We arrived early and set up base...so the boys played whiffle ball
I guess Robert(left) is trying to figure out the most effective way to carry water to the feed zone...this interesting gentleman is my new room mate next year and then there is Dane(right) just being as cool as can be
The Road Race had to be re-routed from the original course due to flooding, which ment they were going take us over about 1.5 miles of dirt/gravel road...alright i thought this is my kinda style! The first time over it was neutral and we all had to wait for anyone with a flat to catch back on. Of course that lap i was sitting comfortably at the front with no problems at all. The second lap i wasn't so lucky. A group of 20 to 30 girls had gotten off the front a bit on a climb threw a feed zone(that is where riders pick up more water and nutrition items) and just before the decent that would lead onto the dirt. We cruised the dirt and bounced around a bit and I stayed in the top 5 riders to assure i wouldn't get caught behind any problems. Good thing i was wearing glasses because i got pegged in the right lense and it left a nice little chip in my lens, but better that than my eye! So we made it over the dirt and were back on the pavement when i start to feel the pulse...i check the front tire and it looks fine, i ask a team mate how my rear tire looks and she delivers the news "a little low"....bounce, bounce, bounce, thump, thump...darnet i've got a flat! Now comes the frustrating part-there is no wheel vehicle until after all the girls go through. I'm going to suggest that in the future they have 2 wheel cars for each race and they place one behind the lead group, but i know it is hard to put on a race and i would say they were doing their best with what they had set up and with mother nature throwing in the curve ball and forcing a course change. I was a bit frustrated with myself as well and wishing i had brought a tube and CO2 because i could have banged that babe back together in under a minute and maybe still have had a shot at getting back to the pack, but enough of that. I met up with a few other girls who had similar situations, including my team mate Jo, and we worked our way past many riders who had lost their mojo as we headed for the finish wondering if we had a shot at still scoring points for our teams(they give pionts to the top 50). While I was working my way up I had 2 team mates up the road in the lead pack working their tails off to bring in some good results! Mo ended up coming in 11th and Ally 31st i believe...Great job girls, you rock!!!
ATTENTION TO ALL WHO KNOW MY MOM: you should have seen her today. She had to drive my car around, dropping off spare wheels, navagating road marshalls, riders and the race course. So when she was pulling out with us girls in the car she had gotten pretty good at it and was just flying around, even making me nervous a few times! It was pretty funny and i was wishing you were there with us daddy to witness the rare happenings!!!
On another positive note we had a fun filled ride back to the hotel in my ever so wonderful station wagon, which hopefully has many more miles of life and fun times to come!!!...keep praying!!!
Mo has been taking lessons from Benson(her dog)...
Here is the favorite sign of the trip so far
Just loving life!
1 comment:
Yeah, that's bike racing. You still rock in my book!
Kelly
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