LadiesFirst Racing

Written by Nancy Labbe-Giguere

Monson was my first cyclocross race of this season. For a short story, it did not go as well as I hoped and I explained it below, but Andrea Smith was there and she won for LF!

The race day started by a run to a local bike shop because I found a way to break my bike the night before. Then I picked up my teammate Rebecca for the drive to Monson. We got there with plenty of time to warm up and register. The lap around the school was on the short side and included a run up, a downhill with exposed rocks and plenty of turns on a grass field. The conditions were dry but it was cloudy and rain was expected due to the hurricane. While I was warming up on the trainer, I saw at least 20 women getting ready including Sally Annis and Andrea Smith, two of the best cx racer in New England. Then, it started pouring rain transforming a dry course into a muddy one. My last race with mud was Gloucester in 2009 and that type of condition worried me more than amused me. Continue reading →

Written By Crystal Anthony

A few years back I began taking some anxiety medication (after a near-death experience with hypothermia from my first triathlon attempt, I began having panic attacks) and shortly thereafter ran in a USATF series 12k race with my team.  When the customary discomfort set in after a mile or two, I was shocked to find myself thinking:  “Eh, this hurts, no point in suffering to finish.”   I was so mortified to feel totally ok with giving up (and I actually did drop out!) that I decided to forego the culprit medication: I’d rather face the panic attacks than lose that drive to excel and to win that made me “me.”

Eventually, the panic attacks subsided and naturally I went about training for triathlons a year or so later, but since then I have known something more about myself: I’m one of those nutty people who cares—excessively—about racing, and even when it looks silly I don’t give up.  Sometimes I want to win and sometimes I just want to do the hardest possible thing I can finish.  Call it stubborn or driven or tenacious, when I want to do something, I get it done, barring having to be carted off in an ambulance.

After my brother Jesse and Alison S both mentioned Cascade Classic as their favorite stage race, with lots of long steady climbing, a beautiful venue, and a good old TT that I’d like, I began to look into it.  Located in Bend, OR it was not only in familiar territory (former CX nationals locale) it was also very close to some relatives with whom I could stay for the week, and held during my summer vacation, making the logistics feasible.  Thanks to help from LadiesFirst and Phil’s ever-gracious bike assistance at Seaside, I was off on my way.  It would be my first NRC race, and first significant stage race.  But it was a challenge that life seemed to line up in front of me and for that reason, I was up for it.

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Written by Crystal Anthony

What do microwaves, “Stand and Deliver,” and Evelyn Stevens all have in common?  Immediate results.  Instant gratification is the appeal of a gourmet dinner ready in 3 minutes, a teacher who transforms an entire classroom of gang members into top calculus students by their senior year, and an athlete so talented she can be sitting behind a desk one year and standing on the podium at TT nationals the next.

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An All-Star Nature Valley Grand Prix 2011

Written By Elle Anderson

One of the best parts of this sport is that racing is always full of surprises, and one year is different than the next. I’m still healing up from the bruises, scrapes and injuries from all too many crashes during this year’s 6-stage, 5-day stage race around the Twin Cities. But luckily, I’ve still come out smiling.

Photo taken by Cory Funk

Last year’s Nature Valley was my first attempt at the largest women’s race in the country, and also my first of two years qualifying for the Collegiate All-Star team. I got a lot of the sharp learning curves out of the way in 2010 and knew better what to expect this time around. Since I’ve recently graduated from Dartmouth College, I’ve raced the collegiate cycling circuit as well as the road season for the past 4 years. The Collegiate All-Star team is a one-time composite team only for Nature Valley that brings together the top 6 collegiate women in the country and gives us a dose of professional women’s racing. We wear our collegiate jerseys but have matching shorts. It is a fantastic experience, but most of the time we also gracefully fill up that last team spot in the team standings by the end. It is safe to say that it is not a forgiving race.

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Race report written by Crystal Anthony

Mist filled the town of Woodstock, VT in a sort of friendly, totalitarian occupation.  The air demanded attention; it wanted to be seen, felt, and smelled.  Inhaled whiteness left a mossy fragrance as it crawled down into our lungs.  Our destination – a Caribbean restaurant – added to the illusion that Rebecca, Christina and I were strolling down a sidewalk in Martinique, or St. Lucia say.  Something about how perceptible the atmosphere was transported us to the present moment, a vacation from the chores and demands of everyday life and the start of a weekend of Vermont bicycle racing.

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