And so it begins… My life as a full-time cyclist racing in Europe has officially kicked off!  I’ve been in Italy now for the last two weeks; I’ve moved into the team house, met all of my new teammates, gone through a professional photo shoot, donned my new team colors on the Diadora stage at our team presentation, and trained and raced with my new team under the guidance of my new directors.

I have to say that I feel pretty lucky. The team is completely dialed: the sponsors, the management, the staff, the house, the cars, the equipment, the clothing, the riders. The entire organization is 100% classy and professional.

And we are in Italy of all places! Such a beautiful country that I love more and more every time I’m here.  I’m enjoying the scenery and the culture, the food, the language, the terrain, the weather. All is new and exciting.

There is definitely a language barrier between me and some of my new teammates, but it’s all about passion when it comes to cycling. I am learning to read body language and emotion in the eyes of my teammates, and that’s the same no matter what country you come from.  However, I would like to learn the language, so that I can really get to know the riders that I’ll be spending all my time with this season. Like any team I have ever been a part of, I consider the Diadora girls and management to be like family to me.

The energy on this team is incredible. It’s positive and dynamic, and the potential for success is limitless. It is a team in every sense of the word. Riders from all walks of life and many different countries have come together to do what they love most: cycling. And we will do it all year together as a team. We will share the good times and the bad. We will be here for each other. Like no other time in my life, this was clear the moment I met my new Diadora teammates.

Our first big challenge will be the UCI Race Costa Etrusca in Cecina, Italy.  We will field a team of 8 riders. When you hear from me again, I will have raced my first World Cup Road Race: Alfredo Binda. I hope to have some good news for you from team Diadora!

Thanks for reading!

Shelley

Team Training Camp Snapshots

While at training camp, ASI’s Team Marketing Coordinator Milay Glavez got to go behind the scenes with Shelley and her teammates before a team ride and then shot some great pics from the team car.  Check out her awesome photos below!

The Diadora-Pasta Zara House

Jessica Uebelhart suits up for a chilly ride.

Jessica waits while Francesca Stefani straps on her Carerra helmet.

From left to right : Jessica, Francesca, Alona Andruck, and Eleonora Patuzzo.

Team Manager Manel Lacambra jokes about the length of the upcoming ride.

Olga Zabelinskaya adjusts her saddle with the help of mechanic Alex Flavio.

Rachel Neylan and Claudia Hausler smile for the camera.

A close-up of a decal on one of the team’s Fuji Supremes – a road bike made specifically for women and the official bike of Diadora-Pasta Zara.

Olga is off and running.

Amber Pierce is all smiles… before the climb.

Shelley Olds and Inga Cilvinaite work their way up a steep climb.

Shelley and Claudia arrive at the summit.

Shelley points out the incredible landscape surrounding them.

A quick water break before the descent.

An awesome view of what lies below.

Claudia and Olga lead the pack.

Heading home.

Diadora President Enrico Moretti Polegato poses with the Diadora-Pasta Zara team.

Fresh off their first victory of the season with Alona Andruk’s 1^st place finish in the final stage of the Tour of New Zealand, the Diadora-Pasta Zara women’s professional cycling team held their official team presentation at Diadora headquarters in Caerano di San Marco, Italy over the weekend.

Slated to be one of the most competitive team’s this season, Diadora-Pasta Zara’s impressive roster, featuring two Giro Donne winners, positions the team at the top of women’s cycling.

German Claudia Hausler proudly shows off her native flag.

Mara Abbott, 2010 U.S. Cycling Female Athlete of the Year, 2010 U.S. women’s road champion, and the first-ever American winner of the Giro d’Italia Femminile will lead the Diadora-Pasta Zara squad in 2011, along with German Claudia Hausler, 2009 Giro Donne Winner.

Hausler explains that her number one objective for 2011 is to win the Giro.

Other front runners include Americans Shelley Olds – 2010 U.S. Women’s Criterium Champion, Sinead Miller – 2010 U23 Women’s Road Champion, and Amber Pierce – winner of the 2008 Nature Valley Gran Prix.

Fuji Bikes will be the official bike sponsor the Diadora-Pasta Zara team, supplying the women’s pro squad with Fuji Supreme 1.0 women’s specific road bikes and Fuji D-6 time trial bikes.

The Fuji Supreme 1.0

“Fuji had incredible success with Mara Abbott, Shelley Olds, and Sinead Miller on the Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY 12 squad in 2010,” said Karen Bliss, V.P. of marketing for Advanced Sports International, the parent company of Fuji Bikes. “And we can’t wait to see them and their new Diadora-Pasta Zara teammates lead the peloton on Fuji Supremes.”

Another view of Diadora-Pasta Zara's Team Bike

“We are very proud to sponsor one of the most competitive teams in women’s cycling,” added Bliss, a former U.S. national cycling champion. “Many of the women have reached the podium of some of cycling’s most prestigious races. Maurizio Fabretto has put together a tremendous international squad.”

Mara Abbott, with Assistant Manager Diana Ziliute to her right, talks of her aspirations for races in both Europe and the U.S.

Other key athletes on the team include Olga Zabelinskaya (the many-time Russian Champion and European Time-Trial champion), Russian Oxana Kozonchok (2008 Russian track pursuit champion), Australian Rachel Neylan (4^th place in the Australian road race championship), Italian Eleonora Patuzzo (2007 junior World track champion), Lithuanian Inga Cilvinaite (2005 Lithuanian road champion), Swiss time-trial specialist Jessica Uebelhart, and Ukrainian Alona Andruck (1^st in the  4^th stage of Tour of New Zealand).

A local T.V. station interviews Alona Andruk.

The team has decided to dedicate their 2011 season to former teammate Marina Romoli. While training last year, the 2006 World Junior Championship silver medalist was struck by a car and flung over her handlebars into the side window, suffering a punctured lung and fractured vertebra. The horrific accident has left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Marina Romoli announces the creation of the Marina Romoli Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping young cyclists seriously injured in car accidents.

A pink heart inscribed with the name Marina is on all the team cars, as well as on other support material. She serves as an inspiration to the team and her fellow Diadora-Pasta Zara riders vow that she will always be a member of the team.

Romoli made her first public appearance since her June 1st accident.

On Sunday, March 13, Diadora-Pasta Zara made their European race debut in the cold and rainy Trofeo Vannucci, where Shelley Olds sprinted to 4th place. The team will now hold training camp in Cecina in preparation for the first race of the 2011 Women’s World Cup: the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio in Cittiglio, Italy on Sunday, March 27.

Mara Abbott, Inga Cilvinaite, and Claudia Hausler chat after the presentation.

Shelley Olds and Oxana Kozonchok mingle at the presentation reception.

Cake time!

Diadora-Pasta Zara’s Alona Andruk won the 4th and final 112-km stage of the Tour of New Zealand Saturday, beating out Kendelle Hodge (Jayco/Vis) and Emily Collins (Cyclosport NZ) in a sprint finish.

Saturday’s Palnerston North-Masterton course was the same as Thursday’s but backwards, beginning with a big climb followed by rolling fills to the finish. It was a hard-earned victory for the Ukrainian Andruk, as she had to battle heavy winds throughout the difficult course.

A day earlier, in Friday’s 87-km 3rd stage,  teammate Shelley Olds came in 2nd. Diadora-Pasta Zara had top-ten finishes in every stage of the race and came in 4^th as a team overall -  a spectacular  showing for the team’s first race of the 2011 season.

STAGE 4 FINAL RESULTS

Greetings! Or as we like to say in Austria, Servus! Although I live in Austria, I am writing to you from the road in New Zealand, where I’ll be joining some of my teammates for our first race of the 2011 season. The sunny, summer weather is a welcome change after training through the winter months in Austria!

View from the Austrian Alps. Copyright Amber Pierce.

During a typical racing season, I spend nearly eight months on the road, so during the fall and winter, I really enjoy being at home in Graz. Don’t get me wrong; I love the empowering experience and exhilaration of exploring entirely unfamiliar places, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get enough of that fix. But there’s also a part of me that longs to feel settled, grounded, and home. I guess you could say I miss my Heimat. Overall, I think this unconventional profession strikes a perfect balance for me: I travel like crazy during the season, then get to recharge at home during the off-season before doing it all over again.

I live in the heart of the Graz Altstadt (old town), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So I’m surrounded by beautiful architecture and the vibrant Stimmung of city life. There is always something new happening – concerts, exhibits, festivals. And from my door, countless bike paths wind through the city. In less than 15 minutes, I can be on country roads, where riding options range from flat, five-hour rides to climbs of any length or gradient imaginable. The terrain couldn’t be better for training, and the scenery stuns the senses – no matter what time of the year.

View of the Altstadt in Graz as seen from the Schlossberg. Copyright Amber Pierce.

A photo Amber took while riding through the Styrian countryside. Copyright Amber Pierce.

Of course, winter gets quite cold in Austria – a country whose biggest national sport is skiing – so the off-season weather often requires adjustments to my training routines. When there’s too much snow on the ground to ride, XC ski trails offer fantastic cross training. Although I get schooled by every Oma on the trail, I really enjoy XC skiing; it’s a fun way to get fit and embrace Austria’s breathtaking winter landscapes and endearing ski culture.

A photo Amber snapped while cross country skiing above Schladming. Copyright Amber Pierce.

Although we do get our fair share of snow, Styria’s southern location makes the region one of the warmest and sunniest in Austria, so it’s a rare day if I can’t train outdoors, even in the winter. All I need are a few extra layers, a pair of Glacier Gloves, and a good old-fashioned HTFU attitude. That being said, I’m usually knackered and freezing by the end of my ride, so all I want to do is eat and get warm.

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen during the weekends preparing dishes I can eat during the week, especially quick and healthful breakfasts to fuel my training and hearty, post-ride meals I can heat up quickly after a long, cold ride in the snowy countryside.

I love food, I love to eat, and most of all, I love to cook for others.  I consider it a personal passion, but as an athlete, it’s also a very necessary skill because nutrition plays a major role in performance: Knowing exactly what goes into my food is an essential facet of training.

Moving to Austria brought a whole new repertoire of ingredients into play. Although it was a bit frustrating at first, this reshuffling of available foods has provided the impetus for a lot of creativity in der Küche. The markets here primarily offer seasonal and local ingredients, which over the past couple of years, have shaped my cooking and eating habits for the better.

Amber's Bircher müsli. Copyright Amber Pierce.

One of my favorite pre-ride breakfast dishes is Bircher-style müsli. A double batch of this recipe made on the weekend usually lasts me a whole week and packs a nutritional punch with complex carbohydrates, lean protein, calcium, antioxidants, omega-3s, probiotics, and fiber – all in one tasty dish! Here in New Zealand, I’ve been spoiled with fresh, homemade yogurt from my gracious hostess: Kiwi National Champ Cath Cheatley. Lecker!

Below is my basic recipe for Bircher müsli, which you can customize with countless variations.

Amber’s Bircher Müsli

2 cups non-fat, plain yogurt

½ cup rolled oats

½ cup unsweetened, fresh apple juice (Farm fresh Styrian apple juice is the best!)

1 apple, coarsely grated

1 banana, halved lengthwise and sliced

nuts, coarsely chopped (I like toasted walnuts and almonds.)

dried fruits, coarsely chopped

fresh berries*

(½ cup frozen berries*)

Mix together yogurt and oats. Fold in apple and banana (and berries, if using frozen). Thin the mixture to taste with apple juice. The müsli will thicken as it soaks, so at this stage, the consistency should be a bit thinner than you want the final dish to be.

Transfer the müsli to an airtight container and allow to soak for at least an hour (overnight is best).

In the morning, stir the müsli (the apple juice may separate out a bit, but this is normal), and serve topped with nuts, dried fruit, berries or other fresh fruit to taste. You can also add a touch of honey or maple syrup, but I usually find the apple juice is plenty sweet.

*If berries are out of season, add frozen berries to the mixture before soaking overnight; if berries are in season, add them fresh just before serving the müsli.

Mahlzeit!

Amber

Last Thursday was no ordinary day.  Last Thursday was EXTRAORDINARY.

I woke up at 5:30 a.m., and I woke with a purpose.  An early morning means that I can finish my ride on my trainer before 9 a.m. I can then attend Shannon Paige Schneider’s yoga class, which backs right up to Nancy Kate’s at 10:45. And by noon, I’ve ridden, spent hours in the company of my favorite people in the world, and reached a state of complete and utter serenity.

Next, I savor locally brewed Bhakti Chai while admiring the beautiful Colorado snowscape before heading home to organize and play home improvement to the lovely tones of NPR. One more trip to the yoga studio for the third class of the day, and my day is complete.

This is the secret indulgence of living a winter of snowstorms and icy roads: If you get permission from the world to start your ride before the sun comes up, you end up with a delicious amount of day to do whatever you want.

There is no part of me that regrets staying at home for a true winter of training.  Many people have tried to convince me of the merits of a sunny training trip to Tucson or perhaps California.  Even though the flexibility of my schedule as a professional athlete would not only allow for this but also fully justify such an excursion, I find myself unable to leave because I simply love my day-to-day life in my hometown too much to bear voluntary separation.

Yes, the downside of choosing winter is that sometimes, I am faced with less-than-ideal training conditions, but a snowstorm is an easy way to designate a day as special.

I just get up early—a private time of the day before the rest of my house and neighborhood awake, sneak down into my basement, hop on my trainer, and catch up on my reading in the silent morning hours too tranquil to be disrupted by TV.

I have learned that my SRM Powercontrol makes a fabulous shelf for a book.  On my trainer, I have read Pride and Prejudice, Shantaram, Corelli’s Mandolin, and The Namesake.  And how glorious it is to start a day waiting for a radiant Colorado sunrise; there is nothing more spectacular than the reflection of red and gold off of the snow.

After weathering enough snowy days to finish a particular book, I hop on a bus across town to my parents’ house, where my retired library director mother digs out a new literary treasure for me while I munch on a fresh batch of my dad’s homemade granola.  Again…Tucson?  Seriously?  No.

I had a conversation about home with a teammate a few years ago. She had moved to New Zealand and explained that when she got there, she instantly felt a sense of belonging that she had never felt before in any other country. The conversation made me realize how lucky I am to have been born in my true home.  It seems relatively rare; current convention or circumstance seems to disperse us far from our childhood bedrooms.  But the more I try to stretch the roots that bind me to my hometown of Boulder, Colorado, the harder they yank me back to my wonderful family, friends, and community at the base of the Rocky Mountains.

Despite my affinity for snowstorms, I can’t deny that the seasons are changing: Racing has started; training camps have begun. I have not yet had the chance to go to training camp and meet all of my new teammates, but soon enough, it will be time to put on my new team kit and compete.

I am excited to revisit some of last year’s races. It is definitely a huge goal for me to defend my title at the Giro this July.  And I have the honor of getting to do so on an Italian team: Diadora-Pasta Zara.  It seems to me that for Italians, Italy is like Boulder is to me—not only the place where I am from but the essence of who I am.  To be able to ride this season with the goal of winning the biggest race in the home country of my team is therefore such an honor, and I can hardly wait.

One of the things that I like about cycling is that each year is so defined, like a school year marked by a freshman or sophomore season.  Each year of my career has been so different from the other, and I imagine 2011 will be just as distinctive. I will be riding with a team of incredibly diverse and talented riders, many of whom I have never met before.  I will revisit races I’ve raced before, but I will have the opportunity to extend myself to new ones as well.  It is the diversity in my life that I so adore—seasons that prove both challenging and comforting, traversing the new and the old.

Maybe it is the same sort of diversity I’m experiencing with training in Boulder. Last weekend, it was 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and I climbed up all of my favorite summer climbs in the Boulder foothills. Tomorrow, the forecasted high is -3 degrees Fahrenheit, so I plan to hole up in my basement, read Jane Austen on the trainer, and spend the afternoon volunteering for the Boulder Center for Resource Conservation.  Maybe, I will even fit in a visit to the yoga studio.

For the first year in five seasons of cycling, I am not traveling around the world from November to March, racing in the UCI Track World Cups. Instead, I have found a comfortable place to call my home in Europe – Girona, Spain – and I am 100% focused on base training and preparing for the road season ahead.  I am in a beautiful country, meeting new people, exploring new roads.  I am learning a new language, experiencing a new culture, and loving every moment.

This year, I will be racing with my first UCI professional cycling team: Diadora-Pasta Zara.  The team is registered in America but is based in Italy.  It is comprised of some of the most talented female cyclists in the world and directed by the best coach in cycling, Manel Lacambra, and one of the best female cyclists of all time, Diana Ziliute. We have an excellent race calendar, and I am thrilled about the opportunity to compete against some of the strongest riders in the world – all season long. My season will start with the Tour of New Zealand in late February, followed by a huge block of racing in Europe with all the spring classics in March and April.  This will be my first year competing in the UCI Road World Cups.  I am eager to experience what this type of racing is like; sure, I’m nervous, but I am up for the challenge!  These are the races I am most looking forward to.

I have been training mostly on the road with a little track mixed in here and there. I am really enjoying training with other riders in the area – professionals, amateurs, and recreational riders. There has been racing every weekend here since mid-December, so I have had the good fortune of breaking up the monotony of long base training hours with a race every week to test my skills and fitness. The most important thing is that I am doing my job and enjoying it at the same time!

And of course, I am always with my Fuji bike. I feel very comfortable and safe on my bike, while at the same time, I feel I can be aggressive and fast. It’s a perfect combination for a professional rider. Last year, the bike gave me many victories. Soon, I will get the new model, designed especially for women, and I can’t wait to train and race on it.

At the moment, I am focused on racing in New Zealand, but I can’t wait to meet my whole team in Italy for our training camp and the team presentation on March 12.

After the New Zealand Tour, I will write my next blog to let you know how I did!

ABOUT SHELLEY

Shelley Olds is quickly establishing herself as one of the best female riders in the sport. Her victories of the past two years have propelled her into the upper echelon of women’s cycling. In 2009, she took 2^nd place at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, 2^nd at the Giro Donne Stage 8, and 5^th at the Tour de Ardeche Stage 5. She had three top-three finishes at Track World Cup events: 3^rd at the Track World Cup in Manchester , 2^nd at the World Cup Melbourne, and 3^rd at the World Cup Copenhagen. She also claimed the Track National Scratch Race Champion title in both 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Shelley won the Pan American Road Race Championships, the GC and Sprinter’s Jersey at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, four stages and the overall classification of the Tour of New Zealand, and the final stage of the women’s Giro d’Italia.  Formerly of Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12, Shelley has joined Diadora-Pasta Zara for the 2011 season and looks forward to taking her career to the next level.

Before joining the team as sport director in 2010, Lithuanian Diana Ziliute was one of Diadora-Pasta Zara’s (then Safi-Pasta Zara) most accomplished and celebrated riders, racing with the team from 1996-2009. A prolific sprinter, Diana rose to the top of women’s cycling in 1998 when she won two World Cup races, the overall World Cup points title, and the World Road Race Championship, finishing the season in first on the UCI points list. The following year, Diana won the Grande Boucle, one of the hardest stage races in women’s cycling, and in 2001, she won a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics. Throughout her professional career, Diana also claimed stage victories at the Tour of the Ardeche, Giro della Toscana and La Route de France, as well as multiple stage wins at the women’s Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia Femminile. Diana was awarded the Order of Gediminas, a Lithuanian state honor, for her cycling achievements.

Fuji sat down with Diana to discuss her thoughts on the upcoming season.

FUJI: How is training and preparation for the season going so far?

DIANA: So far, our preparation is in the quiet phase, providing a solid foundation to be able to work and proceed with high intensity in the upcoming months. So far, the athletes are still at their homes, gearing up energy for this season in their own environments, where they are most comfortable and can train best.

FUJI: Where do you see your team excelling most in 2011?

DIANA: I think our team will be competitive and successful on all levels: individual time trial, sprint, and mountain. If I were to identify a point of weakness, it might be climbing.

FUJI: What races are you most looking forward to this season?

DIANA: We are looking forward to competing in every race this season, but our main objective is the Tour of Italy.

FUJI: Which riders do you think will grow the most this season?

DIANA: The young athletes like Eleanor Patuzzo, Alona Andruk, Amber Rice-Pierce, and Shelley Olds. And we have a lot of athletes that are already so strong.

FUJI: Who are your other staff members? Have you worked with them before?

DIANA: Some of those in our main group include Manel Lacambra, Flavio Alex Longhi, and Nadia Zuccherelli Antognioti. I think anyone interested in the women’s cycling world knows Manel Lacambra. I’ve never worked with him before, but we are very happy to have him with us. Flavio Alex Longhi is our mechanic. He’s a very good, young man. We worked together last season. And Nadia Zuccherelli Antognioti is our masseuse – very professional.

FUJI: Of the women on the team, who have you previously raced against?

DIANA: I raced against Claudia Hauesler, Mara Abbott, Zabelinskaya Olga, and Oxana Kozonchuk during my career.