Taylor takes the start line of the Women’s Open with 9 other tough ladies
I may have knocked out more “firsts” on this day than any day of my life prior. So, as you read on, keep in mind while I may be describing an experience that is common place for bike racers, I am likely engulfing you in details because it was a magnificently (or repulsively) fresh sensation to this Cat 4 everything. Continue reading
The women of Team Laser Cats were proud to REPRESENT and WIN the Lone Wolf Cycling/Bicycle Coalition #bikePHLdirt photo contest. We love to shred off-road, and feel so lucky to have so many great mountain bike trails right within our city! Most of all, though, we were happy to show our community that women love getting out on the trails and have a blast doing it. So appropriate that a great photo by Michaela of Roz riding in the Belmont was picked as the winner! Continue reading
Number plate secured, cloudy steamy skies above
I know better.
That’s the refrain for my first foray into the world of Cat 1 XC mountain bike racing. It means a lot of different things, though. Let me explain. Continue reading
Photo by God & Famous http://godandfamo.us/blog/
A vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire.
Like the stuff of legends, Red Hook Crit polarizes opinions instantaneously. You either think it’s the most idiotic ridiculous fake race ever, or you actually know what it’s about: an event that requires courage, confidence, and extraordinary skill. Yes, it’s on brakeless track bikes on a crit course. Yes, that is unusual. Yes, I don’t recommend it for an average joe who happens to ride bikes occasionally. However, the next person who tells me that it’s a “glorified alley-cat with a bunch of untrained amateurs,” or that it is a race that is “adding risk, for the shear sake of having the risk” – if you’re brave enough to say it to my face, you will encounter a dark, dark side of me that you’d best leave alone. Yes, it is dangerous, but so is every other bike race. I have felt safer in the Red Hook Crit women’s fields than some as a result of the high caliber of women racers who participate.
OK, rant aside now: you guys, this weekend was just really fucking awesome. Continue reading
Yesterday the Laser Cats got an amazing, ebullient text message from Sophia who was SO JAZZED on endorphins after doing her morning road work. That is 100% how I felt after going to my first-ever Belmont Thursday night mountain bike race. Through a years-long perfect life storm of weird work hours, injury, and surgery/rehab, I’d never been able to attend. In a weird way, I was kinda ok with this: the Belmont can be super intimidating and it seemed like it would only be more so when shared with a bunch of fast trail wizards.
I’ll admit it has been a mission of mine for some time to make peace with the Belmont; to gain some semblance of competence and proficiency with it. Continue reading
As a roadie-turned-cyclocrosser, I never really learned how to do logs. Sure, over the years, I’d gained enough confidence on a bike to sort of haphazardly roll over the little ones that cropped up at races, but I always envied my mtb-turned-cyclocrosser friends who rolled over logs like they were so many feet of flat pavement. This needed to stop! Continue reading
At first I wasn’t excited to register and race due to a long winter of general laziness but I thought it might throw some motivation my way if I had something to work towards. Just two days before the race is scheduled, I come down with a solid sinus infection, so all expectations for the race went quickly out of the window. Continue reading
Elisabeth “Grindcore” Reinkordt, Laser Cat spotted in the wild by photog Jules Benson
After relocating from the epicenter of endurance backroad racing (Lincoln, Nebraska, home of Gravel Worlds) to the much more urban Mid-Atlantic last fall, I was excited about all sorts of new racing and riding opportunities and meeting all sorts of amazing women to ride with (hello, Team Laser Cats, Women Bike PHL Devo Squad, ladies of Arrow Racing, and so many others). However, I knew I’d miss getting up at the crack of dawn (or well before) to spend all day on the bike, pushing that odometer over the 100-mile mark. Continue reading
I’m going to start this report off by telling you two things. First before Sunday I hadn’t ridden my track bike since last summer and second I didn’t really want to race my bike. Seems like a pretty winning combination right……… yeah not so much. But thanks to some pressure from one of my best friends (thanks Erin) and the incredibly nice FREE registration for women sponsored by Redbeard bikes in Brooklyn, I registered to race. Continue reading
Team Laser Cats 