I’m FINALLY updating the blog. It’s been an interested month and half since my accident in St. Helena. Frustrating/Overwhelming/Angering on one hand but strangely also Life Affirming/Revitalizing/Emboldening. More so the last things for me. I’ve never felt more fortunate or had a clearer head about what I want out of this year and the ones to come. All the goals I had that may have previously been written down in pencil are now in red permanent ink and underlined in bright yellow highlighter; a fine point, limpid.

I’ve been back on the bike for almost 3 weeks. I started 4 days after the crash on the trainer but was unable for quite a while to put my hand to the bars due to the soft tissue damage my back sustained. It’s taken up until exactly 2 hours ago for my amazing chiro, Dr. Tom Kano, to get an complete adjustment on my upper back. I owe him so so much as he’s been there helping me work through my injuries every step of the way with patience and understanding. His work with my has been invaluable. If you’re looking for a tip top chiro in Walnut Creek, check him out at Beyond Chiropractic.

I need thank my team/teammates and coach for being so supportive and caring through all of this. THANKS! Mark, you’re a life saver, hope you know that. Robin, for forcing me to be patient, not to rush, not to worry about what anyone else thought I should do… “Deep breath, Ivana!” It’s going to be a really good year for all of us, I have zero doubts.

Lastly, I am overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of get well wishes and words of encouragement I received from all over the world from other racing cyclists, bike enthusiasts and well wishers. Your letters, flowers, and cards are hugely appreciated and helped me get through many sleepless nights and moments of wondering “what now?”. It speaks volumes about what a cool sport this is!

I intend to start racing again in 2 weeks, need to get a little something in the legs prior to Redlands. That’s going to be baptism by fire, not the ideal first big race back but it’ll be good training and I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Ah, the exquisite pain of Teutenberg/Miller/Carroll et al RIPPING YOUR LEGS OFF! Beautiful. But first I head to NYC for 3 days this week to do a little work for Maxim Mag again, more on that to follow…

So, until next time, TAKE CARE and THANK YOU!

Lizzer

Just wanted to give a huge thank you to everyone who has taken time to send me get well soon calls, emails, text messages and flowers over the past 2 days!

I’m on bed rest right now but will be back and better than ever in no time.

I had a pretty nasty accident on Saturday and I’ve received an overwhelming amount of correspondence asking what happened so I figured I’d just try to explain here as best I can…

I was participating in the “Ride the Route”  fundraiser for the Women’s Tour Of California Criterium. It left from Santa Rosa and went to Calistoga and then doubled back to Santa Rosa. I arrived a bit late due to traffic and was attempting to catch the main group with few friends. On the last descent into Calistoga I was a bit off the front and enjoying a great time down the hill when I came up on a corner full of pine needles a bit too quickly (understatement) and my only choice was to try to lay the bike out or hit the guardrail… Apparently the second choice was better (???) and I went head first into it at 45k. Specialized helmets, THANK YOU! Also, ROOLY glasses!!! I am so glad I was wearing those things, they kept my eyes protected and all of the dirt and pine needles that ended up in my mouth, nose and ears, yes ears, didn’t touch my eyes! Not only that but they look like new post crash, cannot believe it.

I was knocked out for a short while and don’t remember much except that I couldn’t breath and my mouth was full of blood from biting part way through my tongue. Bob Cullinan from CycleTo was on the scene quickly (and ended up riding with me to the hospital and staying with me for 6 plus hours) as were quite a few other kind souls (Greg Durbin, thank you!) who stopped traffic so I wouldn’t get run over and called the ambulance. From there it’s a blur…

Anyway, all the appropriate medical treatment was taken and it was shown that I had no broken bones or anything else of major consequence and was released later that evening. I’ll take it slow getting back on the bike but I’m more than looking forward to it! Of course it’ll have to be a new steed as mine was sheered off at the forks…

So there you go.

Man I love cycling!

Best to you all,

Liz

You will be missed.

C’ est Si Bon

Laurel Green, one of the Bay Area’s most enthusiastic supporters of female cyclists and development of new riders, emailed me about a project her friend Kenneth Walker in Kansas City, Missouri is working on called the Wheels Can Take Me Places Project. I’ve included the email below explaining his effort-

In the spirit of promoting the sport and good health I’ll be sending some of my Vanderkitten kits to the girls. If any of you out there have something you can part with don’t hesitate to do so!  You never know what your donation could help inspire in the future…

Loves it!

WhiteGold

L.H.

How cool is this???

Custom Zero Gravity brakes to go with our smoking hot Storcks?

They’re limited edition and will be available to the public in small quantities next month. I feel pretty damn honored to have anything custom from the Zero Gravity guys as they don’t do something like this often; when they do make custom items it’s for class acts like Kristen Armstrong’s gold brakes in honor of her gold TT medal in Bejing. Zero Gravity has been such a great sponsor and huge supporter of female cyclists in general so I hope when you guys are looking for a set of high end custom brakes to build up your next “weight weenie” ride you’ll look to them.

I’ve seen and heard some crazy things in my time but this has a place among the weirdest…

Tom and I found it while walking down Collins Rd in South Beach taped to the side of a Walgreens. I love Miami!

We did it! Is there any better way to finish our first season than standing on the podium at the end of the year together? Hell no!

Congrats to Jen for placing 2nd overall in the individual classification also, you earned it girl!

Here’s to Vanderkitten in 2009!

To the guy that rode into the middle of our race on Monday at the Giro Di San Fran- You sir are a tremendous douche. Get off your cell and pull your head out of your ass. At the very least you could have apologized for taking 3 of us out (me included) and almost causing an even worse situation. Glad your bike was ok since that seemed to be the only thing you were worried about. WHEW!

Next time this is you.

Congrats to Miss Patella though, good racing girl!

I’ve been feeling like my legs are detached from my body and my head is caving in for the past few weeks I haven’t had much worthwhile to say (so different from normal, yeah?). Anyway, thought I’d let someone else do the talking for me so here’s a friggin’ hilarious Craigslist ad that C:Todd forwarded to me today. Thanks for unintentionally writing my blog for me, C:Todd!

I laughed. You will too. Now read damn it!

Manly Bike for Sale

Bike for sale

What kind of bike? I don’t know, I’m not a bike scientist. What I am though is a manly guy looking to sell his bike. This bike is made out of metal and kick ass spokes. The back reflector was taken off, but if you think that deters me from riding at night, you’re way wrong. I practiced ninja training in Japan’s mount Fuji for 5 years and the first rule they teach about ninja biking is that back reflectors let the enemy know where you are. Not having a rear reflector is like saying “FUCK YOU CAR, JUST TRY AND FIND ME”.

The bike says Giant on the side because it’s referring to my junk, but rest assured even if you have tiny junk that Giant advertisement is going to remain right where it is. I bought this bike for 300 dollars from a retired mercenary that fought in both World War 1 and World War 2 and had his right arm bitten off by a shark in the Phillipines while stationed there as a shark handler. When he sold it to me I had to arm wrestle him for the honor to buy it. I broke his arm in 7 places when I did. He was so impressed with me he offered me to be his son but I thought that was sissy shit so I said no way.

The bike has some rusted screws, but that just shows how much of a bad ass you are. Everyone knows rusted screws on a bike means that you probably drove it underwater and that’s bad ass in itself. Those screws can be replaced with shiny new ones, but if you’re going to go to that trouble why not just punch yourself in the balls since you’re probably a dickless lizard who doesn’t like to look intimidating.

The bike is for men because the seat is flat or some shit and not shaped like a dildo. If you like flat seated bikes you’re going to love this thing because it doesn’t try to penetrate your ass or anything.

I’ve topped out at 75 miles per hour on this uphill but if you’re just a regular man you’ll probably top it out at 10 miles per hour. This thing is listed as a street bike which is man-code for bike tank. The bike has 7 speeds in total:

Gear 1 – Sissy Gear
Gear 2 – Less Sissy Gear
Gear 3 – Least Sissy Gear
Gear 4 – Boy Gear
Gear 5 – Pre-teen Boy Gear
Gear 6 – Manly Gear
Gear 7 – Big Muscles Gear

I only like gear 6 and 7 to be honest.

Additionally, this tool of all immense men comes with a gigantic lock to keep it secure. The lock is the size of a bull’s testicles and tells people you don’t fuck around with locking up your bike tank. It tells would-be-thieves “Hey asshole, touch this bike and I’ll appear from the bushes ready to club you with a two-by-four”.

Bike is for 150 OBO (and don’t give me no panzy prices)