Metromint Blog

Off Season Reflections from Florida

12/2/11
by Rebecca Rising, Metromint Cycling Team

This time of year I would normally be anticipating the snow that brings an end to gloriously hilly fall rides. But I am not at home in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California; rather I am in the Everglades of Southern Florida. The bike riding here is completely flat, and the weather is perfect, so off-season riding has thus far been pleasant. Oddly enough, I find myself trying to create unpleasantness, by sprinting up the rise of a bridge over swampy water or turning deliberately into a headwind. I know this is the off season, and therefore time to relax, but relaxation is not all that satisfying. Instead, I think most of us inexplicably need to meet face-to-face with some sort of challenge or adversity. Bicycle racing and training fulfills this need by providing (admittedly self-imposed) challenges on a regular basis. During races, we experience interesting varieties of physical and emotional pain. We ride in nasty, nasty weather. We get dropped and we crash. Probably most of us have wondered, “Why do I keep coming back for more?” Of course there are the good times when the weather is perfect, we feel power going through our pedal strokes, and we win the race. It’s not that the good times necessarily outweigh the “bad,” but that riding to the limit makes us feel alive, healthy, and complete. Metromint water pairs well with feeling alive and healthy, not to mention it helps a little in overcoming some of life’s challenges. I’ve had a few good chocolatemint drinks while struggling to stay awake during an office workday. A really cold lemonmint is a great leadout for the looming 98-degree, 2,000-foot training hill. My supermom sister savors a Metromint after training runs. I need not complain about the overly pleasant Florida riding, because I will soon be going on my first group ride. According to the guy at the bike shop, “What we lack in terrain, we make up for in speed.” What will be the appropriate Metromint for group ride recovery? Maybe orangemint or even a custom-made coconutmint or keylimemint. . .

Finding Routes

10/26/11
by Virginia Solomon, Metromint Cycling Team

Metromint Cycling has its fair share of both PhDs and PhD students. In fact, part of why we’re so awesome must have something to do with the collective eons of higher education present on the team. I speak with some bias, considering that I'm one of them: I started with the team in 2005, and continued in 2006 and 2007 from So Cal, where I am a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Southern California.

Everywhere I have gone, I have taken my bike with me. And it goes without saying that, in every place, everyone I pass loves the dots! In fact, some of them are better at keeping up with the new Metromint flavors than I am. But I think I’m all caught up :). In any event, my bike has been to Ottawa, to Toronto, to Halifax, all over the tri-state area in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It’s come with me to my year working in Philadelphia, where I extended my racing radius to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Bike racing has made all of this travel both harder and easier. Harder because everywhere I go, I need to find new routes, figure out which races are good, meet new riding buddies, etc. But it’s made it all infinitely better as well because I find new routes in each place, and that provides the perfect way to learn a new environment. I race new races, which takes me to places that I would never otherwise go.

Best of all, in each new place I make new riding buddies. At first it can be hard, because if you don’t have one of the kits from the region, people can ignore you. Before long, however, the dots draw them in and we start chatting about the lifestyle we have in common, the diverse life paths we follow, and, of course: Metromint.

My bike and I have been a lot of places, and made a lot of friends; but we’re both ecstatic to be back here in California! I’ll be the one at the races that no one’s ever seen before. Happy to be back home. 

Metromint Giro di San Francisco

9/8/11
by David Kennedy, Northwest Sales Manager

Thanks to everyone who attended and supported the Metromint Giro on Monday. We had about 3000 attendees, and 600 participating cyclists. Our own team, Metromint Cycling, received two 3rd place positions and one 4th place position. It was great to see them on our podium!

In the expo area, we sampled all seven varieties of Metromint, as well as Metroelectro micronutrient water. We hope those in attendance were able to try something new and get one of our cool tote bags!

A shout out to all of our Giro partners: San Francisco Bicycle coalition, The Freewheel, Velo Promo, Golden Chain Cyclists, Rocktape, Pactimo, Cykel, Sports Basement, De La Paz Coffee Roasters, Breakaway performance, Mike's Bikes, Rapha, and Ride SFO. And to all of the Soma Beverage employees who volunteered to participate on Labor Day. We couldn't have done it without you.

Check out our Flickr Photos, photos by John Rafferty, photos by Navi Thach, and this cool video by Matt Reyes:

See you again next year!

 

A Day at the Stage Races

4/20/11
by Lina Martensson, Metromint Cycling Team

One of the best things about bike racing is stage races—a succession of at least three races on consecutive days, where the winner is the rider with the lowest combined time from all the different races. For us amateur cyclists, it's like Tour de France, except shorter and slower!

The riding is definitely fun, but the real appeal of stage racing is that you get to spend a weekend (or more) hanging out with your teammates and meeting tons of fun, new people. Let me give you an example from a race a few weeks ago.

As a European living in San Francisco, it may come as no surprise that I don't own a car. The best part about this is that I have to carpool to races with no exceptions, and I have gotten to know many of my teammates pretty well as a result. Last weekend I picked up the awesome team car, Ella (a snazzy Honda  Element!), along with teammates Tina and Johannes, and we drove (in style) to the Central Valley for the Madera stage race. Four bikes on top, one inside, three cyclists, and a bunch of wheels and other accessories all in one, blue-dotted car. Pretty sweet!

On Saturday morning, as we were loading our bikes for the first race, a man approached is in the hotel parking lot and exclaimed "Metromint is the best water! I love it!" to which we joked "Yup, we don't drink anything else. It's why we're so fast!"

But the conversation didn't stop there. The Man told us about his favorite trick for keeping cool in stuffy, dry, pollen-filled hotel rooms. He brings a humidifier with him on road trips to help with sleep apnea, and when he starts to notice the room dry out or heat up, he adds a little Metromint to the humidifier. So, not only does Metromint taste great, it also cools rooms, fights dryness, and cures snoring. No wonder he loves it!

The race weekend ended up being awesome: one 1st place, five top-10 finishes across the team, and a few new friends to boot.

Hosting the Giro di San Francisco

9/8/10
by Jenn Chan, Marketing Coordinator

This was my 2nd year planning the expo area at our Giro di SF and I’m happy to report that it was a smooth operation! Weather is a key factor in planning outdoor events so I was very excited when I found out there was a sunny weather forecast for Labor Day weekend.

A fun expo involves vendor participation and this year our expo area was filled with The Free Wheel’s bike support service, Giant Bike’s 2011 race bikes, De La Paz iced coffee, Bear Naked granola, Flex Power sports cream (see photo on right of me with Flex Power friends), Sports Basement’s lounge area, Rock Tape’s taping station, Breakaway Performance’s consultation, and even a banana costume. Our vendors also sponsored the Giro with numerous prize donations for primes, a motivating component of a criterium. Overall, the beautiful SF weather brought an amazing race day and spectators enjoyed cheering for their cyclists. Thank you to all the competitors, sponsors, and volunteers for making this year’s Giro a success!

Metromint Cycling on the Track!

7/2/10 by Tina Huang, Metromint Cycling

Metromint Cycling is starting to make a big presence on the track this year. We've had top results from Mark Fairman, Rob Meyer, Johnny Cheetham, Kalani Hines, and me, Tina Huang.

Track racing takes place on a banked track, otherwise known as a velodrome.  There are a variety of different races on any given day at the track, with some focusing more on sprinting while others focus more on endurance.  The most basic race is the scratch race: much like a criterium, you race a set number of laps and first person across the finish wins.  Other races, such as the points race, are more complex: you get points based on your placing at the end of each lap and the person with the most accumulated points at the end of the race wins.

Despite the obvious differences between riding the track and riding on the open road, they're actually quite complementary.  While road racing helps to build up endurance (which is really important for the track), track racing gives you that extra jump you need to win during the final sprint on the road. On any given day at the track, each person usually races 3 or 4 times. So there are plenty of opportunities to practice a fast finish whereas you only get a single shot in a road race!

But unlike road racing, track racing happens all the time. In fact, midweek racing is really great for some low key fun.  A group of us usually carpool from San Francisco to the Bay Area's only track (down in San Jose) in Ella, the Metromint team car. While all the commuters are slogging it home, we're mainly thinking about how we're going to tear it up!  One of the benefits of track racing is that everyone is both participant and spectator.  This is important because I think that many of the Metromint Cycling folks I'm closest to I know from the quality time we've spent together at the track.  This year we've had Minties represented at Tue, Wed and Friday night races as well as most of the Saturday Get Ready for Summer races as well as the frequent sprint tournaments.  We even had our own Johnny Cheetham get 5th place in the master's points race at the Testarossa Velodrome Challenge, a race attended by top racers from around the world.

I've learned so much from my teammates at the track.  Like road racing, aerodynamics are really important... so choosing the right position is key, as is choosing when to break away or start that final sprint.  Another benefit is that you often get to race with the more experienced women that you may not get to race with on the road.  For instance, I've raced with my teammate Bess, who has really helped me learn how to move to the front of the pack and pick a good position in the pack.

If you are ever in San Jose near Hellyer on a late summer evening, you should stop by and check out the races!

Metromint Cycling at the Elkhorn Classic Stage Race

9/15/09
by Evan Pickett, Metromint Cycling Team

As the summer fog began to settle in mid-June, ten intrepid Metromint Cyclists set off for the sunny and typically bone dry Baker City, OR—home of the Elkhorn Classic Stage Race.  Elkhorn is a three-day, four-stage race consisting of a 75-mile road race on Friday afternoon, an 11-mile time trial Saturday morning, a downtown criterium on Saturday afternoon, and a 101-mile road race—complete with a Tour de France-style summit finish on top of Dooley Mountain!—on Sunday morning.

After a lengthy drive fueled by the surprisingly satisfying marriage of Metromint and PB&J, we convened in Baker City on Thursday evening and headed out to scout the time trial course.

In addition to the crew from Metromint Cycling, Bev Calder, owner of Bella's Main Street Market (one of eastern Oregon’s most enthusiastic retail-suppliers of Metromint), also entered the race.  Not only was this Elkhorn Bev's first-ever bike race, it was also her first-ever athletic competition!  And because every category of racer rides the same distance at the Elkhorn Classic, Bev was going to be riding just as far as the professional men.  Not only that, she was racing in the same field as the professional women! Nice!

Walking into Bella’s, it’s readily apparent that Bev is a huge fan of locally grown, artisanal, and extremely high-quality products. She stocks everything from jam made in her own back yard to wooden kitchenware crafted by Baker City woodsmiths. The store even has an espresso maker (for when you need that little pick-me-up before a three-day stage race) and an entire wall dedicated to photos from local and professional bike races across the US and Europe. It was pretty cool to see pictures of my teammates and me competing at the Elkhorn Classic over the past two years right next to Lance Armstrong racing up L’Alpe d’Huez… apparently Bev’s been watching the team and felt our photos were worthy of the wall (and the company). It’s always a pleasure wearing the dots and stopping by Bella’s because we not only get to see the shop, we get to hear how happy she is that Metromint has a cycling team and always sends a good crew to support Baker City!

Bev describes her first race: “I've always loved riding for fun but was so inspired by the women I've met at the Elkhorn that I challenged myself to ride the race before I turned 50. At 48, this is my first ever sporting competition as well as my first ever bike race.  I was soooooo nervous at Friday's start and then a little amazed by the pace of the first 20 miles but when the rain hit, and the peloton ratcheted UP their speed at North Powder, I was caught wondering (just for a few moments) why I thought I could do this.  Shortly into the next climb, I hooked up with Zan Gibbs (Sorella Forte) and my race story got lots better! We rode together for the better part of 50 miles, I learned a lot from her and had someone to share a belly laugh with near the crest of the final climb of the day when I realized I was in my BIG RING!  I'm still chuckling about that!”

What’s amazing about Bev was that when she wasn’t racing, she was happy to follow along as a spectator. Bev's support for the Metromint Cycling Team was apparent from street level, with dots painted on the sidewalk and an active cheering section for our riders every time we passed her shop during the crit. The enthusiasm had its effect, with time trial and criterium specialist Phil Mooney putting on a good show and spending much of the downtown race off the front of the pack.

Part of why Bev is so enthusiastic about both the race itself and the team (other than the fact that she simply loves the Mint) is that the Elkhorn Classic has had a distinctly positive impact on Baker City.  Says Bev, “Small communities try a lot of different things to build and sustain their downtown—I personally believe the Elkhorn Classic is one of the best things that has ever been given to us.  Cyclists come all this way to climb our mountains, deal with our weather and so graciously illustrate the beauty of the sport, healthy lifestyles, team work and camaraderie-and they seem to have so much fun doing it!” We bring hundreds of hungry (and I mean hungry), thirsty (and I mean thirsty), early to bed & early to rise folks looking for quiet local hotels for the weekend—come on, what small town wouldn’t love us? But in all seriousness, Bev and others view the race as promoting a lifestyle devoted to nature, simplicity, and healthfulness—all of which the locals hold dear. Don’t believe me? This year, Baker City started “Baker <3 Bikes,” to promote bicycle safety and the health benefits of cycling. I don’t think it’d be a stretch to suggest that this initiative and the Elkhorn Classic are related.

With many of us having done this race before, we knew the odds for Baker City being hot and dry were high … and so we had plenty of cold Metromint at the ready for after each stage.  In all honesty, Metromint's lightness—not to mention MetroElectro's electrolytes! - are a welcome change after going through bottle after bottle of sugary sports drink during races. Some ice, a good stretch, maybe a massage or two, and a few cold bottles of Metromint were just what the doctor ordered for our post-race recovery!

Of course in bike racing the weather almost never does what you think it’s going to do, and, true to form, the last stage pummeled us with a stiff, cold rain—so much rain that the stage was actually shortened due to concerns about rider safety. Although it was tough getting up the final climb, finishing the race was made easier by seeing Bev at the finish line with cups of hot Chai and cookies for all the riders. Thanks, Bev!

Thrilled but exhausted from yet another Elkhorn Classic, the team piled back into their respective carpools and headed back to the Bay Area. It was great seeing the Baker City folks come out in strong support of the race yet again, and we’re already looking forward to heading back next year. Hopefully Bev will put her cycling kit back on in 2010 and join us for another slog up Dooley Mountain! It’s truly inspirational to see someone who so perfectly embodies the slick, adventurous, active lifestyle that we (the team) and Metromint (the product) work towards. We’ll be back for sure.

metromint cycling gears up for home race

8/26/08
by Ryan Parnes, Metromint Cycling Team

Laurie Simonson of the Metromint Cycling Team

This Labor Day Metromint Cycling will suit up to scorch the pavement in the 34th annual Metromint Giro di San Francisco. The team will be up against stiff competition as over 800 amateur and professional riders converge on downtown San Francisco to vie for ten thousand dollars in prizes and a true moment of glory.

Metromint and Metromint Cycling have been working hard to make the Giro one of the best races in California. It is one of only two races allowed in San Francisco, and the short technical course around Levi Strauss Plaza makes it a perfect spectator event. It’s a unique chance for racers to move from the typical backcountry roads and business park courses to the epic downtown showcase of San Francisco streets. The Giro is also the final race in three separate series that determine the best racers in northern California: the (1)Cal Cup, the (2)Premier Series, and the (3) BAWCWomen’s Racing Series.

The events run all day starting at eight in the morning and include an expo area with food vendors and family friendly activities, awards presentations featuring the fabulous Metromint Girls and, of course, delicious and refreshing Metromint water. Banners are lining downtown streets, flyers are up all over the bay area and a radio ad is blaring across the airwaves. The word is out: The Metromint Giro di San Francisco is coming and it is going to rock!

We, in turn, are preparing to rock the Giro. Metromint Cycling has been having a stellar season, racking up an impressive 15 wins, 40 podium placings and over 150 top ten finishes. Yes, the Blue Dots have been stamping their authority all over the Bay Area, but we’ve also been spotted (haha!) in races all over the U.S., from Washington, Oregon and Idaho to Illinois, Wisconsin and New Mexico. Metromint Cycling has continued its proud tradition, helping riders of all abilities to develop into strong racers and good sportsmen. We’ve been learning, training and racing since January, and now we’re all fired up to tear the legs off the competition in the last, and coolest, race of the year.

We’ve had success in the Giro in years past and last year the women led the charge. Julie Baird took top honors in the Womens category 4 race with Melissa Frost right on her heels, and Jane Robertson had a truly inspiring ride to win the Womens 1/2/3 category. We also had seven other top ten finishes to round out those results. Metromint Cycling is all psyched up to outdo our accomplishments from ’07, and not just by winning our categories, but by helping put on one of the greatest races in California!

Related links:
Cal Cup 
NCNCA Premier Series
BAWC Women’s Racing Series
Radio Spot
Website Article

metromint cycling kicks off the new season

3/4/08
by Bruce Johnson, Metromint Cycling

"What is Metromint? Do you work there?" These are two of the most common questions that members of Metromint Cycling are asked while training all over the roads of the San Francisco bay area. The distinctive Blue Dots bring the team a lot of attention. While we don't technically work at Metromint, our philosophies are well aligned: choosing and promoting healthy lifestyles, building camaraderie by working together as a team, and setting and achieving goals through focus and discipline and fun, both on and off the bike.

As the 2008 bicycle racing season begins, Metromint Cycling is putting all the right pieces in place: hours of training on our local roads, coaching from Whole Athlete, technical bike support from Montano Velo and Big Swingin Cycles, and on the bike nutrition from Clif Bar Inc. More importantly, we're building relationships that are a prerequisite to performing well together as a team. The women held their training camp in December, and the men headed to San Luis Obispo in January for their training camp. The all-team camp returned to Petaluma in late-January during the epic rains which flooded many areas in Sonoma County. The sun broke through at the right moment and we had some epic, beautiful cycling both days, taking us along the north coast and through the Napa valley area.

One way to develop as a cyclist and take the team to the next level is to compete in tougher events, against tougher competitors. This year Metromint Cycling is excited about our initiative to travel across the United States and compete in some of the top races in the U.S. which are open to amateur athletes. These include classics such as Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota, the International Tour de Toona in Pennsylvania, the International Cycling Classic (aka Superweek) in Wisconsin, Mt. Hood, Elkhorn and Cascade Cycling Classics in Oregon, and Manhattan Beach Criterium and San Dimas Stage Race in California. Already there have been some positive early results in big races: Fred Stamm and Sean Rhea, both cat 2 racers, headed to Arizona to compete in Valley of the Sun Stage Race. They posted impressive early season results with Fred winning the road race, and Sean taking 8th overall for the general classification (GC). We're excited about the opportunity to take the team to a new level.

One big race that we want to highlight is the recent first ever Tour of California Women's Criterium, held in Santa Rosa, on February 18. Three of our cat 2 women, Jane Robertson, Elis Bradshaw, and Amanda Eaken fired up to put on a brilliant display against some of the best women on the national circuit. You can read about their adventures on our team website.

See you out on the road!!!