A New Direction, Well Maybe

As most people know, I am an avid adventure racer and triathlete, but I like to sprinkle in some road bike racing and trail racing too, I guess I’m kind of an all around outdoors person. In 2010 Trek started a Mountain Coop Team, the team consisted of one representative from each state. I was lucky enough to be chosen for the state of Illinois. I was also lucky enough to be kept on for the 2011 race season. As a Trek Mountain Coop rider, I not only raced for them, but I held group rides, took video and pictures, and wrote about all my adventures and gear reviews on my Trek Mountain Girl Blog. I have been very loyal to Trek and have swayed many of my friend’s opinions about bikes and converted them to Trek lovers.

My partnership with Trek has been great, I do love my Trek Top Fuel and my Superfly, but my reign as the Trek Mountain Girl has now come to an end. Trek has decided to move in a different direction this year and disband the Mountain Coop. It has been a great ride with Trek and I’m honored to have been a part of their team.

Sometimes things happen for a reason, so when I saw that Foundry Cycles was looking for a few good ambassadors for their bikes, I thought why not try a new direction myself. I went out and researched Foundry and found they make some really great bikes. I especially liked the Router and Auger. I’m a mountain bike girl at heart, but would love to try cyclocross in the near future.

The high-modulus CF frame gives the Router the best complete blend of light weight, stiffness, and strength.

After reviewing some frame photos it’s easy to see that each tube and junction has been optimized for maximum stiffness and minimum weight, with smooth blended corners and wide strong radius’s. For instance, the bottom of the tapered head tube brings increased stiffness but tapers quickly toward the top for weight savings.
The internally routed shift cables look clean and eliminate places to snag on branches or clothing.

The wide bottom bracket will provide stiffness during hard accelerations and hill climbing.

A replaceable derailleur hanger provides some insurance for the inevitable trail damage.

The dark subdued colors look amazing, not covered with flashy logos and needless bright eye catching colors.

The Router B1 in my choice for the perfect ride. The RockSHox SID XX is the most amazing fork on the market. Infinite tuneability with the dual air chambers, and so light you will lift it effortlessly over logs and rocks. All the Routers come with 15mm Thru Axle to ensure flex free cornering and ease of threading the axle on and off for travel to the trails. The 9mm quick release is finally dead. The SID on my old FS 26er is still going strong and leak free after years of abuse.

My team has several riders using Stan’s NoTubes wheels, they are lighter than anything else available. Choosing the Arch with X.9 hubs over the Crest means the Router was meant to be ridden hard. The advantages of Stan’s wheels cannot be understated. They set up tubeless the first try, every time. Sometimes even without a compressor.

I’ve never ridden Conti Mtn bike tires, but they enjoy a stellar reputation in the industry. Their black-chilli compound sounds second to none.

The all SRAM XX drivetrain is a solid lightweight and dependable choice. Designed as a system and working exceptionally well together. I’ve never understood why some bike manufacturers mix drivetrain components. SRAM/Shimano spends countless hours and dollars engineering, testing and optimizing their drivetrains to perform flawlessly. Then I get my new bike with mixed components? Why? Lowest bid is my bet, not best performance.

I’ve ridden x.7 and x.9 and found them to perform perfectly. They are even good at absorbing crash impact and trail debris with minimal to no damage. I would love to try an XX equipped bike.

My Avid brake equipped bikes have also been solid and dependable, but if I was able to choose, I’d go Shimano on brakes. It’s not a performance issue. It’s a feel. I prefer the more predictable handle pull on shimano. The next guy will probably say the same about Avid.

I think I would be the perfect person to represent Foundry Cycles. I would give the good, bad and the ugly in my blog post, talk the finer points of Foundry, hold group rides to get novice mountain bikes out and interested in the sport. My busy adventure racing schedule (my Rock Racing teammate and I were 2nd in North America in the Checkpoint Tracker series in 2011) would give my Foundry cycle, visibility to a whole new demographic, that of adventure racers, and believe me adventure racers are always looking for a better bike. Also, the Midwest has so many great mountain biking venues that I ride regularly, my Foundry cycle would be seen by an array of cyclist, who are most often looking for their next best ride. Yep, I would be styling on my new Foundry Router.

I also appeal to the female demographic and aren’t we always trying to get more girls in the sport. To that point I have the appeal to the older generation, if a mother of 3 can do this at 47 years old, anyone can. So let’s get everyone on Foundry cycle and loving the sport. I guess if I’m lucky enough to start riding for Foundry, I will have to change my moniker to Foundry Mountain Girl.

Conquer Castlewood 2011

No paddling, can you believe that, stupid rain. I know what you’re thinking, every race report I have ever written says, I hate paddling and I do, but in a short race where the paddle is just a couple miles, I’m ok with it. I’m really ok with it when it comes at the beginning of the race and can be used for a nice warm-up that keeps my legs fresh for a fast mountain bike ride.


So at this years Conquer Castlewood race, there would be no paddle. The water was up and there was no beach to be found, so the paddle leg was cancelled. I was not at all happy with the circumstances and my teammate, Allan was not happy with the change either, but he is a super fast runner, so I didn’t think it would really make much of a difference to his time. Instead of starting the race paddling we would sprint a 1.5 mile loop, I call it a sprint not a run because that’s what it ends up being. The loop consisted of trail with sand and mud, at one point there were so many people that I was pushed over to the muddy side of the trail and ended up ankle deep in the mud. I kept running with mud and sand weighing my shoes down and my feet kept hitting slimy sections and sliding around. I had been running next to Chuck for the entire leg and then at the mile mark Chuck pulled away, and I chased him all the way to the bike transition.



I was about 2 seconds behind Chuck at the start of the bike, but he quickly left me when we hit the field section. I really hate to say it, but he is stronger than I am. There Chuck write it down, you might not ever hear it again. Since the run was so fast, I was tired and the mountain bike leg just didn’t feel as good as it does coming off a paddle leg. After the loop around the big field I started to get my legs back and turn on the heat, passing a few guys, then my friend Mike passed me, he is always saying how he is slow, he is not slow, he flew past me. The problem was we both got to the steep part of Grotpeter and there was a line of riders stopped and walking. There was no way to ride around them, so we both jumped off our bikes and ran up the hill, then hopped back on and took off. That is when Mike pulled away from me like I was standing still. I was still passing people but at the top of Grotpeter where the trail turns back into the woods next to the road, I caught 4 guys and we were on a narrow single track section, and I couldn’t get past them. I was riding way slower then I should have been, but there was no way around. I finally made it around the first 3, but was still behind one more guy and I didn’t get a chance to pass him until I was almost to the road crossing by the rangers station. I don’t know how much time that cost me, but if I had to guess it was at least 3 minutes. So I turned the heat up again and bombed the rest of the loop into transition. I was in and out of transition in 25 seconds and running back down the trail to the section that was filled with sand and mud. This time there were a lot less people so I could pick a better line. I passed Mike in the sandy section, I think his smoking fast bike time, might have taken a toll on is legs, he looked good, but said he was slowing down. I kept pushing thinking maybe I could catch Chuck, but it never happened. I gave the race my all, but my time wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I really need to get in better shape.


Still I had fun and my partner Allan smoked both runs and the bike, I just don’t know how he does it. Allan, I promise next year I will be in better shape.


Chuck and Megan had a great race too, Megan is my stand in on the Rock Racing team.


Allan and I were in the first wave of the race so after we finished there were lots of racers still out, including my friend Kate. Another friend, Keith and I headed out on our bikes to cheer on our teammate Kate, she had started in the second wave and was running the last half mile to the finish so we rode with her into the finish. This was her first Conquer Castlewood and she was really having a great time doing it. She crossed the finish line with a smile on her face and another great accomplishment under her belt.


This is such a fun race, that I encourage everyone to do it and after the race when you know everyone, it’s like one big fitness party. It’s one of those places that you can stand around, sweaty, muddy, bloody and stinky and everyone around you thinks it’s just normal.

Chuck's Bloody Eye
Ballwin Parks and Recreation, you put on an awesome race!

To read Kate’s account of the race, check out the Super Kate blog.

And a big THANKS to Lori for taking all the great pictures, it’s so nice to have a photographer follow us around and document all our adventures.