In our 12th season, Artemis maintains its mission of developing women in bike racing and giving back to the cycling community.

Our current membership is split fairly evenly between approximately 15 very active racers, some with a multi-focus on road, along with cyclocross, track racing, and/or Tri/duathlons. Overall, there are approximately another 15 members who race less, or have other functioning roles in the club, such as USAC Official, Coach, race promoter, webmaster, and the like. Although we view ourselves as a racing club, we cannot discount the contributions and the diversity that of all of our members bring to Artemis. We enjoy the smaller club dynamics and feel more like ‘family’.

Memorable Highlights for 2011:

• Artemis has dedicated many years attracting and developing Juniors in bike racing. We have fostered several National Champions over the years. Yes, that includes the likes of Nick Bax and Curtis Windsor, who got their start with us!
• This development (over several years), has finally gained the ultimate success in that we were able to develop a mechanism to nurture the kids, educate the adults, and launch our ever-growing Junior squad to function independently in a sustainable club model!

• Artemis again promoted 2 bike race events supporting several women’s and novice categories.
• Artemis women’s leadership conducted and managed the “MABRA Women’s Cat 3 & 4 Race Series”, a vehicle to recruit, encourage, and sustain women in bike racing.
• Artemis conducted an “Introduction to Road Racing Clinic” which was open to anyone interested in learning more about racing. This all-day session provided indoor classroom learning as well as on-the-bike drills.
• Cheryl Osborne medaled and was on the podium at Masters Track Nationals.
• Cheryl Osborne won the MABRA Women’s 35+ BAR (Best All-Around Rider)
• Renee Roth finished 3rd in the Cat 3 Women’s Series and MABRA Women’s Cat 3 BAR.
• Carole Harris finished 4th in the Cat 4 Women’s Series.
• Evelyn Egizi won the Cat 3 Women’s Sportif Cup Series in cyclocross.
• Evelyn Egizi was the 1st overall woman finisher at the Independence Day Duathlon, and finished 1st in her age category in 2 other duathlon events.
• Cynthia Johnson finished her first IRONMAN

• Artemis sponsored a Women’s Elite team to foster talented Cat 1 Artemis women, and to provide resources to race the NRC.

2012 Focus:

The upcoming year will have an intensified focus on re-building our men’s squad with new male leadership, while we continue to teach and train new women. Our promotional activities and volunteer structure remain intact.

The Final 2011 Arrow Bicycles / MABRA Women's Series are posted here . 

I don’t really like doing spin class, but I do it when I have to when the weather is bad, if I have time constraints, or when I’m on travel.  It’s good because it gets me into the gym, though.

I’ve done a few spin classes recently, and while on the bike I try to maximize my time there to meet MY needs as a cyclist in training.  Most spin instructors are not competitive cyclists, and the participants are there to get their heart rates as high as possible and to sweat as much as possible!  This makes them feel as if they have done something good for their effort, but it has little return for those of us “training”.  If you are lucky enough to have an instructor who really knows cycling, then that’s a good thing.  I don’t.  I’ve spent these last few classes thinking how to translate my tips to you, to benefit your training over the winter. 

Here’s what I think:

The spin bike set-up:  Getting set up on the bike is always important.  Last thing that you want to do is jack-up your knees on the spin bike.  I try my best to set it up as close to a road bike as possible.  For me, that means that the handle bars are ALL the way down.  My seat is set forward to make a tight cock-pit.  The old manual measurement can serve as a guide: put your elbow on the seat tip and have your fingertips tough the center of the bar (not the big metal chunk in front of the bar).  Seat height for me is just a notch higher than I think…while sitting on the seat with my foot on pedal (at 6:00 position) and my heel down, my knee has a slight bend.  The reason that I raise it a bit higher after that is because I find that I slip down on the seat when actually riding, and then my seat is too low!