As per Cyclingnews.com-

New cat joins NRC circuit-
Vanderkitten has announced it will expand its NRC involvement to a six-women elite team as well as developmental and regional support riders in 2008, following on from the single rider it fielded in 2007. Vanderkitten Racing, as the squad will be known, is currently laying plans that will see the company play a larger role within the NRC series after it fielded a single rider, Liz Hatch, in 2007.
“Our success in sponsoring Liz Hatch in 2007 has convinced us that Vanderkitten and cycling go hand in hand,” said Venderkitten’s Mark Zefeldt.” Our focus next year will be the majority of the NRC calendar, and to that effect we have signed four immensely talented girls with another two athletes to be announced shortly.”
In addition to the re-signing of Hatch, the team will field Atlanta’s Leigh Valletti, Charlottesville’s Mandy Lozano and Mill Valley’s Christine Vardaros. The team is currently accepting resumes for the remaining two spots in its elite squad.
“Vanderkitten is thrilled to support these hard working, vibrant athletes and the sport of women’s cycling,” said Vanderkitten’s founder David Verrecchia. “We’re all looking forward to the upcoming season with great anticipation. Vanderkitten’s mission since its inception is to create a long-term relationship with cycling and raise the bar of sponsorships for women athletes.
“High profile athletes provide a tremendous marketing value to all parties associated with their image,” he added. “Women influence both female and male purchasing decisions. Why, then, have women typically earned less than 10 percent of most pro male athletes salaries?”
The clothing company-backed squad its expected to announce more details about its 2008 plans over the coming months.

For original link to Cyclingnews.com click here and scroll to final story on the page-

Last night while looking at the incomparable Stephan Vanfleteren’s webpage, admiring his photographs, I came across a listen to music button on his site. Curiosity forced me to click the link as I’m always inquisitive as to what someone as talented in his field as Mr. Vanfleteren is, considers good art.

Like must attract like because the music that came out of my speakers blew me away. I spent the next hour tracking down the artist who went by PJDS. I found his website and did a little more research to find that he had a MySpace profile. His full name is Pieter Jan De Smet and he’s from Ghent. The music is universal though. A mix of many influences but I’ll let you check it out for yourselves.

I sent him a letter asking how I could get my hands on his music and he responded to say that it was probably going to be difficult but he would send a few CDs to me in America. Thanks Pieter!

Hope you guys enjoy his music as much as I am, his song “August” has been on repeat all day.

http://www.stephanvanfleteren.com/recent_projects.htm- Stephan Vanfleteren (click on the listen to music button while viewing his photos.)

http://www.pjds.be/- PJDS Pieter Jan De Smet

or

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=51956091 His MySpace page with music.

Great show. If you’ve a fan of Tim Burton type cinema this is the show for you. It’s beyond anything that I’ve ever seen on network telly. But what do I know…

Tuesday was our first full day in Las Vegas and we had to set up our booth space in order to be ready to go for Wednesday show opening.

My dad flew in from Florida and arrived at the Sands Conventions Center to help us set up, which ended up being a huge help. We’d never actually assembled the entire structure and my dad is quite the handy man.

Jen Tilley also arrived that morning and she was there to help out as well. At one point during the construction process, Tilley was holding on to one end of the rigging and as we tried to lay it on it’s side she ended up hanging on to the metal piping with her feet dangling about 3 inches off the ground. It was pretty funny, I wish I had a picture of it. She’s pretty lanky and thin so it was just too heavy for her to keep on the ground. We all got a good laugh out of that.

After we set everything up it was time to pick up Leigh “Machete” Valletti and Mandy Lozano from the airport. Emile Abraham came in around the same time so we all crammed into the quad cab and made plans to shower and get ready to go out.

We headed out to dinner with a whole mess of us which at this point included Leigh, me and my best friend Vinnie, Dave, Mark, Emile and his cousin, and my Dad. We went to the Bellagio for dinner and then the “kids” decided to head out. Pops was pretty beat and turned in early and Dave and Mark decided to head home to rest up for the show.

I still can’t remember where exactly we all went (Pure in Caesar’s Palace maybe???)but I do remember several bottles of vodka being involved as well as Vinnie dancing with a curtain in the VIP.

At around 7AM we headed to the Venetian for breakfast. I was so tired I kept falling asleep at the table with my head doing that annoying bobbing thing. Leigh and I walked in the door of the condo at 8 AM with Dave just shaking his head in disbelief. We caught a couple hours of sleep and then high tailed it over to the show…

The initial drive to Las Vegas was equivalent to a “sprinter’s stage” in one of the various Grand Tours so I won’t get into too much detail. A bunch of stuff happened at a fast pace and at the end we shifted into hyper drive and crossed the finish line.

Mark managed to talk his friend Laura’s boyfriend into letting us borrow his mammoth Chevy quad cab for the trip. It was heavenly, if not environmentally friendly. The Vanderkitten trailer was hitched to the back and we got on the road.

Lots of nature breaks were taken due to liquids consumed, one of which happened in a shady area of Bakersfield(they all seemed shady actually. My apologies to the residents of Bakersfield, CA.). Dave exits our rig and before heading into the gas station says “Great, I’m fucked. I’m wearing flip flops and a tee shirt with a kitty on it” which we all found hilarious due to liquids consumed. You get the point. Or maybe you had to be there…

Fellow Vanderkitten Jackie Baker hitched a ride and made the trip a riot; she’s a hell of a lot of fun. Loud, obnoxious and crass in all my favorite ways. Any girl that can embarrass me is one I want to hang out with. Plus she points a big heavy mountain bike downhill, on purpose, and makes it to the bottom alive. Badass. I’m a priss on a road bike and I’m scared of heights. Not so badass.

11 hours later we made it through the desert to our condo on the strip, passing all the notable landmarks along the way, such as the World’s tallest thermometer. Someone should really build one that’s just an inch taller. Really…

It’s been almost a full week since InterBike was officially over and I’m just now getting back to “normal”.

All in all the show was a HUGE success for all of us and Vanderkitten. I’d like to say thanks to everyone who pitched in, stopped by, hung out, or had anything to do with the week in any sort of way. “Thanks!”

Full report to follow, I’m still trying to recall most of the facts/details/stories as my memory is a little blurry.