Fit Mom's Blog

As always, I’m sad to say that the Redlands Bicycle Classic is over for another year. We always have such a good time watching the races, volunteering our house for host housing, cheering on our friends and neighbors and shopping the expo.

2012 had a smaller number of women participating with a field of only 87 to start, but, we had the amazing pleasure of housing the SC Velo Empower Team and really enjoyed getting to know everyone. As usual, I hosted most of the team for dinner on Friday night with all my neighbors contributing food,  super fun. The best part of this event is the amount of community support the racers get in this town. Everyone donates their time, money to supporting this event which is why it is such a good one!

Back in 1998, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a women’s bicycling camp hosted by none other than Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter. Between these two incredibly experienced and humble Olympic medalists, I had the chance to learn cycling techniques from the best. Today, Davis Phinney was here in our town to accept an award, and Paul was on hand to get his autograph.

My kids, well, they collected “Bam Bams”, Benjamin raced with a smile on his face in my jersey this year,  rode scooters through Bogart Park, we had snow cones and collected Navy gear, basically did lots of kids stuff mixed in with lots of bike stuff.  I truly feel that having them meet, greet, and give up their beds for the racers for a few nights gives them a new perspective on what it’s like to be an athlete.  Also, with the new and improved system for the kids’ races at the Redlands Classic, I think the overall experience for them has been a positive one.

For full race results, please check out the Redlands Classic. 

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Yes, we gave up 1 week of our life, turned our house upside down, emptied the contents of a fridge, and lost a ton of sleep….


However, our children got to meet, greet and play with some of the nicest, most humble bike riders ever. Colby Elliot was our “pit crew” for the children’s races, pancake breakfasts and TV watching. My husband loved hearing stories from old racing days and on two nights we had almost the entire Swami’s Team here for dinner. I particularly enjoyed cooking and feeding everyone and just having some very lively company around. Almost all the out of town racers at the Redlands Classic are housed in host housing and I feel that we were the lucky ones.

For more information on the Redlands Classic, click here.

And, good luck to all of you Swami’s Team members I hope you’ll make it to the big leagues SOON!

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I love this time of year! The Redlands Bicycle Classic started Thursday and we are a host family the duration of the classic. Our team is a composite team put together solely for the purpose of the Redlands Classic. There are three very interesting veteran racers; Dirk Friel, Anton Villatoro, and Alexi Grewal. And, then there are five very young racers who are just starting out in their career with hopes of becoming the next big racers! Last night, I made dinner for most of the team (Large pot of non-paleo pasta, sweet potatoes, and fruit and they ATE it all!! I’m quite certain they are going to EAT the entire contents of my fridge before Sunday. It’s been a blast for us to have so much extra life around here and my kids are having a ball meeting and greeting them! We will probably continue to be host families in the next years, it’s just too much fun.

In addition to being a host family, my school also was lucky enough to have four of the women from the Peanut Butter and Co. team make a visit. All of my elementary students got to hear about each of the women’s cycling background, how they came into racing their bikes and how much peanut butter they get to eat! My students were thrilled and the best comment was “well if you’re bike is made of carbon fiber like an airplane, can you fly on it?”

Finally, we are onto Saturday, which has the best events of the week- the kids races and the Criterium for the mens and women’s teams. Both children had a fun time racing their bikes, although, I’m kind of mad at Shimano for not sponsoring the kids races with medals this year! Why was this year different?  There are well over 300 children participating this year, it gets promoted all over town and in every elementary school.   Yes, my kids do it to win, but, also they know from prior experience that they will get a medal at the end!!  To them, it’s the reward they get for doing it.  Regardless,  the Redlands Classic is one of the few bike races where children of all ages actually get to participate.  It’s been a great opportunity for the entire community to come together and let the kids race too.

Life is good and busy!!

This post has been edited.

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The Redlands Classic is quickly coming to an end and the racing has been amazing! My friends and I have been out an finding fantastic adventures with our children all the while watching the races. We love it. Friday was by far our best adventure as we took the kids on a big hiking adventure all in the name of spectating!

We hiked to the top of a “castle” to get a view of the Beaumont Stage Race with the kids.

We went searching for bear tracks!

The boys competed in their individual kids’ races!

We got to watch the professional women’s criterium race- featuring Amber Neben and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg.

Yes, entertaining our children sometimes will include a snow cone!

Rachel and Tammy (A Mom in Red High Heels) get together for a photo while our children are on the climbing wall.

Now, off to enjoy the rest of the weekend!

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