Albstadt World Cup Opener

Misty Riding in the Black Forest

The first mountain bike of the 2013 season has arrived, and I've been in Europe since Monday preparing for the race.  I flew to the new USA Cycling headquarters in Sittard, Holland on Monday and got a chance to experience the new facilities for two days.  I was incredibly impressed with how bike friendly Holland is.  There are signed bike routes with corresponding maps everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  I couldn't ride half a kilometer without stumbling upon another intersection where four new bike routes began.  It's incredible. It's also incredibly flat there so thank goodness there are maps at most of these intersections so I could find my way around.  The find on the first day of riding were these little guys hanging out in a yard.

The second day I drove thirty minutes over the border to the more hilly region in Belgium.  I was delighted to find the legendary Amstel Gold road race course marked out perfectly.  It's a very relaxing experience to be able to follow signs at every turn instead of trying to remember where you are.  Navigation is highly desired skill across the pond.  Of course, afterward a three hour exploration, I had to have some Belgium staples, frites and waffles.  I wasn't able to get a hot waffle (seriously, there are few things more delicious than a true, fresh belgium waffle), but I got some impostors from the grocery store.

Belgian Frites in all their glory

On Wednesday, I drove with USA Cycling from Holland to Albstadt, Germany, I've been resting up and dialing in the course ever since.  The course, in true european fashion, has some steep climbs and descents, and they did a great job with the design.  It's challenging, slippery, and technical.  There's one 'A Line' drop in the course and I'm thrilled that I've been able to ride from the beginning.  The USA Cycling skills clinic that I took in early March with Shaums March is paying off ten fold.  It's revolutionary that I'm able to have skills to focus on when approaching these technical sections.  Today the sun even came out to dry the course up but who knows what tomorrow holds.  I'm really excited to race tomorrow and see where my legs can take me.  It's also the first time I've gotten to race a world cup on my birthday!  It's my 30th birthday, and I know exactly what I want for a present.

You can watch the race live (or if you don't want to get up at 5:30 am EST, watch the replay) at redbull.tv

Wish me luck, send me the flow and snappy legs.

After this is onto the second stop on the world cup tour, Nova Mesto Na Morave, Czech Republic.  Then, it's home to kick off Little Bellas season in Vermont.

 A castle in Valkenburg, Belgium

 More misty riding in Germany

Little Bellas Sea Otter Camp

We have just wrapped up our best Little Bellas national camp yet.  The Little Bellas program keeps picking up momentum in pockets all over the country and the Sea Otter Classic is one of the most vibrant.  It's always kicks off our national camp tour in fine form and sets a high standard for the rest of the camps.  Sea Otter camp was completely full and we had forty girls riding bikes over the weekend.  This year, we were joined by a great crew of Vermont mentors; nordic ski racer, Mary Stewart, mountain bike racer, Kim O'Connell, and cyclocross stronghold, Joanne Grogen.  The camp couldn't have been this successful without the hard work from these Vermont mentors, but also from the amazing contributions from our California volunteers, Andrea Turner and Brianne Spiersch.  Of course, the standing ovation goes to the program director, founder, and my sister, Sabra Davison who ran the show at Sea Otter and somehow manages to keep all the logistics, details, and girls' names in her head.  It's honestly very impressive.

The camp started on Friday morning with the Little Bellas got to know each other through the unique game of 'waa'.  Then, they learned balance on their bikes through many games of dab, rode some technical, rocky single track on the hillside, became technical bike experts with the Specialized tech talk, and took the venue by storm in the scavenger hunt.  No Clif Bar was left unturned in the hunt, and some of the Little Bellas were even able to spot the Sea Otter mascot.  On Friday, the girls lined the short track course to cheer on the ladies, and, later on in the day, they were able to meet these same pros at the lemonade social.  At this year's lemonade social, we had the biggest collection of elite talent topping out at fifteen pro women attending.  There has never been this many world champions, national champions, and Olympic medalist in one spot besides a start line, and they were all gathered for the Little Bellas.  We had Olympic bronze medalist, Georgia Gould, downhill World Champion, Tracy Moseley, four time Olympic, Katerina Nash, Marathon World Champion, Annika Langvad, and two time four cross World Champion, Anneke Beerten just to highlight a few. Each pro woman answered Little Bellas questions ranging from, 'what's your favorite color?' to 'where in the world do you want to ride your bike?' (The best answer to that question was from Teal who picked Florida out of all the exotic places to ride a bike).  The world's best signed each of the girls jerseys, and the Little Bellas' parents gasped when they saw the collection of names their girls got to hang out with.  It never ceases to amaze what a classy group of women these are.  Each and every female pro has a chaotic schedule running from race to appearance, but they all managed to carve out an hour to inspire the next generation.  It was truly incredible.

The girls also got to go up on the announcer stage to cheer on the pro ladies for the cross country start the next day.  This was the best welcome I've ever received rolling up to the start line.  Is it possible it could have been louder than the Olympics?  It's impactful the amount of noise twenty girls can make.  It inspired me to grab the hole shot once the gun went off.  We already have little bellas signing up for next year so I think we did a good job getting them hooked on mountain bikes.  Everyone is still buzzing from the experience.

Photos are worth a million words, and these great images by Nic Coury are worth two million.  Please check them out here on the Little Bellas website.

The camp is absolutely not possible without the support from Specialized, G-Form, and Primal.  G-Form keep the girls protected from a couple of tough learning crashes.  Primal created this year's jerseys from a design from one of our own Little Bellas in our design the jersey contest. Clif Bar provided the snacks.  Skratch Labs keep us hydrated under the hot sun. Eyedentity Graphics made us, as always, a fantastic banner.  Cat's Tongue Towels gave the girls towels to clean their bikes with at the end of the day.

THANK YOU!  Let's keep inspiring the next generation of shredders.  This is what the good stuff in life is about.

Two weeks of amazing

 Specialized Women's new full suspension 29er, the Rumor

I'm back home in Vermont, but I'm still buzzing from two weeks of amazing things happening back in California.  These two jam packed weeks started with the Specialized Women's Rumor launch.  Specialized launched their brand, spankin' new womens 29er full suspension in Santa Cruz.  The Rumor is a beauty.  The media and I toured Specialized HQ in Morgan Hill, CA and went behind the scenes into the making of this new creation.  I got to meet Specialized Women's new ambassador, Kimmy Fasani, pro snowboarder and first women to do a double backflip on a snowboard.  She's the real deal, and she's working to push women's snowboarding to new levels and get it out in the mainstream media.  It was fascinating to chat with her and compare Little Bellas to her initiatives.   We then tested the Rumor on a ride on the trails in Wilder Canyon.  At first peak, this bike is a great introductory bike for the first timer but also completely fun to shred on as an experienced rider.  It's completely stable and wants to go downhill fast.  The next day we really put the Rumor to the test with a big ride in Demo forest.  We also took the launch up to the next level by checking some Santa Cruz favorites off the list.  We went on the roller coaster on the board walk and capped of a great evening with Penny Ice cream.  The homemade marshmallow topping never disappoints.

The ladies of the launch getting excited to ride the roller coaster

Two days later after the Rumor launch, Specialized Racing team camp kicked off in Morgan Hill.  Every Specialized factory athlete from Olympic Gold Medalist XC Jaroslav Kulhavy to Red Bull Rampage Darren Berrencloth to downhill legend Aaron Gwin came together for this camp.  Even Ina Teutenburg and Ally Stacher were holding down the fort for the road team, Specialized-Lululemon.  It was awesome getting to know everyone, and I believe it was the first time that's everyone has been together in one place.  It was an absolutely packed couple of days learning about new products, giving feedback on current products, and photo shoots. Specialized even hosted an official team introduction in their theater and broadcasted it live online.  The gravity boys donned some spandex for the daily lunch ride and hung tough with the front pack for awhile.  I was impressed.  Team camp was such a great opportunity and it just reiterated the fact the company is invested in racing, winning, and making the best products in the world to accomplish those goals.  I am, once again, so excited to be racing for Specialized.

 Specialized rolling out the red carpet for team camp, lockers and towels with our names

After team camp, we hit the road for what proved to be an even busier Sea Otter Classic.  We had our first Little Bellas national camp of the season over the weekend, and it was our best yet.  We had to cap our number of little bellas at forty girls for the weekend.  That is a lot of girls on bikes.  We hosted our best lemonade social with the pros ever.  We had fifteen elite women show up to answer questions from the Little Bellas and sign autographs.  I've never seen that many world champions, Olympic medalists, and world cup winners in one place other than a start line.  This is no exaggeration whatsoever.  It was incredible.  The pro women are a classy bunch and are dedicated to seeing their sport grow.  Sea Otter is one of the most chaotic events, and each woman carved out a sliver of time for the Little Bellas.  It literally never ceases to make me overjoyed.   I also attended both days of the SRAM ladies lounge hosted by my teammate Rebecca Rusch.  This is a great space for female cyclists of all types to ask questions and learn about cycling.  It's like a lemonade social for the older bellas (and with wine instead of lemonade).

Specialized made the biggest cow bell in existence for Sea Otter

I also raced in the short track and cross country at Sea Otter.  Racing wise, I didn't have my best weekend at all.  The racing was punctuated with some bad luck and mistimed efforts.  In the short track, I got caught behind a bottle neck at the start even though I was fifth wheel, which forced me to run up the first climb.  Running is never a good thing in a twenty minute race.  I spent the entire race playing catch up, but I did catch up to eight place.  The cross country was along the same lines.  I was in poor position off the front group but chasing back on with a great chase group.  Then, I crashed into some bushes, and I was the most dusty I have ever been.  I looked like a hoover vacuum sprayed me. I lost the chasers, and I tried to catch back on to no avail and ended up ninth in a stacked field.

Onwards and upwards to the first world cups in Europe.  I leave on Thursday for a warm up race next weekend in Apeldoorn, Holland.  Here we go 2013 season!  Yes!

Lea

Bonelli ProXCT

 Photo: Tyler Frasca

This past weekend was my first mountain bike race of 2013 at the Bonelli ProXCT.  As always, no matter how hard I have been training, there's always a big question mark placed by the first race of the season.  Do I have fitness?  Will I be able to make the lead group?  Will my legs feel fresh or like lead?  I knew this race was even more of a gamble since I had only been riding my bike for ten days and I was fresh off the skis.  Tyler, my team manager, said that he would have ski poles in the tech zone to make me feel like home.  I really appreciated that.

Racing in the Short Track withe my new national champion jersey

Checking out the bike with one of the best mechanics out there, Joe Deverra

The weekend of racing gave me all positive answers to all of the questions looming overhead.  I am completely happy with my performance, and I was even more thrilled with my new bikes and equipment.  My new Epic and Fate are beautiful, and I have SRAM's new XX1 on both race bikes.  There is just one chainring up front and eleven cogs in the back.  It's quite different riding without a front derailuer.  I keep reaching down to shift out of my big ring and nothing is there.  I absolutely love the simplicity of it.  I'm a believer after racing with it this weekend.  I rode the fast track tires front and rear for the loose and rocky cross country and switched to a renegade on the rear for the short track.  I ran twenty psi in the front and twenty two in the rear.

In the cross country, the Luna squad was noticeably missing from the starting line, but the new Trek team was there in full force.  Fellow Olympians Emily Batty and Annie Last were present so I knew this would be a great test for the legs.  I didn't know that the two time Xterra World Champion, Leslie Paterson, was hiding in the back of the pack.  Emily, Annie, and I rode together for the first two laps, and I was relieved that my legs remembered how to move in circles.  On the third lap, a mysterious rider with strong looking legs bridged up to our group and notched up the pace considerably.  I started to put the pieces of this puzzle together when I saw the world champion rainbow stripes on her jersey.  Annie was popped of the group, and I was hanging on.  I yo-yoed with the lead group for a lap and then I rode alone to the finish line to third place.  It was a solid race.  The short track was a tactical battle with a large lead group.  There were some attacks and some new faces up front which is always great to see.  On the final short track lap, I attacked to be the first to the top of the course's only climb.  It turns out Emily and Chloe had the same idea and we all arrived at the top together.  Then, my front wheel washed out on some very loose corners, and I was out of the race.  I was bummed because I really wanted to sprint with those girls to the finish line and give my new national champion jersey a run for the money.  But I'll get many more opportunities to race this season.  Now, jojo and I are back in Santa Cruz and enjoyed ten days in one location.  We may even get to surf.

Team Specialized celebrated a pair of 3rd place finishes by having sushi off of a moving walkway

From Skis to Jumps

It seems like every blog post I write I’m extremely excited about something, but the last two weeks have been more exciting than usual.  I capped off my Vermont winter training block by skipping the first ProXCT in Texas to do a 50km Nordic ski race called the Rangeley Loppet.  The snow conditions were fantastic for my last week on skis. My goal for this loppet was to start aggressively and keep contact with my VTXC teammate Robyn Anderson.  The race was two twenty-five kilometer laps of a fun rolling and twisty course.  I made it out of the mass start alive thank goodness (imagine a mass start mountain bike race with poles flying everywhere).  I could see Robyn up a couple of groups ahead and I started to chip away at the real estate.  Sabe put some special Swix sauce on my Atomic skis and they were absolutely flying.  I was passing master men twice my weight on the downhills.  Having fast skis makes racing so much more fun.  Sabe was all over the course and fed me as well as provided me with her Nordic ski racing knowledge and sister juju.  She is a great Nordic ski racer. Finally, towards the half way point, I bridged up to Robyn and tried to draft and recover whenever possible.  As we were nearing the finish, this became an incredible tactical battle.  I attacked with five km to go and Robyn stuck on.  Robyn attacked with two kilometers to go and I stayed on.  I realized I don’t know how to sprint on skis so I was going to have to come into the stadium first if I had any chance of getting the win.  I did this, but it turns out I still don’t know how to sprint so Robyn nabbed me for the win.  It was AWESOME.

I am so excited.  About to descend the cork screw

 Allen Lim with Skratch Labs teaches the crew how to make rice cakes, perfect ride fuel

Riding back from day one of skills camp

After the loppet, I flew out to Colorado for the USA Cycling board of directors meeting for two days and then the USA mountain biking skills clinic over the weekend.  Shaums March was our instructor and our group consisted of Georgia Gould (Olympic Bronze medalist) and I along with four other developing mountain bike talents.  These juniors and U-23 riders have the chops to make it big.  This camp was life changing.  This is absolutely no exaggeration. World Cups these days are peppered with drops and jumps.  I never learned these skills and, thus, was terrified of these sections.  There are alternative lines around these features, but a rider loses a lot of time taking them. Shaums is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had, and the entire group now feels comfortable with these world cup challenges.  We took some sick air, rolled some gnarly drops, ate some great food from Skratch Labs, and had a blast doing it all.  This skills camp is literally the best thing I could do right now. Thanks to Shaums, the future looks bright for USA Women’s mountain biking.  My riding has been revolutionized.  A big thanks goes out to G-Form for providing the impact protection for this camp which was a necessity.  I’m ready to throw a seat dropper on my bike, get on some flat pedals, get on a pump track, and start burning in some of these new skills.  Mountain biking is fun.

I’m on a plane out to Santa Cruz for the next two months.  My first race is next weekend at the Bonelli ProXCT.  Send me the good juju please.

Thanks!

 The cork screw in action

 Practicing step up with flat pedals!

Shaums helps me feel the nose wheelie

The Loppet

This was one of the best days of the winter. Backcountry skiing Bolton to Trapps on the Catamount Trail. 

This past weekend I competed in my first world loppet up in Ottawa, Canada.  It was one of the hardest efforts I have ever done.  This is saying a lot because I have done a lot of hard efforts, but this one was probably especially tough since I'm not officially a nordic ski racer.  These bike racer arms are not meant to work for three hours straight.  It was such a different experience, and, because of this, it was so much fun.

Jojo and I made the trek up north the day before the race.  We thought that Gatineau, Canada was going to be a quaint little town so we were more than a little bit surprised to roll into a big, bustling city.  I literally didn't even map directions to the hotel because I thought it would be obvious where it was.  Through the marvels of modern technology, we were able to locate the hotel and then immediately book it out to the venue.  We skied for half an hour in the setting sun and it was gorgeous.  There are trails everywhere.  After the shake down ski, it was mission poutine.  Even though this restaurant was lit with blue lights, surprisingly, it was the perfect spot to complete this mission.  This brewery made amazing food and the best poutine we have ever had.  Then, I got my fancy new race suit from the VTXC team, and I was ready to go.

Poutine.  In all its glory. 

My sister, Sabe, is the nordic marathon queen notching up wins on the majority of the new england race circuit.  She taught me how to nordic ski after she made the transition herself from downhill ski racing at Middlebury to the skinny skis.  This was a great move for an endurance queen like herself, and I'm so glad she made the transition.  Sadly, she is not able to race or train this season because she is recovering from a concussion so I was determined to do the absolute best I could in her honor.  In short, I was very motivated to throttle myself.  I, however, didn't know the depths I would have to reach during this race.  The temperatures were wavering well below ten degrees during the course of this entire marathon.  My set up for this marathon was a water belt with a bottle filled with pineapple Skratch mix (yum!), four caffeinated Clif Shots stapled to my belt, and Swix pants instead of the fancy new race suit to keep the legs warm in cold temperatures.  The double pole start went well considering most of these women have arms the size of my legs.  Robyn Anderson, VTXC teammate, was two packs ahead of me, and I spent the first 10 km trying to bridge up to her group.  It turns out it's much harder to bridge up to a group on skate skis than on a bicycle.  Then, I spent the next 10 km trying to bridge up to the pack right in front of me so I could draft and recover in the windy conditions.  I caught a couple of rides, but I was suffering.  I couldn't get a deep breath in because of the cold air.  I felt like I was having an asthma attack, and this was definitely a new experience.  I'm used to being able to breath all the warm air I want.  Because of the shortness of breath, my legs have never felt so heavy.  Then I was all alone on a skiing super highway, poled between my legs, and face planted myself.  I lost my bottle and a Clif shot without even taking a sip.

Finishing the Gatineau Loppet

Thankfully there was a feed zone close by.  I took a Clif Shot and practically dumped hot water all over my face at the feed zone, and things started to look up.  I had a bit more energy, and I caught a ride with a pack of men for about 10km.  This was the best twisty section of the entire course.  I believe I may have even smiled but I'm unsure since my face was numb.  One women passed me, and the pack of men split up.  I really tried to focus and push myself for the last 15 km.  I was so incredibly happy when I passed the 50 km sign with 1 km to go.  I had no idea where I was the entire race.  I thought I was possibly in the top 10.  I had passed one woman and one woman passed me.  This was all I knew.  I was just happy to cross the finish line, and, as I did, they announced I was in third place.  I was in absolute shock.  I had no idea.  Jojo and I celebrated by going to Ottawa's winter festival, and jojo got to try one of my favorites, sugar on snow, for the first time.  It did not disappoint.  We saw incredible ice sculptures and ate some more poutine.

I will definitely take fitness away from this loppet and my Vermont ski block, but I will take away something more.  I think I found a new level of suffering out there, and this may come in handy during the upcoming season.  I also learned that fifty kilometer ski races take an extraordinary amount of mental toughness, and my sister is a suffer queen.  I'm so impressed that she does these efforts weekend after weekend.  I didn't think it was possible but, I have garnered even more respect.  Next up, I am competing in the Rangeley Loppet in Maine next weekend and then I head west to get on my bike in warmer weather.  I'm first going to a USA Cycling board meeting and USAC mountain bike skills camp in Colorado and then it's off to Santa Cruz, California for the bike training block.  With snow and surf happening in the next two weeks, life is great.  I am so incredibly lucky.

Thanks for reading,
Lea

 Thanks to Drew (red coat) from Swix for making my Atomic Skis FAST

 I'm on a nordic ski podium!

 This was our awesome crew to ski from Bolton to Trapps.  Daria Bishop, Brodie, Sister Sabe, me, Jojo, Summer Bishop, Andy Bishop (coach!), and our good friend Karl who was visiting from California

 Sabe and I are so pumped to be enjoying the freshies together in the backcountry

Jojo and Summer.  This was jojo's first time skiing and she did amazing

My family went to our old stomping ground, Middlebury Carnival, to watch our cousin, Destrey, compete in the slalom for Colby College.  It was so great to dip back into the ski world, to see Destrey, and to visit Middlebury 

Vermont Winter Adventures

The View at Bretton Woods.  Mount Washington.

On my way home from Kauai, I had the pleasure of stopping by the Specialized HQ in Morgan Hill, California for a NICA (National High School Mountain Bike League) Awards Banquet.  I was honored to be the guest speaker for this event and completely enjoyed every moment of it.  There was a ride in the morning near Monterey, CA which over fifty people attended.  Then, a healthy two hundred showed up at the awards banquet in the evening enjoying a delicious meal and awards presentation.   NICA has high school mountain bike leagues in several states (CA, CO, WA, UT) and people are nominated by the peers for awards.   Awards were hotly contested and the stories behind the winners were inspiring to say the least.  NICA is having a great impact on teenagers and the high school community at large.  I am a big supporter of their work.  Plus, it's not only getting kids hooked on cycling for life, but it's becoming a great development pipeline for american mountain bike racers.  The results are starting to show.  Kate Courtney, a product of the California league, won a junior world cup this year at Windham, NY. With Little Bellas and NICA's work, the future looks bright.

A shot from the NICA Ride

My Vermont winter training block has been going really well.  I'm getting in some solid skiing and strength training and having a blast doing it.  There have been some fun events peppered into this training block.  I went down to iSport to check in with Bill Knowles and he added some fun, new strength in my plan.  I am pumped.  It includes jumping and resistance cords so I had to give the basement gym a facelift so I wouldn't slip.  I can't believe I didn't get rubber flooring earlier.

The new and improved gym ready for some iSport moves

Two weekends ago, my mom, my sister, and myself headed up to Bretton Woods, NH for the New England Nordic Ski Association Women's Day.  Just like last year, my mom took a ski clinic, my sister gave a Swix wax clinic, and I was to give a speech at lunch time about the Olympics.  I wasn't too worried about the speech (and hadn't prepared anything) until the drive down to women's day where I found out there was going to be two hundred women at the event.  It was then that I started to become a little concerned.  Nevertheless, I gave it 'off the cuff', and I was so happy with how it turned out.  I told behind the scenes stories from the games; little tidbits that I couldn't have known without actually being an Olympian.  It was well received and the crowd actually laughed! (enter huge sigh of relief)  It's good to know that I can actually give a speech because, up until this point, I've only done the question and answer format.

I caught Mount Washington at sunset.  It was zero degrees out. 

The rest of our weekend at Bretton Woods was absolutely awesome.  This was some of the most gorgeous nordic skiing I've ever gone.  Bretton Woods has an abundant trail network at the base of Mount Washington.  I either got a view of the mountain or a view of the iconic Mount Washington Hotel the entire four hour skate ski.  It was stunning.  My sister also won a gift certificate in the 2012 Bretton Woods marathon for a dinner at the Mount Washington Hotel restaurant.  This was, hands down, the most fancy and delicious meal I've ever had.  The gingerbread pudding dessert was one of the many highlights.  The waiter even came between courses with a scraper to clear the table of crumbs.  Wow.

 It's official because it's on posted board in the lodge.  Sabe, two time winner of the Bretton Woods Marathon and a general ripper on skis.  I'm so proud!

The ski block continues.  I signed up for the Gattineau World Loppet (51k) this Sunday, and, today, I just came off one of the best skis of the winter at Craftsbury Nordic Center today.  It was a blue bird day, all eighty five kilometers were open, and the skiing was beautiful.  The conditions and fun, rolling terrain made a four hour ski a little bit easier.  Now, let's just think snow so the conditions can stay this good.

Think SNOW!
Lea

I visited the Richmond girl scout with the Specialized Olympic Fate