Friday 27 June 2014

North Star GP.....

After another loooong drive from Tulsa to Minnesota we arrived for the North Star GP. I really like this race, the courses generally suit me, and this year we had some pretty EPIC weather.

I will keep this nice and brief, but over all we had a pretty successful stage race with VK getting 2 stage wins and 2 3rd places. I finished the tour so so smashed, the bad weather really took the pain cave to whole new level. There were 3 crits and 2 road race, plus a prolog TT. 160km road race turned pretty epic with extreme cross winds for the entire race.... a lot of gutter time does not equal fun time. The other road race was 140km of torrential rain and thunder and lightening storms. This race turned out pretty epic too, with the decants being actually more challenging (especially mentally) than the uphills, I was happy to make the lead group of 25 :)
Post rainy road race - muddy and Messy - with Gillian who took the WIN!!!!
North Star Crit action...

Team

In the pain cave up the Stillwater Climb - 25%!!!! 

Lizzie and I


After North Star a few of us headed to Dairylands to race a few crits there. I did the first 4 day, enjoying a 7th on 2nd day and a 6th in the NCC grafton Crit. We picked up a nice lot of price $$ and Lizzie and I flew out of Chicago to meet Miranda in Boise, Idaho on Monday. I have spent this week chilling out in Boise and recharging the battery before a bit of training and then BC super week in Vancouver next week, followed Boise Twilight and then Cascade where Dad and my Brother Jordan are coming for a visi... can't wait to see them :)




Dairylands Critn'




Kate :) :)
TULSA TOUGH!

Yeeeow possibly the most fun crit series there is… ever!

We had a great 3 days of hard fast racing! I spent a lot of time on/ off the front working for our team sprinters Gillian Carlton and Lizzie Williams! I got a hole lotta new PRs i.e., max HR and Ave power… ouch.

We had so much fun, took out some big $$ ($1000) preims and finally we pulled everything together on the last day for lizzie to take out 2nd! Woooop. So cool for everyone to be riding so well together and in for the win… hopefully the win will come this week with North Star Gran Prix… previously known as Nature Valley! I really like this race and the courses generally suit me with technical crits, long long road races and a hilly little circuit race to finish which is super fun!

Below are some pics from tulsa :






Stay tuned for North Star update :)

Kate xo


Monday 2 June 2014

Philly!

The Philly cycling classic is done and dusted for another year. This race is always one of my favouring of the season, the course is awesome, the crowds are all ways big and there is just an all round cool atmosphere. Aaaand this year was even cooler with both the women and men having having equal prize money… how awesome is that! 

 Gillian, Miranda, Me, Lizzie, Amy, Elle


VK rode such a good race, we had a really strong team heading into the race and all worked together so well. We set things up nicely for super strong Aussie team mate Lizzie Williams who came in 6th. So smiles all round!

I felt super good all race, unfortunately Miranda (Aussie super climber), Amy and I all got stuck in a crash right before going up the climb the 4th time (we finished up it on the 5th lap) and spent a whole lot of energy chasing back on to the front group. We had to chase so hard and finally caught back on halfway through the final lap - all pretty much well and truly spent! Gillian and Elle were super stars on the flats - stringing out the pelo and I used my positing skills to get the girls in a good posi coming into the climb up the wall. 
Miranda and I chasing up the wall after crash

Such a fun race and I am sad it’s over! But excited for what’s next… Tulsa tough and probably one of my fave crits… cry baby hill!!

Stay tuned for more reg update….

Currently on a 21hour van ride to tulsa…. fuuuuun times! ;)

Kate