However, 2011 will be the final year for the Missing Link – Specialized team.  The team director Maggie Williams, and her husband Don, who have been invaluable supporters of the team, have decided to step away from team sponsorship and direction for the time being.  Maggie recently took an incredible opportunity to develop her career and has some exciting opportunities ahead of her as the Global Head of Talent Management for AIG.  She’s at the pinnacle of her career and has decided to take a break from running a cycling team to focus on these exciting developments.  Speaking on behalf of the riders on the team, we wish her and Don all the best in this exciting time, and we are very, very grateful for their support and the opportunities they have provided.  Thanks, Don & Maggie!

We are also very grateful to all our sponsors, who have been invaluable in the success of the team, as well.  A huge shout-out to Specialized, Missing Link Coaching & Training Systems, Nicollet South Bike Shop, Bike Shop Hub, Fluid Recovery, Athlete Octane, XOOD – Natural Healthy Endurance Drink, Honey Stinger, Genuine Innovations, and Zeal Optics!!!  We highly recommend you check out these great companies and products now and into the future!

Of course, this team and all its success would not have been possible without the great roster of riders on the team.  I am glad to call these women my friends and have been fortunate to have such great teammates.  Best of luck to you ladies in your bright cycling futures!

For me, it is definitely bittersweet to write this post.  I have been with the team for four years, and in addition to racing, I have worked as the Team Captain, Webmaster, and Product Sponsor Coordinator.  I have had tons of great opportunities to work with sponsors, teammates, and everyone involved in the team.  While it is hard to see the team coming to a close, I’m also very excited for new opportunities for myself and everyone else!

So in sum, it’s been a great run with Missing Link – Specialized (formerly Specialized D4W p/b Bicycle Haus)!  Best of luck to everyone moving forward.  Women’s Bike Talk will continue to be the team website for a few more months, but it will morph into something new in the future, so please keep us in your Google Reader, RSS Feeds, etc.

Happy Riding!
Melanie Meyers Colavito
September 19, 2011

Crankwork: I placed 7th for Pro women. This race is part of the Epic Singletrack Moutain bike series. Fast and furious singletrack, complete with rocky climbs and a river crossing.

Xterra Indian Peaks: Pay Day! I squeaked into 3rd place for Pro women and managed to make some dough. Freezing swim, sweet bike course almost completely in the woods, and a run full of obstacles and hills.

Mountain Top Circuit: I placed 6th for Pro women. Another mountain bike race in the Epic Singletrack Series, this course starts and finishes at the top of Mary Jane which makes for thin air and lots of climbing.

Xterra Lory: Another 3rd place day on the podium! Although I felt pretty awful at this race and had no wetsuit in the swim and a precarious malfunctioning pedal on my bike, I managed to fight through the pain and give it my all to make up some time on the run and snag a top spot.

That’s it for now; up next,  Xterra U.S.A. Championship. As always, many thanks to you guys, my amazing sponsors & team, Missing Link Coaching Systems/Specialized.

Anyhoo, I was out for an easy cruise with Jake from Athlete Octane, he is also my coach and quite awesome.  On our way back to town after a few hours of fairly technical riding, I endoed on a smallish rock on a descent.  Nothing major.  I’ve endoed my MTB many, many times.  Unfortunately, I stuck out my right arm to catch myself (stupid…) and when it hit the ground, it was probably hyper-extended, as my limbs tend to do that.  Crack!  I hit the ground, and the first thing I noticed was my elbow.  It looked dislocated and was pointed the wrong way and a bone was in the wrong place.  Shock started to set in.  I screamed for Jake like bloody murder, but he was a little ways down the trail and didn’t hear me.  I sat down on my butt and looked at my arm.  Suddenly it popped back into place.  Phew, I thought, but crap!  It hurt! 

I screamed for Jake for a while and then realized I would have to wait for him to realize something was wrong when he got to the trailhead…maybe 1/2 a mile away…and climb back up to find me.  I sat there going deeper into shock for what seemed like an eternity.  Then, I heard Jake call my name.  Sweet relief!  He got up to me, calmly assessed how f’d up I was, made a sling for my arm out of a bike tube, gave me some water, called my dad to come get me, and encouraged me to get ready to walk down to the trailhead where my dad would meet us.  It took every ounce of effort I could muster to walk to the trailhead.  I really had to pull myself together.  The pain was intense.  We finally made it back down, just as it started pouring, and my dad was there to meet us.

Long story short, I had severely fractured the radial head of my right arm.  Turns out, I did such a number, it was beyond repair and had to be “replaced” with a titanium implant.  Not the greatest prognosis for a 26-yr old, but it is what it is.  Apparently I got the most badass arm/hand surgeon in Flagstaff, so that’s a big bonus.  Anyways, don’t let me elbow you in a crit, is all I will say.  It might hurt. 

Now time to recover.  The surgery was rough.  I had to miss my best childhood/college friend’s wedding.  I was devastated by that more than the injury.  But time heals all wounds, and now I get to go visit her in Chicago this fall instead!  Plus, now I have all this free time this fall!  And I got a pedicure, since I can’t really use my right hand much.  Hidden benefits.  And I’ve heard that using your left hand more can make you really smart.  So watch out, ya’ll!  I’m looking forward to a full and speedy recovery, to getting out of my evil arm brace (at least no cast!), and to free time…and the recumbent trainer.  And I’m super grateful to my parents and husband for putting up with me for the last two weeks!

So happy riding and keep two wheels on the ground!

Check out the Missing Link – Specialized Photo Gallery.

Here’s a sample photo, as well!

Thanks again, Jon!

It has been one crazy busy summer, which pretty much explains my lack of blogging activity during the past two-ish months. June and July have been peppered with racing, training, moving, and crashing. Crashing you say? Yes, crashing. If you race a bike, it is not a matter of if you will crash, but when you will crash. It happens to the best of us and as Francis likes to say, “If you’re not crashing once and awhile, you’re not riding hard enough.” Let me give you a quick recap of June and July thus far:

Early June: Francis and I discover our landlord is selling our condo and we must move out by June 30th. Francis frantically searches for a suitable new home while I work away improving the mental health of kiddos and their struggling families.

June 19th: Francis and I race Xterra Lock 4 Blast in Tennessee while visiting my good friend Alicia and her husband Will. I pulled off my first pro win, despite the dark and stormy weather, which consisted of heavy downpours and massive thunder and lightning during the whole bike/run of the race. We also listen to live country music in Nashville and eat lots of pulled pork and “redneck tacos.”

June 24th: Epic Single Track Super Loop Race in Winter Park. I placed 10th for pro women after surviving a bad crash with a minor concussion just a few miles into the race.

June 30th: We move in 100-degree heat to a new townhouse with a basement and a two-car garage. Yay for more space!

July 8th: Francis and I ride Kenosha Pass on the way to the Salida Beer Fest. I clip my handlebar on a tree while bombing downhill and crash hard. My surgical tech friend Kate puts three stitches in my shin and five in my knee. Don’t worry, I still made it to the beer fest and sampled lots of yummy brews.

July 16th: Barb and Dave (my parents) visit and cheer Francis and I on at the Xterra Mountain Cup in Beaver Creek. I had an amazing day of racing and ended up in 6th place for pro women.

Next up, some R & R as well as Cranxworx on July 30th. Thanks for checking in.

Anna M in the crit at collegiate nationals

Step one: win fancy new jersey in the road race at collegiate nationals. Finish respectably in the criterium.

Step 2: Finish writing Ph.D. dissertation. Print copies for members of my committee. Note, this process involves several intense weeks of very long hours in lab and in front of a computer, following nearly 5 years of research.

Writing, writing, writing...

Step 3: Immediately after turning in said thesis copies, pack up my car with my stuff and some Harvard teammates and go race bicycles with Anna B. in Vermont. We came to the realization that extreme jet-lag and a similar thesis-induced sleep deficit lead to less than stellar performances, but this fact did not stop us from having fun times with friends and putting in quality racing hours.

Step 4: Go hike up a mountain while in New Hampshire for a wedding.  (Other days of the trip involved riding my bicycle up and down notches, including the morning of the wedding).

Anna and Sasha on top of a mountain

Step 5: Defend my thesis.

Title slide of my thesis talk...I'd be happy to give you the long or short version later!

Step 6: Drive to Colgate University and ensure that I have a place to live and that I will indeed get paid next year.

Step 7: Present poster at the Boston Bacterial Meeting and listen to two days of scientific talks.

Step 8: Fly down to elite nationals, to meet up with Judy and Rachel (more details to follow).

Whew!  So there you have it.  I know that my teammates have many similar stories, as do many of our peers in the elite amateur ranks.  While we may not be able to pursue cycling with the same focus as true “professional” athletes, I am proud that we are able to sustain complex and balanced lives.  Our metaphorical pizzas are quite delicious, in my opinion.  And I am truly grateful for the opportunities, when they come, to have days or weeks where my sole task is to race my bicycle to the best of my abilities.  What a privilege!!

The race consists of 6 stages over the course of 5 days, including some hard, hilly road races, fast, flat criteriums, and a short time trial.  The race takes riders from Cannon Falls, south of Minneapolis, to Uptown Minneapolis, Downtown St. Paul, and even Menomonie, Wisconsin.  To make things even more exciting, the current world champion, Giorgia Bronzini of Italy, was there racing with her Colavita squad, and the race was packed with former world and Olympic champions!

Stage 1: St. Paul TT

The first stage was rainy and cold.  Everyone was battling it out for one small ramada near the start area to set up trainers and warm up away from the rain.  The course was covered in standing water and temps were definitely pretty low.  Nonetheless, the team turned out some good times, with Anna placing highest in 27th.

Stage 2: Downtown St. Paul Crit

The second stage was in the afternoon after the time trial on Wednesday.  Although the clouds from the morning cleared for a while, another storm blew in just before the crit and drenched everything.  Since we race rain or shine, we started the fast, technical crit with slick ground.  A few laps into the race, a huge crash took out half the field.  Melanie, Leah, Jenna, and Rachel all went down, and almost everyone on the team went to the pit.  The crashes and bad weather slowly began to take their toll and riders started getting pulled.  With about 6 laps to go, I even crashed a second time!  Everyone managed to finish the race, minus some skin here and there.

Stage 3: Cannon Falls Road Race

Last year, this stage was canceled on the start line due to a tornado!  Fortunately, that was not the case this year.  The race started fast and stayed that way.  Rachel initiated an early breakaway and stayed away from some Queen of the Hill points.  Melanie, Cara, and Rachel were active through the race trying to get in moves, but nothing stuck.  This race features a short dirt road section before the final finishing circuits in town, so Anna and Jenna made it through the dirt with their superior cyclocross and mountain bike skills with the front group.  Melanie, Cara, and Leah were also together and worked hard to try to bring Leah up to the front group.  All in all, the team finished well, and Anna moved up into 18th in GC.

Stage 4: Uptown Minneapolis Crit

The stage that officially never happened…except it did.  Let me sum it up by posting the video below.  You can see Jenna crashing out hard on the left side of the screen and Anna swerving through the whole thing in the middle.  Basically, a major crash took out a huge percentage of the field.  Many people called it the worst crash they have ever seen.  Jenna, Leah, and Cara all went down hard, and Jenna and Cara’s bikes were destroyed.  Fortunately, everyone who went down came out pretty much ok, and Jenna and Cara were able to find bikes to ride on Saturday.  However, the race was neutralized and officially didn’t count.

Stage 5: Menomonie Road Race

In my opinion, this is one of the hardest road races on the NRC circuit!  It’s long and hilly.  And even though I come from mountains, I have to say the hills of Wisconsin kick my butt!  Anyhow, Anna got herself into the winning breakaway and worked hard all day to finish 4th on the stage!  Yipee!  She moved herself into 5th in GC with the awesome ride.  The rest of the team rode smart and finished up the finishing circuits.  Unfortunately, a mechanical took Judy out of the race.

Stage 6: Stillwater Crit

The final stage of the NVGP is brutal.  The first year I rode it, I thought it was some kind of sick joke, but they basically start the field at the bottom of Chilkoot Hill, which features grades of up to 21%.

Although it’s short, it is a painful climb.  But truth it, it’s one of the most fun crits out there!  The start is like a mountain bike race with everyone gunning for the hole shot up the hill.  Although an early crash made starting hard for Cara, Leah, Jenna, and Rachel, Leah and Anna made it with the second chase group to finish the race in good position.  Melanie, Jenna, Cara, and Rachel all finished pretty much together also in pretty good position.  (Thanks to Jim & Kathi for the Sillwater photos!)

In all, our final results are as follows:

• Anna – 11th GC
• Leah – 22nd GC
• Jenna – 38th GC
• Cara – 40th GC
• Melanie – 42nd GC
• Rachel – 44th GC
• Team Classification – 6th

So despite the crashes, weather, and general difficulty of the race, the team rode awesome!  A huge thanks is due to our three awesome host families, who made our stay pleasant and comfortable.  Here are Judy and Rachel with their host family kids!

John Columbus, our mechanic, was amazing and got all of our bikes (and new ones when some broke) in great working order each day.  And of course, major thanks to Don and Maggie Williams who run the team for their endless and amazing support!

Up next, Anna McLoon, Rachel, and Judy head to US Elite Road Nats.  Leah and Cara are off to Canadian Road Nats.  And Melanie and Jenna are going to play in the dirt at the US Pro XCT MTB Subaru Cup this weekend.  After that, the team heads to Toona and Cascade.  Stay tuned!