Go to the Source – jellybellycycling.com

Potholes? Frost heaves? New Hampshire doesn’t have potholes…

…instead we have small craters rivaling the Grand Canyon. Across the middle of the road.

My post-Paris-Roubaix/pre-Tour of California Tour of New England is rapidly coming to a close. It’s a blast for me to have family and friends all throughout the northeast because between weddings, baseball games, bachelor parties, and simply traveling for the sake of seeing close friends whom I would not otherwise see, I’ve been blessed to tackle some riding across the finest section of America – even if that means occasionally catching air at 70kph on a screaming downhill when I hit a frost heave and jet over it’s frightening crevasse.

One of my recent adventures took me into the White Mountains. I started the day in the basking sun of home down south, nearly two hours’ drive from my riding point. Down yonder it was warm and pleasant and I was definitely not expecting anything but a pristine day. So when I stepped out the car and saw my breath I was less than psyched. But I soldiered on and soon warmed up a bit, until I reached the top of the Kanc’ at which point it was snowing on me and I was reaaally unprepared and freezing, I therefore decided that a rapid descent into Lincoln was in order. A $0.99 coffee complete with a splattering of instant cappuccino warmed my soul while a $5 pair of gas station gloves warmed my fingers.

What’s topped even that is that I then began another, separate five-day journey that saw me in the Upper Valley of NH and VT for a pair of days, followed by a blustery day of riding in Burlington, and then off to the most northern and remote town in all of New Hampshire called Pittsburg (nope, no -h at the end). When you’re in Pittsburg, NH you may as well be on the moon except that we still Live, Free, or Die here in the great Granite State. Despite now being in the midst of New England’s well documented turbulent spring weather, I was still not anticipating snow… or maybe I was just not appreciating snow. So when it dumped snow in downright blizzard-like fashion for 18 straight hours, and I woke up Saturday morning to a blank white scene, I was extremely pleased that I still had those $5 gas station gloves safely stored in my car. I doubled up the riding gloves that day and my toasty warm and extremely stylish fingers were all the happier for it.

If you’re curious what the nether reaches of New Hampshire look like, when you haven’t seen a car in hours and there are far more “Brake For Moose” signs than there are moose, then you know you’re practically in Canada, eh, then let this photo above appease you. To one direction you look back south at New Hampshire and you see this wonderfully English and French signage. Bienevue!

And in the other direction you’ll see the fiercely impenetrable and vastly underused New Hampshire–Canadian border patrol.

Which, believe it or not, on the other side of these buildings looks curiously like northern New Hampshire.

Oh, I was concerned that I wasn’t going to see any moose on this adventure to the great white north. On my big ride in Pittsburg I saw one hedgehog or lemur or ferret or something sprint across the road. That was exciting, but I really wanted a moose – the forest’s most awkwardly tall and gangly animal. Then after feeling defeated upon leaving Pittsburg early Sunday morning, I was about an hour south on my way to show Tim a thing or two about how to ride a bike, I saw my elusive moose walking across the road.

No photo because it was too awesome.

Go to the Source – http://iamtedking.com

Join me this thursday evening in Boulder at a fun event to support Singletrack MountainBike Adventures (SMBA), a local mountain bike club that is seeing some huge success at the races lately and getting lots of kids into the sport of cycling!

Read more about SMBA and the upcoming event here

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com

My previous posts on Sea Otter Classic focused mostly on my races. Knocking out my first weekend of professional mountain bike racing was a big deal, but it was far from the only thing I did while I out in California. In fact, my non-race activities far outnumbered the other things I had going on during my eight days in California.

The day after I arrived, Anthony and I headed to one of the California Giant strawberry fields in Watsonville. The fields would set the scene for the commercial we would shoot. Cal Giant is sponsoring the second stage of the Tour of California. The stage runs from San Francisco to Santa Cruz County with a likely sprint finish in Aptos. We shot a 30 second clip that will air on KSBW to promote the stage, specifically, and the race, in general. The commercial actually may already be airing, so you’ll have to keep your eye out for it and let me know if you catch you me on your television.

Next up, I had a photo shoot with Light & Motion. In the past, my photo shoots with Light & Motion have been solo ventures. Just me, the photographer, the trails and some lights. This time was a bit different. I showed up for the shoot and discovered a huge group ready to roll.

A few group leaders led the bunch that included Ross Schnell, Dax Massey, Dejay Birtch, Nate Bird and me. Our photographer was actually from Denver, so he needed someone to show the way as much as we did. We all headed out for a trail ride in Santa Cruz. Basically, we played around in the woods for five hours while we had our pictures taken.

At various points on the ride, we stopped to shoot specific sections. They had us ride over logs, jump through trees and do other technically impressive stunts. For me, it was a bit intimidating. I was the only woman in the group, and these guys are REALLY good mountain bikers. That being said, I had a ton of fun surrounded by such a strong group of riders who are all superstars in their own disciplines. The ride absolutely pushed my limits as I attempted to do things I normally wouldn’t ride.

The lights were obviously the main focus of our photo shoot. During the last hour, when it was actually dark in the woods, the lights really shone bright. We finally rode out of the woods around 9PM. Photos from the shoot will be on the Light & Motion website and in their brochures and catalogues.

The next night, Light & Motion had an open house that included a tour of their amazing facilities. Their building is located in one of the last canneries on cannery row, so they have a pretty spectacular warehouse with huge windows overlooking Monterey Bay.

We got a sneak peek at new product that isn’t yet available (but is coming out soon!) and learned a bunch about the background of the company. They talked about why their product is superior product to other light brands and introduced us to some of the folks that make Light & Motion such a cool place.

Most Light & Motion products are made in house. Not everything comes from within the US, but a lot does – and all their lights are assembled in house. As part of the evening, we each got to assemble on of their new urban lights and take it home with us when we left.

Earlier in the day, before the Light & Motion party, I spent some time on site at Sea Otter. I dropped my bike off at SRAM for some badly needed work. I pre-rode the course. I went to the Ladies Lounge with Team TIBCO where I answered a bunch of questions from female cyclists and had fun hanging out with Rebecca Rusch.

Friday was my first of two race days and included some sponsor visits with Team TIBCO. We spent some time at the FRS booth handing out samples and talking about the product before having dinner with the whole FRS crew in Monterey. Before dinner, we visited with DeFeet, and I spent more time hanging out with Specialized and SRAM – both of whom took such great care of me over the weekend.

Whew! It was a whirlwind of a weekend – packed with near-constant activity. I finally got to kick back a little bit on Sunday with a chill ride in Santa Cruz and a barbeque at Anthony’s before I headed home Monday morning.

Less than twenty-four hours later, I was back at the airport on my to Fayetteville, AK for my first stage race of the season.

Go to the Source – meredithmiller.missingsaddle.com

The first-ever Just Go Harder Scholarship was given to Nederland, CO ski racer Rose Filer.  During her cross training workouts with the Eldora Mountain Ski Club, she has shown some amazing potential in her rowing workouts that have landed her a college scholarship at the University of Washington!

x

Good luck in your next sporting endeavor Rose!

See you in the Olympics some day soon!

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com

Let’s just say it wasn’t my day at Joe Martin. I arrived sick and had the performance to prove it. Luckily, Amanda Miller was feeling great and took the win on the opening stage time trial. It’s her first win this season.

Amanda was the only rider to go under 10 minutes in the 2.5 mile uphill effort. Kathryn Donovan (FCS-Rouse) finished second, one second down. We have a lot to look forward to in the new few days with Amanda in yellow.

This race traditionally come down to time bonuses as a break rarely gets away on any any of the stages. The field may be whittled down, but it’s unlikely that a small group will get away and stay away. Tomorrow’s road stage will offer up 10 seconds to the stage winner, six seconds for second place and four for the final spot on the podium. We’ll need to be extra attentive to make sure that bonus time doesn’t slip away from us. We’ll rally around Amanda and do what we can to keep the bonus time within the team.

CyclingNews has your full results. No pictures anywhere that I can find, but if I come up with anything, I’ll share them here.

Go to the Source – meredithmiller.missingsaddle.com

Team TIBCO is in Fayetteville, AK to defend our NRC series team lead at the four day Joe Martin Stage Race. It’s my fourth year here. Last year, we took second overall at JMSR with Megan Guarnier and while she’s currently chasing UCI points in Europe with the U.S. National team, we’re hoping to go one better and walk away with the win. The NRC series is a major objective for the team, so the overall win and stage wins are a critical part of meeting the goal.

I remember my first year at Joe Martin. I crashed at Tulsa pretty badly the weekend prior, and I remember hyperventilating in the shower as I cleaned out my road rash. It was a mess. I fought my way through the race the first year. I was hurting quite a bit.

Joe Martin for me is nearly as much about the host families as it about the racing. I like coming back here because I’ve stayed with the same family the last four years. It feels a little bit like coming home. I’ve gotten to see my host family’s daughters grow up. It’s comforting to sit back and chat with a family that I’ve gotten to know pretty well over the years. We keep up with one another on Facebook between each race. It’s a pretty unique bond we come to share with the families that host us year in and year out.

Joe Martin kicks off with the Devil’s Den State Park time trial. The uphill effort is short – just 2.5 miles – and it favors a good, powerful all-around rider rather than a pure time trialist. The first 30-40 seconds are flat and fast. Then, the road kicks up and it’s uphill to the finish.

Two road stages follow the time trial. We have a hilly circuit race on Sunday that includes one steep climb each lap. The rest of the course features plenty of rollers. Depending on how the field chooses to race this stage, it can be a really hard day in the saddle. Last year, the bunch broke up a bit over the climbs — and the stage featured a new harder finish than we had seen in previous editions.

The point-to-point race on Sunday typically comes down to a sprint. There’s one big climb in the final two-thirds of the race, but it’s far enough from the finish and is followed by a fast descent, so there’s enough time for things to come back together. It’s another hard finale with a little kicker before a right-hand turn leading to an uphill finish. Like the time trial, expect a strong rider with a good finishing kick to win this stage.

The criterium on Sunday is just hard. It hurts. A lot. It course includes a good climb that practically guarantees the race to break up. Riders will get dropped every lap. At the finish, it’s usually one rider crossing the line at the time as they make their way uphill towards the finish.

It’s a small field, but I suspect we’ll have a good battle on our hands with Optum Health. They bring defending champ Janel Holcomb, and they know how to race smart. We’ll both be going for it. I’m interested to see how things pan out.

Date: April 26-April 29

Website: http://www.joemartinstagerace.com/

Live updates – @JoeMartinStageRace is the official race twitter; will update if other live updaters surface
Official hastag – #jmsr2012

Team TIBCO for Joe Martin Stage Race:
Lauren Hall
Amanda Miller
Merdith Miller
Jen Purcell
Kendall Ryan
Sam Schneider
Jennifer Wheeler

Go to the Source – meredithmiller.missingsaddle.com

It was a year ago last week that I returned home from a European spring racing campaign for a little American decompressing RnR before Tour of California and the second half of the year. To put it mildly, it was a challenging spring where I was trying to meddle some lemonade out of tendonitis plagued lemons. In that situation, half the battle is putting on a smile and telling everyone that everything is peachy and that tendonitis and time will heal itself. The other half is convincing yourself that’s the truth.

Planned all through the spring by my good friend and photog to the stars Chris Milliman, I had the perfect slice of welcome home goodness in the form of UVEpic – a hundred mile group ride of which more than 70% is dirt(!) with friends, friends of friends, and “that fast dude with hairy legs from across the state”. The email invitation which begins small, slowly seeps out to riders worthy of an epic with probably 50 or 60 people ultimately get the nod of approval. If the weather is perfect probably a third of those will attend because of family commitments, conflicting race schedules, travel to the nether reaches of New England, and whatever other lame excuse people can spew out. If the weather is junk, however, then maaaaybe ten neoprene and Gore-Tex clad idiot cyclists will show. With sun and temperatures in the 60s all week leading up to last year’s UVEpic, we woke up on ride day to a sloppy sheet of white on the entire Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont in the form of frigid April snow. Crud. We still rode, but our century turned into about fifteen treacherous miles until safety and good sense prevailed when we ended up at the pub. Un-crud.

Fast-forward one year to this past weekend and things are peachy. They’re downright awesome in fact! I’ve had a very successful start of 2012, factoring into wins at Tour of San Luis way back in Argentina in January, followed by wins in Italian races to follow in February, then an excellent Classics run. Riding for a guy like Peter Sagan makes it easier to have such an “excellent” cap to the spring, but lest we forget that it’s riders like me that help make him look so fast and savvy on a bike. You’re welcome Peter.

A few iterations of the UVEpic have spun off over the past year so that we’re now onto version 6.0. Chris meticulously studies the countless roads, dirt roads, fire-roads, and strade marroni (brown roads, as opposed to stradi bianchi) that spider web all throughout the Hanover area. As a friend on the ride yesterday said, “I’ve lived here for ten years and I’m still finding incredible new roads all around me.” Beat that Boulder. Zing.

I had the distinctive and fortuitous pleasure of being back in America when version 6.0 was rolling out this year. Making it to the start was less of a To-Do and more of a Must-Do when I once again found myself home after the European spring classics and before Tour of California. The only stick thrown in the spokes was the 60s, 70s and sun all the week leading up to the UVEpic-6.0 and the contrasting angry lightening bolts and massive rain drop icons on the weather forecast icons. But gosh darn it, when you’re going to ride an epic, you may as well make it an EPIC.

To take the snap out of my step, I rode 99 miles (with just 1% of it on dirt) the day before with the coincidental pleasure of seeing the Dartmouth collegiate bike race with my beloved Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference. I got my start in the sport with collegiate cycling and I shed a tear with nostalgia, seeing the abundant mismatched kit intertwined with the well dressed folk sporting more carbon wheels than were raced in my day, the full white skinsuit with TUFTS hand inscribed on the back, and the jorts (jean shorts) competition taking place post race. UVM won that competition, but they weren’t even trying. (Seriously, collegiate cycling is incredible. I donate a lot of my gently used clothing and equipment to local colleges and those poor, leg shaving co-eds need all the help they can get. You should contact your local college and do the same. Or go marshal a race or coach a team.)

Here’s that 1% of dirt on Saturday’s ride.

I’m honestly having trouble producing the words to describe how awesome Sunday’s UVEpic was. With the lowest point coming early in the form of Chris’s tubulars feeling spitefully jealous by just how bright his shoe covers were and therefore spouting out latex with a messy, foamy cloud, the rest of the ride was the tops.

We had seven hours budgeted from start to finish – which I figured was a ridiculous over estimate – and it turned out to be a hair short. With short punchy climbs the order of the day, more often than not tipping over the 20% gradient line, we quickly and easily (…or not so easily) notched more than 3,500 meters of climbing. By comparison, Liege-Bastogne-Liege which I’ve raced twice and which also took place yesterday is about 50% longer than our ride and has a small sliver more climbing. Again, zing… to the legs.

Jersey pockets are accommodating, but more than seven hours of tough riding requires more fuel than you can cram into a jersey pocket. Moreover, one of the best parts of riding these far reaches of New England are the village center stores, selling anything from red pickled eggs in a three gallon jug (which we avoided) to maple whoopies pies (which I purchased the last one) to the ahem… “white trash mocha cappuccinos” – a heavenly mix of 1/2 coffee and 1/2 instant $0.99 crazy sweetened hot chocolate. These steamy beverages served exclusivity in environmentally hateful containers compliment a mid-ride whoopie pie on a chilly, dank spring day perfectly.

Those aforementioned angry lightening bolts and massive rain drop icons in the weather forecast? We apparently had a ginormous umbrella over our ride the entire days because the few miles of pavement were virtually bone dry, the 70+ miles of dirt were matted down perfectly by rain the night before, and I could count all the mud puddles I saw the entire day on one hand. What’s more, within ten minutes of putting my bike in the car and swiftly shuttling south for a family dinner, the skies opened up and I drove through one of those it-cannot-possibly-rain-any-harder deluges.

I pin on a number and race because I love racing my bike. But rides like yesterday, UVEpic 6.0, one of the top 3 bike rides in my life? THAT is why I ride a bike.

Here it is:

Go to the Source – http://iamtedking.com

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com

Man, let me tell you, bike riding is miserable when you cant breathe. Its hard enough with fully functioning lungs. Ive been just dying the last few weeks, sometime I just want to lay down on the roadside and cry in frustration. Thankfully today things are starting to turn around. After a couple days back here in Colorado, where Im not allergic to anything at the moment, and a few solid days of rest, I suddenly felt like a new person on my ride today. Previously I would just be plagued by coughing fits and just running on half a lung the whole time, and today was suddenly like 75% better so that is a huge relief!

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com

My cross country race is a wrap . My weekend of mountain bike racing at the Sea Otter Classic is in the books. I’m still standing – and grinning. The dirt is so much fun.

When I started the race today, I was nervous (again!). This time my nerves had more to do with my concern about what I would do if something went wrong out on the course – if I flatted or had a mechanical – rather than how I would stack up against the rest of the field. The SRAM cross country course wasn’t especially technical. There were a few sections with ruts where I would have to be sure I kept my head up, but I knew exactly where they were and was easily able to safely negotiate through them.

Ten minutes into the race, we hit a steep rutted out climb. It was so steep that people were riding really slowly, and it quickly got crowded, which meant we didn’t have a lot of options for choosing which line we wanted to take. As people slowed down, it had a domino effect on the second half of the field. Those of us (which included me at this point) in the back ended up going too slow. Because of lack of speed, the person in front of me put a foot down, so I had to my foot down, too.

Climbing is my strength – descending? Not so much. I really can only make up ground on the uphill section, so having to unclip probably cost me a little bit. Eventually I was able to settle into a rhythm, and I got going okay. I started picking people off one by one.

Towards the end of the race, I was trading spots with Allison Mann (B4B/RNR). She finally got me on a climb and was able to hold me off for the final spot in the top ten. I ended up in 11th place – squarely in the top half of the field. Nearly in the top third of the field, actually.

It was super hot day – a hard day but a good day. It was one of those races where I was definitely ready for the end of the race despite how much fun I was having. I would come around a hill and think I was almost to the finish only to crest the top and see another climb in sight. Then, I would come around a turn, sure that I was approaching the finish, and there would be more trail.

I also was having some back issues that impacted the second half of my race. My back started to tighten up, and I had to back off quite a bit. It hurt to pedal any harder.

All in all, it was a solid weekend. I loved getting kudos from everyone at the finish line that was impressed with the way I raced – or that I was out there racing mountain bikes at all. It was fun racing with a different group of girls this weekend.

Of course, I know there are still a lot of areas where I can improve. Clearly, I’m not super fast on the descents yet – and if the course had been technical, my weaknesses would have been more exposed. That’s why I’m out here. I’m racing mountain bike to isolate the areas that need improvement and work on them. The more I’m on the mountain bike, the more I’ll see improvements.

I have a stint of road racing upcoming with Joe Martin Stage Race beginning next week and Tour of the Gila the following week. After that, I’m slated for more mountain bike racing at Teva Games in early Junes – and I’ll either race Ironhorse or Exergy the weekend before the Teva Games.

I have to give a special and heartfelt shout out to Cal Giant, Specialized and SRAM. Their support this weekend made my transition from the road to the dirt seamless. They are the reason I was able to go out there and have fun.

Full results from today’s race can be found on the Sea Otter website.

Go to the Source – meredithmiller.missingsaddle.com

I raced my first mountain bike race today. Well, okay not my first ever mountain bike race – but my first REAL mountain bike race. My first mountain bike race with the pros. I’m pretty sure I squeaked into the top-ten. I’m totally satisfied with this.

Sea Otter has something for everybody, and while I’m usually here for the road races and sponsor events, this year, I decided to make my debut in the dirt with the SRAM Short Track race. 20 minutes + 3 laps of leg-busting, lung-bursting fun.

Even though this is the first time I lined up for a pro mountain bike race, I was lining up with girls I knew. They couldn’t have been any more welcoming. It felt really good to have them come up to me and comment on how happy they were to see me out there with them. Their staff and mechanics all echoed this sentiments. During the pre-rides, the girls were giving me all sorts of advice. It helped ease the whole new kid on the block mentality.

I have to admit that despite that fact that I didn’t have much pressure or any expectations, I was a bit nervous when I lined up for the race. Before I started, I said I didn’t want to get lapped. The course was short – maybe a bit more than one kilometer – and super bumpy. Getting lapped didn’t seem like it was an unreasonable concern on this course.

The course basically went up and then down – so it became a matter of getting uphill and pedaling across the bumpy top section to get to the descent. I had a decent start. There weren’t a whole lot of places to pass easily, so initially, I was just following wheels.

The group started to separate right away in the first few laps. I caught people and managed to make my way past them. I started to die in the second half of the race, so once that happened, I was getting caught and passed, too.

It’s my first mountain bike race (have I mentioned that yet?) and only my second race of the season, so I was definitely okay with my effort – and I’m thrilled with the outcome. No matter what, I knew today would be good training. The result is a pleasant surprise. I had fun out there, and I’ll be the first to admit that short track is much harder than a ‘cross race.

I race cross-country tomorrow at 12:20PM (PDT). It’s not a super hard or particularly technical course, but it’s totally exposed and a little bit ruddy. Tomorrow is slated to be even hotter today (and it’s already 90°F today), so it’s going to be a tough race.

Post-race tomorrow, come find me at the SRAM Ladies Lounge organized by Rebecca Rusch. The Ladies Lounge is a place where all athletes sponsored by SRAM gather to meet with female cyclists. We put on tech clinics, answer questions and mingle. Rebecca is also raffling off tons of sweet prizes. The SRAM Ladies Lounge is happening today and tomorrow from 2:30-4:30PM (PDT). Read more about it here.

It seems I once again beat the official news outlets to race reports today, so once I can get my hands on links to reports, results and photos, I’ll post them here.

Go to the Source – meredithmiller.missingsaddle.com