A Series of Unfortunate Events

The past months have been a pretty rough for me. I will start at the beginning, back in early October, at the end of Elite Track Nationals. Nationals went ok for me, I got 5th in the scratch race and 7th in the Omnium. I did a pretty risky move in the Keirin and it was either going to work really well for me or I would bomb it, well it ended up not working out so well for me. Live and learn, I suppose. The points race was the final individual event for me. About half way through I got caught up in a pretty bad wreck. I slid for about 30-40 meters down the home straight of the track... I was stopped when I slammed into a metal pole with the side of my neck. OUCH! No, literally OUCH's Doctor Kay ran to my rescue! He was there by my side before I even realized what had happen, holding my neck in place, trying to figure out if I needed to go to the hospital, it was a yes. As the paramedics put a neck brace on me and carelessly flipped me over on the stretcher while grabbing my splintery, bloody side I looked over and saw a crowd of people and I was HUMILIATED! I was taken to the ambulance where my mom rode shotgun and of course I rode in the back with a cute EMT. Following was my entourage. My best friend Andy and my boyfriend Ian where in my car and Ian's mom behind them in her car. After getting to the hospital it all went down hill from there, I wont bore you with the details but it was the WORSE hospital experience ever!! On top of all that, the following day I found out I had cracked the top tube of my bike. Lucky for me, Ian's dad repairs carbon frames and was able to fix mine.
(See look my story had a happy ending.)
Here is a series of pictures that Colleen Cross captured of the crash. (I'm in Blue)

I healed pretty quickly from the crash and after about 2 1/2 weeks I started riding again. One ride  I was doing with Ian. A little more than 1/2 way through the ride I got distracted and looked behind me, while the road slightly curved to the left and I did not I quickly turned around when Ian started yelling my name just to catch a glimpse of the truck that I was about to get very personal with. Then SMACK my face met the back of a pick up truck with a shell on it. This was the worse pain I had ever experienced. I crawled to the grass and kept spitting out blood and bits of my teeth. Desperately trying to save my teeth I was handing them to Ian telling him to save them. A few men saw the crash and came out to help, conveniently one was a dentist and relieved Ian of his bloody teeth holding duty. As I assessed the "crime scene" as I call it I looked over to see my precious Specialized in two. That was the last thing I wanted to think about, another bike broken.  Ian called his mom and she came to take me to the hospital. On my way there I called Travis Smith to find out what hospital his wife, Dina worked at. She called the hospital for me to let them know I was coming. They were so great to me! I ended up walking out of there with 7 stitches in my chin and the relief that I did not have a broken jaw. The next morning I was on the plane to Houston to get teeth put back into my mouth. 

before:

After:

 My bike:

Once again Kyle Davenport came to my rescue and found me a new bike, Specialized Amira.

 Gotta love that man! 

Two other things not bike related:
My dad's dad so my Papa Jake had to got to the hospital for about a week because of some fluid in his lungs. I found this out the day I crashed the second time. He is doing much better now and is at home. 
The final unfortunate event I had to deal with was our family puppy, Eve (barely 1 year old) was hit by a car November 22nd and died immediately, which was best. This was very sad for my entire family especially because my sister, Delaney's birthday was the next day. We all love and miss her very much but she is in puppy heaven now.

On a lighter note, I want to thank everyone that has been so great to me these past few months, you made everything so much easier and I am very thankful! 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK  YOU!! 

(like the Chinese take out bags say)

Texas State Championships

This past weekend I traveled back home to Houston to race the track State Championships at the Alkek Velodrome. It was a quick trip. I left LA Thursday night after my one class and a training session at ADT and I returned on Sunday afternoon.
When I arrived Thursday night my mom picked me up from the airport and had shrimp spring rolls in the car for me, gotta love my mom!! It was kind of late so when we got home we went straight to bed.
Friday morning I got up early ate breakfast with my Granny then head down to Sugar Land to Sugar Cycles. I got to see a bunch of friends there and also Kyle gave me a super cool new kit!!
On my way home I stopped by my dad's office to pick him up because he had broken his heal the weekend before. (He has now gone through surgery and everything is good!)
Friday night came very quickly and I headed off to the the track where I got to catch up with a bunch of good friends that I hadn't seen awhile!
My first race was the 200 meter (not my favorite!) I ended up getting a personal best on that track and later I checked my records and found I was only .02 second of my best time ever.
The racing continued all weekend, with a Saturday morning session and evening session. The races were Keirin, Sprints, Scratch, Points, 500 meter, and 3 kilometer pursuit. I won all the races giving me a clean sweep at the state championships!
It was a great weekend of racing with a wonderful group of women!

Other than racing I didn't have any time to do much of anything else, but I definitely enjoyed every minute I got to spend with my family and friends.
Oh, and thank you to all my team mates and other friends that were able to make it out and watch!

I can't believe there is only 1 1/2 weeks till Elite Nationals: https://www.usacycling.org/events/2010/elitetrack/

This weekend was packed filled with action down in Ladera at the Ladera Grand Prix

It was a good race with a lot of face girls. The pack mainly stayed together and came down to a pack sprint. There was a crash with 2 girls at the last turn on the last lap. I was right next to it so I had to feather my breaks a bit while the lead out train that I was on headed up the long uphill, windy finish straight away. I was able to hold of 4th but had to chase a few girls back before the line. 

Kendall Ryan and I in the pack

So, Nationals is in roughly a month and a half away and I have been doing a bunch of training on the track with the Momentum Coaching group that has been going really well. My dad is not going to be able to make it to nationals this  year because he is already committed to two other weekends in October to be gone and to take another weekend off would be pushing it at work. This weekend is an omnium style race at the LA Velodrome. I got to thinking why couldn't my dad come out this weekend? So... I asked him! He actually said yes and is coming to watch me!! :] 

Oh and when he comes he is brining one of our old coffee makers from the house for me!! YAY!!! 

This weekend should be a fun weekend. 

Marymoor- FSA

The races started on Friday July 23 and ended Saturday. 

500m- 41.26 (7th place)

Keirin- didn't go to well. In the heat I was one place out of qualifying for the semi-finals, I was able to get in through the reps. In the semi-finals both heats were super stacked and 4 girls from each went through. Again, I was one place out of qualifying. Jen Featheringill beat me for the 4th qualifying spot by .004 seconds. 
Scratch: 6th place. Sat in majority of the time and sprinted at the end.

the 3rd sprint out of  turn 2 came over the top of everyone almost won but I got nipped at the line by Jennie Reed. Then I can of blew up because there was a counter attack was off the back a bit but suffered so much to catch back on and went straight to the front sat in for a sprint or two and then through   out the race collected a few more points. I was tied going into the last sprint with Reed and Newell for 3rd place. Reed led out the sprint, I got 2nd and I was on Newell's wheel but couldn't come around. So, Reed-3rd Newell-4th Me-5th
Miss N' Out: 6th- tried to sit at the front but it was really aggressive
Points: probably my best race of the weekend! Sat in and made my move on
  to stay up there.. had to keep going back up there. At the end I got pinched at the bottom and had no where to go.

figured out that she was coming into early. We were in the main field the whole time. Both of us were able to grab a point each.Madison with Kendi Thomas: 5th- pretty good my partner and I missed a few exchanges but got in a good rhythm after we
 

500 meter time trial

Kerin Semi-Finals

Jennie, Jen and I fighting it out in the points race.

Women's Madison podium! (11 teams!!)

Haute Links by Hanan Alves-Hyde 

Heather, Me, Travis, and Cari!

Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge

I arrived in Portland on Wednesday after an adventurous day of standby traveling, but I eventually made it there and my luggage soon after. The "that's what she said"s got kicked off pretty early in the game and continued through out the weekend. I have learned, by hanging out with my "older and wiser friends", that I am just an amateur in the game, but I am coming along quickly!
Now racing, the first day (Friday) I did a 3k pursuit and a 500. Second day was the scratch race and madison which I did with Amara Boursaw and we got 3rd! The third and final day started with keirin heats

with only one person advancing, I did not advance. The reps were after the miss & out which I got 5th in.. rookie mistake: never think you are safe. In the keirin rep I was in a super stacked heat with all super fast chicks, I played it smart and conservative and was able to win the rep to advance to the final. I was overly excited. The finish was followed by a fist pump and a squeal.

The final was fast, with fast and smart ladies. I ended up taking 7th. The final race was the points (10 mins after the final). I was pretty tired, but I went in to the race with a positive attitude. I was able to get a few points before 5 women went off the front. I sprinted out of the pack on the final sprint to win the field sprint, knowing other women and I had equal points. I ended 7th in that race as well.

It was a great weekend of racing and great friends.

Next week is FSA/NUUN Grand Prix!

A group of HOT cycling girls at the end of all the racing!!

Santa Cruz, San Fransisco and Hellyer Velodrome

Alex, Carmi, and I in Santa Cruz for a Pizza dinner. We are all friends from Houston and really haven't been together since we have all lived there.


HELLYER VELODROME: Testarosa Velodrome Challenge
Keirin- 4th
Points- 7th
Miss & Out- 6th
Sprints- 7th
Scratch- 10th

Keirin Podium: (L-R) Shelby, Laura, Dana, Jen, and Jen

Points race pack

San Fransisco Day Trip:

Ian and I headed to San Fran for a day. Neither one of us had been since we were really young and we didn't remember anything from it. Our day consisted of going to the Golden Gate bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and Haight and Ashbury where we went to Amoeba Records. 

No title.

I had a pretty successful weekend of racing this weekend. I did the LAVRA cup at the ADT Home Depot Center on Saturday night, where I won the women's category and raced with the masters 45+, which is always fun! I had an awesome cheering squad, my mom came into town to watch, Cristin and Daniel Walker and Ian came as well.

The next day I did "Signal Hill Crit" even though it was NO where near Signal Hill, lol! I raced hard, I finished 3rd. I was in a break for a little bit but could never recover so I fell back to the pack when the break was only 6 seconds up the road, I tried to get the other girls motivated to go catch the 2 girls up the road, but no one really wanted to work. I failed to bridge back up and with 4 laps to go I gave up the attempt to catch them and won the field sprint!!

All in all it was a great weekend! I'm glad my mom was able to make it out and see me race! :]

a little recap of my races

 

LA Circuit Race. 

Either I was nervous or bored before the race. The course was about 5 miles long with two 180 turns and the finish was slightly up hill. There was a good group of girls, 3 got off the front about 1/2 way through the race. a group of 4 went with 1/2 a lap to go, including myself. We were holding the break till the last 100 meters or so and then we were swallowed by the pack. I got 19th so not the best result but I did a lot of working during the race to chase down the break, seeing that I was the only person with out at least 3 team mates and everyone else was working for someone in the break. I was happy with the amount of work put into the race. It was a good way to start my 2010 season!

 4/27/2010 El Dorado 6th place in the Masters/Women. Won the field sprint! :]

Palm Springs

I went on a weekend training trip with a few friends: Coryn, Christine, and Jesse. We stayed at Christine's house in Palm Springs and rode Saturday and Sunday. It was a great weekend!

We went shopping at the grocery store to get PLENTY of food to last us!

On Saturday we rode through the desert.

[Christine, Coryn, Shelby, and Jesse]

We stopped to take a group a shot half way through our ride.

We also rode through a shooting range! YIKES!

We also encountered a few dirt devils on the ride.

But, it was gorgeous the whole time!

The trip was so much fun, great riding, great friends, and great memories made!! 

Crazy ride

It has been a pretty solid training week, next week is going to be even more intense but I am pretty excited about  it. I am looking forward to racing again. I have a pretty funny story about my ride with Scott on Tuesday, well now it's funny:
Scott and I started our ride off in the rain then it turned out to be a beautiful day. During the ride Scott had intervals so he would do them then turn around and meet back up with me. Well... after the first one he said this road is going to end turn left at the light and I said ok no worries see you in a bit. The road didn't actually end it just gradually turned into the 405.. YIKES! After I realized I was on the freeway I turned around and got off at the first exit and tried to find my way back to where Scott was waiting for me. About ten minutes later he called me and was like where are you!? I told him and we couldn't figure out exactly how to get back where I was so I told him just to go on with his ride and send me his address and I will just use mapquest to get back to his house and see him when he gets back. Easier said then done my friend! Mapquest on my phone did NOT work out as well as I thought it would. I pulled out my phone to look at the time and realized that I had dropped my debit card one of the times I had pulled it out before, so I went back to go see if I could find it; no luck. There was nothing I could do about it so I went to Lewis and Clark my way back to Scott's house. Not being from around that area and have only ridden there a few times made it kind of difficult to get back. I decided to just turn on random roads that looked familiar and hopefully I would make it back, surprisingly it WORKED! Our Panera sandwiches where well deserved after that day! I called into my bank and told them what happened and they told me that someone had already found it and called it in to cancel it. Which was weird because my own mother tried to call in to cancel it but they wouldn't let her.. hmm? All in all I got pretty lucky!

Berlin

So, I had a random trip to Berlin this past week. Ian and Kit were racing in the Berlin six day in Germany and I have wanted to watch a six day and wanted to see them race so I put together a quick trip to Berlin. I left on Wednesday January 27th after classes and came back Sunday January 31st early in the morning. My dad met me there with 24 hours of notice that I was leaving. I called him and asked if he wanted to go and at first he thought I was joking and after I finally convinced him I was being serious he said, "Sure why the hell not, I've always wanted to go there." Off we were to Germany to watch amazing bike racing and eat schnitzels!

We had a great time, we stayed in a hostel across the way from the track and walking distance to the train and bus stations. We had all different kinds of food, including pepperoni pizza which included cheese and peperchini peppers.. and NO pepperonis. I even learned a few words in German: Druken, auf, Danka, and mit. Meaning: push, open, thanks, and with. LOL! The racing was awesome, I have never seen so many people so enthused to watch bike racing. The boys did a great job and ended up 8th in the Omnium!

Winter Break

After I finished my last final for school I headed staight to the airport to go home to Texas. I was pretty happy to be going home considering I hadn't been home in over two months. I was planning on being there for three weeks but it got cut short by a week when I got invited to go to camp back in Los Angeles at the ADT velodrome. My trip home was nice while it lasted. I got to spend time with friend and family I hadn't seen in awhile, I got to catch up with my two younger sisters, spend quality father daughter time with dear oh dad, and of course go Christmas shopping with mom. On Christmas eve my whole family went over to a family friend's house that I have known since I was born and we had a nice dinner and we all went to to midnight mass. The entire family was in totally shock when my sisters decided to bring home a puppy without asking and no warning. She was so cute no one really got too mad but instead except the fact she was now part of the family. As the puppy was brought home on Christmas eve we decided to name her Eve.

Christmas morning was a little different this year with a new puppy to help us tear up all the wrapping paper. Other than that it went pretty much like everyother year, dad is up before the crack of dawn cooking Christmas dinner, my youngest sister and I are up waiting for my middle sister to get up so we can open presents while mom is lounging around in her Christmas pajamas drinking a cup of coffee. We had a lazy Christmas and both my parents took the whole week off of work so we could all spend time together as a family. The following week there are three major events that we partake in. My dad's birthday is on New Years eve, my birthday is on New Years day and of course the whole New Years celebration. Every year we have a big party with all our friends, this year was the same. Except, my mom and I did all the cooking to let my dad have his birthday to himself. The next day was my 19th birthday, I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 7am to do a group ride with some friends and ate breakfast at La Madeline's.
The next day, January 2nd I got up early to catch a flight back to Long Beach where I am living and going to school also where the camp is at. As I was saying bye to my dad he pulls out his wallet, hands me some money and says "Here kid, sorry I forgot to get you something for your birtday." As he is not the most emotional person ever I took it as him saying "I love you, please don't make me say it."
I was pretty pumped to be heading back to Long Beach, I was finally going to get see my boyfriend after two and half month of him being in Europe racing. I was home two days before camped started which was on January 4th through the 13th. The camp was ran by the national team coaches and had about 20 racers participating in it. We would have track sessions in the morning that consisted mostly of team pursuit work for the women and juniors. Then in the afternoon right after the track session we would go for a road ride anywhere from an hour to three hours long. I would go home devour whatever food was accessible, clean up and pass out for the night. This went on all week then on Saturday there was a track race in the afternoon that a bunch of locals and most people at the track participated in. I was pretty excited to race and it was my first race of the season. It was an omnium with three different races, tempo race, points race and scratch race, I ended up in 4th place for the omnium.
I started my second semester at Long Beach City College where I am taking 15 units.
Right now I am just trying to get better from this cold that is going around!