Madonna—Dreaming On Two Wheels: 2008

A lot happened this year so I thought I would recap with my best and worst list.

There were a lot of close seconds and thirds, but here is what made the cut:

Best road race course: Richmond Rollers—I was on my game that day
Worst road race course: State Road Race—where the hell did some of those hills come from?
Best road race moment: Ken Woods Road Race—It was wild to be riding sideways in the worst possible conditions
Worst road race moment: Bonking on "the hill" at Square Lake and still had two more laps—almost DNF-ed.

Best Crit course: Hopkins—hands down!
Worst Crit course: Northfield Crit—oh god did that course hurt!
Best Crit moment: Last Opus Crit—I was in the breakaway the entire time
Worst Crit moment: Any race I got lapped or even worst lapped multiple times. Thanks Flanders girls!

Best TT course: State TT—flat flat flat
Worst TT course: Hamel TT
Best TT moment: the last 500 meters at the Town Hall TTT—the four hellions worked together like a well oiled team
Worst TT moment: State TT—did not feel conformable on the bike for one second

Best non-racing moment: Getting my picture taken with Rory Sutherland!!!!!
Worst non-racing moment: Listening to Mark Kermisch going down at the St. Cloud crit

Best REGBRAI moment: There has to be multiples in this list
1. The bus ride to the starting town—Mike Kunt, electronic blenders—this is where all the inside jokes start
2. El Matador—Oleh!
3. Rolling down the road picking up 30+ people in our paceline—we had great music this year
4. The new rainbow umbrellas—hey hey hey
5. Putting a on tattoo on a couple hot guys
Worst REGBRAI moment: Dropped a chain and had to catch up to the group in headwinds. Not to mention it was a buzz killer.

Best Group Ride: Tie between riding with the Proman Team and when Holly and I went out for a 40 mile ride in the pouring rain
Best Group Ride moment: Telling Carol that we were going to do Ramsey Hill three times.

Best Clothing Gear Improvement: Sidi Gen 5 Shoes
Best Hardware Improvement: Of course, the Madone (and the new peddles I had to get after I got the new shoes)

Best Solo Ride route: riding up a mountain in Amish country (Pennsylvania)
Worst Solo Ride route: any ride I got lost on
Best Solo Ride moment: The first day back on the bike in 2008
Worst Solo Ride moment: When I realized that riding out in Amish country after a rain storm was probably not a good idea—they don’t clean up after the horses

WTF moment: at mile marker one of the Apple Duathon—I am not a runner what the hell am I doing out here?

*Note: the worst course list does not reflect against the promoter, it's purely based on my crappy performance that day.

Total Miles: 4,261

2008 Races and Placement

April 15 - Opus Crit - last place
April 26 - Ken Woods Road Race - 3rd place
April 29 - Opus Crit - 12th place out of 20
May 3 - Marty Road Race - 7th place out of 14
May 13 - Opus Crit - 8th place out of 12
May 21 - Opus Crit - 4th place out of 16 for the cat 4's
May 24 - Apple Duathon - 5th out of 8 in my division - 2:07:33
June 3 - State Fair Crit - 2nd place out of 5 for the cat 4's, 4th overall out of 8
June 6 – MN State TT - 5th place 1:14 (40k)
June 10 - State Fair Crit - 6th place out of 11 for the cat 4's
June 14 - Mankato Crit - 6th place out of 7th - all 3/4 cat women
June 17 - State Far Crit - 7th place out of 14 for the cat 4's
June 21 - Richmond Roller Road Race - 4th place out of 18 for the cat 4's
June 28 - Square Lake Road Race--11th out of 16 for the cat 4's
June 29 - St. Cloud Crit - 9th out of 16 for the cat 4's
July 4 - Northfield Crit - 10 out of 16 for the cat 4's
July 5 - SPAM Jam RR- 4th place 2 in age group
July 6 - Hamel TT - 5th place out of 14 35:21 12.5 miles
July 12 - Sprinters Classic - 5th out of 12 for the cat 4's
July 13 - Hopkins Crit - 7th out of 19 for the cat 4's
July 20-23 REGBRAI - Most fun points
July 27 - MN State Crit- 8th out of 12 for the cat 4's
Aug 10 - Town Hall TTT - 2nd out of 5 teams
Sep 20-21 Headwaters Road and MTB

Madonna—Dreaming On Two Wheels