Mary Mac Goes To Beijing!

Mary Mac and Michael Broderick of Seven Cycles (team homies) sent an e-mail out this week to let us know that SHE MADE THE FINAL CUT FOR SELECTION TO THE U.S. OLYMPIC MTB TEAM for CHINA! Congrats to one of my favorite people in the cycling punyverse. I love these guys, and it could NOT have happened to a nicer person..again!~ For those who don't know, this will be Mary's second Olmpic bid.
Good on ya' Mary, go get 'em!










Hello!

It has been an intense past few months... if you have been reading online
(www.usacycling.org, www.cyclingnews.com or www.velonews.com) you may have a
clue what Mike and I have been up to-- though even if you have it is at best a
glimpse of our effort, travels and lives. We can only apologize for the lack of
communication and chalk it up to a direct result of how busy we remain while in
the thick of it.

Mike and I have continued to organize and run all aspects of our team program
through our busiest season to date. From a fantastic winter of productive
training in Chile to Pan American Championships in Venezuela, to 10 weeks and
10,000+ kilometers of driving throughout Europe for a challenging stint of
racing world cups and living out of the motor home. Mike and I have made it
back to our home turf on Marthas Vineyard safe, sound and elated to announce I
have been officially named to the US Olympic Team!!!

It is a huge honor to be selected to represent the USA and more specifically all
of my family, friends and sponsors at the Games. I will be joining other US
mountain bikers-- Todd Wells, Adam Craig and Georgia Gould as we set out for
Beijing, China in mid August.

A very intense selection procedure that began in 2007 with the fielding of an
olympic "long team" a talent pool consisting of 6 men and 5 women from which
the eventual 2 men and 2 women olympic athletes would be chosen. Both mike and
I made the initial selection for this "long team" and this opportunity
established our season goals firmly around attempting to make it all the way to
the final team selection. The 2008 criteria required me (or mike) to be one
of the top two americans in overall world cup ranking after the 5 opening
rounds of the highly contested uci cross country world cups. This selection
criteria pushed our team program to its limits as we found the competition at
an all time high with many other countries choosing similar selection processes
that included the world cups. Though we struggled at times I am happy and
immeasurably proud to have accomplished this goal of while overcoming such
adversity with our humble team program. Though Mike was not able to make one of
the two coveted mens positions he shares a deep satisfaction for our
accomplishment as he truly played a huge role in enabling me to rise up and
realize this achievement for our team.

It has been an amazing opportunity for mike and I to share this journey as we
both continue to push our limits towards some ideal of our potential that itself
seems to keep changing and expanding. I am filled with gratitude and Thanks
to each of you for your continued support. I could not have made my way so
well on this technical trail with out YOU.

The next few weeks bring some exciting racing opportunities that will serve me
well to be on my top form for the big race in Beijing. National Championships
are next Saturday , July 19 at Mount Snow, VT. This is a personal favorite
course for both Mike and I. It is riddled with steep climbs and rooty, rocky,
intensely demanding terrain. I aim to defend my national title in both the
cross country and the short track. Mike is looking for a top finish on par with
the bronze he rocked last year.

We will then head north to Quebec for 2 more world cup races in Mont Ste Anne
(Jul 27) and Bromont (Aug 3). These are important races in their own right
though for reasons of wanting to arrive with my best form in Beijing they will
be mixed in with lots of specific training. It will be interesting to see how
these go but you can bet I will be giving it my best on race day!

Directly after the canadian world cups I will fly out to my hometown in
Fairfax, CA for 5 days of training and olympic processing before the entire US
Mountain Bike squad (mechanic/coach Mike included) fly to an island off of South
Korea for the usa cycling xc mtb olympic training camp. Here we will acclimate
to the time change and climate for a week before a quick and surely exciting
5 days in Beijing I will race on Aug 22 and the men Aug 23. Both Mike and I
are looking forward to the adventures and travel that await.

Breathing it all in with gratitude,
Mary and Mike

Team KENDA/Seven Cycles