Cycling Blogs - Kathryn LaPointe

Surprise! Friday night relationship thriller (don't try this at home): "Uh, honey? I sort of lost track of the race schedule, and I need to go up to LA on Sunday. Can you watch the kids all day? Oh, and I need to go to the bike shop on Saturday, too, to get some parts." Big race, all the pros, yadda yadda. Would you like me to leave you the zoo pass? I'd venture to guess that most people who show up at these races have to wheedle and trade their way there. Fifty-two bucks, and I didn't preregister, so… more »

I was at my bike shop when the rain started up again. It has stormed nearly every weekend since January. I am not making this up. I went back to work full time recently, and now have a vested interest in my San Diego sunshine tax. It poured again the Saturday before race day. I was in my bike shop when the water started whipping sideways. Safely behind the windows, the mechanics laughed at me. “Have fun tomorrow.” Bwaaa haaaaa haa. The tourist board must have bribed the heavens, because Sunday dawned crisp, clear and beautiful. A couple hundred racers… more »

If my brothers and I ever pony up for the DNA test, I could tell you which Ojibwa tribe my great-grandmother belonged to. The legend goes that the tribe honored my half-breed grandfather by attemping to burn down his house when he died. My Kumeyaay spirit sisters overlooked my unenrolled status and left me an arrow shaped gift out on the Sagebrush course last week. Granted, it was made of stiff plastic, but it did a marvelous job of clearing mud from my cleats. I'll take it as an auspicious omen for the Kenda Cup West opener tomorrow. The Sagebrush… more »

Fontana, part two. My March race in Riverside County was so traumatic, I never wrote it up. A wild success for the promoters, and mountain bike racing in general, the teeming hordes on that course made for a long day. You can get a feel for it in this video: http://tinyurl.com/fontanahighlights Those are the pros, bless 'em. My Cat 1, formerly known as "expert", race wasn't quite as crowded, but the traffic still stalled and trail rage reared its ugly tread. I would pull over to let people pass, and after fifteen bikes went by, I still couldn't merge back… more »

A blog entry by an amateur racer you've never heard of. Colt promoted my first post here using that sadly true appellation. Doesn't that describe most of us? Searching for our name buried in the age group race results. Sneaking out of the house before the kids wake up. Snitching money out of the grocery budget to buy titanium bike parts. Competition doesn't achieve world peace, nor reduce the size of the Pacific's floating plastic island. I'll never have my costs picked up by a corporate sponsor, nor enjoy beta version bikes. So, why do it? Because racing simplifies a… more »

Reason number 12 to race singlespeed: if you have to change multiple flats duiring a race, putting the rear wheel back on is MUCH easier than when there's a derailleur in the way. I wrote on my previous blog that I wanted to put in my cleanest, fastest, best effort. I did. Maybe it was because of teammate Steve's chanting mandala blessing, or maybe the multudinous Colorado stars were aligned the right way, or maybe it was just time for that to happen. However. The ride-of-my-life speed and skill convergence only applied to when I was actually riding the bike,… more »

It's raining on the Tour riders right now. At home, I can't pay for cable. In Colorado, I wake up to Phil Liggett describing the "nosty" conditions in France while the sun here brightens the mountainside. Crisp and clear and blue. Another perfect day. I rolled out off my couch cushion bed to find that my roommate Dino, retired military, had already brewed up some coffee so black that my suspension fork could stand up in it. He's one of the senior representatives from RacersandChasers.com. Dougie Fresh, another winner, much younger, made the mistake of snapping him with a towel… more »

Part of me didn't want to win. I'm here in Granby, Colorado courtesy of RacersandChasers.org, a grassroots race series north of San Diego. An essay contest provided five lucky riders with travel costs to the National Championships. I didn't have a place for my three children to stay until the day before I left. My husband, getting back from a work trip to the Dominican Republic, couldn't help. Plus, for many boring reasons, i happen to be currently living out of my car in rural Oregon while I sort out a real estate fiasco related to moving twice in two… more »

Mysteriously, factoring out gears has made me a much better rider. Maybe the 29s help, too. Does it really matter, anyway? My third ride on my new bike: Santa Barbara Bike Festival at Elings Park, XC race #6 in the Southern California State Series. If you ride, hike or shuttle to the top of the urban hill, you are treated to spectacular views of the Pacific to the west. To the east, you can marvel at the towering mountains that Lance sometimes trains on. Nestled in between the two, a minature Santa Barbara charms like a school child's diorama of… more »

In my other life, I am a housewife. ' I spend most of most days with my four-year-old son, the youngest of our three children. When he was a toddler, his nickname was “Mayhem Baby.” He could find choking hazards in an empty room. ' We kept our bathroom doors locked, but whenever we visited friends, he’d crawl around until he located the loo. Then he’d wrestle with the caps that cover the screws that fasten toilets to the floor. In celebration of a successful removal, he’d pop them into his mouth. ' When I was packing for last weekend’s… more »

. . Vehicle profiling. . Guilty. . Last year in Santa Ynez, campers were separated on arrival. Multiple signs directed downhillers to the south end of the lot, XC folks to the north. The Cytomax crowd peered warily, and from a safe distance, at the gravity boys. Who stoked their bonfires, quaffed beer from cans, and sported cowboy hats fashioned from cardboard Bud Light cases. . For this year’s sleepover, I pulled in Saturday afternoon to find a newly desegregated parking lot. Spandex or baggy, we now had equal tent pitching rights anywhere in the earwig and chuckhole infested meadow.… more »

. . Top Ten Signs That You Upgraded Too Soon . . 1. Your best minute gap behind any racer is in double digits. . 2. Wildlife sightings replace wheel following. . 3. The cows come home… and refuse to yield trail . 4. There’s an ATV following you… and it isn’t the pace vehicle. . 5. You hear the pro award ceremony on the loudspeakers… before you finish your last lap. . 6. You finally cross the finish line just as the staff is taking down the barriers, and . 7. The free samples have all left the venue.… more »

BONELLI PARK XC #1 March 1, 2009 I am a slow learner.The guys I ride with repeatedly catch me cross chained. If you allow me an hour, I might change my own flat. I figured out just last week that if my weight is too far back, I can’t steer. All right, I confess. I didn’t discern that on my own.Someone helpfully dispensed that particular advice after I let my bicycle go on ahead, riderless.I also don’t know when to give up, which is perhaps corollary to the dim witted tendency above. I’ve been doing some research lately on addiction.… more »