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Laura, Jenny, and Myself travelled to Seattle this past weekend for some track. The highlights of the weekend were frist time ride team pursuit, and the madison, and seeing winter training partner Kele.
so here are some shots...

blowing my way through white rock

me and the mayor...
I started out the Tour de White Rock with the mind set to hang on to the leaders as long as i could. I knew before the race that this course is not necessarily the best viking course, with all those hills involved, but i was going to see what i could do. And thats what i did. After the field was whittled down to 15 riders or so, with one jazzy apple up the road, it was a fight. After getting dropped from the small pack nearly every climb on every lap, and with the help of Jess i would make contact with the chasers after every feed zone. On last lap after making contact for the last time, i knew it was going to be good for me. so i set myself up for the sprint finish. Jess was amazing and made sure to keep the pace high. I was a little pinched in but managed to wiggle my way out and sprint to a 3rd place. No way.

White Rock Criterium

It was a busy week of racing and our team rode hard and we had consistent success.  With two races to go legs were definitely starting to feel tired and our team was slightly down in numbers and one of our top sprinters at home sick.  The weather was perfect all week and it was the same for the crit.  As we lined up against some top teams and riders we played a big role in the race.  Moriah set a hard, fast pace and Laura was on top of some key moves making sure that no dangerous attacks went off the front. There was some attrition with the slight hill on the backside dropping some riders, but for the most part the race stayed together and no breaks were successful.  I had some confidence issues after a pretty good crash at Delta the weekend before, but was able to get to the front midway during the race to help pull a potentially dangerous attack back to the field.  Steph made it into the next break and I thought (and I think a few other people thought) it would stay away, but a strong group of girls pulled it back and it ended up as a bunch sprint.  Steph Roorda, after working hard to get into the break, sprinted to 5th place.   She was impressive in all the crits and I was really proud of her on sunday in the road race.  The hills were relentless and persistence paid off.  She was 3rd in the road race. Congrats Steph!  Congratulations to the Giant Whistler team.  We rode well and had great results.  A big thank you to Jeremy for all his time and effort as well as Local Ride for their technical expertise!  It was a fun week!! Gotta love bike racing:)

Tour de White Rock Homelife Hill Climb - Moriah MacGregor

With clear skies and sun pouring down White Rock scores a perfect 10 as a bike race venue. Friday night witnessed the kick off of the 29th annual Tour de White Rock, opened with a leg wrenching 700-meter climb up Buena Vista Avenue. Competitors race 2-up from the base of the 3-part climb, departing at 1-minute intervals; the top 5 times repeat in a head to head battle for the podium. Despite the effort being short, between 2 and 3 minutes, it is imperative to pace oneself in order to be able to handle the up to 16% grades encountered ½ way through.

Giant Canada/ Team Whistler put fourth a healthy showing with Steph Rooda narrowly missing the top 5, followed by solid rides from Shani, Jen, Moriah and Laura. Jenny Trew encountered some bad luck picking up a stomach bug that would keep her out of competition for the rest of the weekend. Jess rested her injured arm, providing support from the sidelines.

With legs opened and spirits high look for the Giant/Team Whistler girls to be tearing it up in the final 2 events of BC Superweek! And don’t forget your sunscreen!!

Giro di Burnaby - by Jenny Trew

Thursday night saw my second night back in Giant colours after a successful weekend at Delta. I was personally pretty pumped to be heading to our local Giro with the girls as we were rather successful here last year and I really like the course: an 8 corner crit with a fast downhill finish. Going into the race I felt we had a really good chance of making the podium and I, for one, was looking forward to honing out my leadout skills for Steph and Lisa - who has returned to super form!
We were really active in the race - definately a force to be reckoned with as we continually threw riders off the front. The most notably attempts were those made by Pickle and Steph, the latter of which was out front for a good amount of time on a very windy and lonely course. I'd also like to give Laura Brown a notable mention for riding as an excellent teammate - most specifically for one point in the race when Gina was going for a flyer but didn't make it much off the front of the pack due to a very strong effort by Downtown.
As the race wound down into the final laps, Lisa and I hovered around the front and she did a good job of sticking to my wheel like glue. The leadouts started relatively early and with four corners to go, Cheerwine decided that they didn't want to be on the front anymore...which left me there! I hesitated for a second, but then I ramped it up and then jumped coming out of the second to last corner (hoping that Lisa was still there!) I accelerated through the final corner as fast as I could and swept it wide so that people could only pass on my left. The first rider to smoke past me on her way to the finish was Kelly Benjamin of Cheerwine - who managed to hold her lead until the finish. She was closely followed by the speedy clump of Gina Grain (Webcor) and Ruth Corset (Jazz Apple) and our very own Lisa Howard, in that order. Lisa did very commendably - considering that the hree on the podium are full time bike racers! Steph also put in a killer sprint to cross the line in 6th (possibly going the fastest!) but she had unfortunately been shuffled back a little earlier in the final lap.
All in all it was another strong day - with lessons to improve upon - for the Giant squad. I love this team!

GASTOWN

Lisa came away with her 4th time 5th placing at the Tour de Gastown Wednesday night. Pretty amazing considering a stage of pro riders who will be heading to the Olympics in a few weeks! The Giant locals road incredibly strong throughout the race by chasing down attacks and keeping our sprinters protected. Jess road an amazing race as she was still suffering from the crash at the Delta Crit with a mangled arm.

Of course, once again Ian and Dave treated us like queens and Jeremy and Jenelle were key in directing the race.

Ladner Lehigh Cement Criterium

As expected the second race of super week was fast and full on!
With 3 wide open corners the pace was high from the gun with only a momentary res bit provided by the tight final corner. The Giant/Whistler girls were keeping it interesting at the front of the pack until 20 minutes in when a particular fluky crash brought down some of the horsepower... but fear not! The remainder of the girls wasted no time moving up and covering the gaps in the pack. The second half of the race was a series of attacks and counterattacks by both Giant and the strong visiting teams ( jazz apple from new Zealand and Cheerwine from the states) with the final lap coming down to a bunch sprint that saw Giant's Lisa Howard on the podium in 3rd place. GOOD JOB GIRLS

SUPERweek has arrived! Tour de Delta Prologue

BC Superweek kicked off with the Tour de Delta from July 11-13. The Prologue was located in the heart of downtown Delta. There was 43 women from all over - New Zealand's Jazz Apples, Cheerwine Pro Cycling and ValueAct Capital just to name a few. Riders went flying down the start ramp every 30 seconds in attempts to set the fastest time. The course was about 3km long with four corners, one roundabout, and a short uphill finish. No pacing involved in this race folks - you go out hard and in the words of Elmar, you maintain that "I cant stand it speed." Our team had some fantastic results!! Downtown (me) landed on the podium in 2nd place - 0.42 seconds away from the win by Ruth Corset of Jazz Apples. The Viking (Steph Roorda) placed 4th, 4 seconds back from the winning time. We had girls in 6th, 7th, and 8th place (guest riders Moriah Macgregor and Jenny Trew, and our very own Doc Howard respectively). Saturday is the criterium and the Giant/Whistler team was in good standing and looking good.

Yaletown Grand Prix

It all started with a bird. A pigeon with very good aim that is. Covered in bird shit on Monday while searching for an internet cafe to register for Yaletown the following day, my buddy Mike informed me, "Thats good luck you know". Road racing requires a little luck and I got a whole crap load of that at the Yaletown Grand Prix.

Yaletown was hard from the start, thanks to Jenn who drove the first 4 laps and busted the race apart. At about 20 laps to go Gillian from Total Restoration attacked and I went with her. We got into a good rhythm of pulling 1/2 laps each and agreed to split the primes to maintain cohesiveness. At 8 laps to go I knew we had it and began getting excited. With 2 corners left I attacked, but went to the outside with not quite enough uumph to go first into the last turn which is the position I knew I had to be to take it. Sometimes a break works and sometimes it doesn't. Glad this one did!Back in the bunch sprint, Lisa won the sprint securing third for the team.

A very, very big thanks to Ian for looking after my dog Angus during the race! And to all our support from Team Whistler, Giant, and the Local Ride!! We Giant/ Team Whistler girls are so lucky!!