I'm a HempAge Girl!

For those of you who are linked to me on my facebook account , you already read about my partnership with HempAge, a super cool clothing company that makes clothing out of HEMP!

AND for those of you who have already asked if i plan to smoke my clothes, just thought you ought to know two things, 1. Hemp clothing IS made of weed, BUT another variety that is not smoked, and 2. Even if it were the same variety of hemp that you get a high from, I doubt that i would smoke it since i never smoked pot - ever.  Hard to believe considering my past lives, but, hey, we all have to have something strange about us!

To read all about the partnership between me and HempAge, CLICK HERE on CYCLOCROSS Magazine's website.

Link to my radio interview with Radio Ara

You can hear a mini recap of my speech thanks to Radu Burtescu at Radio Ara who interviewed me at the International Animal Rights Conference.

CLICK HERE , then click on download at the top right.

It will also be aired again live on the Luxembourg Radio Ara station on Thursday, September 20 from 3PM to 5PM, Belgian time (+1) via live stream by clicking HERE. 

Combo-trip of Ardennes training and Int'l Animal Rights Conf.

pre-talk meal

Last week I was back on the road again - but this time for "pure pleasure", yeah a bit of work done but had a BLAST!

Since we had to be in Luxembourg for my talk at International Animal Rights Conference we combined it with a couple of hilly training days in the Ardennes.

We went to La Roche en Ardenne so we'd have a cute town to walk through in the evenings.  Our apartment was just a few meters from town.  Everything in our housing arrangement was great except for two things. The first was that it was spider-central.  Every few minutes i would encounter one of these creatures from the flying variety to the big thick hairy ones.  The first night i had spider nightmares - no sleeping to be had.  It could have also been partly due to the bed, which was the second thing wrong with the apartment.  The bed was more like a U-shape, where the sag in the middle was big enough to get lost in, or to be a great hiding place for yet more spiders. 

La Roche en Ardenne Castle

Thankfully Jonas came up with a way to minimize the sag by placing the spare blankets on top of the metal sagging beam. It wasnt perfect but at least we didnt have to struggle the whole night to crawl out of the hole.

As for the training, it felt fun to be in the hills again where i could interval myself into the ground.

International Animal Rights Conference was a unique experience.  Instead of giving a talk to random folks who were maybe vegetarian, i was speaking to a room full of animal rights activists (obviously all vegan) with maybe the odd vegetarian here and there. 

It was great to hear that my talk was appreciated and valued.  Based on the questions and comments i heard later, it seems that some of them even memorized my key points!  Again, i totally forgot to record my talk to share with those who couldn't make it there. But i was interviewed by a cool Luxembourg radio station shortly afterwards.  I will post the link here shortly!

THANKS PROBAR !!!

I am about to start yet another season of cyclocross, but first wanted to do a shout-out to  PROBAR, my energy bar sponsor for SEVEN YEARS.  All the accomplishments i have made as a pro cyclist in those years - all the wins as well as World Cup/Championship appearances representing USA - could not have been done without my PROBARs to get me through the workouts as well as the races.  Even now, more than seven years later, I am still amazed by how well the bars work for giving me quick yet long lasting energy while taking care of my health needs.  AND most importantly, I am still excited by every bite - especially with the PROBAR bars as every bite is completely different from the last!

PROBAR represents on bike

To give you an idea of how much i rely on PROBARs, during the 8 hard days of climbing during my last training camp in France a couple of weeks ago, I ate 16 PROBARs (good for long, easy rides), 23 Fruition bars (good for racing or other hard efforts...and snacks), and 17 HALO bars. Not once was i bored with my snacks - which is the first time i can say that about an energy bar line.

THANKS AGAIN PROBAR FOR SEVEN WONDERFUL YEARS TOGETHER !!!!

PROBAR bike (foto:marc van est)

Just for the record, my current favorite flavors are: Superfruit Slam PROBAR, Cherry Fruition, and Nutty Marshmallow HALO