"Can I take your picture?"

You've got to be kidding me!

Our very own is in the Cervelo Test video.
Check out minute 4:30.

Training

Last night I met up with OC to pre-ride this weekend’s circuit course in East Union (south of Chaska). Finally back on my training bike after a serious overhaul, I didn’t feel so good and my performance was low. This will be a hard race. It’s a short-flat course with a large possibility for strong westerly winds—tailwind finish. A lot of girls showed huge improvement this past weekend. Should be interesting.

Duluth Classic

Bikes, crashes, drama, smack talk, collaboration, vendetta, victory, hugs, and laughing so hard your belly would hurt—was what this weekend was all about and more.

Friday

I loaded up my jeep with more crap then I ever thought I needed for a weekend of racing and met two of my teammates. We were taking an RV to Duluth—also known as the fun bus—with a 2.5 month old and Grandma. As always Points was running late (1.5 hours). When you call her and the first thing she says is “Girl” you know it’s not good. Thankfully we waited for her, because really…she’s too much fun, and traffic wasn’t as bad as we expected it on a holiday weekend. The first race was going to be a 16.2 mile time trial. There were 17 women in my categories, we were all going off every thirty seconds in alphabetical order based on your last name. I was the last one from my team to go off. Right after the first turn I passed the two girls in front of me. Alex—one of the girls stayed with me (remember her name), which was fine because I wanted a carrot and she was keeping at a pace I wanted to stay. On the third and final turn we hit a section of road that was horrible. The road dipped down and up every few feet making a sound like “cha-kunk, cha-kunk”. Not only is your seat hurting from the position you were in now you are on this horrible road grimacing every time you hit the bump. I could have done without.

Once I saw the town I kicked it up and whizzed past Alex finishing with a time of 43:59 putting me in 4th place. My teammate Kristi got 2nd place (43:17), but what seemed odd was the girl that got 1st place (38:14).

Long story short, she started 60 seconds behind Jackie and ended about 60 seconds in front of Jackie but was able to beat Jackie by 6 minutes. We discussed this for hours and hours about this issue, but since there was no chip timing and the officials are standing by the results we can’t prove that they are wrong. Doesn’t it seem odd that a Junior girl put in a TT time that would beat the Men’s Cat 1/2 time from last year? And don’t you think that if a girl can put in that time she wouldn’t have lost 15 seconds on a flat road race?

All races were based on overall time.

Saturday

9am road race with some hills.

I found out that I was close to capturing 3rd position—but equally close to slipping back to 5th. This was to be known as the quite day. Little to everyone’s knowledge this race was going to be filled with a lot of stupid riders and a crash in every field. Good thing I worked on my chattering skills over the winter—I had to use them many times during our race.

In our field many of the girls were getting angry with the girl that was sitting in 1st position. She would slip in between you and another rider that you were already pretty close to then would change positions for no reason. Her teammate would do the same—almost causing a crash within the first 2 miles. After the third turn I was rolling next to my teammate taking about when the hills were coming up—she said we already did them—not much of a hill if you asked me. We decided that we were bored and needed to spice up the ride and put in an attacks. She attacked and I followed but Alex (from the day before) saw her and went from the middle of the road all the way to white like in a diagonal direction cutting me off and almost caused me to go down due to her poor handling skills. I screamed so loud at her and told her to hold her wheel that anyone who has ridden with me would have been shocked.

After our attack another girl put in a counter attack. Now the race was starting to get fun! The tempo slowed down until 2 miles to the line—KOM (king of the mountain) points were on the line. What I thought was funny was that the KOM points should’ve been sprint points due to the location of the line and the terrain of the course. I chose to conserve my energy and go for the time bonus at the end.

We started the second loop and for some reason I was breathing hard. I was nervous about everything—the lack of riding skills the girls showed during the first lap, with all the girls pretty much together you never know what could happen and the anticipation of someone going to attack started to get to me. I was getting pushed over the centerline more times than I could count which concerned the official behind us to come up and give me a warning.

Part of the course I was talking with one of the girls. She made a comment and said “I hope the person behind me isn’t pissed off because I’m all over the road.” I later ended up behind her and as a joke told her to hold her line. Then moved up next to a teammate. Two minutes later that girl went for the water bottle hitting my teammate’s wheel, that I was next to, over compensated and hit my other teammate, Jen—taking her down. Jen finished the race but had to DNF the rest of the weekend. Of all people, we all wished Jen wouldn’t get hurt. She is new to racing and crashing could really freak out a new racer.

We took the final turn and the speed picked up. I have never been in a race that was so scary. Everyone was jocking for position, speeds were in the mid 30’s, a few attacks took place and was brought back. I was pushed outside the yellow line about 4 times by the same person—I made sure she knew that her handling skills sucked. If you’re going to endanger my ride then you’re going to hear about it from me.

Everything happened so fast and somehow I got out front and was sprinting to the line. Kristy was on my tail yelling at me to go faster. Then at the last second a girl came up on my right side and took the win, Kristy got second, I got third. I was so pissed! I wanted to win a road race—at least once.

I later talked to the official behind us and said if the girl that won was the girl that popped a tire and was brought back to the group drafting behind his car he would owe us a case a beer. I later found out—he owed us a case of beer. It was predetermined that you could get help back to the group if you have a popped tire.

Sunday

This was going to be the hardest day.

We rolled up to the race and the first thing you could see was “the hill”. Holy Crap was that a nasty hill. Good thing we had 4 hours to look at that thing and contemplate our insanity level. Once the course was open I rolled about half way up to check out how steep it truly was—not too bad, but when your racing it was going to be hard.

The first time up was neutral—because they don’t end a race at the bottom of the hill! After the first turn my team started attacking. We attacked about 4-5 times during the first loop. One of the girls said, “this is not going to be a easy race.” Nope!

At the bottom of the hill I told Jackie “ride your own race and have fun.” We both knew that she wouldn’t be able to stay with the group up the hill. About ¾ of the way up I was out of gears and started to fall off the back. Once at the top I jumped back into the big wheel and took off down the decent. I could have picked up a few feet if I didn’t have to slow down on the turn, but I was still confident that I could still catch-up. On the second roller I started to doubt my ability to get back on to the group. They were so close, but I just couldn’t get them. My heart rate was in the 170-180’s since the bottom of the hill. I dropped my head in defeat until the official in the car behind me pulled up next to me and gave me a bit of encouragement letting me know that they are slowing down. I looked up and could see my teammate Kristy looking back and noticing I was struggling to get back onto the group, she moved up to the front and slowed the group down until I could catch on. Once on, the group started a drafting rotation. I sat in the back for a few turns then jumped in and started to help out. I couldn’t believe I was able to recover so quickly and to still be strong.

Kristy was stilling in 2nd position and the leader was in our lead group of 9.

The second time up the hill was a mirror of the first. I fell off the back and struggled to get back on. I got back on in about the same area. Once on the group I was able to catch my breath a little faster then I started to yell “we dropped the leader! She’s off the back! Let’s go!!” It was like putting a match under the group everyone started yelling “Push harder. Don’t slow down. We need to time on her before the hill.” All eight of us were working together like clockwork. One girl fell off the back since she was cramping—we were down to 7 girls.

On one of the stretches I was behind Alex who pulled off to the side a bit to take a drink of water, but wasn’t able to put the bottle back into the cage correctly thus dropping right in my line. There was nothing I could do the water bottle was still in motion. I wanted to go right but that wouldn’t get me anywhere other than a good road rash. I had no choice. I held on tight and rolled over the bottle hopping not to roll over the top part of the bottle. Luckily I had a little experience on rolling over odd shaped objects and was able to keep myself upright while the bottle exploded due to my impact and it still having water in it.

We started to approach the hill and my left thigh and my right calf started to cramp up on me. Kristy pulled back and I told her just to go. I won’t be able to accelerate and that I was just going to finish. Knowing that I would lose 3rd position. The official pulled up to me while I was climbing the hill and gave me some positive feedback on my race performance before he took off. I got 7th place.

When I finished I found Kristy on the side of the road. We were both tired but running on adrenaline. We must have hugged 3 times, almost tears, excited that we had time on the leader. Now we waited.

We were able to take away 2:40 on the leader. Amy came up the hill, everyone was yelling at her like she was the first one up the hill. A few seconds later Jackie came up the hill sprinting like she was going for the win. All the girls did awesome!

Monday

The night before I thought I would celebrate—which was a dumb mistake. I won’t get into it because basically I’m embarrassed. I know better but I decided to let my hair down and I paid for it on Sunday.

No hangover, but moving slowly I was done with all this racing, and being stressed out on my performance that I just wanted to go home but I had one more race to do—a crit.

Overall the crit wasn’t that bad. There was one downhill turn that looked scarier than it really was, a windy section that wasn’t an issue, and a hill that was harder to get to the top then the big hill the day before. My heart rate stayed low but my legs were done. At one point I saw we had 12 laps left—which meant I had to drag my butt up that damn hill 12 more times. The next time I looked I was down to 6. Somewhere around lap 4 or 5 I dropped a chain right at the steepest part of the hill. I got it back on, clipped in and was able to start moving. Some guy came out and gave me a push. The next time around I asked him for another push up the hill. Hell, if you’re not going to be in the lead group—have fun!

I finished overall in 5th place. Kristy took home the hardware—or should I say a bike tire—for 2nd place overall (but we know she was the real winner).

Blackdog #2

Last night was the second edition in the Blackdog series.

Driving down to the dog is much harder than I ever expected. Why do they need to shut down every major highway to do repairs? The saying is so true for Minnesota we have two seasons: Winter and Construction. Due to the construction I had to take a different route. Let’s just say I was ready to turn around and go home—I was so frustrated with the lack of directions I had. Luckily I’m not the only one who needs to be taken to the start line. Check out the last portion of this video. Funny!

I found my team and started to warm up with them. We all felt pretty sluggish and not excited to do a Time Trial on an extremely windy day—again! We were happy that it was finally warm—95 degrees and not humid!!!

At the start line one of the officials told me that I would owe him a case of beer if I didn’t pass the lady two numbers in front of me. I looked over and said I should owe him a case or two if I don’t pass her. She was on some funky bike with a back—never have seen that before.

I’m not going to get into much detail since my last couple of entries have been the same experience, but with the wind I noticed that I had to drop down to 16 mph but was able to get back up to 20 even 24 in the headwind sections. I was ready to lose it much sooner than I normally would. On the way back, with a bit of a tailwind I was able to pick-up to 28 in some parts. The final turn was in crosswinds. I didn’t feel as confident in my performance as Sunday, without arrowbars (I’m racing the stock bike series), but I was able to tell that I came in 15 seconds slower than the first Blackdog. Not too bad since the wind was twice as bad.

Once the results came up…I was shocked to see that I got my second win in one week!!! I won buy about 40 seconds! I came in 2nd place overall for the women, only 29 seconds behind my teammate who got 1st place in the women’s open—open has the whole aerodynamic set-up (TT Bike, helmet, wheels, booties, etc).

This weekend is the Duluth Classic—four days of racing. Friday is a TT. Saturday and Sunday are both Road Races. Monday is a crit.

Charity TT

“That can’t be right” was all I could say to my teammates after seeing the results.

Double hitter. Two TT’s this past weekend.

I was a little pumped after my surprise third place win from the Synergy TT that I called up a friend to go out for A drink. We ended up going to this place that had 2 for 1’s. Trouble! I’m not sure how many I had but I know I had at least six margaritas that night. Could have been eight. Thankfully our Sunday race was at noon.

Thanks to a slow start—no hangover—I got ready and made it to the race, same course as the Blackdog TT series. I rode the 7.2 course to try out the arrowbars. Seems that they filled in all of the potholes since last time but steering the bike with your forearms and shoulders was still a challenge with all the convex bumps, but I felt pretty good after my pre-race ride.

Being late to the start line was not going to happen to me twice in one weekend so I hovered the start line way before I was scheduled to go off.

Once on the bike I was totally focused. I forgot my computer so all I could do was go as hard as I could go and then keep going. Now that it’s over I can’t believe how fast 7.2 miles can go by so fast when you are sitting at the limit—I can only remember four moments during the race. Don’t get me wrong, it felt like years at the time. All could I think about was the little tips I got from everyone the past couple of days. Especially what I learned on my pre-race ride and from my previous Blackdog TT.

With no computer I had no idea what my time was, all I knew was that I was faster than my Blackdog time but by how much I had no idea. But with my lack of bike maintenance knowledge my front derailleur would not allow me to go down as far as I wanted to go into the bigger rings which meant I could have gone faster.

Finally the results were posted. I heard everyone say that their times were off and that the officials needed to relook everyone’s time after bib 46. I was bib 49.

Results were re-posted and I was listed in 1ST place! (17:47) I actually tied for first place with another girl—not possible in this type of racing. They rechecked down to the tenth of a second and reposted the results again. I officially got 1st place!!!! My first win! OH MY GOD! YIPPIE!!

My goals this year was to win at least one race—didn’t expect on a TT race—and to be in the top five for Rider Of the Year. I’m currently now sitting in first place!

Synergy TT

photo from skinnyski.com

This is my best photo yet. Look at how serious I look.

Saturday was the Synergy TT north of Stillwater. The race flier said all ROY points would be based off the 40k course—then the day before we learned that the cat 4 women only had to do 20k. I was kind-of looking forward to the 40k route. Until I got there and thought “thank god we only have to do 20k”.

The morning temperatures was 40 degrees. Winds were out of the Northwest at 30-40 miles an hour. No, you read that correctly. At the registration we determined Jackie would go off first, I was second, Kristy was going to be third. Jen pre-registered and was the first off for the day. My time to go off was at 9:04am. At 9:00 we started to book it over to the start line we got there by 9:01—I was watching my heart rate monitor and my computer clock closely. When we got to the line they were yelling at us to get up there—Kristy had 10 seconds before she went off. Which meant I was 30 seconds late!! Jackie was 60 seconds late! What really chops my hide is that I’m a stickler to being on time. In most cases I’m too early, but being late to the start line really made me angry. I blamed myself until I heard all of the girls were late to their start time—hum…were all of our clocks off or did they start early? A bike race starting on time is as funny as me saying it’s not going to be a windy day today.

So I’m all a fluster and I’m in head/side winds down in my drops just trying to keep upright all while trying to pick-up 30 seconds of time. Perfect! The race was in a square-like-shape so we started at the bottom and headed north. You could tell you were going to have to hold on tight when you saw the person ahead of you get blown across the road. At least it was predictable and you were on guard.

Once at the top we turned right—thank god for tailwinds. I was able to recoup and pick-up the speed. I took the next left and had to battle it out with a big pick-up truck. My teammate later said she saw me take that corner at the same time as the truck and was worried about me. I saw it but fear was the last thing on my mind. I was thinking about getting around that corner as fast as I could without touching my breaks.

The next stretch was what I thought was the hardest stretch. The winds were deceiving. It was still a cross-tail wind (now that we were going south). A few times I wasn’t paying attention, because I was tired, until I was knocked off the road due to the wind gusts.

On the final turn I was about 50 yards behind my teammate Jen. When Jen took the turn a dump truck took the turn at the same time as her cutting her off. You could hear her yelling at the truck, but he didn’t seem to care that he was effecting the race. There was no other choice three of us riders went around the truck into oncoming traffic. I heard him yelling at us but 1. Dude, bad day to drive on the finishing stretch—no one was about to stop. 2. Why didn’t the lady on the corner stop the truck and inform him of the race? When I passed Jen I knew she would be frustrated—this was her first TT race—so I told her to let it go and finish the race. She later said it helped that I told her to let it go.

I got to the finishing line but didn’t feel so great about my performance. In my opinion when you are doing a Time Trial race unless you don’t feel like you are ready to lose your cookies you didn’t work hard enough. I didn’t feel that way. It was nice to see Larry S. at the finish line—it’s always great to see a old friend at the line. He was going to race the 40k.

We had to wait until the 40k racers were done before they posted the results. Kristy got first and I got 4th. I wasn’t pleased with my performance. Then unlike any other race, we had a awards ceremony. They started off with the Cat 4 women’s group. The announcer said, “For the cat 4 women’s. Third place goes to…Madonna Lindgren!” WHAT? I GOT 3rd PLACE? That’s not right. I later found out that one of the girls ahead of me was placed in the wrong category.

Funny thing about third place was before the race started I was looking at the loot list and saw third place would get Tofsoi glasses. I’ve been wanting a pair of those for some time. I even told my teammate Jackie that I would love to win those glasses. I didn’t care about what the prizes were for 1st or 2nd….don’t get me wrong I would have taken the win.

On one hand I wasn’t happy about my performance but on the other hand I was excited to get podium. What a strange feeling.

2 for 2

Good thing I like riding in the rain because this was my second Tuesday I got caught in torrential rain and quite possibly lighting—couldn’t see so I wasn’t sure.

Tuesday night’s easy TT training ride became a wet wind tunnel training ride. Or as Timmer put it "weather conditions you would have during a Belgium Classic race." Starting this weekend I will be doing 4 Time Trials in 6 days (7 races in 10 days) so I thought it would be fitting to toss in the arrow bars and go for a little ride. My teammate OC came over with her TT bike and we headed out to the Medina area to watch the TNT TT race. If you haven’t been in the Medina area when it’s windy let’s just say it’s one of the hardest rides when the weather is crappy—open fields + wind + downhill = Scary! With limited hours on the bike in a TT position it was pretty nerve racking to try to hold on with wind gusts around 40 mph. I spent more time out of the TT position then I wanted. I just didn’t have the gust-o to stay down when I was moving sideways, but OC did.

At about the halfway marker of our ride it started to downpour. I don’t mean a few drops I mean the kind where you can’t see and your riding in headwinds. It didn’t last long but enough to test your love for the sport.

The course was open for riders so we jumped on the TT course and was able to cheer on a few of our fellow teammates on our way back to my place.

Needless to say we got more out of our training then we anticipated.

Tonight I’m riding with my 11-year-old nephew to celebrate his birthday. When I asked him to go on a little ride with me he said “what does little mean?” I could only chuckle. He has me pegged. A little ride for me is a huge ride for him. I'll take it easy on him.

Sibley County RR

What a race!
From my perspective it was one of the craziest races I’ve ever been in—not to say I’ve been in many crazy races.

The race took place in the Henderson township area—quite fitting that my teammate’s last name is Henderson. 15 women started the race, 9 were in my category. Far less than the past couple of weeks, but with 4 road races back to back every Saturday it’s hard to get to all of them.

There was a three mile rollout. I’m not a fan of rollouts—I’m not sure what to think about them. It feels like a group ride but yet your trying to get your mind ready to lay it down—it’s a strange combination. On the line we discussed the hill was part of the neutral rollout even though the pace car would pull off ½ way up the hill—thank god it was discussed. Most of the time it’s a hammer fest up the hill and the race hasn’t even started—for the most part, a lot of us kept it in the big gear the entire way up. Once we crossed the line everyone started to click their gears into a higher gear—awesome sound by the way—and we were off! The course was different from most others, there were so many turns which caused the wind to change direction. Not only did you have to make sure you were in a good position in the pack you had to make sure you were in a good position to stay out of the wind. Tricky.

There were a lot of new girls at the race, unlike the men’s cat 5 race, those that have raced a few times were helping the new people. Teresa was racing within the 40+ category along with Sherry—which meant they were in our field. They have both said they would like to pay it forward and help the new riders. Last week it was fun. They didn’t affect the race—this week it was a different story.

Jen—my teammate was doing awesome she surprised me on some of her moves. She did great, but got caught up in the craziness of a pace line. A few people (40+ ladies) suggested we do a paceline. I was thinking “who the hell does a paceline when all of the women are together? You do a paceline in a race when you are trying to gain time. Not when you are all together!” I had a bad feeling so I stayed on guard. I was somewhere around ¾ of the way back in the line when one of the ladies that suggested to do a paceline attacked. Ok…stay with me because this where the craziness started and it all happened in less than 2 minutes.

Kristy saw the jump and yelled at Jackie (who was on her wheel) I perked up—I was on Jackie’s wheel. Kristy took off Jackie got stuck behind this one girl and couldn’t get around so she went left and jumped in the dirt sprinted for a few yards and then bunny-hopped back onto the road—Jackie has a MTB background. I couldn’t believe what just happened! There was no way I was going to do that move on skinny tires. I somehow got around the girl and started to race after Jackie. Now I don’t know what happened to Kristy but Jackie and a different girl were up ahead a bit. I sprinted and was able to jump on that girl’s wheel for a second. Jackie looked back and saw I was there she yelled at me and said “get the hell up there” to Teresa and Sherry. I rolled up to Jackie and said “why the hell are we chasing after the 40+? They aren’t even in our group!” she said “We aren’t chasing after them…” no need to finish that sentence I said “oh good plan” and took off. I caught up with Teresa and Sherry about 30 feet up—I was running on adrenalin. Now how the hell did that happen? I was rolling with the top racer in MN and keeping up with her while causing a breakaway!!

Here is was the craziest part. I wish I could rewind these moments because I would like to know what happened. Teresa heard me breathing heavily and said to not work so hard. How the hell can I do that when they keep pushing me out front? Sherry then said “You want to stay away correct? We need to come up with a plan.” Plan? I’m the cat 4—my plan is to suck your wheel while I catch my breath and bring my heart rate down. Chasing after you was not in my plan. I was hoping I wouldn’t bonk and that I had the energy to complete the race. We were only ½ around the first of two laps and still had the hill to do 2 more times.

Then came the downhill with a turn at the bottom. I hit 40 mph and that was touching the breaks a few times. I knew Jackie would catch-up on the downhill—it was great, she broke the speed limit by 10mph (50 mph)—she buzzed Teresa and Sherry on the way down then took the turn at 30 mph—I was around 20-ish. She slowed down and waited for us. Man, was I happy to have a teammate with me.

I’m not sure how this happened but two more ladies joined us. Sheryl (40+) and Heather (cat 4). We started the hill—I was trying to get out of the front but no one would move up so I went my own speed and set a tempo, but I lost Jackie. Heather was my competition but I knew should would hang-in there so there wasn’t much I could do. Once at the top the pace slowed to about 10 mph for a few yards. Then the attacks started, one after another—Teresa and Sherry where constantly attacking. We all stayed together for a lot longer than I expected but after a while enough was enough. Heather and I fell back together. Sheryl stuck with them for a while then was on her own. Heather and I started to formulate a plan. We would work together to stay away from the group until the end and then battle it out on the hill—we both knew we could climb but the true test would be who had the legs that day. It seems strange to form that alliance, but in all honesty we needed each other to stay away and it was a fair compromise.

At one point the pace car pulled up to us and said we had 2 minutes on the group. Holy crap that’s a lot! We caught up to Sheryl and asked her work with us. My right calf started to cramp on the backside of the course. I started to panic—I wasn’t sure if it would stop and it was still a long way to the end, but I was able get it to stop after a gu shot, several shots of water, and a good stretch. The second time we went down the hill I knew the curves so I went all out (44 mph). On the corner there was a guy taking photos. While I was turning I yelled “you better get a good one!”

The anticipation of the hill was killing me. It was much further away than I expected. Right before the turn, Heather and I both told each other good luck in a sportswomen like fashion. We finally made the turn and started the 2 mile climb. Nothing crazy happened. Heather and I took it easy. We passed the 1k marker and was still taking it easy. Once we rounded the corner we were jostling back and forth then she took off. My gas was empty and I couldn’t counter attack. I got 2nd place. My highest place to date. Next time! ;)

Heather and I shook hands at the top. I’m glad that I got to battle it out with her she’s a pretty nice person. Actually, there are some really great women this year in our category.

I quickly turned around and went down the hill to cheer on my teammates. Kristy was battling it out with one girl but kicked it in gear when I told her she was going for 3rd place. She got it! Jackie was not that far behind—she got 5th. Jen danced up the hill in 7th place. What a fun race!

Blackdog TT #1

Last night was the first Blackdog TT event for the season. Blackdog is held every other Wednesday in Burnsville. The course is 7.2 miles on the worst road conditions you will ever ride—yes worse than Territorial road. Thankfully they filled in the really bad holes—thus the joke when you go down there—it still wasn’t enough. You had to pick your line wisely and never look down. Not very efficient when it comes to TT-ing. It may not be a bad idea to toss on arrow bars onto your mountain bike and ride the course.

Since this is my first year of TT-ing (I did a few last year) I will be doing all of them on the stock bike—i.e. the Madone. Thankfully Blackdog has a stock category—no arrow bars, no disc wheels, no arrow helmet. Old school.

After warming up on the course for a bit, I forgot my trainer, and chatted with my teammates for a bit it was our time to go. There was over a 100 people that showed for the first Blackdog TT. Impressive.

Points went out first, then OC, then me, then Sherry from Gopher Wheelman. We were going to use each other as our carrot. Most of the ride was a blur so here is what I could remember.

Right out of the gate I hit my AT, there was a slight headwind on the way out but I was able to keep an average of around 20. I kept thinking Sherry was going to get me soon since she was on a TT bike, but I couldn’t see her the couple times I looked back. Really what I was thinking was “I feel like I’m going to die—when will the pain stop!”

Sherry caught me on the turn—I need to work on my 180 turns—so I used her for a few miles as my carrot since I could still see her ahead of me and it took my mind off of the pain. My average on the way back was around 25 mph—I couldn’t breathe but HOLY CRAP that is fast! I made one crucial mistake. Even though I don’t want to know the course knowing where the finish line relevant to the start line on an out and back is VERY important. My mind started to play games with me—I started to think I was getting tired, that the finish was around the bend when it wasn’t—thus I started to slow down a bit. I finished. I almost lost my cookies those last few seconds—which means I gave it everything I had and was happy with my first time out. Now I have a bench mark and can only get better.

Results were posted and I did MUCH better than I anticipated. 4th place overall out of 14 in the stock category with a time of 18:30 for 7.2 miles for an average of 23.4 mph. HOLY CRAP!

I'm in.

It's official. I'm crewing for Team Strong Heart his year. I'm going to meet them at the first station in Missouri and crew the second half of the race. I hope I can bring new life to the team at what has been a historic low point of the race.

Sibley County RR is this weekend

Description of the course:

“The Sibley County RR is a 17.75 mile loop over open rolling farm land using county roads 12, 19, 27, 5 & 6. There is one climb of significance with a steady grade for about 1 mile where the grade decreases but keeps gaining elevation for another mile. The grade of the bottom part of the climb is slightly less than the big climb at KWMRR or Marty but total length of the climb is much longer. The upper mile is open so wind can be an issue for those who get gapped on the climb. The finish is about one mile up the climb. Since there is a climb there must be a descent. At Sibley you drop back into the river valley at speeds exceeding 40 mph. The roads tend to be serpentine providing changing cross winds if windy.”

I’m doing hills tonight.

Marty Road Race

Hey I found a pic of me in the race!

Marty was a little different this year. Instead of going North and climbing the massive hill the course went south—which, last year was called the Sprinter’s Classic. Marty isn’t too difficult but with winds in the 20+ category it would be survival of the fittest. But, with tailwinds on the finish stretch it was going to be fun!

I carpooled with Jackie and Greg since Points was not interested in racing no matter how hard Jackie and I tried to convince her. Hell she won on this course last year in a t-shirt and her bibs on the outside.

Anyways, 30 girls lined up for the Cat 4 and 40+ category!! I haven’t raced with so many women before—it’s amazing on how many people have been turning out this year to race. Recession? You would never know. The men’s categories have been turning away riders the past three weeks. After racing and winning the 1/2/3 category, Teresa decided to do a second race and race in the 40+ category. If only I had that endurance…It was fun to have her in our field. I made a note to keep a close eye on her since I knew she should be putting in some attacks.

And…we were off. Aside from the winds, the course wasn’t too difficult there would be one hill were the feed zone was (similar to the second roller on 144), but nothing to complain about. The only challenge was getting used to riding with so many women in the field. It was interesting there were a few attacks—a few from Teresa, but they never lasted that long and they would always slow down so everyone would have time to regroup. Strange.

On the first hill we lost a couple of girls, but not many. The field was still pretty strong on the start of the second lap. We stuck together for most of the time. I couldn’t believe how fast this race was shaping out—I was comfortably going 28 mph (with tailwind)—thank goodness it wasn’t my first year. I wasn’t sure how my teammates were doing but we were all still together and everyone still looked strong AND Jen was still with the group—which was exciting.

On the final climb I was still feeling pretty good so I attacked with 10 other girls. It didn’t affect my race, but I was getting pissed off at one of the 40+ women who was in the attack group—she hooked me about three times. Hooking is where someone erratically cross in front of you causing you to swerve just in time to miss hitting their wheel. Everywhere I went she cut in front of me. I bit my lip—which is going against my goal this year—to speak-up when someone is in my line. Just wait, it’s not in me to keep quite.

So, 10 of us attacked and never looked back. We were gone. Unfortunately, my teammates were dropped. I hung on to the lead group—I saw Teresa do a double take when she saw the Silver kit and realized it ME instead of my teammate Kristy. I felt good I was in control, breathing normally—it brought a smile to my face to see the touble take. We picked up the speed two blocks before the final turn. If you were not in a good position you were going to have to work hard to get up there. I wasn’t in the perfect position, so when we turned the corner the group split again—but, I wasn’t in it. I dug deep and start sprinting. Last year it got me when I started the sprint too early—this year I was fine, but you had to start as soon as you completed the turn. My max speed on the final streach was my highest ever on a flat streatch—42.9 mph!! I got around a few girls and came in 6th in my category, 8th overall. I wish I did better but thinking that I didn’t have a change on this one since it was a sprint finish—I can’t be too upset with my results. Next time.

Max Speed!

Opus #2

Sorry for the late update. It's hard to keep up.

Last Tuesday I went to my 2nd Opus race for the year. My teammates played hooky so I was the only Hellion on the line. Looking around there were a lot of cat 4’s.

I stood on the line more nervous this week then the week before. Not sure why since I was happy with my performance last week, but this week felt like I was going to get a beating.

After lap one all of the girls where together. Thanks to chip timing I’m able to tell you I came across the line 13th. Not so good, but not to worry it was only lap one. Lap two 9th place. Not to be mean or anything, I was kind-of surprised to see so many girls still in the back. Last year I would have been off the back by now. Lap three (sprint lap) I got 8th. No points for me. Lap four 7th place—we started to lose girls at this point. I was a little pissed off at myself. I have to get better on picking wheels. I was on the wheel of this one girl when I looked up I could see the lead group starting to form. I got around her and was able to catch-up with them on the downhill. I was angry that I had to exhausted so much energy to catch-up. Crits are ¼ strategic, ¼ taking chances, ½ fitness. If you mess up on any of these you could cause yourself the race.

Lap five I came in 6th place. Lap 6 (sprint lap) 5th place—third in my category. Lap seven, 7th place. After this lap three girls took off to be in the lead group. I was in the chase group. Lap eight, 6th place. I was done. I fell off the chase group. Lap nine 7th place. Damn track racer sucked my wheel like Wendy Wheel-Suck and got around me at the end. Points where already taken at that point.

The results came in and I wasn’t on the list. I challenged the scores since they only scored the top three that came across the finish line on lap 9. I don’t understand why it was scored like that when Opus is ALWAYS a sprint for points competition. Results still haven’t came in.