We had a great week with Amy Shreve and her Specialized Designs for Women demo truck. We had a party for all our sponsors, a bike demo for all our friends showing off all the Specialized womens bikes, races for women and kids at our final Race Like A Girl event, dinners and drinks and dancing, and we even had time to help Amy get her very first tattoo. Thanks to everyone who joined in or helped!

CHECK THE PHOTOS.

This week, PRC is excited for you to meet Amy Shreve and see a wide variety of Specialized Designs for Women products! You can join PRC and Amy at the Ritual Café, downtown Des Moines, on Wednesday evening between 5:00-9:00. Test ride a Specialized bike or just look at all of the products and clothing they have to offer women. We’re hoping for a great turnout so we hope to see you there!! On Thursday, we’ll host our final Race Like A Girl event at Union Park in Des Moines. We’ll have our usual oval-lap omnium races for women and men, along with a free kids race following the event. Get that bike ready!

We asked Amy a few questions to get to know a little more about her…

PRC: Where are you from and what do you do?
Amy: Originally from Mandan, North Dakota – about 5 miles from the capital, Bismarck. I’m the Central D4W Demo Coordinator for Specialized Bicycles. What I do is drive around the Central US and put on bicycle demos, women’s clinics, attend some charity rides and races and promote the Designs for Women line from Specialized. It’s awesome, I love my job!

PRC: Why is your job the sweetest job in the whole universe?
Amy: Because I get to talk about cycling all day, get to hang out at the coolest bike shops around, meet the coolest people on the planet and ride in the sweetest places!

PRC: So do you get paid to ride everyday?
Amy: Well, not every day – but pretty close!

PRC: What is your most favorite bike in the Specialized line?
Amy: The Era Marathon because it makes me feel super fast on the singletrack and its efficiency when climbing, because I like to climb!

PRC: What is your favorite movie quote?
Amy: Very niiiiiice. - Borat

PRC: What bikes are you bringing to ride?
Amy: I’m bringing quite a few bikes. Twenty-two to be exact: Sworks Ruby, Ruby Expert, Era Marathon, Sworks Safire, Era Comp, Safire Expert, Safire Comp, Dolce, Dolce Elite and Vita Sport.

PRC: Is it hard to pick up guys in a 20ft van?
Amy: Heck no! The thing is like a flippin magnet! What guy wouldn’t want a girl who drives a van with geared flowers on the side, and full of bikes?!

PRC: What is the most played-out track on your Ipod?
Amy: Well, before starting the job I invested in satellite radio. So, I have this guilty pleasure of Dance/Techno, that would be XM Radio’s BPM on channel 81. What can I say, it keeps me awake on those long drives throughout the central US. But, If I had to choose one song…(sigh) it would be the remix of Disturbia by Rihanna.

PRC: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions Amy and most of all, welcome to Des Moines!!

You can check out Amy's profile on the Specialized Rider's Club

PRC rounded out the season by sweeping another state championship. This time in Pella the crew took to the criterium. And tactics were the name of the game. In the cat-4 race Ana's late race breakaway with Lacey Douglas proved to be the right move. She took gold just ahead of Lacey while Maria was able to out sprint the field for third. In the cat-1/2/3 race it was a PRC sweep. Kelli, Chris, and Jane taking the top three spots. Chris attacked the pack first, 5 laps later Kelli bridged across to make it a 2-woman team time trial to the finish. Leaving Jane the honor of sitting in, and winning the field sprint. Congratulations ladies!


PHOTOS FROM THE STATE CRITERIUM

2008 PRC State Championship Medal Count:
Jane: 3 Gold (RR, TT, TTT), 1 Bronze (Crit)
Maria: 2 Gold (C4TT, TTT), 1 Bronze (C4 Crit)
Kelli: 2 Gold (Crit, TTT)
Ana: 2 Gold (C4RR, C4 Crit)
Chris: 1 Gold (TTT), 1 Silver (Crit)
Emily: 1 Silver (C4RR)

KELLI'S SECRET TO SUCCESS

Which way do you tilt? Kelli tilts to the right. Emily and Maria tilt to the left. Chris struggles to get even the slightest bit of angulation in her tilt, but it's there. While Jane and Ana are full-on ambitilters. Of course, we're talking about the rare phenomenon of head tilting while getting your photo taken. We can't explain why this happens, but on the rare occasion when someone notices you're about to take their photo, they tilt their head. Perhaps it's to show their good side. Perhaps they worry that their head is not in frame. Or maybe, like dogs, they're really, really interested in whats happening. Eiher way... it's very rare. According to our stats it happens about 1% of the time. Very rare indeed. Like spotting Bigfoot.

A head tilt is not to be confused with a lean or counterbalancing your body. A head tilt is a pose all it's own, where the person being shot is making the (sub)concious decision to tilt their head for no apparent reason. Check out our pretty awesome gallery featuring the ATTACK OF THE TILTED HEADS!

Have you had a chance to visit our friends at the Harlot Clothing Company? No? Well, what are you waiting for. Jennifer Steketee, the president of HCC, has a great selection of active and loaf-around-the-house clothing. One of our favorite pieces is the pink beaver T.

Yeah, you read that right, the pink beaver T! Why is this our favorite piece? Well, Jennifer explains it best, "When we first started this company, we jokingly called our unique padding system the Beaver Comfort Zone. Over time, the name stuck. Then we thought, why not beaver t-shirts? Most people loved them. Some people told us we were going to hell. That made us want to make more beaver apparel. We added beaver hoodies and beaver socks. Of course, men kept calling and asking for men's beaver gear. We added that too. Our Beaver Collection continues to be some of our best selling stuff, year after year. The prudes of the world are aghast."

So there. Visit Harlot Clothing Company and get yourself some wicked cool beaver gear!

Emily, you are such an awesome girl to have around... we love having you as part of PRC. You're a great friend, you're driven, capable, and you can be a royal smart ass sometimes, which we like. Happy Birthday!

Emily on Diet Dr. Pepper

August is state championship month in Iowa and we're doing our best to take as many gold medals as possible. We've already nabbed the Team Time Trial as well as Women's Open and Cat-4 Road Race. Today, in Nichols, we took home two more golds winning both categories at the State Championship Individual Time Trial. Over the 40k effort Jane took the Women's Open title with a time of 1:02:09 and Maria topped the cat-4s with 1:03:32. Congratulations ladies!

Our next state championship is the State Criterium on August 23rd.


PRC State Championship Medal Count:
Jane: 3 Gold (RR, TT, TTT)
Maria: 2 Gold (C4TT, TTT)
Kelli: 1 Gold (TTT)
Chris: 1 Gold (TTT)
Ana: 1 Gold (C4RR)
Emily: 1 Silver (C4RR)

It's worth it to note that when the Olympics come around a lot of not-so-popular sports make their way to national television in the US. One of those not-so-popular sports is cycling... or more appropriately, women's cycling. Correct us if we're wrong, but today's road race, won by Great Britian's Nicole Cooke, was the first time women's cycling has made national television since, well, since the Olympics.

Monday is PRC Night at the Iowa State Fair! If you're hanging out at the fair this Monday- you could witness any number of PRC girls eating fried foods on a stick or completely forgetting that there is a world beyond the beer tent. Monday night. Iowa State Fairgrounds. Wear your leather vests and jean shorts, or jean vests and leather shorts... whatever works.

Specialized has sent us some great information about the 2009 women's shoes... our favorite is the BG Pro Road Shoe (pictured). This shoe is completely redesigned, the new carbon sole uses TorsionBox technology, ranking an 11.0 on the stiffness index (even stiffer than the men's S-Works shoe). They're lighter weight with an easier to use buckle, replaceable heel tread, and as expected the shoe is designed for women with a tighter heel cup and more shallow toe box. Thanks Specialized, can't wait to give these shoes a try. ($260)

It turned out to be a fabulous weekend! I was so ready to get back on my bike and race again I really didn’t think it was going to be bad, but one usually has those pre-race jitters, so I was not sure what to expect. After a wonderful night with Emily and her family in Muscatine we got a bit of extra sleep before heading to West Branch Saturday morning. Unfortunately there were only 8 of us in the Cat 4 division but it was a strong group of girls none the less. The race started out with a brief neutral zone through town where Maria found the one tack in the road with her brand new tires. With the noise she was making I was sure she was having shifting problems that would be easily fixed, so, we kept on going.

The race was a 27 mile loop of which we did two. The seven of us remaining girls started a rotating pace line and pretty much kept it throughout most the race until Emily nearly ran over a Basset hound. Oh it was the funniest thing. All of us girls were going through this race totally focused, not saying a word to each other, when all of a sudden Emily is swerving all over the road and Kristin, from DMOS, rear ends her but manages to stay up right. I couldn’t see what was going on until I looked to my left to see this chubby little pooch trotting in the other direction trailing his “leash” behind. Anyways, after that we all became close friends, jabbering and joking away. We safely made it through the feed zone and town to start our second loop.

We continued on through the second loop in our rotating pace line. Going up and down the countless hills and working hard to hold our lines in the wind. Emily and I talked a bit to find out how we were feeling and decided our legs felt pretty good but we were not sure how good in comparison to the others. Soon we approached the longest and steepest hill of the loop, I shifted down into a comfortable gear, put my hands on top and just cranked my way up. I was so focused on just getting up the hill strongly that I didn’t look back. At the summit I continued on feeling pretty strong when I heard Emily up behind me, “Hold up, their right behind you”. So I slow my pedaling and look back only to see Emily powering up to me screaming “Go!”, apparently my hearing was a little off.

So off we went and for the remaining five or so miles we pushed it pretty good. Taking turns drafting off each other and doing our best to not lose ground. It was brutal and there is no way we could have kept our lead and gained even more distance without each other. As we quickly approached the finish line Emily asked how I was feeling and at this point I figured we would cross at the same time. But as I could see the finish line Emily was creeping ahead, so the finish turned into a sprint. I thought I was going to puke and my legs were totally shocked that I would even attempt to sprint. It was fabulous, Em and I were so stoked at how the whole race played out.

This race was a great experience for how road racing should be. Long, tactful, and super Fun!

-Ana

Nearly 100 degrees and one of the most challenging courses in Iowa awaited the Punk Rock Cycling team this past weekend. Jane and Kelli raced in the Women's 123 category, while Ana, Emily, and Maria raced the Women's Category 4.

In the Category 4 field Ana, Emily, and Maria faced a daunting 54 miles in the August heat. The race kept a steady tempo and on the longest climb of the day Ana and Emily attacked (roughly 8 miles from the finish). The attack put the two in front on the climb, and they held it all the way to the finish line. Ana taking gold, Emily grabbed silver.

Jane and Kelli were settled in for a long 81 miles, and for a majority of the race the pedals were never turned in anger. In the final 15 miles it came to a showdown between two teams. The two from PRC and Kim Eppen and Robin Williams (both of Mercy-Specialized). The four duked it out with attack after attack, Kelli was the first to lose ground forcing Jane into a 2 vs 1 scenario. But with great patience and perfect tactics the final sprint came down to Kim and Jane... and Jane took the win. Landing herself the gold medal of state road race champion.

This marks the first event where PRC has had the fortune of taking first in both the cat-4 and cat-123 races. Congratulations ladies!

Shimano is launching an electronic shifting system for high-end road bikes that it claims will vastly improve performance and reduce maintenance. By replacing the conventional levers that pull wound-steel cables through protective housings with solid-state switches and rubber-coated wires, there's no chance for road gunk to clog things up and interfere with shifting, or, for that matter, your post-ride beer. Read the article HERE.