2010 Blogs
This weekend the Luna Pro Team did our best to rule the East Coast. My teammates were in New York for the Windham World Cup where they threw down. Meanwhile I was in Boston, MA teaching people how to jump on and off their bikes! On Friday afternoon I drove from my dad’s house in Vermont to Roz Puleo’s house near Boston, MA. Roz is a selfless ambassador and founder of the Boston Team Luna Chix. She was the mind behind this clinic and organizer extraordinaire. I arrived about dinner-time on Friday and we quickly hopped on their motorcycles for a tour of Boston and a delicious seafood dinner. I couldn’t have brainstormed a better way to spend my Friday evening!
The next morning was an early wake-up to arrive at the venue for set-up and a recon of the course we had to work with. Roz arranged for a course to be cut for the clinic…the organization was really flawless. I brought my CrossPropz with me and these became instrumental to the riders who had never seen barriers before; they are truly an amazing learning tool. The cap of attendees to the clinic was reached at 30, each individual paying $20 to go to the Breast Cancer Fund which I am proud to help send some dollars to. Once everyone had arrived we went for a little warm-up spin. However, unfortunately I was leading the warm-up spin, missed the turn for the course and ended up taking the crew on some technical mountain bike trails with roots and rock drops. Wups.
With that fantastic introduction to the day we did some stretching and chatting before jumping into drills. We were lucky to have an array of ages and abilities, from 8 to 61 years and from ‘never been on a cross bike’ to those who could show me a thing or three! Everyone stayed well-fueled with Clif Shot electrolyte mix and an assortment of Luna bars. Fortunately these goodies, supplied by Team Luna Chix kept the 30 women focused and energized through my demonstrations and gab.
When I felt the competitive energy was at its low and the ladies were becoming too chummy I decided to throw some elbows, smack talk, and speed into the equation. I had a couple competitions on tab and the incentive to win were generous donations from Pedros and Ahnu! The winners of the competitions would receive their choice of a Pedros ride kit, a pit cleaning kit, or their choice of Ahnu shoes! This spiced it up again and you could hear the trash talk muttering under their breath.
The energy was contagious and I am chomping at the bit to race. As I said “Ready, GO!” I wish I had a heart rate monitor to see how the butterflies were flowing. There were some brilliant questions asked which made us all think and strive a little harder. Everyone walked away with bellies and pockets full of Luna bars, a something-something from Pedros, a smile and sunshine on their faces, and hopefully a tidbit of new knowledge about cyclocross.