This was a two day event and started with a Criterium. A criterium (AKA Crit) basically involves riding around a city block at lung,leg,and heart burning speed. With the big teams like Webcor, T-mobile, Lipton, and Colivata (just to name a few) there, this was definitely a fast paced race.
After a good warm-up on, some creepy guy who came and took our picture, and about 15 runs to the port-a-potty, we were ready to race! Only problem was they weren't ready for us...The race before ours unfortunately entailed a very large crash near the end and they had to stop the race and restart it again once they got the carnage cleared. This meant we all got to sit around for about a good 30min...so much for the warm-up. Finally, they let us out onto the course and we are all pushing and shoving trying to get the best spot. They announce the world champion this and world champion that and national champion her, ie Kristine Thornburn, Kathrine Kuri, Sarah Ulh, and some foreign T-mobile chick. Instantly you feel a nice shift in the lower intestine.
The whistle blows and we are off! For the first 10 laps out of 40, I can't help but find myself yo-yoing off the back of the pack of 100 women! I see riders that I know I can beat and have beaten before clear up the road and here I am riding almost next to the darn chase motor cycle and some other extremely out of shape girl...What the heck is going on! I am thinking, crap am I over trained, did I not eat enough, did I go to the bathroom too many times? I hear some of my former Roaring Mouse teammates (RAY!) on the side line screaming at me to get my A-- up there!Finally after about 10 laps my legs wake up and I start slowly but surely moving myself up the pack! We must of been standing around too long...I find some of my teammates and they give me the good to see you nod..see at this pace it is hard to exchange to many words.
Laps start ticking down and I start feeling better and better and gradually get myself further and further up the pack, when i see this girl come charging up the side, what an amazing opportunity to use her to get even further up! Sure enough I pop on to her well and to my amazement find my self at the very front of the pack coming across the start finish and look a the board which says 4 laps to go! This perfect now if I can just stay here! Yeah right! next thing I know I am being swarmed by these very big and mean looking girls and find myself once again in the middle of the group. 2 laps to go, there is a huge crash that take out a fair amount of the field, I manage to literally skid my way around it and high tail it back up. Finally we are in the final straight away to the finish and I see my teammate Sammie, but there is this one girl whom I know, but there is no way in heck I am going to let her beat me, so Sammie and i start actually racing each other, and she is yelling at me, finally we realize we have her beat and as we come across the finish line, we give the team HIGH FIVE! We all put in a darn good showing! unfortunately since I sat up, they screwed up my placing, but any who 36Th for me 37th Sammie and 38th Sally!
Now off to one an exciting evening in Merced!
1 comments:
You write very well.
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