Reports

2006-05-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

Colavita/Cooking Lights snags a pair of 2nd place finishes
by Jim Williams

The Colavita/Cooking Lights women’s cycling team took to the streets of Georgia this past weekend for 2 classic criteriums in the country. First up for the team was the Athens twilight criterium, which is one of the most exciting crits in the country. Athens is a true celebration with races starting at 3 and ending at 10:30 at night. The women started their race at 7:45 pm in front of 30,000 people lining the 1 km course. With hometown hero Tina Pic in the lineup joined by World Champion silver medalist Gina Grain riding her first race in Colavita/ Cooking Light colors.

The girls in red/white and green were the team to beat. The threat of the two fastest finishers in North America in the field on the same team made for a very aggressive race as teams knew that a group finish played into the hands of the Colavita/ Cooking Light team. From the gun attacks began and the pace was blistering from start to finish. Colavita/Cooking Lights Sue Plamer Komar, Iona Wynter Parks, Audrey Lemieux and southern regional Colavita rider Krista Park did the lion’s share of the work, chasing down all attacks in defense of their two sprinters. With two laps to go the race was set up perfectly for the Colavita/Cooking Light women when a perfectly timed attack b Jen McCrae took the field by surprise on the backstretch of the final lap. McCrae was able to get a gap and able to hold off a hard charging field led by Tina Pic all the way to the finish. Behind Tina’s second placement came Gina Grain in 5th position.

The next day the team toed the line at the Roswell Criterium. Racing as it seems to be at every venue this year was again fast and aggressive and the Colavita/Cooking Light women were always at the front. A break of five riders formed containing the big sprinters of the race with about the race ¾ completed, included in this group was Tina Pic and teams seemed content to let the sprinters battle it out. With 3 laps to go a group of 5 riders bridged up to the sprinters to make a group of 10, including Colavita/Cooking Light’s Audrey Lemieux. On the long finishing stretch all eyes were on the final corner trying to get a glimpse of the first riders as they brought the race home. Laura Yoisten came through first and that is when Tina Pic launched her sprint. She gapped the group and pounded the pedals home but tucked right behind her was Laura Van Gilder, who made a desperate attempt to come around. At the line it was Vangilder by inches, giving Colavita/Cooking lights Tina Pic another second place finish in as many days.

Meanwhile on the West Coast Brook Ourada and Dotsie Bausch start racing the tour of Gila May 2-May 8, While Sima Trapp and Sarah Tillotson return from Europe after racing 2 world cups and a tour in the Czech Republic.

Switzerland bound

2006-04-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Heading to Berne, Switzerland for our secong World cup on April 23rd.

Nothing like a beautiful ride after a 5 hour drive to Switzerland

Recon mission on the world cup course. There is a really steep 1 km climb right after this 'Nome Tree'

big10 foot tall bike on the world cup course, right before the descent.

Enjoying the scenery on a pre ride of the World cup course before the crap hits the fan on Sunday.

European Trip'in

2006-04-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

Crowds at the finish of Fleche Wallone

Team presentation at Fleche Wallone

I've been in Europe racing with the US National team for the last week. The other girls here are Tina and Sarah (from Colavita-Cooking Light), Meredith Miller (Lipton), Rebecca and Shannon Koch. Jim Miller is our excellent director and we have Walla Wolfgang as our mechanic and Benny Ma is our Swanny. It's been a great group, couldn't ask for anything more.

We flew into Belgium last week and raced the Fleche Walone. This is one of the Spring Classics, and the men's race starts before us and ends after our race. I can't believe I am here racing in Europe in one of the biggest one day bike races in the whole universe.

Ouch is a good way to describe my first race. I'd been warned about how hard it is to move around in the European peleton, but that was a great understatement. The field was 145 women, and from the start we would punch it, then all of a sudden someone would decide to grab a hand full of brakes....yikes! Come to a stand still, avoid collision, then game on again. I was so scared the whole race. Tina finally stopped telling me to relax, as she saw the panic sctricken look on my face not diminishing.

It was great to watch the crowds on the steep climb up the Huy, and the men's finish.

Our next world cup is in Switzerland, the Tour de Berne on Sunday April 23rd, then we head south to the Czech Republic and Poland for the Tour of Gracia. I am really looking forward to racing the Tour de Berne and getting another chance to play in the european peleton.

USA Cycling Van, styled out by Walla our Mechanic.

Pre- world cup days in Europe

2006-04-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

Practicing riding on cobbles, and taking pictures at the same time...Shannon's got skills!!!

Scenic ride along a river in Nederlands

City center of Huy, near the finish of the Fleche Wallone in Belguim.

The Amstel Gold Classic course went right by our hotel a few hours after we arrived in Europe!

Day 1 easy ride in Nederlands (Rebecca, Sarah, me, Tina and Shannon)

2006-04-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

Red Neck Girl!

2006-04-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

Now that I an avid partaker of dance lessons (see belly dancing post), I talked Shane into going down town and trying out some line dancing lessons...purely for shits and giggles.
And I am up for any opportunity to put on some tight jeans and a cow girl shirt. There were ~30 people, and only 3 were men (including Shane-the total eye candy for the ladies), the rest were all cow girls, and cow ladies.

The age range of the dancers were from 30-85 years, with the average somewhere around 50. Shane and I figured we'd catch on pretty quick. Not so much...we kept turning the wrong way, stepping the wrong way, and running over our neighbors. Then they decided to teach us a really easy dance: just walk in place and kick one leg out every 3 or 4 steps, then turn! This one I was abel to master, it was called the Red Neck Girl!

There's a line dancing workshop in town this weekend... oh, I'll be out of town! Well, maybe next time I'll try some Salsa dancing.

City of Trees

2006-04-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

I am back home in beautiful Boise.

It's been almost 2 months since I've been home.

It feels great to be back, even if it is for only 5 days.

Just in time to enjoy the most beautiful day of the year, temps in the 60's and the sun is shining.

Good bye Brad

2006-04-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Today my friend Brad passed away at 38 years of age. Brad was one of the nicest and most sincere people I have ever met. He was married to one of my best friends and former teammate Emily. Brad was racing at a criteriuem in Seattle when he had a heart attack. I got the call from Eric, telling me about the accident, it just didn't seem real. Life is so short and fragile. We will all miss you Brad. My thoughts and love go to you Emily, and Brad's family. There is a Vigil planned for him Monday night in Seattle, and a fund has been established for the family through Recycled Cycles.

Sea Otter

2006-04-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most fun circuit races on our racing calenda. We race on the Laguna Seca Race track, the same track that Nascar races take place. It was a really tough race. We raced 22 laps, and there's about 300' of elevation gain on each lap. Ouch!!! It was great to have Tina win and Dotsi get 3rd!!! lets celebrate.

One down, 21 to go!

Magic Touch

2006-04-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Tim is our Soigneur usually, but he doubled as our mechanic for Sea Otter. His girl friend Shelly was our fill in Soigneur. She gives great rubs too, and so generous. By the end of the week she realized she better stop making eye contact with us, or we would ask for "Just one more rub!?!"

Celbration in Salina's California

2006-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Kompai! to your health!!

Cheers Suz! Thanks for not locking us out the second night ;). Sorry we ate all of your fish crackers.

Celebrating with our hosts after the Sea Otter Classic. This is the first year that they had host housing at Sea Otter. There were 8 of us including riders and staff, and Kathy the housing coordinator got 4 families on this cul de sac to host all of us. All of the families and riders got together each night for diner and lots of laughs.

Sea Otter Classic Race Report

2006-04-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Colavita Cooking Lights Puts 2 on podium at Sea Otter

by Jim Williams

The last race of the early spring swing through California took place today in Monterey at the Sea Otter Classic. The first 6 weeks of racing has seen the Colavita Cooking Light women gel as a team and this team chemistry has resulted in some strong performances. Today was no different. This year Sea Otter was just a 1 day race and it consisted of 22 laps on the Laguna Secca raceway, a demanding course with a total of 6,600 total feet of climbing. Early in the race it was the team of Victory Brewing that tried to make the race difficult by pushing the pace and launching attacks. The baton was then passed to the Webcor team. Who would attack each time up the climb in hopes of dropping the sprinters from the group. Colavita Cooking Lights plan was to be conservative until the latter laps and focus on the stage win. This strategy paid off as a group of about 20 riders made it up and over the climb on the last lap and descended the famous corkscrew that Laguna secca is known for. Tina Pic launched her sprint with Dotsie Bausch sweeping her wheel to prevent other riders from getting a draft. In the end Pic took the days honors with Victory Brewings Lauran Franges taking second. Knowing that Pic can get distracted on her way to the podium and stops to talk with everyone, Bausch took it upon herself to make sure that Tina had a chaperon by finishing 3rd on the day making sure Pic had company on the podium.

Sea Otter Classic
1. Tina Pic (Colavita Cooking Light)
2. Lauran Franges (Victory Brewing)
3. Dotsie Bausch (Colavita Cooking Light)

Ping Pong Championships

2006-04-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

Shirts off, game on...Sarah and Doug throwing down in Ojai!!!

There was some serious off the bike training going on this week.

Lori and Roy show us how its done.

Doug's Harem

2006-04-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Doug had to get in on some of the belly dancing action too.

Shimmy at Will

2006-04-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Lori, our host at Ojai always had fun activites for us to do...she took us out for belly dancing classes one night. It was really fun getting dressed up and dancing around with no cares.

Izzie

2006-04-03T00:02:00.000-07:00

Izzie is the luckies caged bird I ever met. His cage is over 10 feet tall, and about 10 feet in diameter. Need a roommate? He lives in this old mansion where we had our belly dancing classes. Here he is answering the question, what's 2 + 3, he is bouncing up and down 5 times.

Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix Race Report

2006-04-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix Ojai, CA

April 2, 2006
Report by Jim Williams

The Colavita/Cooking Light Women’s Cycling Team took to the streets of downtown Ojai, CA for an NRC race today. The course is a very difficult one-mile circuit with a steep climb on the back stretch that softens up even the freshest of legs. Many attacks were launched but nothing was able to get away as the wind was a discouraging factor for riders that tried to brave the protection of the peloton. Colavita/ Cooking Light policed the front of the field and made sure that any rider that did try to break away was covered, as the team had super sprinter Tina Pic ready to launch her famous sprint.

Sima Trapp, Sarah Tillotson, Brooke Ourada and Audrey Lemieux did the lion’s share of the early work. With two laps to go, the Victory Brewing train came blazing to the front in hopes of setting up their fast finisher Laura Yoisten. Victory drove the pace until the final time up the back stretch climb when Colavita/Cooking Light’s climber Dotsie Bausch made an acceleration that derailed the Victory train. Bausch blasted over the climb with Laura Vangilder of Lipton, Colavita/Cooking Light’s Tina Pic, and Victory Brewing’s Laura Yoisten, who had switched tracks, in tow. When Bausch pulled off, VanGilder was left in front leading out, and both Pic and Yoisten launched their sprints from opposite sides. In the end, Pic crossed the line first with a few bike lengths to spare, with Laura Yoisten second and Laura Vangilder in third.

Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix
Race Results
1.Tina Pic (Colavita/Cooking Light)
2.Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing)
3.Laura Van Gilder (Lipton)

Audrey Rock'in the house

2006-04-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

Audrey rocking out!
Maria is our host's daughter. She and her friends Michelle and Emily, started a band together. Audrey is auditioning for a spot as a bass player, she is rocking the house.

Mountains to beaches

2006-04-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Driling away! Audrey, Doug, me, Sarah,Tim and Sarah
There's a nice bike path that we took from Ojai down to the beach. The scenery was beautiful, then we hit the oil dirlling machines in East Ventura in an area known as the "Avenues". Then we headed down to Ventura beach. Beautiful day for a down hill bike ride down to the beach.

Ojai, California

2006-03-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

We've left Redlands and headed up to Ojai. This is my first time in Ojai, it's really beautiful. The mountains here remind me of the Wasatch mountains in Utah. Except it is much greener here. I'll try to get a better picture in the next few days.

Rock Star

2006-03-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

Doug our mechanic is done with his day job, now it's time to rock out in the garage. "No Highway to Heaven dude!"

Stress Management

2006-03-27T18:48:00.000-08:00

Anita is an aspiring knife thrower, this is her throwing board. Looks like a good way to relieve some stress.

Redlands Host family

2006-03-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

We spent the last week in Redlands with our super hosts the Chow's and the Lui's. They treated us to great home cooked gourmet meals every night. On our last night we headed out to the Olive Garden. Then we were treated to "Boba" drinks. Yummy! Here we are with our team, staff, and host family. Left to right....Me, Tim, Serena, Doug, Sarah, Tina, Anita and Brooke.

Redlands Cycling Classic Criterium

2006-03-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

Colavita Cooking Lights Pic wins Redlands crit

by Jim Williams

The second stage of the Redlands bicycle classis took place saturday March 25th on the streets of downtown Redlands. Stage two was the notoriously fast,technically criterium. Today's race was a story of two races in one, the first race being the race for the overall leader and a race for the stage. In the race for the overall lead it became a battle of time bonuses as Amber Neben held a 1 second lead over Lipton's Kristin Armstrong. Armstrong won the first time bonus of the day and collected 3 seconds.

Three laps before the second time bonus, T-Mobile's Ina Teutenberg launched an attack that no one could follow and gained an advantage to 10 seconds. Team Lipton went to the front and brought her back setting Armstrong up for another 3 second time bonus. At this point teams and riders started to shift their attention to the second race with in the race, that being for stage honors. With four laps to go Teutenberg once again put in a blistering attack which was immediately covered by
Colavita Cooking Lights Sarah Tillotson with teammate Tina Pic in tow. Colavita then kept the pace high with work from Dotsie Bausch and Sima Trapp. With 1 lap to go it was three Lipton riders on the front, followed by Pic and Tuetenberg. Fans were treated to an exciting finish as they leaned over the fencing to get a glimpse of who would round the final corner in first. It was Colavita Cooking Light's Tina Pic followed by T-mobiles Tuetenberg, with Pic able to hold off the current World Cup Leader for the win. In third position was Lipton's fast finisher, Laura
VanGilder.

Tomorrow rider will face 9 laps on the demanding sunset road
circuit were the final general classification will be determined.

Redlands Classic stage 2
1. Tina Pic (Colavita Cooking Light)
2. Ina Teutenberg (T-Mobile)
3. Laura VanGilder (Lipton)

General Classification after stage 2
1. Kristin Armstrong (Lipton)

Redlands Cycling Classic Time Trial

2006-03-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Redlands Cycling Classic Time Trial

This year the time trial for the Redlands was changed from the usual 5km jaunt up Mt. Robidaux, to a different 5km uphill time trail course covering some of the roads that were used during the 2004 olympic trials race.

The course was pretty challenging because it starts off fairly flat, but it gets pretty steep in the last half. It was the type of course that you could predict a lot of people going too hard early on and then blowing their wad before getting to the climb. Well, enough technical talk, and the winner of the 1st stage is....Amber Neben! Dotsi was our top finisher at 8th place, nice job girl!

While up for the time trial it was good to see some familiar faces in the parking lot. Like Chris Davidson, and as usaul sporting a color coordinated Dicki. He and Michael Engleman are here with the strong group of riders on the Ford Cycling team. Keep your eyes on Mara as an up and coming rider. I met her last year at an OTC camp that was set up by Michael and Chris. She is so strong and full of energy, inside sources revealed she is unstoppable and has been training all week in addition to racing.

Meanwhile, back at our host's house, Brooke, Sarah and I decided to get in some team time trail practice. check out the picutre, and please submit comments with a title for the pic.

Happy NowRuz

2006-03-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

Where are my presents???

Today is the first day of spring & more importantly...." NowRuz", the Persian New Year and the most celebrated holiday in the Persian culture.

The spring equinox marks the equilibrium of day & night and Nowruz.

This is the celebration of the renewal of nature after the long winter, and awakening of the earth. Yippee, no more snow, no more rain, no more cold weather, right??? Atleast in Redlands, California where we are heading for our next race.

NowRuz has been celebrated for over 3000 years!!! And its roots date back to the world's oldest religions Zorastrianism.

One of my fondest memories of the NowRuz celebration is the "fire jumping" we would participate in when we were kids. Ok this might sounds a little crazy, I'll explain....On the last Tuesday night of the old year, Persians would gather around bonfires to celebrate Chahar Shanbeh Suri, a celebratory ritual of enlightenment, health, and happiness in the year ahead. We would jump over fires and sing out in Farsi "Give me your beautiful red color/Take back my sickly pallor." Cool huh? wish I had some pictures from my childhood in Iran, I'd share them with you. Instead, here is a picture of my friends Dave and Cindy in Boise doing a little fire dance of their own. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

Oh yeah, did I mention? Where are my NowRuz presents?

J. W.

2006-03-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is Jim Williams, our team director and author of the Colavita/Cooking Light race reports. He runs a really tight ship around here. Since I didn't get his permission to publish his race reports, he punished Audrey and I by making us ride our trainers for an hour while repeating "We will never disobey the Boss".

Sequoia Cycling Classic Time Trial Race Report

2006-03-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

2006 Sequoia Cycling Classic Time Trial
March 18-19
By Jim Williams

Exeter 30K Time Trial — The Sequoia Classic is back. Once a mainstay on the NRC calendar and a true test of early season fitness, the Sequoia Classic returned on March 18 with a demanding 30 km time trial that brought riders up and over the famous Rocky Hill only to turn around and have to go up and over again on the way back. With the Colavita/Cooking Light Team in attendance, along with Webcor and Victory Brewing, the racing was guaranteed to be competitive and fast. Ultimately, the fastest time of the day was posted by Victory Brewing's Leigh Hobson who beat the early time of mountain biker-turned time trialist Beverly Harper riding for Touchstone. The strong earlier times did not mean that those riders could just get a quick change and head to the podium as late finishers from Colavita/Cooking Light still had to make their way to the finish line.

Colavita/Cooking Light riders Audrey Lemieux, Sima Trapp, and Sarah Tillotson each posted very strong times but Leigh Hobson proved on this day that she was the best. Sunday will see the racers lining up for a downtown favorite in the city of Visalia for a classic L- shaped Criterium.

Sequoia Classic Exeter 30K Time Trial
Women Elite 1 / 2
1 Leigh Hobson (Victory Brewing) 51:16
2 Beverly Harper (Touchstone) 52:11
3 Sarah Tillotson (Colavita/Cooking Light) 52:22
4 Chrissy Ruiter (Victory Brewing) 52:34
5 Katherine Carrol (Victory Brewing) 52:35
6 Penny Avril 52:45
7 Sima Trapp (Colavita/Cooking Light) 52:56
10 Audrey Lemieux (Colavita Cooking Light)

Sequoia Classic Criterium Race Report

2006-03-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

Colavita Cooking Light Race release
By Jim Williams

Today the gloves were dropped Canadian style as Laura Yoisten who resides north of the boarder and rides for the Victory Bbrewing won a hard fought battle with the Colavita Cooking Light team. A small field showed up to race the Visalia Criterium today with 8 riders for VictoryBrewing at the start line and 3 riders for Colavita Cooking Light along with several individual riders from several teams including Flecia Gomez from Webcor.

With both Victory and Colavita Cooking Light having teams present it became a battle royal. Victory Brewing wasted no time starting the action with the first attack coming just halfway through lap 1 of the 40 lap bike race. Each and every attack after was either covered by the Colavita Cooking Light riders or brought back through constant work on the front. A very dangerous move slipped away that contained both LauraYoisten and Katherine Carroll of Victory brewing and when they gained close to 20 seconds it looked as if the two would ride away and leave the rest of the field to fight over third placing on the day. The Colavita Cooking Light riders Sima Trapp, Audrey Lemieux and Sarah Tillotson would not give in and joined forces with Felicia Gomez of Webcor and the Touchstone duo of Pat Ross and India Sanjuan to bring theVictory girls back into the fold. With the group together again with 5 laps to go the attacks finally ended and the Victory train took over for an exciting sprint finish. Laura Yoisten sprinted for the win ahead of her teammate Laura Bowels with a tired Sarah Tillotson of Colavita Cooking Light sneaking in for 3rd. While the field was small, spectators on the street were impressed with the aggression and intensity of the racing.

Sequoia Classic Criterium Women Elite 1 / 2
1 Laura Yoisten (Victory Brewing)
2 Laura Bowles (Victory Brewing)
3 Sarah Tillotson (Colavita/Cooking Light)
4 Felicia Gomez (Webcor)
5 Katherine Carrol (Victory Brewing)
6 Audrey Lemieux (Colavta/Cooking Light)
7 Sima Trapp (Colavita Cooking Light)
8 Chrissy Ruiter (Victory Brewing)
9 Leigh Hobson (Victory Brewing)
10 India SanJuan (Touchstone)