June 28th St. Lucia, West Indies
Today we’re heading over to St. Lucia to compete in the OECS Caribbean Championships. “We” is Winston (team manager), Reggie, James, Kristina, Monica and me representing St. Kitts and Nevis. Strangely, the OECS did not include a women’s division for this race. When Winston gave our team member names to the race director, the race director replied “Why are you bringing women?” Well, because the race application refered to rider entrants as “he or she.” The race director was not happy. He has not created a women’s category. But we’re going anyway! Because St. Kitts and Nevis only has two male elite riders, we three women are riding in the men’s race to comprise a “full” team. It’ll be interesting to see how the other male cyclists treat us. Once my helmet goes on, I could care less about the gender of my competition. Hopefully they’ll feel the same. Probably not the race director, though. What century is this, again? Ok…let’s go to St. Lucia! This is my favorite Caribbean drink. Ginseng Up! Its like ginger ale, but with something special in it. Maybe crack? Could explain my severe addiction to it.
Ginseng Up! My happy drink. Sadly, available only in the Caribbean.
June 21 Nevis, West Indies
Monica Ceccone, me, Kristina Stoney celebrate our road race podium finishes
The next generation of Nevis's cycling women!
The first national championships of SKN sees a great turn out of cyclists
Today was the National Championship road race event…65km which means two laps around the volcano island of Nevis. Because our federation is so small, the men and women started the race together. After the first lap, 5 remained in the lead…Reggie, James, Gerard, Monica and myself. The race was open to traffic, church-goers and free roaming goats. I have yet to decide which were the most hazardous, but we all escaped unscathed. Reggie and Gerard finished 1 and 2 for the men, I captured the women’s title and came in 3rd out of the dudes. It was a great day. Despite the fact I didn’t realize there were ants in my granola until the leftover milk displayed them. Good protein. Breakfast of champions: Ants + Athlete Octane=national champion. June 20 Nevis, West Indies Today was the St. Kitts and Nevis National Time Trial Championships, and let me just say that one has not lived until they have done a bike race in June in the Caribbean at 11:00am. Kinda hot. I think I lost 10lbs in the 20K event. It was a great day, though, as a couple women gave me a run for my money! I managed to win, but the highlight of the day was watching about 15 juniors take to the start line… proof that the sport of cycling is not only alive and well in the Caribbean, but beginning to thrive. Thanks to the hard work of Winston Crooke, Reggie Douglas, Greg Phillip and an amazing troop of volunteers, more kids are getting on bikes than ever before. Some of those bikes even come from Tucson! Check out the great photos…
A couple SKN juniors in GST gear
Reggie Douglas and James Weekes, SKN Nat'l Champs
Sweet helmet, Reg!
June 17 Nevis, West Indies (Caribbean)
National flag of St. Kitts and Nevis. Sweet!
Gerard, 18, of "GST SKN" gets fit by Reggie. Donations can change the world, mon.
Greetings from Nevis, down here in the heart of the Caribbean. I’m in my homeland for this weekend’s National TT and Road Race Championships, and it is great to be back among the smiling faces of the SKN cycling federation and the wonderful people of Nevis. My only enemy here is the rooster outside my window who has decided dawn arrives at 3am. I am thinking chicken for dinner. The greatest sight upon arriving in Nevis was heading over to Winston’s bike shop, Wheel World, and seeing a young man in one of Tucson’s club kits (GST). In March, my Tucson cycling buddies and I gathered over 800lbs of cycling gear donations to send to St. Kitts and Nevis. I am honored and proud to say it is all going to great use. A few months ago, the kids here were riding in jeans and flip flops. Now, they all have proper cycling kits, shoes and helmets. For me, seeing kids riding in the clothes of Tucson clubs gives me the most wonderful feeling of being both far away and right at home all at the same time. Every now and then, someone gives me the “How can you represent a country other than the USA?” speech. I tell them when it comes to furthering sport, youth, and the human race, it isn’t about “America only.” It’s about “America and…” I think these pictures prove it. Here is Gerard, 18, wearing Team GST of Tucson cycling gear and getting fit into a pair of shoes donated by Fly V Australia pro, Curtis Gunn. Doing the cleat fit is Reggie Douglas, the national triathlon and cycling champion of St. Kitts and Nevis. And here is Reggie flying the TriSports.com colors.
Reggie Douglas, rockin' the TriSports.com jersey in Nevis thanks to Seton and Debbie Claggett
June 14 Stillwater, MN In and effort to cheer me up from a week of tough racing, one of my Tucson cycling buddies sent me a great quote from the Tao: “In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.” Alas, today’s dropped something was me. Thus, my acquired learning for today is that no Chinese philosopher has ever raced a bicycle. Either that or I’m the most enlightened Taoist this world has ever seen. While the Tao approach works for some, my enlightenment seems to come directly from the D’oh. Still, the Stillwater race was lots of fun. With a hill of an 18% grade, the 1.2 mile course was more of a circuit race than a criterium. Which was just fine with me. I was able to stay in the race for 30 of the 40 minutes before the Cat 2 & 3 men came by and lapped me. It was a good way to end a rough race week. But here is a better way to end a fun week in Minnesota–the wonderful home state of Prince, Al Franken, and Target. My college buddy Lyndsay invited me to spend a few great days with her family on Christmas Lake. What does one do on a lake in Minnesota? Go surfing, of course.
Surfing in Minnesota, who knew?
Lyndsay shows me how its done, yo!
Walnut Grove, MN 2009. Likely not the Ingalls homestead.
June 11: Minneapolis; The Lemonade Criteriums After the disappointing situation of my NVGP race, my teammate Melanie Meyers suggested that I see if any citizens races are taking place in Minneapolis this week so at least I could get some racing in while I’m here. Ooh, more crits! Great idea! Just what my psyche needs. But in fact, she is right. The only way to get over a bad race is to race again and do less bad. I call this “rebound racing” and it either works great or leads to a breakdown. Either works well for a writer, so no harm done. Turns out there are two crits, Mankato and Stillwater, and the race director has allowed me to race with the Cat 3 men. I’m sure those dudes will be thrilled. We will race just before the pros start, to keep the spectators entertained, so I’m basically the jester to my own profession. Awesome. Looking forward to it anyway. So that’s the plan for Saturday and Sunday…take the lemons of NVGP and make myself some Cat 3, jester-filled, criterium lemonade. Today, Casey, Bec and I got a terrific bike tour of downtown Minneapolis from our homestay hosts, Chris and Andy. What a great city with friendly people. And weird art. Here is a shot of a giant Spoon and Cherry sculpture, which is also a fountain and clearly has no creative innuendos.
Casey, Bec and I check out the spoon n' cherry sculpture in Minneapolis
Casey had her first experience with trolley tracks, too.
Fall down, go boom. Casey vs. trolley tracks.
June 10: Minneapolis; Nature Valley Gran Prix
KB and Bec at the crit start. Now would be a good time to wipe the smile off my face.
Well. No cyclist can escape a bad race day. Here’s the low-down.
Ah, the posture of the disappointed.
Bec Domange (AUS) cruising the crit for Specialized/Bicycle Haus.