Zoom...

Wow...life sure does fly when you have 23cr. hours of classes to finish up, training for collegiate nationals to attend to, trying to create any time for friends, and moving out of your apartment, oh and packing to leave for the 24+ hr. bus/car ride half way across the country to CO.

So, my apologies for not updating this thing but as you may guess life has been a bit hectic sense my last post. I spent most of my time writing research papers, riding my bike, procrastinating writing research papers, riding my bike, procrastinating writing research papers, starting to pack, riding my bike, oh crap I really need to write these papers/presentations, riding my bike, wow I have a lot of stuff...oh and I'm suppose to be moved out by tomorrow and leaving for CO in 2 days...opps!

Somewhere in there I did have some down time and time to spend with friends. One night we did a BBQ over at Kevin's casa...a beautiful treasure of a rental Andrew found on a river!

Heading to the deck area over the river


And what is everyone watching?


On our team when you lose a bet you might end up naked in a cold river!


In any case it was a great time with great people and great food!

Now, once I finally got all my stuff moved out of my apartment, turned in my last finals and attempted to find everything I wanted to take to Nationals in my cluster of items, it was time to hit the road!

A 24+hr bus/car ride might sound boring to some...and in many respects I would say that is true, but if you have to do it, might as well do it with style...

Oh yeah Dane strike a pose...

and another...

oh..oh...not done yet...

totally born to be a model!

You can lean a lot about a person with this kind of time on your hands...sometimes more than you may be interested in knowing...or seeing!

Although Dane's (the big kid posing above) sense of style is supurb. We did have some other fashion statements on the team...

These stockings, used as compression socks, to help our legs with travel were the style of the day(s) and it didn't draw any attention at all when we stopped for gas/food!



Me playing with the big boys!


I thought this view might never end...



We did finally arrive to our destination hotel in CO...it was starting to feel like we might never get there, and we headed out for a cruse to try and bring our legs back to us!

Nice overcast afternoon


As you may have figured out from the commendation and photos above, we have a pretty unique crowd to say the least...I mean I'm probably one of the tame ones, which might be hard for some of you to believe!

On that note, without failure one of my team members managed to wake up the entire hotel the first morning we were there by setting the fire alarm off in the breakfast room while attempting to make toast...and they wonder why toasters are against the dorm policies...umm...oh and he's a residence assistant...figure that out...

So here is the fire crew rolling in

and the lady at the hotel explaining the situation...


Once the fire alarm situation is under control we head out to preview and ride the road course, which we will race Saturday!

Headed out


A BIG thanks to the Scott Jackson for taking care of my bike, completely re-cabling and changing chain, and getting it all ready to roll! Although I must admit I re-wrapped the bar tape, which is clearly the hardest part that requires the most skill...haha...THANKS JACKSON...you're awesome!

the group



I came to the conclusion pretty much anyone could be a photographer with this kind of scenery




Kevin and I enjoying our ride! I'm going to miss you Kevin!!!


Preston, THANK YOU for taking care of my legs after that ride! For those of you who don't know Preston is pretty amazing and somehow understands my crazy high maintenenceness at races and he takes good care of me!

Ally & I! I'm going to be missing this crazy girl! Ally - You Rock...!


And I don't have pictures for everyone but a Thank You goes out to all the team mates here who are helping out and the coaches for taking such good care of us. I'll try to snag some pictures of all the little angels in action soon!


Schedule for weekend:
Friday AM - Team Time Trail
Saturday AM - Road Race
Sunday AM - Criterium Babe!

Wish us luck!!!

BROOKLYN BABE!

Many times those last minute trips turn out to be the best ones! That was the case this Easter! My amazing friend Hannah needed to get to NYC for her brothers birthday and needed a ride...so I decided to go & it was a blast...

As it turn out Hannah needed to take some things to NY, including some awesome art work! So we packed the car full and headed for the road...


The bikes are actually both mine because I wanted to take my road bike and I was instructed to bring my track bike as well because Hannah's brother Dave was organizing a crit around his neighborhood in Brooklyn and it was fixed gear only!...Um...

Let the fun begin...


On the way there we see this dog just chillin on the truck at 70mph on the highway


Almost there



Welcome to the Red Hook District!


This is the district Dave's house is located in at...


Dave is not there when we arrive so we play a little with the tall bike that can be found locked to his fence!


This thing is pretty awesome!






Once Dave arrives we get in and find his house to be pretty amazing! I kinda have a thing for old places to begin with so I was just lovin the house and it's old style with some modern mix.

Best room in the house is of course the bike room!
All the tools you could need

and a great area to work in

there he is the birthday boy himself and yes that is his LOOK road bike...what a beauty!


After arriving Friday night we just hang out, make dinner, and then head to Hannah's Uncle's house in center city because she has plans to do a few things Saturday morning. While Hannah takes care of business I get a bit of school work done and update my blog!

Before we head back to Brooklyn we also get to drop in an art exhibit with her aunt and we see...



and my favorite...



I also spotted a few cool doors during the trip...

This was on the way to the fairway market...great food!


and this door is in Hannah's uncles office area


Then we head back to Brooklyn and start doing things to get ready for the party. I squeeze in a little shut eye time because I know it will be a long night and I don't want to fade too early!

During the afternoon Dave goes out with his tools and removes a cobble stone from the street!

then Hannah starts the painting of the cobble...it will soon have my name on it and be reinstalled in the street of Brooklyn


People come piling into the house and create a bike garden in the backyard

and check out these sweet fenders


Time for the racing finally begins and everyone gathers on the street corner




we are ready!

Hannah and her Daddy!



And the race is underway...



he thinks he's ready...


But this is how it ends...a girl wins!


Ready for the winners


Hannah snaps some good shots






Time to celebrate some birthdays

Renee is 18 and Dave is 25!


And the game of the night may have been the HullaHoop Jumping!!!

Ready set...


GO....

Hannah

Kacey

Dave

and someone who didn't make it


Hannah and some of her family at the party


At some point we climb up to the roof top to check out the view



After a long fun night we get up Sunday and get ready to go for a long road ride...Dave is really looking forward to this because there are some rolling hills and such and he is just chomping at the bit to cream me up everything he can sense I beat him on his home turf the night before!...and he does succeed but it still wasn't in a race...

Prior to leaving Renee and their little cousin La could be found in one of the closets trying to make some sense of our explosion of bags...


We head for the city...over the bridge



and more pictures from the great day of riding!





from subway station


Out to easter dinner I even wore heels...


Myself and Hannah!!!


One of Hannah's uncles did get a video of the finish so hopefully I can get ahold of that soon and get it posted! It was pretty awesome!!!

Fill in...

Just a few pictures from a race weekend...

Ally and Kacey gallery...




Kristi found this Puppy and used my camera to take some pictures...her dream dog!


Rebecca and Myself


I guess I wasn't too on top of the camera thing for the weekend but those are a few good ones

Spring Break & beyond...

I decided to just hang around GA for spring break, stay in the warm weather, get in some riding and check the area out. One of my team mates, Carla Swart, lives in GA so we kicked it for a few days and had a good time.

After leaving the team I quickly found a Jittery Joe's Coffee Shop and made a stop...they had these paintings on the walls of the bathroom and I thought it was worth a picture...



After a day of checking out Athens I headed to Buford, where Carla lives with her awesome family! A big THANKS for their hospitality!!!

Side Note: These pictures are for Mom! These chairs were super comfy! Everyone you will just have to understand my Mom and I have at thing about calling each other when we find cool things and she just needed to see these chairs...




Once we had recovered from the weekend we headed out to a place called Stone Mountain for a ride around this enormous rock (called stone mountain). When talking with my relatives later I discovered that I had been there before for a laser show when my family was in town for the Olympics.

Carla and I riding around


Just a random huge rock in the middle of GA


With some carvings


Ready to hike up Stone Mountain following our ride


Part of hike up


View from Stone Mountain


Luckily I had picked up some cheap Mango's the day before and brought them for a treat at the top after our ride! They were the best Mango's I've had in a long time and Carla and I enjoyed them very much, while making a mess of our faces and hands!

Delicious mango...

Obviously...


Us girls on the rock


Photo shoot...




The following day it was off to the Silver Comet! 4hrs. of blissful FLAT riding!


Carla


and myself


Super cool tunnel...and yes I made noises in it!



Beautiful trail on a beautiful day


I'm flying!!!




Carla's attempt


It was a great ride!

That evening I drove over to my relatives in Snellville and spent some much needed time with my Uncle Joe and Aunt Tina!

Aunt Tina's work room


Uncle Joe's precious car!...he is a super stud drag racer!



The last evening in GA was celebrated with a cookout at the Swart household and some absolutely amazing food!

Carla's dad Deon at work


Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Carla's mom but she was amazing and awesome as well!!!

Fire


around the fire


Myself and Carla


Through the smoke...


Deon taught Dane a lesson...



and their still friends...


Next stop was the weekend of races at the end of spring break. Beautiful road race course Saturday and back to an older course Sunday.

Doesn't this make you want to ride?


Men's 1/2 race start


4 man break with Sheedy in it

and the peloton


Cat 3 start


And that's all for now folks...

Pre spring break weekend...

Well, those of you know know how good I am at being persistent and throwing in some nagging won't be surprised to learn that the weekend following my little accident in the Men's Cat3 race I had a new rig up and running. I ended up having to get a crash replacement frame from Scott, which I wasn't too thrilled about but there weren't many other options. A big thanks goes out to the guys at Breakaway Bikes in Philly, PA for all their help & also to Josh Tucker with for working with Scott to get my bike here quickly and then setting time aside to build it for me!!! THANKS a million!

So here she is...my new beauty! I know the dirt car is hardly worthy of that bike resting upon it but the good old Focus does it's job well also!




So, the first weekend of spring break was spent at the UGA collegiate races in Athens, GA...

Ally and I took a detour to Tucker's shop to get my new bike ready and we spotted this plate on the way out of town...Ally had to get a picture because it is the first New Hampshire plate she has seen


Setup at road race


Back at the hotel I realize I have forgoten the ever so important tooth brush. So I go get one from the front desk and they give me a little brush in this packaging

this was the fist time I had ever used a pre-pasted toothbrush...interesting huh

Hotel breakfast...we have a tendency to take over an area


We rock up to the Criterium Sunday ready to go. There just so happened to be a cop driving through the parking lot and he had an iced coffee...on top of his car! Because I understand the importance of any form of coffee I chased after him on foot and knocked on his window to inform him of the grave danger his coffee was clearly about to encounter. I also told him that sense I had saved his coffee he had to agree not to arrest any of my team mates. Yet, somehow...

Went ended up in the caged section of the car


and Dane got cuffed

wipe those smiles off your faces


This is a team trailer, nice and organized


And our team trailer...nice and...well...we know where everything is!!!


So the racing is over and everyone is getting ready to go their way for spring break



Dane appears to be a bit too excited or more likely just strange


Dane even managed to squeeze himself into Kevin's car...I guess he didn't want to see him go



Jessie striking a pose on the mini bike, the boys bring this bike to all the races and sometimes they even manage to wreck and hurt themselves on it...or rip their pants in half...yeah that did happen


Ally decided to join Jessie and get stuck between the bars!


But she was soon on her feet again and towering over me!

Grind...Bend...Scrape...BOOM...

Last weekend it was off to the first races of the road season in Greenville SC!

Warm up zone

The LMC setup! That's a lot of nice bikes!


At the Sunday race we got to drift around in this beauty with an ex-formula 1 car


So everything was going great and I was feeling good. I would typically enter the men's category 1,2 race if I'm going to do a men's race but I decided to race the category 3 for the first weekend of the season.

Turns out a number of those cat 3 guys really needed some lessons on how to turn their bikes around a gradual corner.

The result of some bad bike handling skills was a mangled bike in addition to a rather furious Kacey...

The new cool way to ride your handlebars


ground right down to shiny silver


and you could ride a normal pedal like this one


but why do that when you could grid it down to the axle...

that has got to safe some weight

Oh...and I was especially upset about my awesome new saddle


My poor shoes



While I was at all the grinding and scraping I thought I would create some real art!


beautifully formed to the cassette


looks like I really did some good work



My room mate mechanic Robert working on bikes and taking mine apart...check out the apron with flowers, see mom I have been using it!!!


And my house is a clustered disaster...


So I'm trying to get my hands on a new frame and rebuild something quickly...

Fun day!

Fun weekend from awhile back...

Loaded and ready to go


Getting gear set


On way up to ziplines


Some of the group


Monte getting me ready


and making me laugh


Monte is the awesome guy who owns the company that runs the zipline!

Me and Carla just hanging out


Katie and Rebecca!


It made for a great day!

Another semester underway

The trip back to NC started like this...dark and foggy


But no worries I made it safely!

Some very kind friends in Asheville let me crash at their place for a week and check out the area! THANKS LIZ & NATE!!!

This is little miss Willow who really enjoyed this bag I brought home at Liz & Nate's!


While in Asheville I dropped into this little coffee shop where I meet up with an old friend!


Then we checked out some of the local shops!

Check out these specs!...it was tempting but I didn't get them



Once back in Banner Elk I started school back up. My friend Don from MI came to visit and a group of us went out for a beautiful hike before school hit too hard.

Ally and I out on the hike


Can't argue with that view