Let the Traveling Begin

Stage one road race

Peanut Butter teamwork in the crit

Cold, wet, soggy, stage four

I love these girls: Olivia, Alisha, Kmac, Alison, Cari, Coryn, Lauren, Tayler, Katie

Alisha says: I just returned from an almost three week trip to northern California. First, I kicked things off at a four day camp in Santa Rosa. We worked on a lot of skills, ate a lot of really good gluten free food, had an epic day of climbing, and stayed at a really great host house. Our hosts, the Madison's were such a fun family and took such good care of Tayler and I. When we arrived and there were little goody baskets on our beds, I knew we were in good hands.

Part two of the trip took me to Mill Valley for Peanut Butter & Co/Twenty12 Team Camp. It was really fun to have the whole team together. We were spoiled as we got our new Felt bikes, tons of sweet Pearl Izumi clothes, and countless other sponsor swag. It was like Christmas. We spent some quality time in the saddle pedaling through amazing scenery in the hills and along the coast. We also had many very informative presentations from our amazing sponsors. We have some great equipment this year. Thanks to Pearl Izumi, DZ nuts, Felt, Rocktape, Defeet, Clif, Lezyne, Catlike, Oakley, ZIPP, and Peanut Butter & Co.

Part three included traveling to Merced, CA for the Merco 4 Stage Cycling Classic. The first day was a great road race that was both beautiful and challenging. The team worked great to set up our general classification riders for the rest of the week. Alison Starnes threw down an amazing time trial in stage two to move into the yellow jersey. Stage three was a downtown criterium that featured a 180 hairpin turn. The team rode great to defend the jersey. I don't think I've ever spent as much time in the front of a crit as I did during this one :). Coryn sprinted to a second place finish on the stage. The final stage turned out to be a soggy wet road race. I was put to work right away defending the yellow jersey and worked until I got popped from the group when some massive accelerations came. I hate that feeling. Lauren sprinted for third and Alison finished with the group to win the overall. It was a great team effort and a super start to the season. For some better race recaps check out our team blog http://proman-paradigm.blogspot.com/2011/03/stage-1-tetrick-starnes-debut-brings.html.

After the race it was a dash to the airport, packing bikes, delayed flights, and finally getting home at 1:30am. I was excited to see Dave and even teased him that I had forgotten what he looked like :)