A little trick I stole from Tom, diaper rash ointment to sooth and heal road rash. I took it one step further and started using it in place of chamois cream in a pinch. Seems to work pretty well!

And there you have it.

Bikes Merckx and Museeuw.

Clothing by Hincapie.

Hair by Pozzato???

All zipped up.

VeloNews Manhattan Beach

Just thought I’d point that out. And you can hardly see my face so the guy who calls me “butterface” has nothing to fear.

Manhattan Beach was fun, we worked really well together as a team and Mel ended up 4th. Family reunions are fun too because you can drink beer while doing nothing important other than some good old fashioned family bonding. I’m pretty burnt on the bike right now so I’ll take the next week to relax, get a bit lazy in Sanibel, Fl and catch up with the people that love me for all my faults. My poor family! After that I’m off to Belgium for a bit to get in some good miles with my Bunny and race a bit. And maybe a little more beer…

Leilei and Jen- Kick ass in PA, I’ll be thinking about ya’ll. And don’t get lost again, you know what I mean. Ey ey ey!

Lizzer

Of all the races on our schedule this year I’ve been most looking forward to the AT&T crit in my hometown of Austin, Tx, probably even more so than Philly, for sentimental reasons. I grew up in the small Austin area town of Leander and even though I have not resided in Texas since I was 20 I still have a deep seated love for the Lone Star state. Don’t get me wrong, Philly was overwhelmingly cool and really drove home in my mind how much I’ve grown (with still a loooong way to go), in the two years I’ve been doing this. If I turn my mind’s eye to analyze the landscape behind me it’s still a vision that leaves me excited and amazed. In the two years prior to this one I think I raced a total of 4 or 5 NRC races and the grand total of races in those years probably barely surpasses the total amount of races I’ve lined up in this year. Plus I’ve got teammates for the first time ever!

OK, back on track- Austin. This was the 4th stop in the USA Crit series in which Vanderkitten after the first 3 stops was in 1st place team standing and my crazy tough teammate, Jen “Wheels” Wilson was in second place overall behind Kelly Benjamin. There would only be 3 of us participating, myself, Leigh Hopkins (used to be Valletti) and Jen, as injuries and other circumstances have depleted our roster somewhat. My confidant/mental therapist, Mark Zefeldt who also happens to be our team owner/manager/Mr. Do It All was also in attendance and along with my parents who flew in from FL. Mark and I arrived Friday around noon and hightailed it straight to Chuy’s for some proper Tex-Mex and margarita(s). OK, trip is starting off on the good foot!

The ceiling of Chuy’s is covered in hubcaps!

After lunch we headed to the hotel and I went for a quick spin followed by dinner with 2 of my best friends from childhood, Angie & Brett and his pack of pretty boys, Witlo and Patrick. Hilarity ensued, time went way too fast, but we had to leave around 9 to pick up Wheels from the airport. See you tomorrow night boys!

The next morning we got up around 9 and got ready to ride. We had to pick our race reg up at the Mellow Johnny bike shop where we met up with Brad Huff and a few of his mates for a quick spin in which we got lost, had fun, talked a bit (a lot) of shit, got lost again, almost boiled to death in the heat and then finally made it home 2 hrs later… Ok, a little longer than we would have liked but fun all the same.

Lunch time. Three words. The Salt Lick. Look it up if you are in town, best BBQ EVER! Just for the record, none of this trip is typical race behavior for the team but in Austin you make exceptions. There are just too many wonderful things to ingest and imbibe to stay on the “straight and narrow.”

Meat!

Race time. 4 corner crit which on paper seems pretty straightforward but as my dad pointed out, these roads have probably not been repaved in over 20 years. There were GIANT holes and deep grooves which can really only be described as asphalt waves. I wish I had a surf board rather than a bike! EY EY EY!

I’m not really one to complain about the course, in my opinion bike racing is hard, it is dangerous and it should remain so. But there is a line that needs to be drawn and I feel like this course possibly crossed it in some areas… I don’t want to discourage the promoters to hold the race again as there were TONS of spectators and everyone was having a great time but perhaps a little TLC can be shown to the the course prior to next year?

The week and half since Philly had been a little bit of a holiday for the most part so I was curious to see how the legs would be. Happily they were fresh and ready to go after the first lap, we all looked pretty good in fact. Nice! About 30 min in there was a crash coming into the last turn that took around 8 girls out. Jen had been 2 people ahead of me and ended up on the ground along with myself on top of eventual winner Kelly Benjamin. My shoe was totally ripped off, had some good road rash on the thighs and other areas but managed to get back up and into the race. Sadly one of the Metro girls was not so lucky and was out with the collarbone done in.

I ended up running on adrenaline for most of the rest of the race but 4 laps to go the thigh started to cramp pretty nicely so all I ended up managing was 15th. Not what I was hoping for. Wheels was in about the same position and ran 13th and Leigh by a crappy ruling was placed in last even though she finished 17th. She had a great race and worked hard for us but the officials, in all our opinions, made a bad call when she had to come into the pit for a mechanical issue that they deemed not worthy of a freelap… What can you do?

All in all I had a wonderful time being back home and can’t wait for next year, new course or not!

Lizzer!

Is this thing on???

Uhhh, I’m Liz Hatch, otherwise known as “Lizzer”, “Slizzard”, “Lizzie”, or as one guy calls me, “Fat Camp” (LOVE that one!) (seriously, it makes me laugh.)

I ride for Vanderkitten Racing out of NorCal…

Some of you know me, some of you don’t… Visa Versa.

Hmmm, what else…

I love beer (see previous post in my archives), pugs, Steve Earle, paintball guns, and not taking long walks on the beach. I hate the beach.

Other things I hate- earwax. Dirty ears make me really angry. That’s about it I guess…

I’ve never seen any of the following movies- E.T., Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, anything to do with Harry Potter… oh and Rocky, Rambo or any of those other Sly Stallone movies.

I have however seen Layer Cake 15 to 20 times… also Life of Brian. And Casino. I’ll stop there.

Guess that’s it for now.

See ya!

Try this!

It was 1000 effing degrees today and my coach was wearing arm warmers (coolers he says). Then again this is a guy that wore full zip thermal leg warmers better suited for a nuclear winter than a sunny 65 degree northern California “winter” day. Ok maybe it was 60.

Anyway, he banned me from taking his picture for the blog but he’s getting a mention on here anyway because I appreciate all the hours he’s spent with me nursing my brain and morale back to healthy levels since my accident. It’s an odd thing how the body will do what it’s going to do; you can’t force it to heal any quicker than it chooses to but the mind… that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax. Your mind will hold on to things like self-doubt and fear for a lifetime if you let it.

So, RZ, you rock man. In the immortal words of Steven Tyler- “I’m back in the saddle again!”

Oh, and by the way, about those “arm coolers”… I Googled them and this is the first link that came up- Arm Coolers by DeSoto Sport at Team Estrogen.com.

I’m jus’ sayin’.

Current mood- Cranky
I’m about to go to sleep in a hotel room that smells like a hippie’s dirty sweaty feet. I am olfactorily offended. Is that a word? It must be… too tired to check. Cranky due to the fact that my little sister gave birth to my nephew last night and I still haven’t seen a friggin’ picture of him. MOM, IF YOU READ THIS HELP A GIRL OUT! Welcome to the world Nicky!

On another note check out Cycle To.
They are giving away a Vanderkitten kit this week which is kinda cool since we don’t sell the team kits…

That’s it. I give up.

New stuff for the week…

Roisin Murphy- You Know Me Better-
The Moloko singer, now on her own and better than ever. Love her quirky voice and music. Video is awesome too.

Richard Durand- Sweep & Repeat (Sander Van Doorn rmx)
One of those minimal tech ass kickers, keeps my legs going quickly!

Kanye West- Flashing Lights
Genius. That’s it.

New Edition- Once In A Lifetime Groove
I loved the Groove Cats redo of this song but it’s pretty hard to beat the original. Bobby before Whitney.

Delbert McClinton- Giving It Up(For Your Love)
One of my favorite Texas artists, the guy has a voice that makes you want to move your feet and his band is awesome. My dad gets his dues for this, he raised me on good music.

Scooter- How Much Is The Fish
An oldie but a goodie.

Steve Earle- Guitar Town
Another memory from childhood that has lasted the years. Steve Earle is a brilliant songwriter and outspoken public activist who has been through drug addictions and jail time but seems to always come back with a vengeance. An interesting life story in short.

Everything But The Girl- Before Today(Chicane rmx)
I can’t put my finger on it but EBTG always makes me feel good.

Soon!
Lizzer

Memorial Ride

Team Roaring Mouse Cycles and Third Pillar Racing Team are holding a joint
memorial ride this Saturday March 15th, to honor the lives of Kristy Gough and
Matt Peterson, our two teammates killed on Steven’s Creek Canyon last Sunday
while on a training ride. We welcome friends, family, fellow cyclists and all those
whose lives have been touched by Matt and Kristy. Our ride will include a visit
to the site of the crash site for those to share their memories

When: Saturday, March 15th

Where: Leaving from Foothill College

12345 El Monte Road,
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

Google map to location:http://tinyurl. com/2b6qvb

**We kindly request you do NOT drive out to the crash site during this time, as
we need to keep cars to a minimum in the area, given the road conditions.

Time: Meet at 2:30pm, ride by 3pm

Length: 30-45 minutes to the crash site. Base pace (ie, mellow). No drop.

Route:

Start @ Foothill College (Parking Lot #1, near the football stadium; see link
above for map)

– Left on El Monte

– Right on Foothill Expressway

– Continue on Steven’s Creek Canyon

– Return

Route directions via Google: http://tinyurl. com/2pc8pf

*Press are welcome to attend, however we request respect during our ride. It
would mean the most to us if press were to accompany us on their bikes, as we
are all cyclists this week.