Kate Chilcott

Hey guys!

Well it has been a busy few weeks, filled with ups and downs, but hey thats what its all about, right?!
SO san dimas: well was feeling awesome on the bike which I was pretty happy about. Unfortunatley in the finishing sprint of the 2nd stage (It was pooring with rain the whole stage, and about 4 degrees, not even exaggerating) I had a wee incident with the concrete. I was on about 5th wheel and was out of my seat sprinting and the girl infront of me must of hit a cateye or something.... she came down, and I flew overtop. lets just say my knee/ leg took majority of the impact, and my chainring or maybe break lever??? dug two nice holes out of my shin. Luckily though because it was so wet, the gravel grazes were kept to a minimum which was good :)

Nice and green- to match st paddys day ;-) wooop

After the crash, I spent a good amount of time with the friendly ambo ppl as I hit my head pretty hard... and was practically frozen from the stage. But came out alright, and my teamies and DS Jono were the total toppies :)

The final stage 3 (Crit) went pretty well, it took me what felt like half a year to clip in on the start line as my knee was not co-operating too well, but once I got going and moved my way to the front of the bunch I felt good and my knee held up ok to finnish 13th.

So overall in san dimas I ended in 4th U25, 1 sec of 3rd and 7sec of 1st. Which was pretty frustrating, and 19th overall on GC. With 83 starters, a crash and a lot of the best women in the world racing (Armstrong, Teutenburg etc.) I was content, but was defiantly looking forward to and ready to rock and roll at redlands!

Now on to redlands....

There was not alot of rock and rolling for team vanderkitten unfortunately. Whilst we were in san dimas, our host dad unfortunately got sick, it must of been pretty contagist as my team mates Emily and Courtney Dimple caught the bug. I thought I had got away with out it.... but turns out my body must of been out of wack from my crash and my immune down trying to heal my wounds and knee, so I caught the bug too :-(

And redlands begun, first up was a crazy hard tt, I definitely did not feel one hundy, and was struggling to breathe but put it behind me and was ready for the road race the next day. Well as I was soon to find out I got the bug too, and could barely even ride my bike...as in I was trying to pedal but was going no where. Unfortunately I had to pull out, so redlands was over for me. As well as me, Ruth (another team mate) did not feel good and had to pull the pin too. So we were down to 4 riders...out of 8 of us!

Looking on the bright...atleast we have got all our bad luck out of the way early in the season, a crash, 2 punctures in the first km of a race (both happened to Jazzy!) and 4 girls sick. The rest of the season is definatley going to rock!

After redlands a group of kiwis and aussies lived our childhood dreams at none other than the happiest place on earth, disneyland! It was great, we got there right as it opened, and left as it closed, 13 hours. We were certainly tired by the end! From disneylad we sort of winged our trip. We managed to book some accom in west hollywood... it was probly the safest looking motel on the sunset but we did have some dodgy neighbours that came and went at all hours of the morning, haha. Anyway we decided to spend as little time at the motel as pos, so we caught a bus to santa monica and rented some bikes and biked along the beach to venice. Santa Monica was so nice, and who new you need so many stores for medical marijuana in venice beach??! We stayed in santa monica for dinner, and caught the bus back to hollywood, finding out why we were warned not to use public transport at night time....we were the only non homeless people on the bus haha, but there were 5 of us, so it was ok. We spent the next morning exploring hollywood, and then caught a 5 hour bus back to the bay area. It was deff a great experince to explore LA, we were all sooo sore from so much walking the 5 hours on a bus was nice just to be able to give the old legs a rest. Turns out cycling and walking don't use the same muscles!

I was feeling a lot better when we got back (I had just under a week off) and now am finally feeling back to my normal self again. Loving training here, its so awesome!

Loving being back in the states, especially here in the bay area... I missed the mexican food and froyo!

Here in the bay area there are quite a few of us Kiwis and aussies, so we hang out alot which is cool. Although what is up with australians trying to claim Kiwi stuff, apparently they think that Fish n chips and pavlova both come from Australia...not nz...whaaaaat?

I have moved to a new host family, the Golan family. They are super nice, have two kids, and a big Dog and have been to NZ! Alon (My new host Dad) Makes a GREAT coffee every morning, the best I have had since I have been in america, which is great motivation to get out of bed before 7.30am to get one :)

This weekend in Celebration of easter, we are having and aussie/ kiwi (and a few Americans...maaaybe ;) ) BBQ with a treasure hunt and secret bunny (like secret sant, but with chocolate instead), should be

fun!

Hopefully I will try and make this a more regular thing... I will try :)

I better be off now, Sorry this has been such a long post.

Kate :)

OOoh yeah nearly forgot: here are some pics of my last few weeks.