Boom!

Boom!  Where have the months gone?  From the announcement of our new Colavita-espnW Team in the spring to present so much has happened in what feels like the blink of an eye.  In March I spent some time in California training and finding race legs in the warmth... from there my new team mate Kathryn Bertine and I hit El Salvador for some epic Central American style international racing.  Our quest there was to get KB some precious UCI points in her bid to qualify her country, St Kits and Nevis, for the London Games.  I could probably write a whole book on our 10 days spent in El Salvador so will save those stories for another day!
April was spent recovering from the El Salvadorian revenge and racing in BC and WA state, then enjoying the Tucson sun at our long awaited Team Camp.  Great group of girls and a blast to again wear the same jersey as former Juvederm-Specialized team mates Joanie Caron and Mary Zider!!

With fresh kits and new-squad enthusiasm we tackled the Tour of the Gila as our first official team race.  Despite some errors the Team worked well together and realized successes with Jo's stage 2 near podium 5th place finish and Jasmine donning the Best Young Rider Jersey for 3 of the 5 stages!

Our flo green helmets sure stand out!



Horsing around at Billy the Kid's hideout!

A little recovery at home was followed by a solid block of International racing in Canada and the US: Gatineau ITT & RR; the Exergy Tour in Idaho; and the prestigious American Classic, Liberty Classic.  The Team suffered a little from a couple crashes which took down Jo and Leah.  The rest of the Team stayed safe while battling some of the best riders in the world and inclement weather in Idaho.

Team presentation at Exergy

Idaho is beautiful!!

When the peleton looks like this- OUCH!!

Leah & I being bandits at the post race rodeo dinner.  Bike racing makes you goofy!



The peleton... post race sans kit and celebrating the completion of the first Exergy Tour!  Yes, we were in a barn: we were entertained by a real live rodeo & in keeping with the Tour's theme of treating us superbly well, fed an amazing dinner!

Our time between the end of Exergy and Phily was spent in Sun Valley.

Jo & I on a recovery ride in Sun Valley.

While in Sun Valley we stayed with a host family- a super nice outdoorsy couple with a overly friendly cat and giant golden retriever.  One evening they came home from work and went out for a walk at the same time as I headed to the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner.  When I returned to the house in the bustle of bringing the groceries in I noticed Tanner, the dog, had escaped out the front door.  Shoot!  I called him and he looked at me as if to say, "whatever lady".....  now, backing up just a little, earlier this spring I did a fine job of losing a host family's Chihuahua just before a race and spending far too long trying to find it and then trying to catch it!.... so you can imagine my immediate stress here when Tanner looked like he wasn't going to easily give into my persuasions....  After dropping the groceries inside I set to trying to get the pooch back into the confines of his home.  I walked back outside and to my dismay he'd vanished.... already.  Damn.  This is going to take longer than I want it to.  Whistling and calling "Tanner, Tanner".... "here Tanner" I started to make myself known to the neighbourhood.  Then I spotted him, across the street.  I thought: I'd better approach slowly so as not to spook him.  Any neighbours peering out of their windows must have had a bit of a laugh as I crept across the street with outstretched hand, pretending to have something of interest in it for the dog and telling him how we were going to BBQ steaks, blah, blah, blah in the syrupiest voice I could muster.  All the while silently cursing him for not coming when called.  Finally I was almost within reach: he had backed up against the front gate of a neighbour's home.  I crept forward.  I reached out, and finally I had his collar in my hand.  He reluctantly plodded across the street with me as I praised him and lead him into the house, quickly shutting to door behind.
The better part of an hour later- long over my dog loss and re-capture and well into making dinner I returned into the house through the back door with BBQ'ed meat and veggies in hand at the same time as our host family walked through the front door.... Barely into our "hello's"  I blurted out: "Oh my God there are two of them!".... there were two huge golden retrievers bouncing around in the middle of the house...  turns out I had kidnapped the neighbour's dog!!!  LOL!!!

It's always good to balance out life with a little humor I suppose.  Sometimes I even surprise myself with how terribly "human" I am!!!



My backside as I make a bid for some time off the front at Liberty.

Following our Liberty race and a mad dash to the airport I arrived home in Vancouver (all in the same day!) where my next few weeks would be spent preparing for Canadian National Championships to be held in Lac Megantic, Quebec.

Until next time!
MoJo