Courtenay Brown

Jill lives in Juneau, Alaska. It snows there, and it's dark there, and it's freezing there, and she is a cyclist.Whoa.Just reading her posts makes my winter rides feel like a Margarita with a pink plastic monkey on the side of the glass.

6:43 a.m.8 blocks to go.too many buses on dark slick streets riddled with hidden cracks, puddles, and metal.little track bike decked with too few lights using last year's waning batteries.little me on top, eyeglasses dripping rainwater.one hand guiding the handlebars.the other hand clutching the morning's prize: a peet's latte.such risk when Starbucks is only a one block walk from work? hell yes.

Revisiting an image from the summer...My victory count is up to 3 for the year! The Albany Crit, where this photo was taken, the Golden Gate Park Cyclocross Race, and Smithers' My Best Race Race! Thanks everyone for the many votes. I plan on providing you with more good race reports in 2007.Speaking of which, we just got confirmation that our ValueAct Capital Cycling Team Training Camp will be in Sonoma, at a sweet house next door to the Chateau St. Jean winery! Our sponsors are the best. It will be held the same week as ToC. So poor us, we will just ...

Whoa Monday morning. After my first big weekend of training for the 2007 season, and as luck would have it the first big weekend of rain, I feel totally and completely out of it. Latte in hand (decaf of course, since I am still deluding myself into thinking that I am NOT addicted!), I sat down at my desk a few minutes ago, sighed, went to Smithers' page to confirm that I did indeed lose the best race race to Jared even though he whined...WHAT?! I am WINNING?! By like THIRTY VOTES?! And the voting goes until 8 PM PST TODAY?!? I had no idea I had so many friends. Or maybe my mom just called ...

OK, at the risk of being accused multiple times (current count: once) of being Reese Witherspoon's character in the movie Election, or alternatively of being a nyerd (current count: twice):Don't forget to vote for ME!!! As of this instant I am ahead of this dude Jared who I don't know, but only by 4 votes.O.K. I am going to go do some yoga to recenter myself for the final push of the competition...

So, I have already posted about this a couple of times... but some dude named Jared is soundly beating me in Smithers' Best Race poll. Gah! I already voted for myself today, but if you are inclined to help me out of my second-place-is-first-loser position, here is where you can vote!I think the poll is only up for the duration of this week, so hang in there, I am almost finished obsessing over this... Next week I will be back to normal. Provided I have adjusted to my new daylight saving schedule by then.

Here is the announcement for our new team next year! Scroll down a little bit and you will see the release about our new ValueAct Capital Cycling Team. Not even the last entry in the news blurbs, which is the spot often dedicated to women's teams and charity rides.They seemed to do a very hasty and thus imperfect editing job of what we actually sent them. They cut out our sponsor list (NOT cool) and left off half of our staff... but the news is out! And we are super excited about next year.Taitt, Martina, and I have been working on this for months. It's been a lot of work, but already it feels so ...

So, you actually can vote for me every day on Smithers' poll for "My Best Race"! Here is where you can vote...

This week, I started getting up an hour earlier, so I could get to work an hour earlier, leave an hour earlier, and ride my bike an hour longer.I am so tired.It's only Wednesday, and it's only 9:33 a.m., but I am finding myself deleriously daydreaming of the Friday afternoon nap I am planning to take today.So yeah, this year I feel like I am experiencing a couple of fall backs or spring aheads or whatever and whenever it is that I spend a week stumbling around wondering why we have to go and change time all around. Thankfully, my rides this week have been lovely and made the worktime grogginess well worth it. ...

... BUT: Vote for Me!Smithers is hosting a "my best race" contest, I submitted my race report from my Golden Gate Park race, and you can vote for my entry here!On a slightly different note, here is a photo Travis took of me in Sunday's race just before the infamous beach run: