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Happy 2011 Folks! Thank you for subscribing to and taking the time to read our newsletter. We hope you will share it with your friends, family, and team supporters. Over the winter, we’ve been growing new wings, training, building the team, recruiting support, attracting new sponsors, and overall getting super excited about the 2011 Early Bird Women’s squad! We have gathered an incredible group of passionate women to fly the Early Bird Womens’ sponsor colors for 2011. Our team roster has 13 riders, who include our two Junior riders, Megan Dellavalle, and Caitlin Scheder-Bieschin, as well as our new Mentor, Sandra Miller who used to race at the professional level in Australia 10 years ago.

Back left to right: Julia Hillengas, Cybil Silberman, Megan Dellavalle, Kate Furtner, Sandra Miller. Front Left to Right: Caitlin Scheder-Bieschin, Katie Styer, Director Laurel Green, Andrea Carlson, Annie Bacon. Missing from photo are Beate Heckner, Chavon Rosenthal, Jacky Schuler, and Robin Quarrier.

We would like to congratulate our two junior riders for their college plans next year. Caitlin Scheder-Bieschin was accepted to Stanford University for the fall of 2011, and Megan Dellavalle has been accepted to the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a combined academic and soccer scholarship! We've got some brainy bike racers among us. On deck are two awesome team events: a field trip to Hellyer Velodrome to learn about track racing, as well as a community service event at Glide Memorial Soup Kitchen in San Francisco. We plan to field racers at many of the upcoming early season races, including Madera Stage Race and Copperopolis Road Race. Please come watch us race! We would love to meet you, race with you, ride with you, and share our excitement with you for 2011. Dig in and enjoy our inaugural newsletter.

See you at the races,
~Laurel

Join us Friday, March 4th at West County Revolution Bike Shop in Sebastopol from 6:30 to 8:30PM for our 2011 Team Launch. We are thrilled to present you with a dynamic squad of 13 women who come from a variety of backgrounds, passions and cycling experiences. Come and meet the members of the Early Bird Women’s Developmental Cycling Team, team sponsors, friends of the team and our Board of Directors.

For more information on this event or to RSVP, please email Laurel Green.

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Remember that wearing leg and arm warmers when riding in temps below 70 degrees can actually prevent fatigue and injury by keeping muscles and tendons warm. This allows the body to use its energy to ride and train instead of creating heat to stay warm.

When the race starts, get a good wheel and keep it. Remember that if you are not advancing your position in the field, you are losing your position. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward in a fast moving pack.

When planning out your race day schedule, work your daily itinerary back from the start time of your race, making sure you arrive in plenty of time at the race course to have a thorough warm-up. Arrive at the staging area 5-10 minutes before the start of the race. This will allow you to place yourself strategically on the start line, as well as line up with your teammates.

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San Bruno Hill Climb:
Cybil Silberman: Cat 4 women, 3rd place

Cherry Pie Criterium:
Cybil Silberman: Cat 4 women, 1st place
Caitlin Scheder-Bieschin: 2nd place Junior Girls 17/18

Snelling Road Race:
Caitlin Scheder-Bieschin: Junior Girls 17/18, 2nd place

Merced Criterium:
Cybil Silberman: Cat 4 women, 4th place

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February 11-13th was a fantastic weekend for our annual Team Camp in Monte Rio! We found a wonderful vacation home to house the entire team and even had a photo shoot on Friday night with local photographer Kate Burgess of K2B Creative. We woke up to a chilly Saturday morning and had a great ride with lots of climbing out of Cazedero, up Fort Ross Road, down Meyers Grade, and down the coast to Coleman Valley Road. That got our legs loosened up in more ways then one!

Annie Bacon sporting our new team kits on Highway 1.

Pace lining back to Monte Rio after a long day in the saddle!

Katie Styer at Team Camp, done with her race, and rolling back to camp

Saturday night was focused on team building and included a presentation about the importance of our sponsors and how to help market them, discussion on the Northern California racing circuit, and goal setting for the season. Sunday brought awesome weather for doing a race simulation with the support of Richard Stone, our generous sponsor. We raced over hill and dale up to Healdsburg and back. What an incredible day it was. These women know how to ride hard for sure!

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The race season is just underway in Northern California, but the Early Bird Women have been busy training together and working on skills since late last fall. In addition to several group rides for new and returning team members in the fall, the Early Bird Women were treated to several clinics focusing on topics such as: nutrition; an introduction to racing and race strategy; and vital skills (which included pacelining, cornering, climbing, descending, pack riding, emergency stops, and sprinting.)

At a cornering and nutrition clinic the Team was treated to have Starla Teddergreen, a professional racer on Vanderkitten-Focus, join and share her insight along with Director Laurel Green. At the sprint clinic, the Team learned and practiced the fundamentals of sprinting and lead-out trains from none-other than Larry Nolan, a world champion sprinter. In December, the team held its annual team-building and goal-setting event. Here team members were able to get better acquainted while off the bike and yet have some quality time on the bike to further practice cornering skills, show there stuff in two team trial practice races, and visit sponsor Bicisport Bike Shop in Petaluma. Northern California saw quite a bit of rain in late 2010, but the Early Bird Women were undaunted in their enthusiasm to get out and ride together in the puddles and raindrops.

Early in 2011, the Early Bird training series began. This series, organized by Laurel Green, Laurie Fenech, Larry Nolan, Daniel Smith, and Matt McNamara, is a unique opportunity for cyclists to review skills in a clinic and then put them to practice in a mock criterium that follows.

The goal of the series is to help racers learn and practice fundamentals of road racing early in the season so that they have a springboard from which they can continue to develop. The team had members present at each clinic and the award goes out to Jacky Shuler for perfect attendance!

Here’s a quote from Jacky: "The Early Bird Racing Series gave me the rare opportunity to experience racing before the racing season begins. I learned some essential skills in the clinics and was able put them to practice in a real race environment. I also learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses so I know what to focus on during my training."

This series gave new racers their first experiences in a criterium race setting as well, with experienced mentors riding in the pack to guide racers on safer and smarter techniques.

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