Tour of Walla Walla

Team Bobs-bicycles.com warming up for the crit. Left to right: Jeanne Rumps, me, Sarah Brown, Kimberly Turner, Ally Stacher, Sarah Barber, and Mike Gaertner.





Mixing it up in the crit. Blue and white Bob's kits throughout.

One stage race down. The Tour of Walla Walla took place over the weekend, and it was a great weekend of racing. The race has gotten huge over the years, seeing about 550 pre-registrants this year! And, that is without junior and masters categories, which surely would draw even more racers.

Our team had 7: Sarah Barber, Sarah Brown, Jeanne Rumps, Jenni Gaertner, Ally Stacher, Kimberly Turner, and myself. It was our first weekend of racing as a team, and it was a great start. After the time trial we had four ladies in the top 11, giving us the lead in the team competition. Personally, I was not thrilled with my time trial; I wasn't so much unhappy with the placing, as I was with the effort I put out. My power output was, for whatever reason, not at all where it should have been. For a 6.5 mile effort, my output was significantly lower than what it has been for the local weekly 10 mile tts I've been doing. Still, my in Walla this year was far better than last year!

Saturday afternoon we had a 60 mile road race. Poor Jeanne flatted early on, leaving her to chase solo. Sarah Barber attacked and kept the pressure on the first time we raced up the climb, causing the field to split. After the summit, we had a group of maybe 15, including Jenni, Ally, Sarah Barber, and me. The pace was not kept high, so most of the other ladies caught our small group, which left the race to the final climb. Sarah again threw down some attacks, which were countered by other teams. Sarah, Ally, Jenni, and I all finished within seconds of each other, leaving us with 3 in the top 6 overall after stage two, and maintaining our lead of the team classification.

Sunday we had the crit. Both Jenni and Sarah Barber had riders who were very close behind them on the overall results. With time bonuses available in the crit, we really hoped to keep Sarah and Jenni in their respective places. Our plan did not work flawlessly, with Jenni being leapfrogged in the results, but we were one of the most aggressive teams out there.

Overall it was a great weekend for Bob's. We ended up with 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 18th in the 1/2 women, and 4th and 10th in the cat 3 women. We also held on to first in the team classification. Not bad for our first weekend of racing as a team. We worked well together, had a lot of fun, and showed that we will be a force to be reckoned with.

Ted's time trial wasn't what he had hoped for. It didn't help that he had a stretch where he could not get into his big ring, so he definitely lost time there. He got in an early break in his road race (within the first couple miles), and they ended up staying off for about 30 miles. The guy he was with was super strong, and Ted basically worked until he had nothing left. He said he barely knew his own name because he had ridden so hard! He ended up calling it a day, but was happy to have tried the move.

We, along with Mom and Dad, had some great meals in the Walla Walla area. Friday we went to Whitehouse-Crawford, which was good, but not as great as in the past. Saturday we went to CreekTown Cafe, which was really good. Finally, the best meal of the weekend was after Sunday's race. We had a late lunch in Waitsburg at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe, which is definitely worth a visit. Make sure to get dessert if you go there.

This weekend we're heading to the western side of the state to visit with Ted's family; his parents will be visiting his sister. We'll probably throw in a race or two for good measure.

Sneezing Panda

I love this!

Gusty Chicken Dinner

Hitcher has a new best friend in the form of our neighbor's cat, Lily. She comes over into the yard and the two of them play. It is the cutest thing to see this tiny cat playing with our 50 pound dog.


We've had a couple beautiful days lately.

We headed south to Boise for the Chicken Dinner road race yesterday. It was another opportunity for me to race with my teammates - Sarah Barber, Sarah Brown, and Jeanne Rumps. The 1/2/3 women were grouped in with the cat 3 men and the masters men, and the race started up a decent climb. Ted and I arrived too late for a warm-up, miscalculting how much time we would have, so we started with cold legs. Not so great for a race starting on a climb. Thankfully, there was a horrible headwind of 30mph up the first climb, keeping the pack together. Without a warm-up, Ted and I both got popped when the winds turned into crosswinds at the top of the climb. I was stuck out of the draft and was not warmed up enough to maintain contact. Ted fared slightly better, but still was popped long before he should have been.

All four of the Bob's girls were separated on the course, so we were unable to help each other. Sarah Barber was the furthest up the road, riding some of the time with Ted. I ended up solo for almost all of the next two laps, which was brutal in the wind. I definitely did get a good workout.

Ted turned around part-way into the third (of four) laps, and joined me. We decided to call it a day and headed home. With the wind as it was, it took the winning 1/2 man almost 3.5 hours to do 65 miles, and for our field, the winners finished 56 miles in about 3 hours! Needless to say, I don't think many would say that yesterday's race was exactly fun, but at least it was sunny and warm!

It ended up being a fun weekend. We stayed with Sarah and Brian Barber, and they fixed us a fantastic dinner. It was great to get to know Sarah a little better. The sun and warm temperatures made the drives pleasant, so overall it was a good weekend.

We did witness one very troubling thing yesterday afternoon as we were leaving Nampa. We saw a car pull over by a wildlife preserve, dumping something over the fence. As we got closer, we could see that the man had dumped two small dogs. We continued driving and came upon the car at the next intersection, so we jotted down the license plate number. Ted was irate and walked up to the man's window, telling him we knew what he had done and it was inexcusable. He offered some lame excuse of how the dogs weren't his, and eventually said he would go back to get the dogs. Ted said he did show some remorse, but I don't buy it. He did head back to the preserve, as did we. If the dogs were there, we were going to take them to a shelter, but they were nowhere to be seen, as was the car. I'm sure he probably did pick up the dogs. He also probably drove to some other remote street where he could dump them.

I called and reported the whole thing to the Nampa sheriff this morning, so hopefully they'll at least look into it. With Hitcher being a dog that was potentially dumped, it disgusts me to see someone doing such a thing. Horrible person.

Frozen Flatlands, literally

This guy was assembled near Saturday's race start.


Ted won the sprint.


Michael Costello snapped this side shot of Ted's winning sprint.


The women's field was larger than in years past.

I received an email from Martha Friday telling me I was smart, weather-wise, to stay close to home and race Frozen Flatlands. As we headed to Spokane early Saturday morning and saw at least five cars off the road in the 15 mile stretch between Pullman and Colfax, I began to question my judgement. Not long after, big white flakes began to fall and the hills turned white. Hmmmm... would Ted's race really be going of at 10? Or, at all?

The call was made to delay the start of the first race (Ted's field) by two hours. This would allow for the snow plow (!) to get there and clean off the 2.5 mile circuit. It's April, people. What is going on?

Sure enough, the plow was there at 11, and Ted's race started right at noon. Ted is normally very frisky and aggressive at this race, so I was surprised to see him sitting near the rear of the pack for most of the race. At one point he yelled to me that he was feeling "awful." Needless to say, I think he was a bit surprised when he took the finishing sprint by a large margin, coming up with the win.

The track was actually pretty dry by the time the women's race started. I had one teammate, Jenni Gaertner, and it was our first time racing together. All the women raced together, giving us a field of about 25. Jenni and I decided to be aggressive and make the race hard to get a good effort. None of the other women were very aggressive, seeming mostly to key off of us. We attacked and couter-attacked, working very well together and having fun. I got the prime I wanted for metabolic testing, and Jenni won the final sprint, taking the win. It was a good race for our team.

Sunday was wet and cold, but better than Saturday. Ted was hoping to have a good finish to take the overall omnium. Someone broke away early in his race, and very few people were willing to work to chase, so the breakaway rider ended up winning. The race came down to a sprint and Ted got a little boxed in, so he wasn't as happy with his day as he had hoped.

Jenni and I decided to take it easy for the first portion of the race, hoping some other people would take a more aggressive role. Plus, it was good to keep the cat 4 women with us for a while, rather than just trying to dump them from the gun, as I have seen other 1/2/3 women do. Our plan was for me to attack on the hill and try to get away. If that didn't work, Jenni would be there to sprint at the finish. Our pack splintered around mile 30 and we had a small group off the front. A couple miles later, I got a rear flat. The wheel change was not fast, as the car was not right behind me, and I had to do my own change. I chased for a while, catching some women, but I could never regain contact with the leaders. Thankfully, Jenni was able to win the final sprint again, making it a double win weekend for her!

Weird racing and a dog cake

We did two races last weekend, starting with the Tour de Dung in Sequim. This race was put on by Ted's team, so it was good for us to be able to go and volunteer. The fields were small - the 1/2/3 women's race had 8! Ted attacked from the gun in his race, and ended up in a 36 mile break that was eventually caught.

The women's race was weird. An attack went in the first few miles, leaving four of us off the front, and all four teams represented in the break, if you could call it that. None of the ladies behind were chasing, so it was pretty boring. It was not long at all before we had minutes on the others. Three of us in the break were working very well together, rotating through and keeping the pace fairly high. We also had one woman who sat on and refused to work. I have never really raced with her before, but apparently she did the same thing a couple weeks ago. She offered up a variety of excuses, including the fact that she has a job and goes to school, which prevents her from training a lot. I could not believe she said that! None of us are professionals, all having jobs and lives.

She told us she was going to throw up and was not strong enough to pull through. Our repeated attempts to drop her showed that she was definitely strong enough to be up with us, so we knew she was capable of pulling through. I had no doubt that she would sit on for the whole race and sprint at the finish. No understanding of etiquette at all. We eventually forced her to pull through by sitting on her wheel, but she continued to sit on regularly. If she only would have tried, I think we all would have been fine with it, but she thought it was fine to just sit on and do nothing. We were all incredibly annoyed and worked together against her, eventually dropping her. She is definitely creating a bad taste in the women's peloton, and will soon have very few friends to race with.

The race came down to a sprint for the three of us, and I ended up at the front for the final kilometer. Oops. I knew I was the weakest sprinter out of the three of us, and I ended up 3rd.

We headed south to Woodland, Washington for the Piece of Cake road race on Sunday. I woke up Sunday morning with a horrible sore throat and was not enthusiastic about racing. I opted to do the cat 3 men's race with Ted in the morning, rather than waiting until the afternoon for the women's race. I try to support women's racing, but it was very appealing to get home at 7:30 pm, rather than 11:30 pm, so I did the men's race. It was a pack of about 70, and I opted to sit in. With how I was feeling, I was just happy to hang in. Ted attacked a couple times, but found his legs unwilling to respond, so he sat in too. This weekend we have the luxury of racing close to home in Cheney, which will be really nice after a few weekends of driving.

Monday marked one year since I adopted Hitcher, so I had to mark the occasion with a cake, of course. I also say it is his birthday, since we really don't know how old he is. He even got a small slice of cake, and he almost never gets human food. Speak of the devil... I think someone needs to go for a walk before I head to work, as I have now been brought two shoes and a sunglass case. That's my cue.

Early Races Hurt

The first road race of the year for us was last Saturday, and I'm not sure my legs were quite ready for it. I'm not really disappointed or surprised because it's so early, and almost everyone else has more racing already in their legs. I know I just need to get some race efforts under my belt and then I'll start to come around pretty fast. Ted fared slightly better than I did, but he still feels the same way. Good thing we have back-to-back road races this weekend!

The Cougars did so well against Notre Dame Saturday. After not having a great race, at least I got to listen to them win! I was working in a lab on campus today and overheard someone saying that people were lining the street outside. Sure enough, a crowd of people had formed, many with Cougar signs. Word had spread that the Cougar bus would be driving by shortly to take the team to the Lewiston airport. So, of course I had to go out and join the crowd, despite Ted's comments that I was a "dork." It's cool to see how excited Pullman is for this team.

Mom and Dad have become quite the fans too, and they headed to the Lewiston airport to see the team off today. Even Dad asked Kyle Weaver for an autograph! The next game is Thursday afternoon against North Carolina, which is arguably the "best" team in the country. It will be fun, but stressful, to watch.

One race down

The 2008 racing season is officially underway for Ted and me, having done our first race in Boise last Sunday. It was a long trip to make for a 10 mile time trial, but it was also an opportunity to get to meet all of my teammates and the great sponsors at Bob's Bicycles.

Sure enough, Kristin Armstrong, the former world time trial champion, was slotted to start just behind me, raising the questions of just how quickly she would catch me, and how much total time she would put into me. Pretty quickly, I could tell I wasn't having my best time trial, so I was a bit confused when I reached the turnaround and Kristin had not caught me. No, I had not put down a world championship-worthy first half; Kristin had decided to sit up because she did not want to risk crashing in the horrible cross winds.

Ted and I both ended up winning our categories, so it was a pretty cheery drive home. With any luck, these first results were just foreshadowing of what is to come in the season ahead. It was awesome to have the Bob's women's team capture the top 4 slots in the results, and I'm excited to have this great group to race with.

For those who haven't heard about Rusty's proposal, he flew over to Japan to surprise his girlfriend, who was flying back from New Guinea. She had been out of the country for a few weeks and they had barely had any communication, so he totally shocked her when he showed up at her hotel room with flowers and a ring.

Hitcher's super antsy and my tummy's growling, so that's it for now. Time to walk him up to campus to meet Ted, so we can come home and have some homemade Pozole. My Cougars play their first game in the NCAA Tournament tomorrow afternoon, so send good karma their way.

Congratulations to my big brother who is officially an engaged man.

Ready to Race

My new Bob's team kit.


A typical beautiful view we see on our Palouse training rides.

It took a while for me to get adjusted after my return from Paris. I immediately hopped back on the bike after taking quite a few days off, and it has felt great to be back in the swing of things. Most people have already begun their racing seasons, but Ted and I have yet to race. I think we're both getting antsy now, which is good since we'll be racing the next 8 or 9 weekends in a row.

Our season will begin this Sunday with a time trial in Boise. A five hour drive is a long way to go for a time trial, but it'll be good to visit with the team, especially since I missed the team training camp to get ready for France.

Ted told me last night that there is "no way" I'll win Sunday's time trial. I was slightly offended until I realized why he had made such a comment... none other than Kristin Armstrong (the former world time trial champion) is registered. At least I'll get to see how I compare against the best!

Half time is almost over in the Cougar vs. Ducks game, so I'm off to root on my boys. All of the home games are now over and I already miss them! I think we'll have to get season tickets again next year.

Paris Recap

Rusty and I flew home Monday from Paris. From the time we left the hotel in Paris to the time I walked in my front door in Pullman, I traveled for 24 straight hours, so I was pretty much useless yesterday. We saw a lot, including the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Musee D'Orsay. We also had some fabulous eats...crepes, onion soup, foie gras, sandwiches, pastries, etc. Here are some photos...


My first crepe (of several) with Nutella and bananas. Good stuff.


We went to the Louvre our first day in Paris, which was perfect since it was rainy and grey. Here's Rusty with our lovely morning coffee.


Rusty and me with the famous Mona Lisa.


Louis XIV's coronation crown. Crazy to think that this sat on his head!


This is a photo of the Pyramid from inside the Louvre.


Having a couple drinks at a sidewalk cafe just off the Champs Elysees.


Rusty by the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees.


This oddly painted building near the Champs Elysees made for a neat black and white photo.


Pastries like these could be found on almost every street.


Your standard grocery store bakery in Paris.


A variety of pates in the Grande Epicerie, a huge French grocery store.


We went all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which has 3 floors to visit. I have to admit that it was a little too high above the ground for my taste, but it did have amazing views of the city.


Rusty in front of Notre Dame, which is the most amazing cathedral I have ever been in. It was packed with people, but well worth the trip.


We took a boat tour on the Seine, which took us past the Eiffel Tower, among many other major Paris landmarks.


We could not resist taking a picture of this French bum. It just seemed so French for a bum to be passed out with a bottle of wine, rather than some unnamed alcohol in a paper bag.


Street food in Paris is amazing. We often got sandwiches from carts along the streets, and they were fantastic. Here I am with my salami sandwich and Rusty's pizza.


We visited the Musee D'Orsay on the final day of our trip. The museum used to be a train depot and this is a view of the inside. It houses mostly impressionist works, including Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, and others.


The Eiffel Tower is fabulous at night.


Me with the famous Paris landmark.

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Black and white shot of the Eiffel Tower. At 10 pm each evening, strobe lights flash along the tower, from top to bottom, for 10 minutes. We had no idea this would occur and just happened to be there our final night.


A night view of the Seine near Notre Dame cathedral - our final night in Paris.


An alley shot close to our hotel.

Rusty and I head to Paris tomorrow. I fly out of Spokane first thing in the morning, meeting him in Detroit tomorrow evening. We'll then take an overnight flight from Detroit to Paris, putting us in Paris around mid-day Wednesday. We'll head back March 3rd, which should give us a decent amount of time to explore. It will be very interesting to hear how Ted's solo week with Hitcher goes! I plan to take lots of pictures, so I'll post thme when I get home.

Riding Outdoors and France-bound

The weather has finally turned up, allowing us to get outside for some good rides. Saturday saw 6 of us doing an 80 mile loop from Pullman, down Wawawai grade, and back up the Lewiston grade to Pullman. See photos from that ride below.

Today we got out for 3 hours. It was sunny with blue skies, and I was actually warm on the bike. What a novelty!


Me in my new Bob's Bicycles team kit.


Left to right, front to back: Kris Stanton, Ben Rhodes, Adam Southerland, and Stephen Howard.


A self-portrait of Ted.


Here we have Ben Rhodes, Kris Stanton, Stephen Howard, Adam Southerland, and me.


The river was completely flat.

In other news, Rusty and I are heading to Paris next week. He'll get his official schedule for March in two days, so then we'll know exactly when we're going, and for how long. Most likely, we'll be leaving on the 25th or 26th and coming back in the first couple days of March. It won't be a long trip, but we plan to cram as much in as possible. I have emails out to two of my former French professors, so I'm sure I'll get some good feedback from them. All I know is that I plan to have some wine, cheese, bread, gelato, onion soup, crepes, pastries, chocolate, and on, and on...

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day gave me a good excuse to make tea cakes with buttercream frosting. A four hour ride is also in the plans, so I figure I can eat quite a few of these babies.


Shredding cardboard boxes is so much fun.

Then and now

Then...


and now...






We were able to ride outside in Pullman today! The thaw has finally started, and the up-coming 10 day forecast has temperatures above 40. Spring is finally on the way. Four of us rode today, getting four hours in the saddle. It was windy, but we were all so happy to be outside that we didn't really care. Tired legs are all around now.

Homemade bagels and smelling the flowers

I received flowers last week from Mom and Dad. Ever since, Pazza will not leave them alone.


Homemade bagels are really the way to go. They're so much better than store-bought bagels, they're easy to make, and you can make any flavors you want. Today we have salt bagels, bagels with Italian seasonings and salt, and...


...cheddar bagels, and bagels topped with freshly shaved parmesan.

Fainting Goats

Riding, goodies, and Paris

We capped off our long weekend (thanks to the closure of WSU) with a long outdoor ride. The road to Lewiston has been closed off and on all week, but we were able to drive to Moscow and then cut down. Can you tell that we're desperate to ride outside? Today's ride was far easier than that of last weekend, but we all said we could feel our legs more at the end of today... I guess that big week of training is starting to hit me.

We have several goodies in the house right now and, thanks to today's hours in the saddle, we can enjoy them guilt-free! Fresh cornbread with crumbled bacon, homemade English muffins, and chocolate creme brulee will all be munched on in the coming hours. I love days when you ride enough that you don't even have to worry about what you eat.

With any luck, Rusty and I will be taking a trip to Paris at the end of the month. He's still waiting for the final word on how many days he will have off, but it's looking like it should work. It'll be a relatively short trip (5 or 6 days at the most), but we should be able to pack a lot in. If you have any suggestions of things to do or see, let me know!

You think your winter is bad?

They predicted a big storm would hit Pullman today. We awoke to a TON of snow on the ground this morning. We have more than a foot and a half on the ground and it is still snowing. Hitcher was able to escape from the yard for the first time today because there is so much snow along our fenceline that he was able to easily bound out; Ted has spent the morning shoveling a line along the fence, with hopes that the hound will stay in the yard. WSU is closed for a snow day today... for the first time since 1985! It will be very interesting to go to the Cal/WSU game tonight (they say it's still on schedule) because I imagine the crowd will be much smaller.

Just as I finished typing that last sentence, I looked out the window to see Hitcher jumping over the corner of the fence. Thankfully, he just ran across the street to the park where his girlfriend from across the street was playing with her owner. Now I just really hope that this behavior does not continue. If it weren't for all this snow, he would not have figured out he could escape.

Snow Ride

Rather than riding on our trainers today, we decided to brave the cold and snow on our mountain bikes. We got more snow last night and today, giving us a thick coating all around, and an even larger storm is coming Thursday. When we began our ride, the snow had ceased falling and parts of the sky were a bit blue. The roads were slushy with snow, but overall not too bad since the temperature was above freezing when we left the house. We were riding during the sunset, and with the drifting snow, it was really pretty; I'd still trade it in an instant for warm sunshine, though!

We turned around after about 40 minutes of riding, with a headwind in our faces and falling temperatures. Sure enough, the roads began to grow icy, and I suddenly found my front wheel yanked from underneath me. Down I went. I've got some bruises, but nothing too bad at all. Not more than a couple minutes later, Ted suffered the same fate, tumbling and rolling across the ice. Thankfully, he didn't fare any worse than I did.

Although we both crashed, I think we're both glad we got out. It was just nice to do something outdoors, rather than sitting on our trainers in front of the TV. Winter, winter, winter!

Another good weekend ride

Busted!


I made these cinnamon raisin bagels last week.


I bought a couple of these marzipan penguins from Huckleberries in Spokane a couple weeks ago. Marzipan is just one of the best things ever.


Hitcher and Shamus are getting along better and better all the time. This was the first time they had ever curled up together.

My car is finally home, after about 7 weeks in the body shop. Ted and I drove to Spokane Wednesday to pick it up, trading in the loaner for the RAV 4. Everyone told me my car would look brand new, but it's really amazing when you see it in person after seeing what it looked like after the deer. You would never know anything happened to it. It seems to drive fine, which is all that really matters.

We got another long ride in yesterday, doing the same route Ted and I did last Saturday. This time, however, we had seven starters, with five of us doing the whole ride. And, we rode all the way to the top of the Lewiston Grade, our final grade, giving us six more miles and 1200 more feet of climbing over last week. The grand total was over 8800 feet of climbing over 77 miles. We were all pretty blown by the end of it, but it was a really good group ride... one of the best group rides I've been on in a while. There were no hammerheads or super slowpokes, making for a nice, evenly-paced ride. With three grades and two other significant climbs, people had plenty of opportunities to go faster or harder if they felt so inclined.

Yet again, we have more snow today in Pullman. It's been snowing since early this morning. Enough is enough! Where is Spring?