Durango DEVO coach Elke Brutsaert, DEVO U19er AliciaRose Pastore, RMCF’s Teal Stetson-Lee and Vixen Racing’s Darien Harvey are on a road trip together to tackle the New York World Cup and the World Championships the following weekend in Canada. SOunds like a good time for sure! Here’s what’s going down….
“So, we are at Windham and the course is great!!!! Roots, rocks, techy wooded sections both up and down and short 20 min laps. In has been raining a ton here recently, so the course is muddy. Teal and Darian are also with us and we are all staying at Onawa Pelham’s family house about 5mins from the venue. They are awesome and have been extremely giving and kind to us. Good Peeps and have a rad house. They said Durango has been great to Onawa, so they feel compelled to take care of us. Onawa’s dad is one of the course builders. He is a “wood” expert, so has made all the ramps and bridges to navigate many wet and gooey quagmires, which is essential, as the Mnt is very wet and constantly seeps water in certain areas.”
“Alicia and Teal pre rode today and then I joined them for a closer and slower inspection of the DH part of the course. We sweet talked our way onto the chair lift, so we could get back to the top of the course without riding. Thus getting in more of the course inspection without getting worn down.”
“Alicia will be racing the actual UCI Jr race! We initially did not realize that their was such a category, but we now have it all sorted and she is in with the Real deal WCXC instead of the local armature race. This means she gets to ride the course during training time with all the honcho WC senior pros and see how they do their thing on the course. Also, this means she gets a taste of international competition the week before worlds in Quebec. Many of the federation teams are here with their national teams for worlds…so its not just a pony show. These are the real live Clydesdale’s and race horses from over seas.”
“Now we are heading back to the Pelham residence…a sweet cabin/home made by Tom Pelham himself. Chickens and all! Did I mention how cool the Pelham’s house is!”
-Elke
From DairenH
The Olive Garden Story: Once upon a time there were four hungry cyclists wandering the isles of an Albany grocery store. Alicia, Teal, Elke, and Darian couldn’t be bothered to spend another 5 minutes deciding on ingredients to make a fourth dinner for the week, so they decided to go out that night instead. After exiting the store, they loaded $200 worth of groceries into their clown car ( which was already packed to the gills with suitcases, duffle bags, and bikes) and drove off in search of a place to eat dinner. The first establishment they stopped at had a 25 minute wait!!!! Being from the great town of Durango, the travelers were spoiled and not used to having to wait this long for a table. This was unacceptable, so they continued their search in hopes of finding a restaurant were they could be seated immediately. Unfortunately, they were in a city at 7:00pm, right in the middle of the dinner rush. The foursome did not realize this until they drove up to an Olive Garden and saw people standing around outside like a herd of cattle. They now understood that they were going to have to wait no matter where they went, so Elke went in and got one of those vibrating pager things and they joined the rest of the cattle waiting for their turn to eat. The promise of all-you-can-eat salad and bread sticks sounded well worth the wait. The group sat and chatted about the up-coming race until the vibrator/pager went off, and went inside to their table. Where it was FREEZING!! The group perused their menus with chattering teeth and growling stomachs. Dinner choices were quickly made and the waitress came to take their order. Yet she brought some distressing news; there were no more bread sticks. Not only could the travelers not eat all they wanted, but they couldn’t eat ANY! Darn you Olive Garden and your empty promises! Elke, in her never-ending attempt to get away with as much as possible, tried to coerce the waitress into giving us their best appetizer for free. But the waitress wasn’t having any of it and brought some strange dinner rolls instead. The cyclists ate their fill of salad and pasta, paid there tab and squeezed back into the smallest SUV known to man. They had survived eating pasta at an Americanized Italian chain that caters to the overweights masses during the busiest time of night. The rest of the weekend should be a piece of cake.
-DarianH
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