Whose owns this guy?

Believe it or not, this guy turned up in my luggage a few weeks ago. Although we were confused, we thought it wouldn't hurt for him to join us in New Mexico. Please claim him though, he is awfully pushy.

Kate, I saved you a bite.

You got to have some humor when you just FROZE YOUR BUTT OFF in a race a the end of April?  What is the deal weather people?  I keep promising these girls that Boulder has great spring weather and then... snow, hail, sleet.  ugh

Things you might see at paralympic camp

Well, I just got back from a long camp with the Paralympic team.  This is an amazing bunch of athletes who are training for the big race... the Games in Beijing.

On the track- Me and Karissa and the best mechanic, Todd

Anyone missing a leg?

Hand cyclist finds a snake... and picks it up!

I laughed for a while over this. Do you think the reason that Daddy doesn't have a name is because there are a couple different dads and we didn't want to confuse anyone?  Or, is it because we aren't sure who Daddy is?  Everyone else has a name, including the dog.

Karissa and I enjoying some sun in California!

Racing in Wisconsin

Hey everyone, wow its been a long weekend for the Wisconsin cowgirls. On Saturday we went up to the Menomonee Park Criterium in Menomonee Falls. It was a rather early morning since we had to leave at 6 for the 8:30 junior’s race, but the course was fun. It was fairly flat with one or two small hill and lots of sweeping turns and ended up being more like a short circuit race than a crit. Marcie and I both raced juniors, it was a fun, but fast race, since the girls and guys race at the same time and some of the guys are cat 2’s and 3’s. Anyway I stayed with the main pack for the majority of the race along w/ Katie and Ashley from IS corp. At the last turn I dropped back out of the pack because I didn’t want to get caught up in the rather sketchy sprint which usually finishes out a juniors race and ended up taking 2nd overall for 17-18 girls. Marcie also had a good race she rode w/one other 15-16 girl off the back of the pack and ended up taking a strong 3rd in her age group.

Marcie during the juniors race

Next up for both of us was Women’s 4’s. There were some small attacks throughout the race that were quickly chased down, and the field ended up together going into the last turn. I was up near the front and as soon as we were around the corner everyone took off, and I was able to take the sprint. Marcie finished in the field with a solid 11th. Overall it was a great race for the Cowgirls.

The start of the sprint

At the finish :-)

Day two of this weekend was the Great Dane Velo Club Criterium (#2) and the weather could not have been better. It was a high of 76 degrees and sunny. They day started with the juniors race which was once again fairly fast, I lost the pack and the beginning of the race and so I was on my own for the first half but then as I was being lapped L one of the guys kindly pulled me back into the field and I sat in for the remainder of the race. The Cowgirls ended up taking 1st in the 17-18 Girls and 2nd in the 15-16 girls.
Next up was the women’s 4’s for Marcie, it was one the biggest field that race has had all year, Marcie had a good race, but we don’t know where she finished yet. After 4’s I didn’t have to race till 5 so I took Marcie on a ride around Madison and we put in some quality homework time before heading back to the race.
The Women’s Open was a great race, the first several laps were full of lots of small attacks and it was tough, I sat in, chased the attacks and just kept wishing the a break would make it so that things would settle into a rhythm of some sort. Eventually an attack was successful and I made the break along with Sarah from PRC, Rachel and Katie from IS corp., and Kristin from Kenda Tire. We worked well together and kept the break going till the end. I ended up being the last one around the corner before the sprint and subsequently took 4th. Not to bad for my first women’s open race, I learned a lot, including that I need to work on my sprint.


Overall it was a great weekend for the Wisconsin Cowgirls, I'll post pics from Great Dane tomorrow!

Life with Dogs

I was sitting in the yard last night with a glass of wine, a newspaper and my camera. I was relaxing after a busy day of riding and some gardening. I had the camera because I was wanting to get a photo of the sun setting behind the barn. The dogs started playing so I took a few self portraits. Here's what it's like when the team isn't around and I'm alone here with the animals.














I didn't get much reading done and never did get a photo of the sunset. Anyway, me, Coop and Gabs are sending good Gila thoughts for the team next week.
Talk soon.

More Mini

Mini misses Clare, too.

Mini

I think we all miss our little Mini.

Does he miss us?

I doubt Gabby misses him.

Wait... that's not Mini.

two more Wisco photos

Photoshoot funtimes! Here's Becx-- smiley as usual! She's sporting her new sweet hair-do from our on site beautician :). Well done... I think she is about to go hop on the bike for some nice individual shots!

Clare... the female Vinokurov...

This photo acquired from: http://www.mtbtr.com/haber/haberliste.asp?habergrup=YOL1
Just compare the photos... the glasses... the blood... the gloves? (oh wait...)... need I say more??

Kate Ross Warmes Up To Tom Ashbrook!

I was stuned to find out that Kate likes to warm up to Tom Ashbrook! Tom Ashbrook, an awared winning jurnolist and radio talk show host, provides a lively forum which discusses and debates, bringing callers from around the country and the world into the conversations.

This is what is playing in Kate's head during racing. I guess by listening to Tom Ashbrook, Kate may feel she is finding depth of knowledge and perspective into womens cycling that most of us would not bother to learn.

Photoshoot Shenanigans + wisconsin extras...

Last weekend, the cowgirls headed to Wisconsin for their annual team photoshoot for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board! We had a most excellent weekend at Rebecca's farm in rural Wisco-- 'going home' for me (even thought I still manage to get lost on rural roads in central Wisconsin), and it was Leda and Clare's FIRST time in Wisconsin! (they did confess to me that Wisconsin is far superior to all states in the universe... not really).

I am sure y'all want a photo tour of our weekend. It all began on Thursday when we left DIA and landed in Milwaukee. Missy and Cari were our drivers for the weekend and Cari WAS EXTREMEMLY dissapointed that they had no yellow SUV's to rent. (I think she'll get over it though). Arrived at Becx's Sunny Hill Farm and met the Gabby, the Pup, and all of the other animals.

Leda liked the pupps and also lounging with them! I think she really wanted

to just curl up and fall asleep here!

Becx had us to help out too! Betsy and Missy had a TRUE farm experience. They opted to help Becx do some shoveling. They look tired in this photo! BUT, I'm sure that they won't have to do their back exercises or curls after shoveling. :)

Much of our time at the farm was spent preparing meals! We like to eat, a lot. And we definately ate some excellent food... including some veggie bean burgers AND AUTHENTIC, PABST-BOILED, SAUERKARUT-LADEN BRATS! Yum. You'll see that Betsy is an excellent onion cutter, she isn't even crying! Special note: Betsy has owned her gorilla t-shirt since the sixth grade!!!




In this photo of Cari and Missy... You'll notice that Missy is happy, Cari is not (cari's new fav photo shot). You'll also notice that Missy is enjoying a brat, Cari isn't. See, you all should realize that eating authentic, pabst-boiled, sauerkarut-laden brats just makes you happy. Yum.

PS... I didn't have access to any chillin' at the farm photos of Becx OR Clare... just know they were there and are awesome!

Time for photoshoot photos....

Time for make up. Missy is getting dolled up here. Nice! Since she wears make-up ALL the time AND gets her Nails done ALL the time, she was our makeup vetran. Look how happy she is to get powder... except I think the only real powder she has been experiencing in the past couple years or so is white and fluffy and accumulates to make a nice blanket to ski on!

This is what happens if you end up taking a photo of a photoshoot. Your flash will set off all of the other flashes in the entire set. My personal words of avice... don't take photos of a photoshoot... OR simply... turn off the flash.

Cari was thrilled to find an entire plate of cheese curds that she could enjoy.... check out the photo... cheese curds and coffee. Yum.

There was an actual cow mascot. I don't know what to say about this photo. I am wearing the cow's glasses... and that cow has a huge head.

Cari has the actual cow suit on... and she and clare are flashing some sort of cow sign... unfortunately we had to leave the mascot suit at the studio. We were thinking our Team Mom (Greg) could wear it to give us handups. There's no missinga big cow holding a waterbottle on the side of the road.

Marcie and Anna! Posing for the camera. Nice! Where's Sabrina!?? :)

What a great weekend! Watch for more photos!

Forgotten Tucson Memory...

Although we DID go to Wisconsin for our Milk Marketing Board photo shoot, I do not have access to any photos for the weekend... BUTTTT, I really wanted to give y'all an update. So we'll go for flashback to a couple weekends ago...

Kate's FAV... Bio Lesson time!!

Meet Opuntia bigelovii:

Yes, it appears to be cute. Yes, it appears to be cuddly. But watch out...

These spines do a number of critical things for the cacti...

1 the spines protect the stem-- they are dense making the cactus look "cuddly"

2 it protects stems from herbivores AND sunlight-- acting as shading agents for the stem

3 the spines are very sharp and barbed

4 unfortunately, the teddy bear cholla's flowers do not produce seed... which is an indication of the importance of the cacti's ability to "JUMP" onto other modes of transportation (then to be dropped on to the ground somewhere else... and then to grow into an entire NEW cacti). Amazing.

So here goes... scroll down to see what happens when an unnamed individual's foot gets too close to the Teddy Bear Cholla or "JUMPING" cholla... We won't mention names, but Leda was still riding, Clare and Kate were eating and Missy was probably fixing Clares bike... So that leaves one person (initials CH)...

Here is Cari's foot. Note that this cacti chunk is EMBEDDED into her foot. She is making some funny sound... I thought she was giggling until I realized she was actually in pain!!!

Take another look. Not only did she get ONE cacti chunk embedded in her foot, but not long after that one sunk it's BARBS into her foot... so did another cacti chunk.

Here goes... I came to the rescue. It took a pair of pliers to get these things out of Cari's foot. It took 3 tries to PULL them out. More like yank... Barb is right, that barb was lodged into her foot. We later found out that it is good to carry a comb with you in for this specific reason. Either that or a pair of pliers. Either way they won't (and didn't) come out early. Missy had some 'biofreeze' on hand and Cari rubbed the afflicted area with this 'special' ointment... she felt better.

Ouch. Cari reached rockstar status that day! Watch for a Wisco update soon! :)

~~niteynight.

kate