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Candice is known for her smile...and breaking legs.
The week of February 13th-17th had us all fooled into thinking we’d have
desirable weather conditions for the Aaron’s Women’s Cycling team training
camp, which took place that weekend. Before I left North Carolina I checked
weather.com to find that we would be riding in 40 degree temps. Not the 70
degree weather we have been experiencing for the previous week, but doable.
I drove the 5 hour stint just fine. However once I reached Jimmy Carter
Blvd. I realized I had to use the facilities. I figured, ahhh I’ll hold it.
I was only 10 miles away from where I was headed. There’s nothing worse
than stopping after being in the car and just getting it done. Not to my
surprise, as soon as I hit the “Inner-Circle” or whatever they call that
thing, I noticed that the traffic was not budging. Needless to say it took
me 1 hour to travel 10 miles. Not bad for Atlanta rush hour traffic. I was
quite relieved to run into a McDonalds.
The girls slowly gathered from all over the country. Mackenzie Dickie
arrived from Mass., and Catherine Powers from Colorado who was already
making herself cozy at Shannon and Jeremy Krupat-Hutchison home.
Catherine’s bag had not shown up with all her essential gear for the
weekend. Nothing ever seems to amaze me with the airlines these days. We
pay hundreds of dollars to get our luggage late or sometimes not at all.
Once the airport trip was complete we all gathered at the house, and
Christmas time began. The start of the season is always the best. We get
to see what our new kits, bikes and schwag look like.
Most impressive are this year’s bikes supplied by Bianchi (Freccia Celeste). They are absolutely beautiful pieces of art and after one ride I realize that this
will be the best bike I will probably ever own in my lifetime. It’s an
exciting fact to realize that all our bikes are handmade in Italy (Reparto Course), and not mass-produced in Taiwan somewhere. I’d like to thank out representative at Bianchi, Lynn Joslin, for not only rounding up a few bikes for everyone, but
also for the Rudy Project sponsorship. Rudy will be providing us with
helmets and eyewear for the year. Also, I’d like to thank Rich Hincapie for
our top quality, smooth looking kits as well as personally driving our order
down to Atlanta from Greenville, SC. We will also be racing and training on
Mavic wheels. A huge thanks goes out to Hank Aaron’s Jaguar for supplying
the team with a car for the 2006 racing season.
Please take some time to visit our sponsors websites listed below.
Bianchi bicycles: www.bianchiusa.com
Rudy Project helmets/eyewear: www.rudyprojectusa.com
Hincapie clothing: www.hincapiesports.com
Mavic wheels: www.mavic.com
Like little kids, we all stayed up late savoring in our new gifts. Thanks
to Chad Strickland and Julie Granger for sorting out all the kits so that we
would be able to ride in our new gear the coming day, and also for all the
work they have done in securing sponsorship to even have the team.
The plan was to get up at 7am and meet up with the group ride at 9am. Rain was
predicted in the forecast. We left under overcast skies and about 38
degrees, just warm enough to ride. I am guessing we figured we’d make it
back before the rain started. The ride was a good pace, but as soon as we
reached the furthest possible point away from the house, it started to
sprinkle, sprinkle turned to rain. It was Baltic out there. I noticed my
stem was moving to the side, so I yelled out for Jeremy to stop with me. I
had no way of knowing how to get back, being I’m not from Georgia. I
remember some poor girl dropping her chain a little ways into the ride and
no o ne stopping for her, so I knew I needed to call out for his help,
otherwise I’d be left for dead just like her. Jeremy graciously halted his
ride to attend to my bike, (thanks Jeremy), while I put a rain jacked on
(thanks Catherine). There was no way we would catch back on and we knew it.
Luckily Creed was straggling behind and pulled us most of the way back
into town, (thanks Creed). This was a definite day of Thanks on my part.
By the time Jeremy and I returned to the house we were frozen solid. Our
legs were stumps, feet drowning in there own pools of water, and hands were
numb and utterly in pain. It felt as though if I were to hit my hand on the
table it would shatter into a million little pieces. They have never hurt
so badly. I immediately jumped in the shower. The other girls had not made
it home yet, they ended up waiting on us but we took a short cut back and
beat them home. By the time they returned I was warmed up thanks to a hair
dryer, and a bathroom that currently all the heating ducts in the house pour
into. Poor Jeremy headed out to retrieve the other girls. He found them
and brought them home, where they all eventually warmed up.
We then headed off to lunch with Micah Rice our General Manager, and owner
of Spin Sports Inc. We went over Aaron’s sponsor information and expectations of the season. We also stopped into Outback Bikes our local bike shop sponsor in
Little Five Points. Thanks to Peter, Nate, and the guys there for taking the time to build our frames.
Dinner was next on the agenda. Some of the girls on the team I had not met
brought over dinner. I could go on and on about dinner time. There was
much laughter, but I’ll keep it short. So, for dinner it was:
Lee Anne Asbury- Crazy woman with perm-a-smile, and terrific story teller.
Dan- Leeann’s husband, does a great impersonation of a guy named
“Chizzle”???
Julie Granger- AKA Betty Crocker. This girl can cook and bake.
Kari Bradley- Sweet as can be.
Tracy Sproule- I’ve heard is known for her ability to tell dirty jokes.
It was a wonderful dinner and especially so because I didn’t have to cook
it, or even clean up. I guess I shouldn’t give my self up like that, but it
was nice, and I’d like to thank the team for catering to us this evening.
The next morning we were out and about on our bikes at 8am to do our team
action photo shoot. It was freezing cold out. It took us about an hour to
finish up. We had planned on doing a 5 hour ride, but that quickly turned
to 2, and then straight into a coffee house, where we all chickened out.
Jeremy and Catherine were the only 2 brave enough to venture out. We
chilled at the house for a few hours till it was time to head over to one of
the Aaron’s Corporate Furnishings warehouses for our candid shots. There we
met Don Lange who is one of the bigwigs. I think he was pretty impressed
with our goofiness at the shoot. Thanks for taking the time to come out and
visit with us Don. I had to jet early to get a start on the road back up to
N.C.
Until next time!!! Candice
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