East Coast Post 2.5

View fullsize

Harpoon Brewery, so many options, even Cider for this Gluten Free girl.

After Providence it was off to do a little exploring in Boston.  I learned a few things for the three days I spent there.  Monday I spent half the day sleeping, then cruising around the suburbs for a recovery spin, hung out with  my Cousin’s (by marriage) 3 year old daughter, and slept hard that night.  Tuesday I had this grand plan for a bike ride, after my bike was fixed (remember I had to pit to my "b" bike on the 2nd day of Providence).  I was recommended to head to the Ride Studio Café in Lexington, MA to get my bike taken care of by Mike Berlinger.  Brendan, aka cousin, drove me from Melrose to Lexington and my plan was to go for a ride and do some intervals out there and then ride back to the house. 

First things first, if you are ever in the Boston area, and you love bikes and are addicted to coffee, you HAVE to go to the Ride Studio Café.  This place is the coolest bike shop/café combo I have ever seen (and the first)!  Bellingham needs one, really bad.  Mike took amazing care of my bike and got her back into working order and he even planned a route for me!  He mapped out the route, and we sent it to my really smart Garmin 500 (hint of sarcasm).  I turned on my courses function and went about on my ride.  It was working great, I ended up on a road and the map function told me I wouldn’t turn for another 15 miles, awesome!  About 3 minutes after seeing that I encountered a stop sign, and could only turn left or right.  This is when everything went seriously wrong, I mean seriously wrong, and all of the sudden I was off course, no matter what direction I rode.  

View fullsize

Keytar Bear is his name…so I hear.  A Boston Staple.

Sometimes I like to pretend I know where I'm going, most of the time I have no idea.  I rode and I rode, thinking I was going somewhere and I would find a beautiful marvelous road to do my intervals on.  Then I ended up in some small like town that looked like an easy place to get lost in.  That's when I decided I should call Mike.  He gave me a great road to do some intervals on, it went by the Hanscom airport.  I went back and forth, back and forth, and then it was time to go home.  I was pretty convinced I followed his instructions very well, and I come upon a road that looked quite busy, and wasn't very bicycle friendly, so I went straight across it, and into a line up of cars stopping at some guard shack.  I decided since I wasn't a car, I didn't need stop, and I just cruised on by.  Then I heard a "MAM, MAM, MAAAAAAM, STOP!!!".  First off, I'm not a mam, but I did stop.  Then this man in a full on Military outfit came running at me.  He asked me for some ID and my first response was "well, thank goodness I brought that with me today", because sometimes I forget things like that.  So I dig into my back pocket, pull out my plastic baggie and hand him my WA state drivers license.  He looks at it with a confused look, then says to me "do you have a military badge" and now we trade looks and mine becomes extremely confused and I respond with "a what"?  He quickly responds as he points to his lovely outfit "This is a military base, you need a military badge to enter, you are not welcome here".  I reply "Well, clearly I'm not from here and I'm very confused".  He then asks me where I'm trying to go and he points me in the right direction, yes he tells me I need to go ride on that really busy looking road.  I told him it didn't look very bike friendly and that couldn't possibly be where I needed to go.  He firmly told me it was, he was correct.  I eventually made it back to the shop safe and sound, after having some words with a women on the side walk who told me I was going to get a ticket for riding my bike on the side walk.  

The next part of the journey was getting from Lexington to Melrose, and a journey it was.  I only made a few wrong/missed turns, but eventually (1 hour to be exact) I made it back to the house.  That adventure was really very exhausting.  I decided my next days ride was going to be in circles around the house.  And that's just what I did.

Wednesday was my all time favorite day.  I took the subway into Boston and spent the day cruising the streets of Boston by foot and bike.  We stopped by the Harpoon Brewery, took the subway to the college district (okay I know it has a better name, but I was surrounded by college kids), saw the water, drank terrible Starbucks coffee and smiled the entire day.  

View fullsize

History, or something

View fullsize

Need a good giggle?  Bike Share in Boston, SO MUCH FUN!  As you can see by my face.

Thursday I made the trek to Rochester, NY for the final weekend of racing on the East Coast!

Introducing…GE Capital/American Classic

Its been a long time coming…waiting, er one of the two?!  I have been waiting to make my announcement until I received my kits, I wanted to do a really fun photo shoot in my back yard so I could feel like a super model, but alas, we're all busy and unfortunately I didn't receive my kit until this last week and I did my own photo shoot with my I-phone, a mirror, and a really messy room (because as someone asked "did you try on every piece of clothing?" yes…I did).  I am pleased to announce my new team!  I have been seeing press release after press release from lots of people creating their own teams, and I kept going back and forth on wether I should write up a press release, but then I remembered who I am.  I'm Courtenay, I enjoy blogging, and I'm personal, I want my readers and fans to feel a personal connection to me and a personal blog entry is just what I'm going to do.  So to further a-do let me introduce you to my new team/sponsors, GE Capital/American Classic.  A little back history.

View fullsize

What do you do when you're a relatively new rider who doesn't have many connections in the cycling world, but yet you can consistently finish with top results at domestic UCI races.  You start searching and looking.  I sent my resume out to a few places, and I heard nothing, so I was left to my own devices.  I've been working towards this goal since February.  The first thing was to look for a title and presenting sponsor, after all, racing at the top level requires a lot of financial sponsorship.  Once I found a title sponsor, I knew I would be in need of more sponsors and then ultimately find the best product to race!  

I'm proud to announce GE Capital as my title sponsor and I can't wait to represent American Classic Wheels, leaders of the tubeless technology as a supporting sponsor.  I will be riding their Carbon Tubulars with only the best tubular tires out there, Clement!  I'm so excited to partner up with Clement and race and train on their tires.  I LOVE them, and I can't imagine racing any other tires out there, seriously, they are the best.  Clement has a large line up of cyclocross, mountain, road and gravel tires, and I have ridden almost all of them, and they always leave me smiling.  

Now I realize, I can't just roll my wheels around with out a frame.  I will be ripping around the race course on my Rock Lobster custom frames, American Classic wheels, Clement tires and I can't forget the powerful stopping ability of my RevoX Carbon TRP brakes.  WD40 Bike will keep my bikes squeaky clean all season along with some supported mechanic and pit help of Chris Bondus (heaven sent)!  Squadra clothing will keep me comfortable, cool when necessary and warm when needed, while training and racing.  Clif will fuel my hunger for all things tasty and recovery purposes.  KASK helmets will keep my head safe in a stylish manner.  Thanks to Fi'zik my bum and feet will be the comfiest they have ever been during racing and training (saddles and shoes).  Thanks to the stickiness of Lizard Skins bar tape, my hands will never slip off my bars in the muddiest of conditions.  Spy Optics will keep my eyes protected on the sunniest of days and muddiest of courses.  Last but not least, my heart goes out to one of my favorite local businesses Barlean's, makers of the worlds freshest organic oils (Flax, Fish, coconut, + more).  

A huge thank you for the following sponsors and supporters and their belief in me for the upcoming season; SSC, United Healthcare, Digipen, Kibble and Prentice, The Meltzer Group, and Xelleration.  

Stay tuned for future partnerships!  

The building of a brand.

I'm an Exercise Science major, have been and always will be.  My mind, it focuses on the body, it focuses on human movement, not sitting still, not staring at computer screens, and definitely not marketing.  Actually, I know practically nothing about marketing, but here I am.  I have spent the last six months building a brand and learning to attempt to market myself.  I'm a social person, but I can't ask for things very well.  I know people, but I don't know everyone.  I know how to ride a bike, but I know nothing about bikes.  I'm learning all of this, and it's exhausting.  While I had some great results last year in the CX scene, I don't have that many contacts in the cycling industry.  I don't have age on my side to grab the fans attention, I have me.  Courtenay McFadden, the PNW'er who has been doing this on her own with the help of her CX community for the past two years.  I have the love of my friends and local fans to get me through, and I'm going to make them proud.  

I'm working on building my brand, my name, I'm learning, and boy has it been an experience.  First off, I didn't realize things take time, and not just a little bit of time, but A LOT of time.  I'm talking months.  This stuff doesn't just happen over night, it's email's back and forth, phone calls back and forth, for days, weeks, and months on end.  I'm learning how to be a good rep for businesses and how to sell their product.  I'm learning that sometimes things don't go your way and don't take it personal even though I really want to.  I'm learning that a follow up email can do wonders, or it can do nothing.  I'm learning that if you never ask, you never get, and sometimes, when you think the answer will be no, it's actually yes.  I'm learning that people trust me, believe in me, and see me as an asset.

I'm excited to see where this adventure will take me.  I'm excited to see what kind of brand I can build, and I'm excited to rep every. single. sponsor.

Don't worry, I will tell you soon enough.