Get to Know Nature Valley Pro Rider Stefan Rothe
June 15, 2011Stefan Rothe had the best time of the Nature Valley Pro Ride team at the Stage 1 time trial this morning. He is 14 sceonds down in the Top Amateur competition and in 37th place in the general classification going into tonight’s Downtown St. Paul Criterium. Get down there and cheer on the team!
Tulsa Tough > Minnesota, NVGP
After some racing down in Texas over Memorial Day Weekend we wrapped up Tulsa Tough yesterday. My team had some highs and lows, with a “crashy” Friday night but some good sprints by Jason Waddell to place Top10 twice in a stacked field of 130 guys. Cry Baby Hill was crazy, as usual, or maybe even rowdier and more crowded then the years before.
Party on “Cry Baby Hill”. Can you spot the P/1 peloton?
(Photo by Lyne Lamoureux. Check her website for full coverage of the race.)
Now I’m “back” in Minnesota for another edition of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. … Read More
Blog: http://stefan-rothe.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @stefanrothe
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Meet Nature Valley Pro Rider Scott Simmons
Who I am and Why I race!
The Nature Valley Pro Ride
Balancing being a full-time husband and weekend bike racer can be tough…. I am married to a wonderful woman that allows me to play bike racer on the weekends without to much grief. As long as the yard is mowed and the trash gets taken out on selected days all is well in my world!
My name is Scott Simmons and I won a spot on the Nature Valley Pro Ride by winning the Fayetteville Texas Stage Race held in March. I work a full time job with usually 45 hours a week to pay the bills. I work for a communications company in Fort Worth specializing in hospital fiber optics and phone system installation. I have recently also started to coach as an associate for www.coriovelo.com. When not to busy with work I try to squeeze in 20 hours a week on the bike. … Read More
Blog: http://vmoracing.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @rideascott
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Kowalski’s Markets Collegiate All-Star Team Rider: Missy Erickson
June 14, 2011I’m preparing for my first pro stage race. It’s exciting and scary at the same time. When you hear that Olympic and World champions are going to be there pushing the pace and racing with you, that’s exhilarating and terrifying, but it’s an honor. Since I started racing a bike, it’s been my goal to be a professional rider, to race all over the world, to wear a USA team kit. It isn’t an easy sport to be in. Being a college student, we wake up, got to school, take exams, go out and ride, maybe at 8am, or 8pm, and we eat, and sleep. Some of us have jobs, some of us don’t. Some of us are taking more than 20 credits, some of us take 12. We are a big pot of randoms, all racing bikes, at one national championship, for a chance to qualify for this event, the Nature Valley Grand Prix.
For me, racing here is like going home. Not only am I from Minnesota, but I grew into cycling racing the amateur crits as a junior in Mankato as part of the Minnesota Bicycle Festival. I rode around watching the pro teams get ready for their event, and was driven to one day race in it. Now, I am finding this to come true.
I feel the pressure of wanting to do well. The pressure of knowing this is our moment to shine. The emails flying back and forth are portraying what a great support staff all 6 of us girls have, and what good hands we are in. I look forward to meeting the staff and members of the Nature Valley Pro Ride teams, and also the other girls who will be racing alongside me.
Now I’m sitting in the Denver airport on my way to Minnesota for NVGP. Wearing the Fort Lewis College jersey and Kowalski’s Markets shorts, I will race my heart out. Thank you to everyone who makes this team, event, and collegiate cycling possible. I couldn’t be more thankful for this opportunity. Thank you for making it possible.
With that, let’s let the adventure begin…
Blog: http://missyerickson.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @MissyErickson
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Meet Nature Valley Pro Rider Katy Giles
June 13, 2011My name is Katy Giles and I secured my spot on the Nature Valley Pro Ride Team by winning the Jefferson Cup Road Race in Charlottesville, VA in May. I officially started cycling racing in 2004 but have taken periodic breaks from racing due to work commitments with the US Navy. I currently live in Solomons, MD, doing developmental flight testing on the new P-8A aircraft at NAS Patuxent River, MD.
Prior to cycling, I was a collegiate swimmer and triathlete (US Naval Academy). My favorite aspects of cycling are: training with my husband (a Cat 2 racer), meeting other cyclists and visiting different places on my bike. Some of my favorite places are: the Bay Area hills in CA, the WVa hills, Vermont, the epic climbs in France (l’Alpe d’Huez, Mont Ventoux, Col de la Forclaz), Sicily and Croatia. I recently joined the Annapolis Bike Racing Team (ABRT) and really enjoy having some motivating, supportive teammates.
I’m really looking forward to meeting and riding with my other NVGP teammates. NVGP will be an amazing experience!
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Meet Nature Valley Pro Rider Tim Rugg: Team Kiss and Hug
June 12, 2011Introducing Nature Valley Pro Rider Tim Rugg, our qualifier from the Jefferson Cup in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has had a similar meteoric rise to some of our other qualifiers this year since he began racing bike in 2008. It sounds like he’s a natural, but he started off just as much of a novice as any of us. Here he is:
Who I am. Why I race. (NGVP – Part 1)
Today marks two weeks until the start of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. My e-mailbox is starting to fill up with updates and excitement from my NVPR coach Marion Clignet and the rest of the NVPR staff. From a joke, to a dream, to a goal… I’m almost there.
PART 1
Who I am.
My name is Timothy Rugg. Most of the local cycling community refers to me as Ruggles. The name doesn’t make, because there’s nothing cute about me. After a fierce battle at Speedweek with a metal barrier, sinus infection, and women in general… the name has evolved into Struggles.
I am a bike racer. I currently race for the Elite National team, XO Communications/Battley Harley-Davidson. I started racing exactly three years ago. I remember seeing Harley at races and group rides and thinking about how awesome it would be to one day get to ride on the squad. It was a feeling much like Dave Stoller’s interest in the ‘Italian Cycling Team’ in Breaking Away. Thanks to a lot of trust, guidance, patience, and no frame pumps in spokes from their riders and team management – I’ve rapidly developed and am now working towards my next step. I owe a lot to getting to ride for this squad and am very thankful for the support the team has given me. … read more
Blog: http://timrugg.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @TimothyRugg
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Meet Nature Valley Pro Rider Jade Wilcoxson
June 11, 2011Introducing Nature Valley Pro Rider Jade Wilcoxson from southern Oregon. She qualified by winning the Enumclaw Stage Race in Seattle, Washington. She has been very active online, keeping tabs on her racing and other activities since the beginning of the 2011 season. Read her story and her post about her Nature Valley Pro Ride berth below:
Enumclaw Stage Race win!!! Nature Valley here I come!!
Wrapped up another weekend of racing at the Enumclaw stage race in Washington this weekend. I was very nervous and excited for this race because the winner gets a trip to the Nature Valley Grand Prix on a composite team directed by Michael Engelman. It’s an awesome opportunity, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. The TT went well and gave me 5 seconds over 2nd GC. I wanted more time, but was happy with the results given that the 2nd place girl was Laura Brown, a track star from Canada.
The crit was wet, slippery and dangerous with a lot of paint and metal covers of some sort on the road. I tried to stay safe on the front as I could tell on the first corner that girls were nervous to ride in the rain. … read more
Twitter: @JadeWilcoxson
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Nature Valley Pro Rider Stephen Mull: Wide Open On A Wednesday
June 10, 2011Introducing Nature Valley Pro Ride coach selection Stephen Mull. He has earned his spot with grit and quick success on the road, as shown in his blog, Wide Open On A Wednesday.
The lead into his first entry is here, and he’s been keeping up on the path to the Nature Valley Grand Prix with successive posts:
Unfinished Business and Catharsis
I did my first road bike race last July. It was the ‘B’ race at Bryan Park–a Richmond institution and fantastic training race (also home to the State Crit this Sunday). Having developed a satisfactory level of fitness for the first time in 6 years, I thought I was going to win, but I finished 8th or so. Shortly thereafter I did my first real crit and road race in Blacksburg, placing 4th in the Cat 5 crit and 2nd in the road race. That’s how it began for me a little less than a year ago, and in less than two weeks I’m going to be racing in one of the most prestigious stage races in the US–the Nature Valley Grand Prix–through the Nature Valley Pro Ride!
Follow Stephen Mull on Twitter @StephenGMull
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Nature Valley Pro Rider Laurel Larsen: My Love Affair with All Things Bicycle
June 9, 2011Streamers
Greetings! I’m one of the Nature Valley Pro Ride riders, and I have loved riding bikes for almost as long as I can remember. My first bike was sea-green with streamers. I remember my dad running up and down the street with me on that bike until I found my own wings. My mom likes to tell the story of how she can’t believe she let me ride by myself to my friend’s house, a whole 0.7 miles away, when I was just 5.
High School, College and Independence
By the time I was in high school, I was riding everywhere around my hometown of Titusville, FL. I would ride 7 miles each way to high school, 15 to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge or the Canaveral National Seashore beyond, within spitting distance of where shuttles landed and launched. These experiences constituted the launching point of my lifelong passion for cycling.
In high school, carless, cycling was my independence. Still carless in college in St. Louis, it also became my means to get groceries and other necessities (or non-necessities, including a small Christmas tree I rode home with senior year to surprise my now husband). College was also when I bought my first road bike, a gently used, royal blue Specialized Allez with a triple chain ring that I still keep around today as a trainer bike or backup bike for when friends come to visit.
Road biking was not my first love, though. I had earlier flirtations with swimming, which I was very serious about growing up, then running, which I was never very good at, and then triathlon. I discovered mountain biking largely by accident in high school and immediately thought it was the most exhilarating sport in the world. I had applied for an Outside magazine adventure grant with some friends and ended up getting the runner-up prize – entry to a multisport adventure race in south Florida. The race involved mountain biking, so to prepare, I ventured to some local trails with my partners in crime. I just remember laughing so hard when one of my friends had an amusing mishap with a tree that I almost peed my pants.
I Can Race My Bike?
Despite loving it, it never crossed my mind to compete in cycling, mainly because I didn’t know anyone who did so and didn’t realize it was a possibility. I would stumble down that slippery slope much
later, after I had completed my Ph.D at the University of Colorado and moved to the Washington, DC area. Immediately after defending my dissertation, I had surgery for scoliosis, which involved bolting an 18-inch steel rod to my spine and removing parts of some ribs. Unable to run right away and lacking access to a cheap swimming pool, I focused on cycling during my recovery. I bought a commuter bike and began riding the 20-mile round trip to work rain or shine.
One thing led to another, and soon I had decided that my husband and I were going to compete in the Mountain Mama century, a beautiful, grueling course traversing the border between Virginia and West Virginia. Having completed that and loving the whole process, we decided to just “try” a road race, and then a time trial. Soon we joined a local team and decided to “try” cyclocross. By then, we were hooked, and the following year, I raced road and cross whenever I was home and a race was happening.
So, that’s how I got into this magnificent sport. In future posts, I’ll describe what motivates me to keep at it, what my goals are, and how I attempt to balance my “play career” with my actual career and
personal relationships.
Meet the Nature Valley Pro Ride Teams!
Nature Valley Pro Ride Teams Announced
The rosters are set for the 13 elite amateur bicycle racers who won spots – “American Idol” style – on the Nature Valley Pro Ride teams, earning the opportunity to compete against professionals next week at the Nature Valley Grand Prix….read more
With the rosters finally set for the Nature Valley Pro Ride composite team, and less than one week before racing begins, it’s time to meet the squads.
Look for their blog entries here in the coming days highlighting their training, racing experience and goals surrounding the Nature Valley Grand Prix. You’ll have a “behind the scenes” look at the preparation that occurs before a premier stage race.
- Scott Simmons – Fayettville Stage Race
- Stefan Rothe – Tour of the Depot
- Alec Donahue – Sterling Road Race
- Timothy Rugg – Jefferson Cup
- Scott Gray – Enumclaw Stage Race
- Brandon Feehery – Memorial Weekend Omnium
- Stephen Mull – Coach’s Selection
- Louise Smyth – Fayetteville Stage Race
- Laurel Larsen – Tour of the Depot
- Amy Miner – Sterling Road Race
- Kathleen Giles – Jefferson Cup
- Jade Wilcoxson – Enumclaw Stage Race
- Jane Weakly – Memorial Weekend Omnium
Meet the Tour of the Depot
April 5, 2011“My experience with Tour of the Depot has always been extremely positive; it never lends to the specialist, but rather the best rounded and strongest rider. It has been one of the best managed and attended races in Utah since its inception, and I expect to see that continuing for years to come.” – Bradley Gehrig (Jamis-Sutter Home)
The Tour of the Depot Stage Race, now in its 4th edition, is a local favorite located out of Tooele, UT which is 35 miles west of Salt Lake City. Run through picturesque Tooele Valley directly south of the Great Salt Lake, the event skirts the Tooele Army Depot, the largest employer in the valley and a major feature in the landscape. With the city of Tooele lying on a slope, there is very little flat terrain throughout all stages of the event.
New for 2011, the Road Race start and finish has moved a few miles south to small community of Stockton, UT, which was Utah’s first mining town founded almost 150 years ago. The Men’s race gets to enjoy the challenge of traversing the Stansbury Mountains on the west side of the valley over Johnson’s Pass, which was part of the original transcontinental Lincoln Highway of the early 1900s. From the summit, the men drop down into Skull Valley and get to experience the vast desolation of the west desert, before returning back over the pass and continuing onto the finish.
The Time Trial and Circuit Race both take place in the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountain on the east edge of the valley, providing challenging and fast courses that allows the top competitors to show off their skills and separate themselves from the pack.
The level of competition has continued to grow as the event has progressed, and being part of the 2011 Nature Valley Pro Ride will help to take it to a new level.
