Cruzbike Chicks rolling in the highlands

[connie]

The Cruzbike Chicks were once again in the huddle plotting how they were going to tackle a short course with some not too terrible but slightly annoying climbs. Otto, Connie, and Emily were waiting for Rick to join their weekly strategy session when they heard the sound of bagpipes coming their way. Unbeknownst to them, Rick’s strategy was to acclimate to the Scottish Highlands by taking lessons on his newly acquired bagpipes. “What do you think Chicks? I think I’m getting pretty good at this.” And he was; but we didn’t think he should try to carry his beloved new instrument on his bike. “Maybe a harmonica might be easier to take along,” Connie suggested. “It’s definitely lighter.”

Otto tried to tone down the Chicks’ enthusiasm and get them focused on racing strategy. “Coyotes will have a 6-minute lead on us and the Gorillaz will start their Chick Chase 2 minutes after we leave the pen. It will take some serious concentration to pull this one off.” Emily had been doing some calculating, extrapolating, and serious guessing and presented our goals. “The Camels finished in 38.01 minutes. I think we can beat that time — maybe or maybe not. Anyway, let’s give it a go.” All Chicks nodded in agreement and switched from their kilts to their Alpine slopes kits.

When the gate dropped, the Chicks bolted out at a pace that could only be described as “very fast.” Otto set the grueling pace. No one complained. We couldn’t breathe well enough to say anything. The hill climbs were reminiscent of the notorious leg snapper. But we were undaunted and followed Otto’s command to “spin, baby, spin.” We tried to ignore the beautiful Northern lights, the stately castles, and the Loch Ness monster (it may have been Pete’s dragon — they look the same). We just closed our eyes and pedaled like crazy!

After Lap one, the numbers looked pretty darn good; but we decided to see if we could make them even better on Lap two. We did! As all four Chicks crossed the finish banner together, there was much rejoicing as we marveled that our finish time was 34:31 minutes — smashing our goal time.

We had just passed our Coyote friends and didn’t let up our pace. They’ve been known to send one of their fliers after us to infiltrate our ranks. The Chase rules clearly state that all the chasers must cross the finish line before all the chased racers. We managed to hold them off. We were on the lookout for the Gorillaz until the end and managed to escape their clutches once again. As a bonus, we finished #42 in the Latte Class. A record for the Chicks. How will we top this week’s performance? That will be the subject of our next strategy session. Stay tuned!

 

[Jonas1ne]

Another great adventure from the Cruzbike Chicks! The storytelling alone deserves a podium finish bagpipes, castles, Loch Ness monsters, and a full-on chase strategy meeting.
Congratulations on the 34:31 finish! Smashing your goal time and holding off both the Coyotes and Gorillaz is a fantastic result. The “spin, baby, spin” strategy clearly worked. Keep pushing those limits looking forward to seeing what the next strategy session brings! ‍

 

[connie]

Another great adventure from the Cruzbike Chicks! The storytelling alone deserves a podium finish bagpipes, castles, Loch Ness monsters, and a full-on chase strategy meeting.
Congratulations on the 34:31 finish! Smashing your goal time and holding off both the Coyotes and Gorillaz is a fantastic result. The “spin, baby, spin” strategy clearly worked. Keep pushing those limits looking forward to seeing what the next strategy session brings! ‍

Thank you for the praise. I guess I’ll keep writing! Here’s our latest.

Cruzbike Chicks tackle Watopia Hilly Route KOM — again and again.

Yes, you heard it right folks. The evil route planners for the TTT worked hard at causing the greatest amount of suffering. At the Cruzbike strategy session Connie was concerned, “I don’t know. Climbing that KOM once is tough enough. I might die before I can tackle it three times.” “Oh, suck it up Connie.” Emily assured her. “You’re tougher than that silly hill.” Just as we were preparing our plan of attack there was a knock at the door. “Hi Chicks, I’m Jill and I heard you might have room for me on your team.” Otto, Rick, Emily, and Connie just stared in disbelief at their good fortune. “Absolutely!” Otto finally responded. “We’re always happy to have a new racer.” Jill wasn’t exactly new to the TTT or racing with quite a list of achievements on her resume. And with that Jill was a Chick.

We were feeling pretty confident this week and chose to use the speedy Peregrine Falcons as our comp team. They finished at 49:03 minutes. It was a pretty lofty goal but the Chicks are all about lofty goals. Coyotes had a 7-minute lead and Gorillaz were 3 minutes behind. We suspected they had something sneaky up their collective sleeves with such a generous gap. Of course, the main goals were #1 don’t die and #2 have fun.

The Chicks were a beauty to behold as they darted out of the pen. It was a streak of purple and black in perfect pace line formation. Jill was up front along with Otto doing a great job towing the rest of our merry band along the route. All too soon we hit the KOM #1 and the real work began. With much grunting, groaning, massive sweating, and lots of cajoling, all five Chicks reached the banner together, alive, and dreading KOM’s #2 and #3. Rick and Connie protested mildly, “we have to do this again — and again?” “Not to worry,” Otto assured them. “We have this nice downhill stretch to rest up for the next one.” With those encouraging words the Chicks pushed on to complete Lap #1. Personally I don’t think it was much of a rest.

It was time for the final climb up KOM #3. All hands were ready for it. It was time for the motivational cheering squad. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Followed by “I knew I could, I know I could, I knew I could!” And the sprint to the finish line was on. The Little Engine That Could would be proud. We had almost given up hope of catching our Coyotes on lap #3. Finally Emily called out, “Herd alert! I see a line of red and black kits ahead!” We knew they would be pulling out all the stops for the big finish. “Ok folks, it’s show time. Let’s kick it up a notch.” Otto called out. And kick it up we did for a semi-clean pass. Jill had to pause to give them a big ride-on. Before she picked the Chicks she was almost a Coyote this week.

Final results: Smashed our goal with a blistering time of 47:21. We kept looking over our shoulders for the Gorillaz to make their move. Fortunately we didn’t have to battle them to the finish line. It was Jill’s turn to rack up the PR’s tonight. She was elated, “thanks to Otto I now have a PR for my 5, 15, and 30- second intervals.” Otto does that to people. Connie had a PR for the route. The big question was, “Did anybody die?” There were some close calls but every Chick was still breathing after the racing activities concluded. And, of course, I think it’s safe to say we all had fun (almost Type 3). Who’s up for doing it again next week? Take your time answering that one.