Home At Last!

And waiting for me were these two!

The last month of racing was fantastic...thanks largely to such an incredible group of people on this team called Cheerwine. Today was a "sweltering" 22 degrees (celsius)...I have a feeling it's going to get a bit colder before it gets warmer so I haven't put away my thermals quite yet. Looking forward to a wonderful month at home with Jeff and my family. :)

An Ominous Morning

Today began a 115 km stage with 3 QOM's and a 10 km mountain top finish up Oak Glen. I thought this picture captured the atmosphere of the morning perfectly. The race was fast and furious! We finished with a 5th (Leigh), 11th (Brooke), and 13th (Sarah B.) which secured a 2nd place overall for our team! I tied with Mara Abbott for the QOM and get to wear the jersey during tomorrow's criterium :).

Bringing home the Oranges!

The coolest thing about getting on the podium at the Quad Knopf Sequoia Cycling Classic (aside from a large cut of the $10 000 prize purse) is getting a box of oranges! Cheerwine got 2 boxes this year - one for 2nd place in the ITT (by me :) and the other for 2nd place in the crit by Laura. It's great being reunited with our teammates at last - we're all really excited about racing Redlands next weekend as a full squad.

Some pictures from our last day in New Zealand

The ride along the the bay...this is where we did our time trail.

The mountain range we drove across for Stages two and three.

A "couple"of scarecrows.

PAVLOVA!

Our last night out in Windy Wellington (see Laura's hair :)

We did it!

I think the best prize at any stage race is the team overall. Cheerwine won that prize at this year's Tour of New Zealand...it was amazing being up on the stage that day. The New Zealand crowd was incredible! We ended up with a 3rd place finish in the final stage with Laura breaking away at just the right moment. We secured the 2nd, 7th and 12th overall as well as the Mountain jersey. Thanks so much to Thad for taking time away from his newborn to start the year off with us Down Under! And thanks to our amazing mechanic/soigneur Tristen for always knowing what we needed at just the right time (including the Canada chair!) - we'll miss you!

In Polka Dots :)

Today I got the climber's jersey :) (actually tied for it). Thanks Betina and Brooke for your help on this one...tomorrow's going to be a bit of a battle, but it makes the racing fun! Laura is now tied for 2nd GC. With three Cheerwine in the top ten, we're sitting in a good place for tomorrow's decisive stage!

My Roomie :)

This is Brooke, one of my awesome teammates! I want to send a "shout out" to her for almost fainting yesterday morning; yet, still starting the crit so that she could be there for us for the rest of the stage race. Her courage paid off! She raced really well today and helped keep Laura in 3rd overall GC. Way to go Brooke :)

Podium in NZ!

Today was the first stage of the Tour of Wellington and Laura placed second in a tightly contested sprint with Ina Tutenburg! From the gun the race was fast and aggressive and WINDY! There were points on the course where you could see leaves flying from the trees in massive gusts! See www.cyclingnews.com for a great photo of the finish.

New Zealand

This was the view from our ride yesterday! We're staying in Lower Hutt, a little town near Wellington, before we start our stage race. This area is full of life...birds, insects, trees and gigantic ferns! Today we went on a beautiful ride up some of the nearby hills (see Brooke's blog for picture :) Tomorrow we start the Wellington tour with a crit in Upper Hutt...we're all looking forward to getting the racing underway once again.

Golf Anyone?

Yes those are kangaroos :). On our last day in Australia we toured around looking for all the kangaroos we could find. This is Angelsee Golf course near Geelong. Later that day we visited Serendip Wildlife Sancturary and learned that Australia has far more than kangaroos :).

We're now in Wellington, New Zealand awaiting the start of a five day stage race. It's beautiful here (and yes...very WINDY!)

Mechanic Extraordinaire!

This is Ash (or "Little Ash" as they call him at the bike shop). His contribution this week was anything but little! He worked really hard on our bikes...putting pressure in our tires, taking it out...fixing little creaks...and even washing them at the end of the World Cup! Thanks Ash for everything!

Speaking of the World Cup...Laura placed an amazing 13th and Catherine placed an incredible 17th! Everyone on the team dug very deep for one another...we're definately coming together. I can't wait to reunite with our California Contingent and our East Coasters...miss you all...good luck this weekend!!!

We're off to New Zealand now for the Tour of Wellington...supposedly even windier than here (YIKES!) By the way, you can log onto www.geelongworldcup.com for full results :) of the Geelong Tour and World Cup

End of the Tour of Geelong

It was an amazing place to have a final race for this tour...most of the racers agreed that it would be nice to have a picnic on this beach! We learned A LOT as a team this stage...working out the kinks is always a bit of a struggle but in the end we know we're going to come out stronger :). Onto the World Cup tomorrow in Geelong!