VeloNews recently brought me on board as a monthly columnist. My first piece was published at the beginning of the week. You can read an excerpt here and then click the link at the bottom to read the whole thing.
Rewind to August 2013 for a moment — after a 15-year career, I announced my retirement from road racing at the Tour of Elk Grove in Chicago. Although I was sad to say goodbye to so many women who had been my teammates, friends, and competitors over the years, at the same time I was excited about the upcoming cyclocross season. Although I had announced my retirement from road, retirement from ’cross was still in the distant future.
In May of this year, I still hadn’t landed a full-time “real” job. I knew that if I wanted to race ’cross on an elite team outside of Colorado, I had to put the job search on hold and commit to racing full-time. With California Giant Berry Farms taking a different approach to the season, it was time for me to move on to another team after a successful and gratifying six years with the program.
I started putting feelers out but wasn’t getting any real bites when I ran into Allen Krughoff, who also happened to be in the same boat as me. The idea of starting our own team was born out of shared circumstances and combined resources.
By mid-June we had a promising lead from Noosa Yoghurt to become our title sponsor and had landed several major product sponsors including Focus Bikes, Enve Composites, and SRAM. The idea of starting our own team had become real and intense. We were committed to not just building a new team that would scrape by, but we were determined to establish a legitimate program that did not cut corners.
Continue reading here.
