The past couple months in Arizona have been amazing for training, racing, team camp, and working on all my projects I’ve got going on.  I haven’t missed a single day of training due to weather (though I hear it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so I guess we’ll see).  I’ve spent so many hours riding on Mt. Lemmon and under the warm Arizona sun I almost feel bad for all those cyclists and people on the east coast huddling inside and sweating up a storm on trainers.  Every weekend there seems to be a local crit so I have taken advantage of some fun early season races to get myself back into shape.

Last week we held team camp here in Tucson so the team could  meet, train and race together before the season really got going.  It was great to spend 4 days riding, hanging out, cooking, watching the olympics, and laughing together in Tucson.  The commitment of my team to fly or drive out for camp is really amazing.

A climb up Mt. Lemmon just wasn’t complete without a team super hero pose

Jenna with just a few of the banana’s donated by Trader Joe’s

On Thursday we headed up to Phoenix where we raced in the Valley of the Sun stage race.  It was 3 days, with a TT, Road Race and Crit.  The women’s field was incredible this year with 50+ pro/1/2, and 70+ riders total.  Not to mention having Lululemon and Twenty16 racing.  It was a hard weekend but so much fun and our team did great for the first race together.  The road race was rollin the whole time with attacks by both teams and every time up the hill a good push to see who had early season strength.  The crit was strung out and fast the whole time.  I think Lululemon was practicing their team time trial cause they were really drilling the pace.  It kept it fun and good for the first real crit of the season.  I didn’t have the best result overall or in the individual days, but I also wasn’t as rested as I normally would be for a stage race.  The other girls did good with Rebecca getting 9th in the TT, Starla finishing 7th in the crit, and Sarah coming in 9th in the crit.  Everyone has a positive day and experience for the weekend.

On my results page you can see the results from these crits and some pics

After the race we found the most amazing taco food cart… somewhere in Phoenix

With so many projects and side things I’ve been working on I have kept myself so much busier then I was last year at this time.  When I’m not out training (and thinking up other ideas to work on), I’m on my computer or phone working away.

Being assistant manager of my team has given me a responsibility for organizing, looking for and talking to sponsors, working with team members and working on our website and social media pages.  I didn’t think it could be a lot, but doing something right and making things happen takes effort and dedication.

Messing around with some of the stuff Scott sent me for the documentary.

The project of this documentary I am working on is something I am extremely excited about and have really dived (is that a word?) in to make it happen and help with production.  It originally started when my friend Brian Solomon approached me to work on a documentary/profile pic of my work as a professional cyclist.  At first I didn’t think much of it, but then when he persisted that it could be something cool I was hooked on the idea and started thinking how my story could help promote and share the struggle of other female cyclists trying to make it in the sport.  I have been in contact with so many companies and sponsors trying to find others that may be interested in supporting.

Going out for a workout in the awesome kit Scott sent me… Super green… Super fast!

Coaching has become a real passion and something I have found I am really good at and could sustain me as I pursuit cycling.  I love working with other athletes and through my experience am able to guide and advice people to develop and reach their goals.  I don’t mean this to sound like a promo for my coaching, but I really do believe that having so many years in athletics and now being a professional cyclist helps me connect and understand where someone is coming from and where they wish to go with their training.

So as I look forward to the upcoming months of training, racing, traveling, and so much more I am definitely excited to see what new and exciting things come my way.  I have been putting my season schedule together and it looks like I’ll be hitting some good races, a couple new ones that I didn’t do last year like Redlands, TOAD and maybe Tulsa.  And others that I want to use the experience of last year to perform well and have good results.

AVANTI SAVOIA!