On the UP...

HEY!

The last time I posted on here I had just crashed at San Dimas, and what I didn't realise at the time was that I injured my shoulder. Turns out I sprained my rotator cuff, pec majour, pec minor and strained the ligaments round my 4th rib... fun times...hmm maybe not. Unfortunately with this on top of still recovering from the bug I caught in El Salvador and I was riding like a one armed snail... which was not so awesome with redlands round the corner.
After a less than awesome redlands, I was back to the bay to get my shoulder sorted. Its still not a hundy, but doesn't effect my riding at all - so no worries!

During my time back in Los Altos I was able to get in some solid training and finally started to feel like my normal self again. Thanks heaps to my awesome host family - the Lerners for having me stay, and looking after me so well!

On the back of some good training I pulled of a win with some awesome team work at the Cats hill classic crit in Los Gatos, which features a nice little 23% kicker every lap.

Ruth and I

After Cats Hill I was St. Louis Missouri bound for the MOPRO crits before heading to Chicago to hit up the Fox River Omnium which is put on by our AWESOME wheel sponsor, PSIMET wheels.
We had a great few days of racing with Starla and I going 1, 2 in the first day. The 2nd on sunday race was up this nasty little hill that is a ski jump hill in the winter. I went for the KOM points on the 2nd lap, and all of a sudden I couldn't see the field behind... eeeek was a bit earlier than expected, but ended up riding the whole race solo (TT practice?), got the win and the overall Omnium GC for the weekend. Our race on sunday was pretty sweet team work, with VK taking out 1-4!!!!

We have had an awesome week in Chicago, staying with our super sweet chamois cream sponsor, Enzos button hole - check it out: http://www.enzoscyclingproducts.com/ Not only is it the best chamois cream out, it comes from such an awesome family. Thanks so much to the lovely Simon Fam for having me stay!

We have also had the opportunity to see where the magic happens in the PSIMET head courters. PSIMET make customized wheels for each customer, because lets face it, no rider is / wants the same. Check them out here: http://www.psimet.com/

From here (Chicago) I am off to Philly for the Philly Cycling classic, which is on the 2nd of June and has a course change from previous year and now finishes atop the Manyunk wall - can't wait!

El Salvador

El Salvador.... what a trip!

There are so many stories to tell and so many laughs that were had!

The VK team for the Vuelta El Salvador were: Liza Rachetto, Ruth Winder, Jessica Cutler, Starla (Starier) Teddergreen, Jeannie Khuajek, and myself.

Liza, Ruth, Starla, Me, Jeannie with Jess MIA

Every team was given a sponsor and a driver for the 2 weeks. We were lucky to get the best. Huge thanks to Thule and Wilfredo. Wilfredo seriously knew his way around eveeerywhere, the best driver and friend the whole trip. Even though he could only speak spannish.. and us mainly only english with very broken spannish we created our own kind of lingo. He was truly awesome.

Jono and Wilfredo

We were one of the few lucky teams that got to stay at the Hilton hotel... fair to say that it has by far hit the top of the list as best race hotel! two weeks in the hilton were not soooo bad ;)

The day before racing started we got escorted on a ride, not nowing where we were going, we just followed the car infront.... next thing we know, we were cutting laps of the free way, pulling a few U-turns across 4 lanes... no biggie. Sure was one way to get the heart rate up without doing openeing efforts (we all started off saying that we were going to do some efforts... we were all far to scared to deviate from the group)

Free way ride...

Team presentation - like no other. 

We started with a 100km 1 day race, which was a bit of a shock to the system racing in 40 degree suffocating heat and ending up a 30km climb. Fair to say I was glad this was not counted as part of the stage race... and taught me a good lesson about cooling your self down before you get to hot.

The racing for me started off great, and I was only feeling better each stage as I got more use to the heat. The first stage we rode along the roler coaster coast (constantly up and down) and then finished up a 10km climb. Starla was in the break all day which was caught just before the final climb. Ruth and I climb our way to 8th and 9th on the stage. The 2nd day we had two races, a TTT and a circuit race. We were 5th in the TTT and then I was 8th in the messy finish in the road race.

Day 3 was a 50km road race with a 30km climb of a Volcano... with an ave of 10% and multiple Km of 25%....I went to bed looking forward to the stage as I knew it was going to be a hard one.... aaand I woke up with a stomach bug!!! I forced as much b-fast into myself as I could and we were escorted to the race (Ohh yess, did I mention we had police escorts to the start of every race...craaaazy). I knew it was going to be a long day, but I was determined I would be OK. I was not. I hung out at the very back of the bunch all day and top teamate Jeannie hung out with me all day to make sure I made it to the finish. I couldn't eat all day and every time I drunk I vomited. Once the climbing started I was completely OTA, and started the long painful slog to the finish. There was a bus following us most of the way up the climb, the driver occasionally hopped out and ran beside me, clearly I was going no where fast. Eventually after what felt like eternity and thanks to many 'positve thoughts' and encouragement from Jeannie, we made the finish line, I curled up in the car and we went back to the motel. I was hopeful it was just going to be a 24hour sorta thing. But it was not. It lasted 5 days, any food that I did eat was literally running straight through me. A few other girls on other teams had the same problems. After a course of antibiotics I was better.... weehuuuu.

So I spent the rest of the week in bed, watching TV, and super jeal of everyone racing.

My team mates raced awesome!!!! and I am sure there are many good things to come for VK this year.

Good times were had in El Sal.. and the spectators and fans at the end of every stage were insane. So so many people, so many HAPPY people it was awesome.

Highlight of the trip would have to be drinkning 100% fresh coconut water and then smashing them to eat the meat :)

Since El Salvador, I have been hanging out and training in Nor Cal with my awesome host family for the year, the Lerners, they are so lovely!

This past weekend we traveled to SoCal to race San Dimas and lets just say I had the hardest crash I have ever had.... racing down a hill and hitting a pot hole that was hidden in the shade of the trees is not a fun experience I will tell you. But I am all good and am now reeeeaaally ready to race redlands in 1.5 weeks time!

On wards and up wards!

Ciao,
Kate :)

Canary Challenge

Check out our ride of the Canary Challenge which will take place on the 28th of September www.youtube.com/embed/RonJgV_YYAc

Camp...

After a sweet few weeks soaking up the NZ summer I was SFO bound for team training camp starting on the 16^th of feb.

Camp was cool, getting to know the girls, sponsors and some sweet rides.

Our first ride was out of the beautifull Mill valley and up Mt Tama, such a cool ride with AMAZING views, it's one of those rides that should def be on the to do list! 

Ruth Winder and I. Pic by Mike O'Neill

The weather was awesome and super warm for the first day buuuuut

Next up we had rain and freezing temps! So much so it snowed up on Skyline…which doesn’t happen very often in Sunny Cali, but still... a lot warmer than it has been in Europe for sure!

On Thursday we started our ride at Stanford with the Canary foundation and rode part of the canary challenge loop. For those who don’t know who/ what the Canary foundation are, the are researching and developing was for early detection and invention of cancer. Such a good foundation. Get behind them, and enter the Canary challenge which takes in the amazing riding that Nor Cal had to offer in September.

Up next was team time trial and lead out training on Canada road… hopefully we have this dialed in for our fist TTT coming up! After this was a sweet nutrition talk from Dr. Stacy Sims from OSMO nutrition – I now know 100% more about pre, during and post work out nutrition now – and I think a lot of people will agree OSMO defiantly have the best nutrition products on the market.

Pictures by Mike O'Neill

Camp was polished off with a nice spin starting from Mikes Bikes in Walnut creek and a visit from VK owner Dave V.

Jen, Ruth, Me, Jessica, Jeannie, Starla, Liza, Amy, Elle, Emily, Rae and Soph to feature soon :)

Was and awesome week spent with the team, and on Saturday night/ Sunday morn (12.45am) 6 of us flew to El Salvador!

So far all is going well here, had a nice wee soul soothing spin around the cost this AM followed by lunch and a couple of pool/beach swims here….

Not a bad place to end a ride ;)

Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Kate J

HUGE thanks to all the VK sponsers this year – stoked to have such awesome equipment / gear:

Worlds, Exams and a NZ Summer :)

Ok sooo it's about time I updated my blog, I have had a great and very busy 2012 (Where has time gone?) and in 2013 I will try and update more regularly.

First up Worlds recap. What an amazing experience it was to race the world road race championships in Valkenburg, Netherlands. The week leading up to the race was awesome, my preparation and training was going well and the NZ team hotel was conveniently located at the bottom of the Cauberg which meant we got to know the course inside out!
Race day came around and I was feeling really good, the first few laps I was feeling great especially on the Cauberg...that was until this happened:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbN9IyzS6tY

Credit: Graham Watson

The above is a link to a youtube clip of the mass crash, and a photo that seemed to make papers/ websites/ magazines round the world.
Unfortuantely the crash took down Linda, Emily and myself. Emily suffered mechanicals with her bike and Linda and I chased back on and caught back up to the front of the race... only for me to soon discover my hand/ wrist was pretty much useless and I couldn't change gear, so unfortunately my race ended like this:

Credit: Cycling Tips

A trip to the hospital with a number of the other women involved in the crash I came away with a suspected scaphoid fracture which meant a blue cast for 3 weeks!!!! Bummer. I have never broken anything before and it was fair to say that this 3 weeks seemed to take a loooong time. Couldn't wait to get the damn thing off. And was stoked that it was all good, so still a clean slate of no broken bones for me (touching wood) :)

Linda rode and amazing race and won the bunch kick to come away 7th in the road race. Earlier in the week Linda also pedaled her way to 2nd in the time trial. We are so lucky to have such a talented and experienced rider to learn off!

After worlds I had one day being a tourist and seeing the sights in Amsterdam before flying straight home and literally hopped off the plane and went straight to class. Fun times.

I missed more than half of the semester due to worlds and my American season and there was a lot to catch up on. Thanks to some top class mates, lecturers, no riding and 8am to 11pm days spent slaving in the library for weeks I some how managed to actually get some pretty good grades. Was stressful though to say the least!

All and all I ended up having 6.5 weeks off my bike, which in the long run gave me a well needed rest, and has left me rearing to go for the coming season. This has ment I have taken a completely different approach to NZ racing this summer and have been using it as more of a base training sort of thing. I now know what it is like to race when you are truly unfit... it's not too fun thats for sure!

First up after a whole 1 day of training was Criterium Nationals, fair to say that I was pretty stoked the race was shortened to 15 mins in total... normally something that I would be annoyed with, I mean a crit Nats of 15 mins... really???  Some how I made the break of 4, and rolled in 4th with Kiwivelo team mate Georgia coming away with the win. 

Next up was Taupo and some solid training before taking on a few weeks training in Nelson with Tour of Vineyards mixed in there as well for Nationals prep which was on the 14th of Jan. A huge thanks to my Auntie and Uncle, Jac and Matt and my cousins Lilli and Finn for having me stay, nothing better than the lead up to nationals than relaxing and hanging out with family.

photo : Wheelworks Racing

Credit: Wheel Works Racing

Now on to Nationals: I was pretty happy with my race at, the course in Christchurch is awesome and always draws some great crowds. Our race was super hot, starting at midday in 33 degree heat will always get to you, thats for sure. Our race was basically a race of attrition, tackling dyers 6 times, with 8 of us making the front group. I was feeling really good all race and ended up sprinted into 4th place, while I was disappointed in my sprint, as I know I have been sprinting better, it has given me a lot to think about and work on! 

Congrats to our new National Champ and one of my best friends Courteney Lowe for the big win, I am so stoked that the win went to Courts this year, she no doubt deserves it!

Credit: Road cycling

After our race a few of us girls got our super supporter costumes on up dyers pass to cheer on the men - So glad our race is the day before theirs so we can hang out and watch their race stress free ;)

After Nationals I flew home to Auckland and went straight to the coromadle to have some time relaxing by the beach with the girls. 

And have now got stuck in to some hard training in prep for my second season with Vanderkitten - Can't wait! I have just over 2 more weeks left in NZ before heading to the states on the 16th of feb for what is going to be my longest season yet! 

First up is the Vuelta El Salvador - A UCI stage race in El Salvador. 10 stages in 7 days followed up with 2 one day races - can't wait!

There have been so many kind people helping me out this summer, and over the past few years to be exact. A huge thanks to: Kiwivelo, Vanessa and Scott Guyton, Tim Gudsell, Marina Northey, Dean Coleman, Mason Spiers, Greg Pain, and many more for your support. A special thanks to my unbelievable family for there never ending support and encouragement. 

This NZ summer has been awesome, nothing beats New Zealand thats for sure!!! 

Stay tuned for more regular updates, aaaaand follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/katechilcott

Kate :)