Jack Attack

New Blog/Website

2011-12-12T23:01:00.000-05:00

Please follow this link to my new blog:

http://jackiecrowell.wordpress.com/

From here you can read about my recent travels, see my recent twitter updates, view my bio, and contact me about coaching services.

Thanks for reading!

-Jackie

2012 Early-Season Schedule Posted!

2011-11-26T22:08:00.002-05:00

Look at that schedule! Things will be taking off full gas this year beginning with Tour of Qatar on February 1st. I'll be home for just enough time after training camp to get adjusted to the time zone before I head to Europe for over a month.

I haven't been updating lately for a lot of reasons, mainly because I've been really busy finishing up my last semester of school at UF. Taking time away from the bike both mentally and physically is also an essential part of the off season. I usually take about two weeks completely off the bike and then ride every other day for the following two weeks. And then too, there's a new guy in my life who's decided I'm not so bad to hang out with, so he gets some of the credit for occupying my time.

For awhile there I was dying to blab about signing with Exergy Twenty12, but I had to keep my mouth shut about it until the official press release came out. This is old news by now but here's the link:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exergy-twenty12-announces-full-roster

I've spent the last few weeks answering team emails about sizing and equipment information. What kind of aerobars do I want on my TT bike? What's my size in these 43 different articles of clothing? What size and color casual shoe do I want? Yes, I WILL have some champagne, thank you. And can you feed me those grapes while you're at it?

I'm Broken!

2011-08-08T08:56:00.002-04:00

It's official. I've got four fractured vertebrae from the time trial crash at Tour of Bretagne. Just got the MRI results back this morning. The doc said four was an unusually high number, and could indicate something else was wrong. Me? I think I just hit the ground THAT hard. I've made an appointment with an orthopedist, but I'm not sure what he can do for me. I had to email Jackson and tell him I couldn't do Tour of Holland, which was kind of disappointing. On the bright side, it'll give me some time to switch back into school mode. My final semester at UF!

Still don't know how I got 10th in that TT...

Pedal until you can't pedal anymore.

Meet the Team

2011-07-26T09:17:00.000-04:00

Pictures from Bretagne & Limousin

2011-07-26T08:46:00.002-04:00

I just updated my last two posts with pictures, so be sure to check those out. Here's some more:

Start of stage 1, Tour de Bretagne

Dorm rooms at TdB

Sweet TT setup

Food hoarding

Team car all decaled up

Ashley, attempting to model

Kendall and Ashley

Daily schedule. Notes: Honey Badger don't care

The faithful team truck

Town hosting Tour de Limousin time trial

Crepes!

Tour de Bretagne

2011-07-18T12:09:00.009-04:00

I'm not sure what to say about this race. Even with a boatload of bad luck, I managed to hang on to 4th place in the general classification, but the lost opportunity is still weighing on me. I keep asking myself what I could have done differently. I keep going over the different scenarios in my head. I shouldn't have taken so many risks in the time trial. I should have demanded a teammate give me a wheel on the third stage sooner than I did. I should have trusted my instincts more. Fortunately, I was too tired to allow my mind to keep me up last night.

Here's what happened. Stage one went well. I had to do a little too much work in the beginning closing gaps to the Russians and Canadians who were being very aggressive, but I still made the final break of four. We got just over two and a half minutes on the field. I cramped in the end, and got 3rd. Then I got to do my first interview in French. Turns out those four years of French in high school weren't completely worthless. I said what I could about the race and the weather, and then apologized for my bad French. I really tried to slow down for the apology, but I'm still not 100% sure I didn't say "France is very bad." Maybe that's why I was getting the strange looks?

Stage two, the time trial, was where the bad luck began. I crashed in my aerobars, in a chicane, on a downhill, going about 50k an hour. Jackson and the mechanic, Nick, were following me in the team car and were able to help me back up. Somehow, I still manged to still place 10th and hold onto my 3rd place in the GC, but my back got pretty messed up, and bothered me the remaineder of the race. The bush I crashed into had thorns:

It took me awhile to get rolling on stage three. It rained all day too. The team worked well for me and had me protected in the finishing circuits. Then, with just over 5k to go, I flatted. It was raining and chaotic. The wheel change took forever, and I chased like hell to catch back on. I was catching the stragglers when I crossed the finish line, but there were gaps between them and the peleton. I would have held onto third if one of the Canadians, Shaw, hadn't won the stage and gotten the time bonus.

Because I was only four seconds off third place, my goal on the fourth stage was to get the time bonuses. A break up the road kept me from getting the first one, but I managed to get the second time bonus pretty easily. Three seconds there. One to go. In the end, I didn't do it. I only got 5th on the stage - no time bonuses there. I keep thinking back to the time trial. If only I hadn't tried to push it so hard. Or what if I hadn't flatted? Where would I be now? In a yellow jersey?

Brittany, I Think?

2011-07-11T12:16:00.006-04:00

Sometimes it pays to be a snorer. My snoring has become a bit of a running joke on the team, something to laugh about that is, until you get stuck in a room with me. Only one rider would get a single in our first hotel, so I was the obvious pick. I've tried to figure out if the snoring correlates to my training in any way, but so far it seems to be random - you never know when it's going to strike. On the last Euro trip, it was so loud someone felt the need to record it on some sort of audio recording device. By the time China rolled around, I'd learned to warn my roomie well in advance.

So that's how I got my own room this time around. It was great, when I woke up at 1:00 am this morning, to be able to flip on the light and read for a bit instead of laying there in the dark all self-coucious about my tossing and turning. My Toshiba laptop died a couple days ago, so I brought an armful of books to occupy my time. I pulled out my easy read, a book my father gave me called French Revolutions.

I don't normally like reading about cycling, but this one actually isn't bad...maybe because it's more about bike touring than bike racing. The author is a newbie who decides he's going to ride that year's Tour de France route in the six weeks leading up to the start of the Tour. He hasn't mentioned anything about shaving or not shaving his legs in the book, but I can certainly tell - he's definitely got leg hair curling over the top of his cycling socks. I can see it clear as day. It's kinda gross, but the book is funny enough that I can almost forget about it.

While reading, I set a new record for my resting heart rate: 41 bpm. Cool. Finally, around 4am, I finally fell back asleep.

So we're staying in a hotel somewhere in France, possibly in a region called Brittany. Hold on, let me go do some fact checking...

O.K. I have little to no idea what I was just told, but I got her to write it out for me. I'm in the small town, St. Nicolas du Pelem, staying at L'Auberge du Kreisker. Here is our dining room setup:

And here is the team outside of the hotel:

We were a little skeptical about the place on arrival. Andrew said it reminded him of the movie, Poltergiest, and I have to agree; it could definitely be haunted. But isn't every old building in rural France haunted?

The people here are very friendly. Ashley and I went for a walk this afternoon and ran into a British man who, seeing our USA jackets, struck up a conversation. After asking why we were here, he told us some really interesting stories about the town during WWII. Apparently, the father and son of the family who owned our hotel back then were captured by the Germans, dragged off to concentration camps, and worked to death. He does yard work for the family's two daughters, now in their late eighties, who were left behind to care for the hotel and "live in that house." He pointed to it. The street was named after the father and son as a sort of memorial.

And here are some pictures from the walk:

Telephone booths? They still have those?

Alright, I've been hogging Ashley's laptop long enough...

Des Formi dans le Jambes

2011-07-08T10:18:00.000-04:00

I just got back from Nationals/training in the Georgia mountains. Three nights in my own bed and already I'm off to France! I've got the ants in my legs, as they say. Definitely ready for these two good weeks of racing. Here's where I'll be:

Tour de Bretagne

Tour Feminin en Limousin

The parents are having a dinner party tonight, so I've spent my last day at home clearning the house in addition to running errands and packing. Maybe they'll miss me when I move back to Gainesville in August?

Tulsa Tough, My First Big Win of the Season!

2011-06-14T15:25:00.015-04:00

This is what I woke up to on Sunday morning:

How about that! My name in the headlines! I was fully expecting my post-race interview to be condensed down into an afterthought of the men's race report. Something like "...and Jacquki Cromwel took first in the women's race." Finally some press for us girls AND my name's spelled correctly. Thank you, Tulsa World.

Not only did I win this time around, but I also used my grown up words (this can be a challenge in the minutes following a race). Click on the link or picture above and check it out.

Now for my own race report. This is the part where I copy and paste what I wrote for the team website:

Day two was a six-corner criterium with a decent hill in it. Based on how the race played out the previous evening, Kori and I tweaked our tactics a bit. Unfortunately, we forgot to take into account that my body would be sore from the crash the previous day. Kori set me up for a solo move with about ten laps to go, but I wasn’t able to hold it. My pedal stroke just wasn’t as smooth as usual. I took a few laps to recover from my breakaway attempt and tried again with two and a half laps to go. It was risky. It was painful. Primal chased and Kori did her best to block. I knew it was going to be close, so close that I didn’t want to risk losing the split second it would take to look behind me. I set my sights on the line dug deep, and managed to hold off the field for the win!

End race report.

And here's the podium shot:

I just wanted that stuffed panda bear so badly!

I know I promised I'd write about my adventures in Dahlonega, but that's going to have to wait till tomorrow. Jim, a local cyclist who I ran into on the road today told me I should update more frequently, so keep your eyes peeled for another post soon to come.

I'm going to have to start racing more just so I have more to write about!

Plane tickets for the two stage races in France in July have been booked!

Kini Bars: A Different, Healthier Ride Food

2011-06-07T20:47:00.002-04:00

Energy bars made from quinoa?!?! It's like a dream come true. If you don't know anything about quinoa, go ahead and take a Google break right now. Or you can find out more about it on the Kini Bar website: kiniba rs.com

Quinoa flakes were an official "food obsession" of mine (as listed on the right side of this page) earlier in the year. I have since branched out to quinoa pasta, which I also recommend. Basically, quinoa is a grain with a very high protein-to-carb. ratio. It's gluten-free, and it has a very low glycemic index. It's an ideal food for the serious athlete, an ideal food for anyone really.

A friend told me about Kini bars back in March before I went over to Europe. I got in touch with the owner and chef, Anthony. Turns out he was looking for feedback from athletes, so he hooked me up with a big batch. I even got to meet him in person.

I took my Kini Bars to Europe with me, tested them, and they definitely checked out. They were easy to digest, natural (made from ingredients from Whole Foods), and they tasted good. These bars aren't just for the gluten-free folk out there. If you're just plain sick of bars made with an oat base or just looking for variety, keep your eyes peeled for them when they finally come into production.

I avoided the bars off the bike (like I do with most workout bars) because I watch my calorie intake. I believe Anthony has since made the official bar size slightly smaller and tweaked the recipe a bit so they don't break too easily.

Anyway...sorry I've been slacking on the blogging lately. I have an (oh no, am I really about to use such an overused word in my blog? Yes I am. Here it goes...) epic story to tell about a recent training ride in Dahlonega, but I'll save it for my next post.

Chongming

2011-05-20T05:37:00.002-04:00

First stop off the airplane - the bathroom. How do you even

flush this thing? I pressed one of the buttons and got some fake toilet flushing noise. After examining the contraption for a good thirty seconds, I found the handle hiding behind the lid. Then I spent another thirty seconds trying to take a picture of it. Sorry for the hold up, girls!

So apparently this race was a really, really, really big deal on Chongming Island. The billboard below was one of many. The shops all had race posters in their windows, the entire island had been decorated in colorful banners just for us, and the crowds were impressive. The government may have ordered them to watch, but still...

We arrived at the hotel after over 24 hours of travel. I flew from Orlando to Minneapolis to Tokyo and finally to Shanghai.

Originally the elevator doors read "welcome go home," but someone wised up and changed it before I could get a picture.

Out for an easy ride the day before the race. When riding with the team, I sometimes forget I'm on the other side of the world.

The dining hall with Andrea and Lindsay.

The mullet sighting. Between the mullet and their team mechanic stealing another team's set of race wheels (everything's on camera in China, dude - how did you think you could get away with that?), the Ukrainians get the extra-race press award.

Tonight we have a selection of...

Another option: the KFC a couple doors down from the hotel. Unfortunately it was very much the Chinesed version.

Our hotel was in the shopping district, so I went out to explore and get gifts for friends. Check this out! They rang me up on a frickin' abacus at the grocery store. To hell with looking like a tourist. I HAD to get a picture of that one.

OK, so I suppose you want to hear about the races. Even though we were in China, they were very similar to the European races because a lot of the same contenders were there. Coryn, our sprinter, lost time when she crashed with 4k to go on the first stage of the Tour. We spent the next two days trying to get Lauren Tamayo bonus time on the sprints. She ended up in 7th place in the GC.

The start of a stage.

The World Cup started out a little rough for me when I crashed about 20k in. I was trying to move up in the gutter on the left side of the bunch when the girl in front of me did this acrobatic sideways arch of her body to clear a bush that was growing out into the road. BAM! The bush took out my whole left side. I knew immediately it was a pretty funny crash. My bike was alright, I was alright, and I had just ridden strait into a bush on a road in China. ha.

I paced back on easily. We did a leadout for Coryn in the finish, but were only able to pull off 19th place. I must say I'm learning a lot, and I can't wait for Tulsa Tough here in a few weeks. It'll be my first big race in the States this year.

INTERNET ACCESS SWEET!

2011-05-16T14:55:00.008-04:00

I just PAID to get internet access if you can believe that! As soon as I stepped off the plane from China, I started scouting around for electrical outlets. I found one in a corner near the gate for my connecting flight, plugged in, and dropped the six bucks for Boingo Wi-Fi access. Ohmygosh it was so worth it! Facebook! Twitter! My blog! My friends! Finally I can see you again! Did you miss me?

Why was I having such social media withdrawal when I'm usually the one weirdo who LIKES leaving my computer behind on short trips? There were a couple reasons. First, we HAD internet, but the social media sites were blocked. They were right there under our fingertips, just behind the screen, but every time I typed in "facebook" and hit "enter" some Asian dude in a cubical somewhere hit the "deny" button and smiled. Even sites you wouldn't expect to be blocked were "forbidden." Like airline websites. We began experimenting. The questionable websites were easier to access in the mornings, perhaps between Censorship Department shifts. Sometimes if you tried to access Facebook or Blogger too many times, you'd suddenly be without any internet at all! I found myself shaking my fist at the sky and exclaiming like Kyle and Stan every time Kenny dies on South Park. That's reason number one.

Reason two: by day three of our toilet not flushing, our room smelling like poo, rock hard beds, an ear-splitting language (even when they're just taking like normal it sounds like they're angry), and mystery meat, rice, and something labeled "white fungus broth" for dinner, I was clinging desperately to the far-off memories of the culture of my homeland, of the hamburgers, soft beds, and toilets that flush.

Alright, so I had to take a break in my blogging just then to fly from Tokyo to Minneapolis. Hardly slept at all on the flight but at least now I've got my Boingo Wi-Fi going, my McFlurry in hand, and people are speaking English!

Pictures and stories to come...

America!

2011-05-06T19:17:00.003-04:00

Oh my gosh I've been rushing around unpacking and packing and visiting family and mother's day and application for readmission to UF and food and it feels like I just got home and already I leave for China in two days! Woah, baby. That's the life, I guess. I spent my entire first day back sanitizing my clothes, which turned a nice grey color over the course of the trip. I also got to set up my new bike from Team Type 1, which arrived while I was away. Check this out:

Gotta cut the steerer tube, but still. Sweet...

So you know how I mentioned the cycling superfans a few blogs ago? Well, here's another example. A letter arrived for me at Hotel Sport after the second stage.

I opened it and started reading the letter. Oh he

wants my autograph!

Then I read more. Wait a second. Where'd all these rules come from? Only a signature, no other text. No roman characters. Only on the enclosed cards. Black or blue pen. Let the ink dry. Put a sheet between the cards. Put the cards in the hardcover? Ugh. He expects me to think this much in the middle of a stage race?!?! Psh! Even this was enclosed:

A+ for preparedness.

One last picture. This sign was at a gas station right near the pump. Caption contest? What in the world is going on here, right? Any guesses? I'm at a loss.

Gracia-Orlova Part 1

2011-04-27T15:58:00.006-04:00

This country is hard to describe. Andrew compares it to Mexico. We're in the way way Eastern part of the Czech Republic, so I'm not assuming that it's ALL like this (especially since everyone tells me Prague is one of their favorite cities in Europe). Czech out these pictures. I've fallen behind on my picture taking, so I went a little wild in the car on the way home from the prologue today. The coffee may have had a hand in that (and my 8th place!). Ugh, more proof that leads me consider becoming a regular coffee drinker.

Andrew driving us into town.

A block away from the prologue course.
The nicest buildings around.

I'm rich! Actually, not really. One dollar
equals roughly 16 Czech koruna.

Pre-Prologue coffee run with the team. Ally Stacher from HTC-Highroad has joined us for this race!

Out on a post-prologue ride to take a picture of

the following sign we spied down the road:

And here come the car ride pictures:

Example of the average building.

Weird above-ground pipes with coal plant in background.

A coal truck. So exciting!

One of the prettier buildings around.

Gas prices. Sorry, sorry...there's very limited things to take

pictures of from the car.

Tomorrow is the first stage. I've gotta run 'cause I've been sitting on the ground in the lobby (only place I get internet) for a good hour, and that's definitely not the best thing for recovery. It's actually a bit of a miracle that even get internet here; it keeps crashing because the Russians and Belgians are staying in this tiny hotel too and we're all scrambling for share of internet like it's crack. This poor hotel probably hasn't seen this many laptops in its history. Every time it goes down we end up exclaiming, "those damn Russians" while we wonder who they could be Skyping that's so important. Right now they're probably cursing me for uploading all these pictures :-) Goodnight!

Fleche Wallonne: Superfans, Another Crash, and the Huy

2011-04-22T05:54:00.011-04:00

I've seen the cycling superfans on TV. They're the guys running around in costumes, waving flags, shaking their fists, and jogging next to riders on the climbs. I just never fully understood, despite seeing this, that cycling over here is a BIG DEAL. I mean, people had their RV's parked on the course a full 24 hours before the race was supposed to start. Do American football fans even begin to tailgate that early? So it was still a bit of a shock to me to see all the hype for Fleche.

At the team presentation on Tuesday, the day before the race, we were approached by some seriously organized fans. These guys had neat, 1.5" binders filled with pages and pages of computer paper on which they'd typed out every single rider's name followed by several blank lines for a signature. We signed. One fan even had photos of Ali that he'd printed out in advance and brought to the presentation specifically for her to sign. Race day stalking was even crazier. There were cameras EVERYWHERE, but no specific "team parking" area. We just pulled off the road and made camp like we would for any other race except we were surrounded by fans with cameras, race organization with cameras, motos with cameras, and a helicopter with a camera flying overhead. It never occurred to me until then how much of my pre-race routine I wouldn't want documented: changing into my chamois, applying chamois cream, peeing in bushes.

On top of the cameras, people here aren't afraid to stare. At one point, I had a glob of chamois cream in my hand and was just about to go reaching down my pants when I looked up and realized there was a semi-circle about 8 feet in radius of men with cameras just standing there watching me. I got inside the car.

I talked to one Australian dude who said all he and his wife do is travel around in their RV following the pro peleton. Anyway, we finally got kitted up and made our way over to the start where we did another team presentation and began to stage.

The race kicked off well. I covered some little attacks early on until we hit the climbs. I made it up the first climb okay, but then ended up crashing onto the descent into riders who were already down. Guess that's what I get for being in the back. This is what I'm looking like:

Some big bruises and and road rash. See the chain ring in my shoulder? At least I get a new helmet out of it!

I took four years of French in highschool, but I've forgotten a lot of it because (WOW!) that was five years ago now. After the crash, I sat for awhile and waited for it to start hurting more. I'd gone down HARD. When the pain didn't come, I took some deep breaths, stood up, and began to look for my bicycle. Just then, a female medic came up to me and began talking to me in French. It must have been the adrenaline because all of a sudden those French lessons came back to me! I was a flippin' French language expert! I told her I was O.K. and that I wanted to keep going but couldn't find my bicycle. J'ai perdu ma bicyclette! haha. Past tense and everything!

I got back on my bike and rode to the finish with some girls who'd been dropped. After about ten miles of riding one-handed, I began to regret not getting in the broomwagon; In the end it was worth it to get the chance to ride up the Huy (my teammate Ali prefers to pronounce it Whoeeeeeeeeeeee!). The Huy is a very steep climb, 1.3k at an average of 9.3%, but there's a turn where it hits well over 20%. Maybe next year.

O.K., time for rubs and food. Tomorrow we race in the Netherlands again. Real quick, a picture for my friends and family. Your presents:

World Cup

2011-04-16T15:46:00.005-04:00

The pave section Thursday was weak compared to the ones today. I'll let our post-race raccoon eyes spell it out:

Alison got most aggressive rider and the pave jersey while I won the "top twenty" competition by being the last person that can still claim a "top twenty."

Ali accepting her cobble-turned-trophy pave award.

Drenthe 8 Dwingeloo

2011-04-15T09:29:00.007-04:00

I was named the "most combative"rider in the race, Drenthe 8, yesterday. I like this word - combative. The term I've always heard in the U.S. is "aggressive," but combative sounds more confrontational, like I was actually doing damage to other riders as opposed to just burning off some extra steam. No matter what they call it, it was my first podium in Europe, and I was excited!

Before I tell you about the race (and my first cobbles ever!), let me bring you up to speed on the other stuff.

We left the Energiewacht Tour house on Monday after an easy ride and some skills drills that Jackson decided were necessary given our accounts of the mayhem in the peleton.

An hour or so transfer brought us to Dwingeloo, Netherlands where we'd be spending the next few nights. Interesting fact: we are staying in the EXACT same hotel I stayed in with my family on our bike tour from Amsterdam to Copenhagen in 2000.

We've been living the good life here in Dwingeloo. I'm savoring it because I've heard the accommodations in the Czech Republic aren't so nice. The town has that quaint, small-town feel with the cafes, the park in the center, and people on bikes EVERYWHERE. The food is delicious, and the people are friendly. We sit at breakfast in the mornings and watch the elementary school children bump shoulders and do perfect cyclocross mounts and dismounts on their way to school. Then we do some course scouting on our easy ride, shower back at the hotel, and eat a fresh spread of food our swanee, Andrew, picked up at the town markets. Massages are in the afternoon followed by a mouth-watering dinner in the restaurant across the way. Laundry is no problem since our team truck is equipped with its own washer and dryer.

O.K. time to wrap this up. The hotel computer is red-underlinging every word I type because it's not Dutch and it's making me insecure! The race. The first half was really frustrating because I could NOT get to the front. If I made progress forward, I'd soon get stuck behind a crash or forced the long way around a roundabout. However, if there was one thing I learned about positioning from the Energiewach Tour it was this: keep fighting! Of course, that's easier said than done. Most of the crashes are happening mid-pack and they take a toll on your nerves.

Come 100k in, I began to get tunnel vision from focusing so hard for so long. With each kilometer we rode, I began to care less and less about whether or not I crashed or remained upright. Funny what lack of fear will do for you. Next thing I knew, I was at the front! I wasn't there for a second before I attacked. The first thing on my mind was food. Finally I could take my hands off the bars and get a bite to eat! But then the motos started giving me increasing time gaps, and I began to dig harder. The people in the towns I rode through were all cheering and the motos had their cameras on me and were giving me time gaps on their dry erase boards. It was pretty cool.

Video found by my fans (parents). My attack's about a minute and a half in.

My trophy is this huge wooden and glass lantern that's way too big to take home to the States. It will probably end up at the team house in Izegem. I believe there's some picture of it on cyclingnews, of me holding it up in the air and smiling awkwardly because I'm wondering what the hell contraption I'd just been handed.

My first World Cup is tomorrow!

Summary of My First Euro Tour

2011-04-10T16:44:00.002-04:00

Day 1: 100k. Ha! I can't remember. Long week. I did go down at one point, but it was a graceful crash. Caught back on no problem. By the end of the day, I know two words of Dutch: links (left) and rechts (right). But it's more like "LINKS LINKS LINKS!" or "RECHTS RECHTS RECHTS!"

Day 2: 80k. Crashed on my face. Not my fault, but maybe could have been avoided if I'd been practicing my bunny-hopping-at-the-last-second skillz. Hung out in the caravan until I caught back up with the group. Had to keep touching my chin to reassure myself that my face wasn't falling off/skin wasn't flapping in the wind. Saw the front today, but only for a few minutes.

Day 3: 120k. Spent a significant amount of time at the front today. Improvement! At dinner, stage race stomach sets in. CANNOT. EAT. ANY. MORE. FOOD. UGH.

Day 4: 88k. A drag race today. So unbelievably fast, and hardly a split-second chance to move up. 69th out of 160 something in GC. Definitely nothing to brag about, but at least I finished.

The third day was the definitely the hardest of the four stages. We drove the course beforehand with wide eyes. There were long sections, 10k or so, where the road was five feet wide (just big enough for one small euro car) and had a lot of turns. The road was raised, completely exposed to gusts of wind, and if there wasn't a tree you could crash into, there was a canal you would inevitably fall into. I wouldn't have been surprised if they decided to throw some alligators in the canals just for fun.

Tomorrow we head to another part of the Netherlands for some one-day racing. I couldn't tell you what part we're going to. I just spent five days here not knowing where I was until a couple hours ago when a teammate asked me and we went to go look it up on a map. Was that a run-on sentence? Looking forward to not having to stuff my face at every meal for the next couple days.

Summary of the summary: I'm learning a lot. And having a good time :-)

Some Quick Pics

2011-04-08T10:35:00.001-04:00

Only one internet cable for the six of us, so I gotta be quick and only post a few pictures.

Out for an easy ride

Getting ready for stage two.

Post-race face. Crashed on the first lap of six and chased back on through the caravan. Survived the wind and finished in the peleton/first group.

If You Ain't First You're Last

2011-04-07T11:34:00.001-04:00

I know my mom is going to object to the title of this blog post because she's of the belief that "everyone's a winner," but when it comes to racing, people don't often remember who got second place. The theme of the stage today had a similar ring to it: if you're not passing, you're being passed. Basically, today was all about the fight to the front. When you've got a course with mostly single-lane roads, wind to power fields of windmills, and 160 other girls who also want to be at the front, the fight is tough. And never-ending.

The first crash happened in the neutral zone, and from there I'd say we averaged about one crash every 10k until the group split about 50k in. I think I was in the third group, but I'm still not sure. We haven't seen the results yet.

I've been trying to take pictures, but it's kinda tough when you're trying to focus on the race. Dinner is in about and hour. Everyone eats together in a big dining hall, and dinner is served buffet style. Pros: very minimal expenses while I'm here. Cons: gotta eat what they serve.

Freakonomics

2011-03-29T12:04:00.004-04:00

I listen to podcasts while I ride. There's only so many times I can listen to the same playlist, and it's an easy way to keep up with current events (reading the paper is out of the question most days). My newest podcast find is the Freakonomics podcast by Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, the authors of the book with the same name. Each podcast is like a chapter from the book. They find an issue and just look at the numbers. If there's one thing I CAN understand, it's numbers.

Today, they tackled something I've been wondering about for awhile. Cheap wine actually tastes BETTER than expensive wine. Don't believe me? If you've got half an hour, take a listen. What they did was pretty cool. Just click on the play button on the "listen now" box in the middle. Or go to iTunes and download it for your next ride.

I was ready a little early for the group ride

2011-03-28T17:52:00.006-04:00

I can play a grand total of, like, six songs now. A couple more semesters off school and I'll have twelve songs!

Cake Baking and Euro Prep

2011-03-26T15:57:00.005-04:00

I've been spending a lot of time on my bike lately, and I'm starting to feel it. This week's goal is 21-23 hours, and last week I almost hit twenty. This is, of course, on top of all the intervals Kori has me doing...ugh. Fortunately this week is my last big week. Next week is a rest week, I leave for Europe on Monday, and from there it's just racing and recovering. My first race over there will be the Energiewacht Tour from April 7th through the 10th.

Meanwhile, I've been watching a lot of Cake Boss on TLC, and I was inspired to go all out for my mother's birthday on Thursday. (Sitting around with your feet up just gets boring after awhile). Here are some pictures.

Chocolate cake with crushed Oreos mixed in

Cream cheese frosting

Dirty icing the cake

My sister, Lizzie, rolling out the faux fondant

Five hours later we have...

The finished product! Ignore the guacamole in the background.

Lance Brannigan and Jody Lazar over for the party.

Arts and Crafts

2011-03-15T18:14:00.001-04:00

While cleaning out my closet at my parent's house this week, I found one of my mother's old, cotton cycling jerseys (can you believe it was made out of 100% cotton? Ew!)

With pockets and everything.

To make it wearable, I decided to cut out the logo and sew it to one of my own cotton shirts. I've got a pretty good hand at sewing, so no big deal. Learned my way around a sewing machine when I was seven, so hand-stitching is easy.

Here's the finished product:

But as a cyclist, sewing comes in handy more often than you might think. It certainly makes jean-buying a lot easier. I just by the jeans to fit my legs (meaning the waist of the pants is about 2-4 inches bigger than my body) and sew darts in the back to take in the waistline.

Today, I made gluten-free muesli for the third or fourth time from this recipe. Delicious! Also, here is a picture of my new hair cut which I swear looks shorter in real life than in the picture!

What I've Been Up To...

2011-03-09T19:01:00.003-05:00

Hanging with Heather and Justin in Gainesville...so cute.

Then to Athens for two weeks where I got sick and (as I found out when I got home) fat. But now I'm back sleeping in my own bed. I can get back into my regular routine and lose a couple pounds.

Had a great last few days of training. While doing hill repeats up Sugarloaf Mountain yesterday, a woman who'd been watching me from the top told me that I'd inspired her to climb the hill again. Her husband waited for her while she rode to the bottom, turned around, and came back up. Cool!

Today, Wednesday, was an off day (weird, right? Who has off days on Wednesdays?), so I decided to try out some gluten-free baking as suggested to me by my old teammate, Ali Powers.

I've been gluten-free for over four weeks, and I've begun to cringe whenever the words, "gluten" followed by "free" pass my lips, not because I dislike the diet but because what it really means - that I'm a high-maintenance eater.

Here's my chocolate chip cookies made with Bob's Red Mill mix. They're definitely not the same as regular chocolate chip cookies, but they'll do.

Here's my gluten-free *cringe* muffins. Also meh.

The tickets for Europe are officially booked. I'm getting really antsy sitting at home watching everyone get to race Albany and the Merco Cycling Classic.

Since I can't talk, I'll write

2011-02-27T08:52:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I did the Greenville Spring Training Series road race in Greenville, SC, only an hour and a half drive from Athens. I wasn't feeling 100%, but I suffered through attributing the flat legs to a heavy training load and some late-night dancing at 90s Bar on Thursday. As soon as I got home from the race, BOOM! Sore throat like never before and muscle weakness. No racing for me today.

http://carolinacyclingnews.com/2011/02/26/greenville-sprint-training-series-fork-shoals/

That's the link to the article about the race. I WAS really impressed with the number of girls who showed up. The results say 29 finished, and I know two crashed, so that puts the number at over 30. Way to go Carolina girls!

My Strange Addiction

2011-02-20T18:09:00.003-05:00

Morgan and I are sitting in the living room of her new house in Athens, GA watching the show, My Strange Addiction, on TLC. I can't help but wonder if me and all of my friends could be eligible on the basis of how much time we spend riding and/or thinking about bikes. Some of these people do stuff like eat chalk, shop uncontrollably, or suck their thumbs. But in the last show there was a guy who ran 20 miles a day and a girl (looked like a man) who lifted weights 5-6 hours a day...that hits pretty close to home.

Seems like there's quite a fine line between a hobby, a job, and an addiction.

Anyway...things are good on the riding/training front. This week was my first build week so it was jam-packed with intervals. Definitely looking forward to my off day tomorrow! The only issue I'm having is finding good, gluten-free ride food. Today, I rode with gluten-free cookies, gels, Fritos, and Dots...haha. I'm gunna have to do some consulting with some other gluten-free cyclists for better suggestions. The next thing I'm going to try is baked sweet potatoes that just slide right into your back pocket.

Athens has been great so far, and Thomas' birthday party was really chill. Headed to the mountains for some training on Wednesday and then Greenville training race on the weekend.

Happy Anna Howard Shaw Day!

2011-02-14T10:54:00.002-05:00

So it's Valentine's Day, and guess what I'm doing. Taxes! Things get pretty complicated when you consider that I race bikes for a living and I worked out of the state for part of the year last year (interning with GE in Louisville, KY). Fortunately, my father is a lawyer, and he can help me out with a lot of it.

The plan this week is to drive up to Gainesville for a couple days and then continue on to Athens, GA to hang out/train with my teammate and friend, Morgan Patton, her lover, Thomas, and the UGA cycling team. This first week of gluten-free wasn't too bad. The real test will come this week when, inevitably, everyone decides to go out for pizza, beer, and soy sauce.

Also, I just got the news that after I get home from Europe in May, I'll be headed off to China to do the Tour of Chongming Island (May 11-13) and the Tour of Chongming Island World Cup (May 15). I know what you're thinking. I made up the name "Chongming" because I forgot the real name of the race. No, that's the real name.

If you're a 30 Rock fan, I hope you appreciated the title of this blog post!

To Be Gluten Free

2011-02-09T05:52:00.005-05:00

It's 4:42am and I'm wide awake! Still suffering from jet lag from Qatar. Might as well blog for a bit...

On Monday while I was at the grocery store, I decided I was going to try the gluten-free thing for awhile. I was first introduced to the gluten-free diet by my ex-teammate, Alison Powers in 2009. She was avoiding gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, because she had an allergy to it, a condition known as celiac disease. But many pro athletes who aren't allergic to gluten adopt the gluten-free diet because it forces you to eat foods that are high in fiber, low on the glycemic index and glycemic load scales, and anti-inflammatory. The fiber improves your digestion, the low GI and GL help your body burn fat, and food with anti-inflammatory properties are good for recovery.

The glycemic index was created in the early 80's for people with diabetes (something I'm certainly familiar with going into my third year with Team Type 1).

Classification	GI range	Examples
Low GI	55 or less	most fruits and vegetables, legumes/pulses, whole grains, nuts, fructose and products low in carbohydrates
Medium GI	56–69	whole wheat products, basmati rice, sweet potato, sucrose
High GI	70 and above	baked potatoes, watermelon, white bread, most white rices, corn flakes, extruded breakfast cereals, glucose

However, "a GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food" (http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm). Therefore, you've got to keep the glycemic load in mind too. Watermelon, for instance, has a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load so it's still on the "foods I can eat" list.

Soooo, high fiber, low GI & GL, and anti-inflammatory - that's why I'm going gluten-free.

Also, I touched Heinrich Haussler's bike on Friday while I was chatting with the old TT1 men's mechanic who now works for Garmin-Cervelo. Something to do with why he won on Tuesday? Maybe...

Tour of Qatar in Pictures

2011-02-06T11:35:00.012-05:00

Of course the sign is in Arabic too.

Arriving at the hotel. Like us, most teams have brought six riders.

View from the 18th floor.

The hotel room. I was roomies with Alison Starnes. Paper delivery in the morning and cookie delivery every evening. Bathrobes, slippers, the works.

View from the hotel room on the first day. The haze is from all the dust in the air.

Going out for a warm up ride the day before race.

Pee breaks must be done VERY discreetly.

Riding back into Doha. 10 mph into the headwind.

Waking up day of the race.

Sky has cleared up a lot, thank goodness.

Stage 1 begins at the camel race track.

First camel sightings!

All race vehicles caravaned to the start. Bikes were transported in trucks like this with bubble wrap between them. The mechanics wait for their team's bikes to be unloaded.

Camels in training! Gotta start 'em young.

Stage 2 began at the Museum of Islamic Art (the building out there).

Megan and me.

Stage 3 began in Al Dayeen. This is Megan with our Swanee, Felice.

Kendall and me before start of stage 3, right before meeting Eddy Merckx. My director took a picture that I'll try to post here eventually.

Breakaway on the circuits Stage 3. Copyright Tim de Waele.

Standing around waiting for the parade post-stage 3.

Saw all the dudes in spandex.

Everyone rode back to the hotel together after stage 3.

Kendall with Doha in the background.

Ridin' with the world champ, Bronzini.

The End!

I had a great trip, but our team had some very bad luck. Carmen crashed badly on Stage 1 (12 stitches in her forearm), Megan and Coryn crashed on Stage 2, and Carmen and Coryn crashed in the sprint on Stage 3. I just got in last night after 25 hours of traveling, so my brain's still a little mushy. If you've got any questions, feel free to comment and I'll answer them!

Made It

2011-02-01T08:56:00.002-05:00

I survived the travel to Qatar! I was about to say that it was easy (and it really wasn't that bad considering how far away Qatar is) but right now I'm about as functioning as a zombie. We left Dulles at 10pm on Sunday, and after a 12-hour flight, arrived in Doha, Qatar at 6pm on Monday. If you were flying to Europe, you'd usually be forcing yourself to stay awake until an appropriate bed time, but as it was we got to the hotel around 8 and were asleep by 9. Then, of course, I was up at 2am and stayed awake through breakfast and the ride until the little nap that I just awoke from.

The Ritz is nice. If you're interested, I believe Coryn just uploaded a video to Youtube called "Lades Tour of Qatar, Room Tour of the Ritz" or something like that.

We went out for a ride this morning for our first look at the landscape. If Mars had roads, I'd imagine it to look something like this. It's sand and rocks as far as the eye can see (which actually isn't that far because of the haze from the dust in the air). The wind is strong. Our director says, "this is going to be the best 30k of your life followed by the worst 60k of your life, " in reference to an awesome tail wind, a 90 degree turn, and a strong side wind.

The people seem very friendly enough. We got some friendly honks while we were out on our ride, and all the hotel staff smiles and is willing to talk. After the ride we were asked to pose in a couple pictures with people. In the hotel lobby, I asked a woman wearing the full burqua what she thought of us going around in our spandex. She replied that it was O.K. because it was "for sport" and you have to wear it to compete. I'd like to see more of the people, but there's not much time for that.

I'll try to update again soon.

2011's "New Kits on the Bed" Picture

2011-01-28T16:58:00.000-05:00

Low Heart Rate Solution

2011-01-26T17:46:00.003-05:00

I know alligators don't usually attack people on bikes, but something about being 20 ft. away from one as it hurtles all 300 pounds of itself into the water makes my watts and heart rate go up. Here are some pictures from my ride today. I'm north of Lake Apopka and about 15 miles west of Orlando.

Ridin' next to the water and everything is chill.

No one for miles around.

Oh, snap! These two guys were the first of about twenty. They posed for a few seconds before dashing into the water like I was an ice cream sundae. I put out some good numbers after this.

Old buildings.

Another gator.

That's training in Florida for ya - flat, flat, flat, gator, flat...forever.

Oh, Gainesville

2011-01-25T13:17:00.006-05:00

Bear with me...I'm writing this on an iPad. Hadn't played with one until this weekend, and I have to admit I like it. Runs Netflix smoothly. Just used it to google its retail price... I'm not one for expensive gadgets (I got my first picture phone just last month), but maybe...

Anyway, it's less than a week until I leave for the Middle East. My legs are feeling pretty worn out from this first block of base, but I'm not worried. After two months off the bike this fall, I'm supposed to feel spent from training.

That's why this week is easy - so my muscles can recover stronger and be rockin' for Qatar.

To finish up my first block of base, I went to Gainesville for the Bring It On race and "The Battle," a 120-mile race/ride that takes place every January, starting and ending in Gainesville, FL. Saturday's workout was to ride to the race, do the men's A race, do the women's race, and ride home. Ugh! Then Sunday was The Battle.

I haven't been in Gainesville since early July when I moved to Kentucky to work as an intern for GE Appliances. I knew I missed the town, but guess I didn't realize how much I missed it until I saw all the familiar faces! Definitely looking forward to going back in mid-February on my way up to Athens. Can't take the good times with friends, wine, and Bananagrams for granted. Carla is in my thoughts every day.

R.I.P. Carla Swart

2011-01-20T08:39:00.001-05:00

I found out about Carla on Wednesday morning while I was out training. We weren't close. In fact, we only ever talked at races. When I heard she signed to HTC this year, I could only be happy for her. She was one of the most talented people I've ever had the pleasure of racing with and against.

Even though we rarely spoke, I've thought about her a lot these last couple months. She had proved to me that someone I knew, someone my age could ride for HTC. She was my role model.

I still can't believe she's gone, but I'm thankful that I was able to tell her "congrats" on her accomplishment before she passed. My heart goes out to her family and friends. I'll miss you, Carla. You would have been one of the few people I knew in Qatar.

Low-key Sunday

2011-01-16T15:24:00.000-05:00

Hate to make you jealous, but I've had a pretty relaxing weekend. Other than the a 3-hour moderate ride on Sunday and a 3-hour harder ride today (which I did with the Windermere group), not much has been going on. I've been eating, of course, sleeping, of course, and STRETCHING, my favorite. I get a little nervous when I think about Qatar, so I don't think about it.

My most significant accomplishment of the weekend may have been answering one of my mom's random crossword puzzle questions. Usually I'm at a loss, but I had this one.

"Jackie, do you know the band that sings the song, 'Em Em Em Bop'?"

Of course she meant "mmmbop," the old Hanson song, but she was actually saying the letter em instead of making the em sound, so I had to double-decipher the clue. My brain cells haven't completely checked out yet! Just give it time...

Also, I put my feet up. And I took a picture of my feet for you.

Homemade Granola Bars

2011-01-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

Beginning in early August, I started eating healthy. This meant cutting out almost all packaged foods that weren't organic or made from whole grains. My undertaking led me to a delicious homemade granola bar recipe that I found online. These granola bars aren't bad! They've become my staple ride food for the past few months.

Ingredients:
3-1/2 cups rolled oats
2 scoops (approx. 8 tbsp.) protein powder
1-1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1-1/2 bananas, mashed
2 egg whites
3/4 cup light syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup of raisins or dried cranberries
1/4 cup orange juice (optional)

Be careful, the directions are extremely difficult!

Directions:
1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Mix all wet ingredients in another bowl.
3. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix thoroughly.
4. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees for chewy bars.

There is one thing that may cause you some anxiety (if you're like my mother and you follow recipes to the tee). Is a banana classified as a "wet thing" or a "dry thing?" Well, after mashing, bananas become quite viscous so I put them in the "wet things" category. And really in the end it all gets mixed together, so I don't think it matters that much.

Enjoy!

Ka-tar? Cutter? Guitar?

2011-01-12T14:51:00.000-05:00

I googled the pronunciation. If you've ever pondered how to pronounce "Qatar" correctly, this 2-minute NPR piece probably won't answer your question.

I’m leaving for Qatar at the end of January, and I'm not sure what to expect. When I was first told about this trip, an image of a peloton of dementors flashed across my mind. Of course it would be impossible to race in a burqa, but I had to wonder! Actually, Qatar is a very forward-thinking and modernized country. They even got the bid to host the 2022 FIFA world cup.

This is a picture of the capital, Doha.

I am a bit worried about doing a UCI stage race only two months into my training (and that after two months completely off the bike). Fortunately for me, with the exception of a little more sand and a little less moisture, the conditions are going to be quite similar to that of Florida - flat, warm, and windy. So, in a way I've been training for this race all my life.

After Qatar, I’ll have some time home. Then in late March, I'll be heading over to Europe to race in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Czech Republic.

I'm saving this space for something profound

2011-01-10T20:29:00.001-05:00

In early December, my life plan changed drastically. One day, I was preparing to move back to Gainesville to finish my last semester at UF in mechanical engineering, and the next I found myself moving back in with my parents (yikes!), tossing school to the wind, and taking off on a plane for Qatar. Alright, I haven’t exactly “tossed school to the wind,” and the plane ride hasn't even taken place yet, but in ten years you can bet I’ll be telling the story like that.

What am I doing in Qatar? Do you really need to ask? I’m going to be in Qatar for what seems to be the only reason I ever go anywhere these days: to race bikes. This time, however, I’ll be racing with the U.S. national cycling team.

Qatar is located next to Saudi Arabia:

At the time I made my decision to postpone school, I was completing an engineering internship for General Electric in Louisville, KY. I’d been working 40 hours a week for four months and hardly riding at all. Perhaps my decision was a bit of a reaction to my unexciting desk life, but no matter. Come December 2011 I’m going to have a degree either way.

And so the New Year begins with lots of training, lots of sleeping, and lots of eating – perfect. No matter that I can count the number of my Orlando friends on one hand. No matter that Orlando isn’t an ideal place to train. No matter that my parents have sweets all over the house that tempt me at every turn. I’ll manage.

Oh, and all I can promise for now is updates through Qatar. Writing is hard work!