Las Diosas

Morning,

Just got up from 10 hours of sleeping in a bed!  I arrived yesterday at 7am and was pretty much going all day building my bike, getting checked in, going to the 10x offices (the Specialized distributor who is hosting me).   I also did a great training ride (and FIRST time on the bike this year) of 45 km through the city with Carlos, an ex-racer and employee for 10x.  We rode out to one of the new Specialized dealers for a poster signing and group ride.  Luckily Carlos knew his was through the city and is an expert weaving in and out of traffic and finding all the good roads to ride on.  Today is a bit more training to wake up the legs from the winter, another shop visit and group ride in Buenos Aires and then packing up for the flight down to Bariloche to get ready for the race.

The Trans Andes is first, a 6 day stage race with an insane amount of climbing.  I am racing with Jenny Smith (Xterra specialist and mtb racer).  She rides for another large bike company that shall remain nameless, so we have chosen the neutral team name of Las Diosas (the goddesses).  I am not one to regularly call myself a goddess, but this is what all the locals were calling my mostly female Eco Challenge team in 1999 when we raced to a historic 4th place finish amongst mostly male teams. This is the first time I will be returning to the Lakes district of Patagonia since that Eco Challenge.  It is one of my all time favorite places in the world, so I wanted to honor the name I was given so many years ago by the locals.  Also, Jenny and I agree that no matter what bike we’re riding, our collective goal is to encourage and inspire women in all parts of the world to ride, race and explore on a bicycle!  So that’s how Las Diosas came about!

The 2nd race is a local marathon near the town of San Martin de los Andes.  Just a four hour tune up during the 10 day break between the stage races.  During this time I am being hosted by the Argentina Specialized Distributor.  I will be sharing a house with the National team coach and some of his riders.

The second stage race is Tour de la Patagonia (3 days) and I am racing with the super fit journalist, Heidi Volpe.  I met Heidi at 24 Hours of Moab and she writes for Outside Online as well as other various publications.  She’s bringing her a cycling photographer with her, Michael Darter, so we should come away from that race with good pictures and stories in addition to the great training experience. You can check the sites for race updates, but Jenny, Heidi and I will also be submitting race reports to CyclingNews.com and Singletrack.com among others.