Thank Yous!

Some special Thank Yous are due after this trip:

To all of my family who are all keeping track of my results and circulating the news, all of your undying support has been amazing!

Debbie for the bike box and helmet.

The Spike guys for the ride to t-town.

The t-town boys for helping me out.

"Speedy" who allowed me to stay with him numerous nights at a hotel and at his home, let me store bikes at his house, picked me up at 2am in the morning after my return from Fitchburg, and transported me around as needed when I was there.

To Allie and the Cheerwine girls for driving me to Fitchburg with about 10 minutes notice, and for their help at the races.

Megan G and her crew who feed me at the Fitchburg race...without water hand offs at that race I would have been done for sure...

Billy Elliston for the ride back to t-town from Fitchburg.

My dad and Mike E. for their help at Seven Springs and for putting up with my demanding needs...I tried to remember that they just hadn't ever done that before, but I still need some work...sorry guys!

Barb for letting us stay at her home all week during superweek in WI...such a nice women.

My team mates for all the help at superweek. Massages from Brit and Aldo...food...housing...etc.

Mike Livingston and Ray Dybowski for their daily calls to check in on me and see what was happening.

Dales emails full of encouragement and advice!

Cullen for all his amazing support, sending whatever I needed and loaning out only the nicest of his own equipment!...I am spoiled rotten!

Dee Dee for her continued support. The chart she put together was amazing and she knows so well how to take care of a rider and gives priceless advice!

Everyone who wrote emails or comments, it was such a nice pick up to hear from you!

O my... there are so many people who are a huge part of any successes I have. THANK YOU, I apologize I can't list everyone individually but you are all so important and invaluable. I love you all and thank you with all my heart!

love,

kacey

What happened...

Alright, sorry this has taken so long. I have been waiting to get a chance to sit down and write a big wrap up of everything...and it still hasn't happened. So anyhow the last day of racing was Sunday and I won the stage...with a little twist. Myself and another girl broke away from the pack and were able to hold them off to the finish. She asked me with a few laps to go if I wanted to cross the line together and we agreed on it. She had done a lot of the work in the break away and although I was confident I could keep her wheel, I didn't want to use her draft for the last 2 laps and then just jump her in the sprint to finish. I am new and it will only help me to have friends in the peleton...so that is the split second decision I made. I know there will be plenty of sprints...and I plan on winning more of them. To explain, I got the winners jersey because technically according to the cameras my tire was a hair in front of hers. The points for the win placed me in 5th for the overall series, which was pretty good considering my mishap in the first day where I gained no points.

The entire month of experience has taught me a lot. I made a ton of mistakes and just tried to pull as many lessons from them as possible. I not only learned about riding and racing but, also gained more life experience that will be invaluable on my adventure through life! I can't emphasize enough how lucky I am to have such a great support network. Yes, I did well and produced some good results, but there were also some rough races that I didn't do so well at and some times when quitting just seemed like it would be so much easier...but quitting is not an option, not in my book anyhow! All the traveling and being on my own also brought times of loneliness and confusion over what I was doing and if it was right. All the support, letters, calls, etc. from everyone was so nice to have and helped through the ups and downs. I thank all of you so much, you are all a huge part of any successes I may have! I know that what I am doing is making me so happy and I have a passion for it! Few people get the chance to compete at this level and love every bit of it...all the training, pain, burning...knowing the feeling of defeat and pain makes victory so much sweeter! So the plan is to train hard and continue to learn and gain more victories!

love,

kacey

quicky

Wow...100degrees today...super crazy hot to say the least. So my energy level is pretty gone. Just to let you know I placed 8th yesterday and 4th today. Hopefully I will move up a little in the standings but i'm not sure yet. one more day of racing and i will be back home and ready to hit the track. see ya!

1st criterium

Yesterday was the first crit of the series and it was on a flat square course. The race was fun and fast. I jumped a little too soon in the end and ended up without a wheel to draft off of and pulled in at 11th place. I was hoping to keep it in the top 10 but nothing I can do about it now. From what I can tell I'm sitting at 7th overall. Todays course is one I road on last year and had a hard time on but did well. From what I remember it is a really fun course, so we will see how fun I think it is once the race gets started! I'll let ya know how it goes as soon as I get a chance. Take Care.

4 days left

Well...my legs are feeling alright this morning. I'm hoping they will hold out for the next 4 days of racing. From here on out I think most of the races are critirium courses which means short, quick and fast. There will now be sprint points awarded thorugh out the races which brings in another element. It will be interesting to see how much the ladies decide to push the pace in the next couple of days. Everything in general is going well and I have no complaints other than the few mechanical problems I'm having with my bike. The plan is to put a new part on today before the race that will prevent the problem I have been having with dropping my chain...so lets pray it works. Then I won't have to be nervous about switching gears during the races for fear of dropping my chain. I am sitting at 7th place overall right now and I'm planning to improve that standing over the next few days as long as my legs hang in there with my will and my heart! I probably won't have the energy to write after the race today because it dosn't start until 4ish. Anyhow if I don't post things and you want to see the results you can go to: http://www.internationalcycling.com/results.php and click on the links for results under pro/1/2/3 women. Hope all is well with everyone and I'll talk with ya all soon!

Wednesday race

Late...tired...10th place today, little mechanical problem but getting that taken care of tomarrow. I'll try to write tomarrow morn. Love ya all!

A little bit of time...

Well, the internet here seems to be working well at the moment. So let be back track a bit. I don't think I ever mentioned how beautiful Seven Springs was! It was so wonderful to have my Dad and Mike there for help and to drive myself and Megan around. Megan is a girl I originally meet at the Rochester NY crit and then again saw at Fitchburg. One of the women who was with her team feed me in the feed zone at Fitchburg, which was absolutely priceless. Anyhow I offered for her to stay with us at Seven Springs if she could get a ride and she took me up on it...great new friendship! Congrats to Megan on her awsome finish in the top 5 of the U23 women for the national road race...very strong rider! I've already got her excited about getting on the track!!! Nationals is at the same location next year, so if I return I will be more prepared for the hilly/mt. terain. Following Seven Springs my trip to WI went very smoothly, unlike the gray hound trip to Seven Springs, which wasn't so much fun, but was a great learning experience! Now I am here in WI with two of my team mates (Renee and Kelly) and we are planning to race as much of superweek as our bodies can possibly handle! The host house we are are is beautiful and in a great central location to all the races so that works out very nicely! My race today isn't until 3something so the plan for the day is eat, put my legs up and chill. Maybe go to the store to pick up a few things, but that is about it. Gotta be ready, I want to get some more good results and make you all proud! So many people come here and just race for who knows what reason, I guess so they can say they race bikes or something. But me...I race to win, I'm not interested in a pack finish. I don't know if I will be able to out sprint these girls now, but I'm sure going to try! And I'm sure I will get them eventually, I'm young and still have lots of learning to do. Thanks again to everyone for your support, it really keeps me going through the rough spots...never forget that! All my love, kacey

Proving grounds race

Well...as usuall I am tired and need to go eat and then lay down, but I actually got some pretty good new for today! I took 2nd place in the 95K road race today after being in a break that got caught with 3/4 lap to go on a 9.8mi course. Anyhow it was a good confidence booster for me and I plan to stay on top of my game for the remainder of the week! Today was rainy but tomorrow is suppose to be wonderful weather so i'm looking forward to that! If this internet decides to work tomorrow morning I will write more but it has been on and off so no promises. I love you all!

Quick Update

Alright...so I just wrote a whole bunch and when I tried to spell check, it all got deleted. So I'm going to rewright a few things and the spelling will probably be horrible, but what can I say... Last Friday was the criterium at Seven Springs and I got myself in a bad position during the final lap, finishing 5th rather than in the top 3 as I should have been. The Road Race was saturday and although the course was beautiful it was very hilly and difficult. I ended up with a DNF(did not finish) as I decided to stop rather than finishing in a place that wouldn't matter and wasting my legs when I knew I was headed to WI for a week of racing. Today was the first day at "superweek" in WI and it was the harder road race of the series, a few good hills but not too much compared to my last couple weeks. Anyhow I dropped my chain and at that time the group broke up and I never got back onto the main pack. I did finish the race, but it was more like a trining ride with a few other girls. Anyhow hopefully tomorrow and the rest of the week will bring better results. I have been a little low on confidence lately, thinking that these other girls are just so strong and questioning myself, but I know I am just as stong and have just as good a shot as anyone at doing well. So tomarrows plan is to keep my head up and just race my bike the way I should be. Thanks for all your support everyone and I will see ya all soon! love, kacey

Seven Springs

Well after returning to T-town following Fitchburg I just hung out at Speedy's for a few day and did recovery rides. Wednesday brought some interesting problems. Short of it all basically is that I was told I could rent and car and had everything set up and then they realized a few mistakes had been made. So I was left with no way to get across PA...but I was able to figure it out and the good old greyhound bus was my only option. So I got to ride on the bus from 12noon until 8pm arriving in Pittsburgh, where my dad and Mike picked me up and we drove the additional hour to the resort near the races. Boy was I glad to see my dad and Mike! So great to have such wonderful support here...and a car to get around in!

My Time Trial was at 11:27am this morning. I ended up taking 4th in the womens U23 category, losing to the 3rd place girl by only 3 seconds. The course was hard and almost always going up or down hill. Thanks Cullen I had the best looking wheels there riding a Hed3 tri-spoke in from and a ZIPP disk in back! Cavenders also let me use the aero helmet! A big thanks to everyone for all their help and support.

Sorry to be so short, I just wanted to let you know what is going on...but I'm tired and really need to get to bed because the critirium tomorrow morning is early and I need to get some sleep! See you all soon! love, kacey

Back to T-town

I guess I should start by updating everyone on the race yesterday. Thankfully it was only 25 miles! We did a criterium race in downtown Fitchburg on a pretty fun course, 28 quick laps around with some sprint laps in there. My legs didn't feel up to it when we started but I just prayed they would warm up and pull through. Sarah Ullmar got way off the front and her team did a little blocking, which worked out nicely for her as she almost lapped the field. The racing was still good an fast though. In the end I held my position in the top 5 of the pack and then one the back stretch of 1 lap to go I managed to get myself on 2nd wheel coming around the final corners! After rounding the final corner I sprinted for the line but got passed by some of those darn pros up the final stretch and ended up getting 6th place. I need to work on that whole sprinting thing and the gearing to use in the process. That gave me a final overall finish in the stage race of 16th place. Had I done better in the mountain stage it would have been nice to have held a better overall position, but at least I got in the top 20, so I'm pretty satisfied about that. After the race got pretty interesting...

The ride back to PA that I was suppose to have fell though and they didn't end up having enough room...bummer. So for awhile it was a little crazy trying to figure out what I was going to so, but thankfully when I returned to the dorm area there was guy who stayed in the building across from me who was headed back to a place close to the track. Then Speedy very kindly meet up with us at 1:15am in the morning to get back to his house!

From here on out things should run pretty smoothly, all I really have to do is make sure I have a ride to Seven Springs and then from there my dad will be there as support and will be able to drop me at the airport so I can fly to WI and then I will have the team and support there before returning home.

Thanks to everyone again for all your support and kind words, ya all are really keeping me going! love, kacey

Good Morning

Hello, Hello, sorry about the delay on writing but access hasn't been easy and even more than that issue i have just been simply tired and unable to muster the energy to write. First of all, please don't take anything i write here personally (mom..that means you). i just want an accurate account of the trip and to be able to look back on the truth, it is all just part of the experience! So anyhow, yesterday was the circuit race and the course was not too bad other than a hill we had to repeatedly climb 11 times, and which the finish line was also on. With 4 laps to go i dropped my chain in the middle of the blazing hill, but sense i was near the front when it happened i was able to catch back on after a very hard effort...on the back stretch i was going 29.5mph and not gaining on the pack, so i had to knock it up a few more and jam, but i got there. Coming around the final corner in the last lab i was sitting 6 or 7, which was very important considering the course. i punched it up the hill and was cruising out front for the first part, but my legs hit a wall and i got passed up by a number of girls before the line...finishing in 9th place. That left me at 11th overall. I learned a lot of lessons...probably the most important on is that i should have been practicing and plotting how i was going to play the sprint with gear options in the prior 11 laps, rather than thinking about it as we came around the final turn. So things were going great after yesterday! And then...

The mountain stage was, well to say the least very difficult. Mentally i was having a very bad day and it took every bit of my power to keep myself in the race. You folks back home and the fact that i wouldn't be allowed to race today if i didn't finish are the only things that kept me going. The descend was fast and fun (55-58mph...easy), i made sure to say toward the front so i wouldn't get caught behind any squirrelly riders. The climbing on the other hand was very difficult. In addition to the original difficulty we got stalled by the pace cars a number of times because of other fields coming by, which just made it hard not to load the legs...i should have put on a 27 rather than a 25 (for those of you who don't know that just means i would have an easier gear that would allow me to move my legs faster at a slower pace). In any case i was in pain a lot, then with one lap to go i got caught up in a crash. One girl when off the side of the road and as she tried to get back on the girl in front of me t-boned her and my wheel went right between them and i flipped over it all, got up, untangled by bike, got on and thankfully was able to catch the pack. Unfortunately i think the one girl was hurt pretty bad, as she was out cold when i left. In the last lap we road the same course but had to turn up a mountain climb at the end. We were all together at the turn for the climb and pretty soon after that the front girls dropped me, my legs hurt so bad. When i saw the 1km sign i wondered if i would really make it, or if i was just going to fall over. Then finally the 200m sign came and i wanted nothing more than to be at home of my 200m velodrome, as i climbed straight up hill i might as well have been going a track stand. But despite all the difficulty i did cross the finish line...finishing in 26th place, which drops me to 19th overall.

O i should mention that i did find a ride back to t-town with some guys. David Wiswell and some of his team mates are headed back that way, so all is good as far as that goes! Well i'm running out of thinking power so i'm going to go for now, see if i can't maybe do some laundry and find some salt to get into my system. Thanks to all of you for all the support!