Monday - Thursday Southeast

The VK girls on the morning Beaufort ride, looking awesome!


Monday 4/27/09

From the backyard of the Thompson's house. I could stay here forever!

We finally made it to Beaufort, SC after our jail incident. I love Beaufort, it is completely southern. We were staying with Gary and Pat Thompson who have a beautiful house on the waterfront. We were treated to a wonderful salmon dinner. Melissa and I took the guest quarters above the garage which we named the “man cave” as there was all this workout equipment and a huge screen TV. I slept like a log. I think I am finally catching up on sleep.

Another view from the backyard. Stunning!

The next day we went on a morning ride to a school where Vanderkitten, Colavita, Richmond Cycling and some other teams spoke with K-5th graders regarding cycling, helmet safety, etc. Jenn X tore it up and had the kids going. She is great at these types of things and stole the show. The kids seemed to have a good time and were excited about the race that evening.

Jenn X showing off how are shifting and gears work.

6pm race start in Beaufort. This course is crazy and short with many turns. The first corner is super tight and narrows extremely. I felt great in the beginning of the race but then the slow sluggish legs came upon me and I could not seem to recover or get on top of my gears. I eventually fell off the pace and was extremely upset. What is happening with me, I am fit and ready to race and yet. In the morning, Erica Allar from Colavita mentioned to me that she was trying to fix my rear brake way back at Athens at the start because it was rubbing. I had checked it prior to the Beaufort race but when I pulled out my rear brake was plastered against my rim. Ugh! I think with all of the bumps on the road and my crazy riding it must have come off center. My guess was that in every race it must have been doing this. I opened the cable and hoped that in the next race this would be the answer. I was very upset with my performance up until now as it was not typical of me. The VK team did an awesome job and Melissa got 5th. Things are starting to come together.

The good thing was at the race I bumped into Nancy and Steve Kessel who hosted us last year. It was great to see them. The Beaufort community is so nice and I chatted with several of the spectators and thanked them for hosting the race. Gary and his wife Pat cooked us up some wonderful steak and potatoes. It seems everyone who lives in Beaufort is a wonderful cook.

We love Andy, Brittany and the Storck van!

Wednesday 4/29/09

View while having our morning coffee in Beaufort.


We went on another quick spin in the morning to open the legs and the traditional coffee stop. Coffee is a must if you cycle. We then packed up to head for Walterboro or as X kept calling it, Waterloo. No host housing for this stop so it was the motel stay.

Virginia on my bike. Hilarious! She is so tall that my bike looks like a clown bike.


The other teams had heard about Jenn X’s jail break and we won’t name names here to protect the innocent but somehow handcuffs got attached to her bike. It was hilarious. She rode the race with them attached to her seat. Every time I saw here I cracked up.

Since I did not know what was going on with my body my job was to cover all the early moves. I was on it. I felt good during the race and could recover. It must have been my brake all along. I was ecstatic and it felt good to be back in the race. It was crazy fast as usual and the course has a narrowing into the finishing straight which seems to be a theme during Speedweek. There were some crashes and Tina Pic went down right in front of me. I was able to skid to a stop and just go around her head. I couldn’t believe I made the move without hitting her. Since I kept feeling like my normal self during the race I continued to monitor moves to the end. Melissa ended up 13th. We just needed a little more leg power at the end to help keep her near the front. VK was riding well though and I feel like we are really getting it together. I was toasted, but mentally happy that I had finally solved my problem and was back to my old tricks. I can’t wait to race Friday evening.

Dinner at Ruby Tuesdays was fun as we finally got to relax a little bit with Thursday being a rest day. A lot of the other teams were there and it was great to hang with them.

Making the VK logo, pimpin'

Thursday 4/30/09

I am currently in the van as we are on our way to Hawley in Lexington, SC who is one of our sponsors. We are going to have lunch with them and it will be great to meet all of the people at the company.

We did a morning ride before leaving to get coffee and keep the legs moving.

Stay tuned as there are 3 more races left in Speedweek.