Weekend Report: Cincy3 CX Festival

A weekend like this deserves more than a simple race report.  Cory and I loaded the car and headed out after work on Friday night.  Our first stop, of course, was Starbucks.  After properly fueling for the drive we were eastward bound.  I don’t think there was a silent moment for the entire drive, and that included our 45 minute traffic delay in Indiana.  (Dr. Matt warned us to take 64, but we trusted Garmin.  Mistake!)  Between our dissection of the problems of the world and our lives, and the outright snarkiness that flowed like water at Niagra Falls, the trip went quickly.  We arrived in Cincy about 12:30AM EST.  No time for frivolity—we went right to bed.  That is after I tried every alarm sound on my iPhone.

Saturday morning came early—6:30AM was when the iPhone rang.  We packed up and set out for Middletown.  Karl had provided us with the addy of the park and the nearest Starbucks so we were set.  The only problem was it was cold!  35 degrees cold.  Yes, I had checked Accuweather for the high—it was supposed to be 62.  I forgot that we were racing at 9:15.  We got to the park and found Karl and registered.  Of course I had to make things difficult because I wanted to know if we got upgrade points even though we were racing Masters. Us old ladies want to be Cat 2 as well you know!  The UCI officials were friendly about it, but it limited my time to pre-ride the course.  I only got through half of it before getting kicked off. 

We changed clothes in the car and I was so happy I’d thrown in my embro at the last minute.  We headed out to warm up, riding through the grass alongside the course on the section I hadn’t gotten to ride.  I was geeked about this race.  It was definitely a power course, with very few technical sections.  I couldn’t wait. 

We got called to the line and staged. Because we did day of registration we were in the back row in a field of 32. It didn't hit me until after we started that I'd never raced a field this large. We got our instructions and the whistle and were off. It was a scene out of a bad movie, there were girls weaving everywhere, going slowly and I just wanted them out of my way! I was cautious through the first section of the course that I hadn't ridden. I wasn't getting a read of my heart rate because my strap needs new batteries, but I can tell you I was not putting forth effort because I couldn't get through. Finally as we headed back towards the tennis courts I was able to jump out in front of some girls. I didn't know who was in my category, and decided that didn't matter--I was passing who I could when I could. I was more confident coming through my second lap and was able to pass more girls. As I passed through I saw we had two to go. I continued to concentrate on catching girls in front of me one by one and on pedaling through the muddy section as it got sloppier. In the last lap I caught and passed a girl on the rough pavement section. She came around me after the mud and was able to ride the hill I took as a run up. She got a little gap on me as we went through the barriers. I pushed after her and turned on the sprint as we headed towards the pavement. I was at her front fork when we crossed the line. I finished 7/19 for women's open 35+ and 13/32 for the entire field. Strengths for the day were riding the mud and being smooth over the barriers. Learning for the day was I need to be more aggressive in passing. I tended to sit back and watch too long before going around.

Karl was wonderful and was waiting at the finish with my jacket.  I got it on and we found Cory.  We washed our bikes in the showers in the restrooms and then headed back to the truck to change and planned on going to get food.  Yeah, that never happened.  I wanted to walk up and check results because I was hoping for top 10.  Cory busted out the acrylic wine glasses and the cube.  After all, we needed post race rehydration.  We headed back up to the results board and ran into Flavia—she used to live in Carbondale and race for Heckawee.  We chatted with her before getting accosted by Dr. Matt.  He’s from Cincy and came back home to race Friday and Saturday’s race.  So much for food, we had to watch Matt race.

Wishing Dr. Matt luck on his race.

After Matt’s race it was another trip back to the truck and then Cory wanted to find Kirk, her coach.  We found him and then spent the next couple of hours talking to him and watching races until Karl was up.  The elite women raced after Karl and we had to watch them.  And who wanted to leave when the elite men were racing.  It was 5:30 before we left.  Throughout the day we talked to a lot of cool peeps.  They were all a bit intrigue by our glassware and silliness.  I lost count of how people asked to take our pics. 

We headed back to the hotel so we could get a shower and find food.  Cory checked with Kirk about safe choices and he said he’d set something up.  PF Changs at 8:20 was the decision.  We walked in to shocked looks—I don’t think they expected us to clean up so well!  After a few minutes, Kirk stepped away.  We turned to see where he went.  He was talking to Jeremy Powers who was joining us for dinner!  What more could two girls want—dinner with seven men, two of them pro cx racers.  We laughed a ton throughout the whole evening, especially at Tom and his chocolate cake!  By the time dinner was over, we were exhausted.  Believe it or not, we were back at the hotel and in bed by 11.  Definitely not what you would have expected from us.

Sunday morning arrived and I didn’t want to get out of bed.  Cory and I talked each other into the race with the caveat that we’d head to IKEA after we were done.  We found our Starbucks and went to Harbin Park.  I was bound and determined to pre-ride the course because we had heard it was going to be hella hard.  It took forever to register though, even though there was no line!  I jumped on, still wearing my jeans and got through about 75%. It was a long course, my little warm up ride took 9+min and I didn't finish the entire lap.

After I got kicked off the course, I headed back to the truck to get changed.  We warmed up in an adjacent field.  Thankfully it was warmer, although the wind had picked up.  Once again call ups left me sitting in the back--row four.

I was much more aggressive off the line on Sunday moving up through as many girls as I could until we hit the first little muddy section. Some girl immediately went into a stake and caused a small pile up. I stayed up and got around her but that created the first gap in the group. I had watched the first lap of the race before our and saw the carnage on that off camber section so I had made the decision to run the trickiest part. We hit that and I was off the bike. I had trouble with footing but stayed upright and got back on and headed to the start finish. I decided to run the sand as well and actually passed girls riding it. We went through and I was on a girl’s wheel as we hit the playground. She hit the railroad tie and went down. I hadn't seen this section of the course so I wasn't expecting it--I quickly dismounted though and jumped her like a barrier and took off. I ran the second section of sand and was doing well until I hit the tree root section. It surprised me and I tried to ride it and couldn't. My dismount was awkward and I lost a lot of ground. Cory passed me through that section and told me to stick with next.  I also then bobbled as I tried to ride the slick little uphill and had to dismount mid-way. I talked myself through it . . . race your race, race your race. I got on and rode through the mud. I hit the pavement added two gears and went after Cory and the other girl in front of me. I was able to pass them in the section leading into the next off camber tree.  I didn’t want to look back because I was sure Cory was on my wheel. As I went around the tree, I unclipped and dabbed my left foot to keep my balance. I got to the barriers and went across, although not as smoothly as Saturday. I thought of something Tilford told me as I went to remount . . . don't be in a hurry, wait until you feel comfortable, so I ran the bike the rest of the way up the hill and around the corner. I jumped back on and opened it up on the downhill. I hit the mud at the bottom and sailed up the hill on the other side. I caught up to some other girls going through the single track and stayed on them until we hit the grass on the other side. I passed them in the grass and headed into the off camber section. I again dismounted, shouldered the bike and ran it. My remount was smooth and I headed to the finish. I saw one to go as I went under.

The second lap was much smoother for me than the first. I decided to dismount and run anything that may be tricky for me and that seemed to work for me. When I hit the back section there were two girls in front of me. I flew past them on the way to the barriers and kept pushing to put a gap. One of them stayed with me. She was on my wheel as we hit the off camber section for the last time. She passed me in the section that I could ride and it made me nervous. I decided to dismount there and really lost my footing trying to run. I saw her fall in the trickier section and knew I had a chance. She got back on the bike quickly and took off. I remounted and pushed. She looked back at me. I cracked up one of the spectators because I said to myself, “that's right, look back because I'm coming for you. I upped my cadence and added gear several times. The finish was looming but I wasn't going to stop. I passed her with 75m to go and didn't slow at all. I ended up 8th in my field and 15^th overall. I’m so happy with that because it was such a tough, technical course. I was happy with my handling through the mud. I would have like to have been able to ride the course in a non-race situation to see if I could have ridden the railroad ties and the off camber dirt sections. I also still need to work on riding in sand. I will say that I stayed calm and knew what my strengths were (i.e. running) and played to them rather than giving in to areas where I need work.

The conditions of the course definitely called for Wellies post race.

Yes, it was a muddy one!

We checked results and loaded up the bikes.  We headed back to the hotel via carwash (clean bikes are happy bikes).  Quick showers and then it was off to lunch.  We spent the next two hours roaming through IKEA in domestic paradise.  Karl just redid his kitchen so he needed the finishing touches.  I found a cute beagle puppy for my Bella.  We made one final Starbucks stop and were back on the road. 

The trip started more quietly.  On the trip east I tried to take pictures of the “Welcome to” signs but flubbed it horribly.  I was 4/5 on the way home in snapping getting my shots.  Indiana traffic was bad, but not as bad as Friday night.  Our trip through western Illinois definitely went quickly as we got involved in a Twitter conversation regarding dropped shorts, muddy butts, and lightening the load. We pulled into Ballwin at 7:30, officially ending the UCI girls’ weekend that was full of laughs, fun, and peacefulness.

Race Report: Sedalia Crit and Otterville Road Race

I should start by telling you I went to bed Friday night with a migraine and it was still lingering when I got up Saturday morning.  It was enough that I had second thoughts about heading out to the races.  I took some ibuprofen and got some lunch with Steph before meeting Ashley and Kelly.  I was feeling better so decided it was game on.

Our drive to Sedalia was calm--no tickets, no wrong turns--I was a little surprised.  We pulled up to the Hotel Bothwell and found a tight space to park.  The hotel was like stepping back in time and the desk clerk was a little too excited to see four ladies checking in together.  We got our room and found out we weren't on the "haunted floor" but were on the fifth floor and the elevator was out!  The bikes definitely weren't spending the night in the room now!  Our room was actually pretty spacious and comfortable for as old as the hotel was.  What was really nice is that we could actually see the race course from our window.

Kelly got ready for her race and Steph, Ashley and I walked the course taking note of the corners and pavement.  The sides were four or five blocks long with a little rise/fall and the ends were only a block.  The streets were nice and wide.  There was a grate in turn two that was coned and large pot hole right before turn three, but otherwise it was beautiful.  We watched the Masters' race and Steph got chatted up by a creepy guy with no teeth.

Around 7PM we got ready to head for a warm up.  I made sure to do about five or six hard efforts because I had a feeling we'd start hot.  There were nine of us (Steph, Ashley, Chris, Aubree, Becca, Shari, Kelly Skinner, Michelle Jensen) in the race.  I'd raced against everyone but Michelle Jensen--Steph said she's a great racer and someone to watch.  The whistle blew and Michelle took off.  I jumped right on her wheel and held on tight.  We slowed down after turn two and moved into a compact group.  We passed the start/finish and there was the prime bell.  The first of nine for our race.  I had no intentions of going for it, but wanted to stay close to the leaders.  There was some positioning on the back side and we hit the front straight and the sprint was on.  Without really thinking about it, I found myself out of the saddle going for it.  Chris passed me like I was sitting still and took the prime.  We regrouped after the start/finish.  By that time, my head started pounding again.  It did off and on through the race, anytime I exerted hard effort.  That lap I took turn two poorly and went wide.  I corrected just in time to avoid hitting the curb.  I readjusted and calmed myself.  We passed the start/finish and got another prime.  This time I just sat in and stayed with the group.  We regrouped and headed back around and another prime.  I again just stayed in the pack for that one.  We had about two laps of "normal" racing before the prime bell went again.  This time it was a t-shirt prime.  As soon as we rounded turn two, Shari just rode off the front.  No one looked like they were itching to catch her, so she was just riding away.  I decided I might as well see what I had so I took off.  I jumped on her wheel and we had about a hundred yard gap on the pack.  I told her we had a gap and to take off.  I followed her wheel through turn four.  With about two hundred meters to the line I jumped and gapped her.  I  stayed away from her until midway through the back side.  She caught on and we got caught by the pack just after the start/finish.  We had a few more calm laps before the prime bell started going again.  I didn't give any real chase for any other one but made sure I stayed with the group.  Several girls tried attacking throughout, but no one got very far.  It all came to the last lap.  Chris jumped as soon as we turned the corner.  I was sitting about third wheel.  I was able to hold onto them, but couldn't make up ground.  Ended up with 5th.  I felt like I knew what was going on in the race and could see move unfold.  I physically felt like I was able to respond to the attacks and didn't have to hope someone else would cover them for me.

Post race we stopped to talk to Aaro and he had great news for me--the guy who had sponsored the t-shirt prime felt like that wasn't enough, so he gave Aaro $25 for me.  Score!  We were all hungry so we parked the bikes and walked to Subway.  We watched the Men's Pro/1/2 and ate dinner.  My next stop was the Mich Ultra tent.  My team kit made me a big hit in there!  After showers, it was near midnight by the time we got to bed.  I think I woke up with every little noise and looked around to see if it was a ghost.  No such luck though!

We had breakfast the next morning at the hotel, but the coffee was less than stellar.  We agreed to pack quickly so we could find the Starbucks on the way to Otterville.  We missed our turn to Otterville, but realized it pretty quickly, so we were right on time for the race.  

  

I was a little more nervous about Sunday's race for two reasons.  First, simply because it was a road race.  Second, because I hadn't been able to locate a course map/profile.  I had been told it was rollers with one steep climb near the end.  I hate going into a race blind though.  I could also feel that Friday's migraine was still lingering.  We had seven girls in the race and all of us had done Saturday night's crit.  At the line Michelle asked how we felt about working a pace line through the first lap and calling "game on" for lap two.  Everyone readily agreed.  We formed a rotating double pace line right from the start.  About 10 miles in, Steph dropped back.  She had been struggling, not feeling well physically, for the last three miles or so.  We sat up and had Ashley drop back to pull her up.  She said if she fell off again, to go on without her.  It was about then when my headache returned.  As long as I kept my head up and my heart rate below 160, I was ok.  Any hard effort and I could feel my heart beat pounding in my head.  The steep climb came about 21 miles into the lap.  I was totally unprepared for it.  I got caught behind someone who was going slow and almost fell off my bike trying to turn the pedals over and get around.  I made up my mind I would be on the front for that one on the second lap.  Just before the feed zone we started talking about lap two.  We decided to work together until mile 12 and then race full out.  I got two fresh bottles in the feed zone (my first time ever taking a feed!) and we started out again.  My head was still bothering me on climbs, but I was set on finishing with the group.  We got to mile 12 and no one made a move.  We still rotated through.  We hit a little climb about mile 42 and the group started to break apart.  Shari went off the front and Aubree fell off the back.  Michelle gave chase to Shari and I stayed on Michelle's wheel.  The five of us came back together but Aubree was gone.  When I saw the steep little monster in sight, I moved to the front of the group.  I took the hill pretty aggressively and got a small gap on the group.  (little did I know that everyone else small ringed it).  I guess Shari thought I was attacking because on the downhill she flew around me.  I jumped on her wheel and stayed there.  And everyone else stayed on my wheel.  Shari tried to shake us, but no one would take a pull.  She would slow down, but no one went around.  She kept looking back at me and I just smiled at her.  I knew I was in no shape to take off and stay away.  We were about a mile about when Michelle easily moved to the front and ramped up the pace.  Ashley went along side of her.  We hit the hill to the feed zone and the paced quickened even more.  I was still holding on at that point.  We turned the corner and started the little hill to the finish and the sprint was on.  I tried to go but couldn't stay out of my saddle. I was able to hold onto Becca's wheel but had nothing left to go around her.  My head was killing me and my legs were rubber.  Ashley was able to zoom ahead of Michelle and take the W.

I found some shade and got my helmet off.  Once my heart rate/blood pressure dropped, I felt well enough to walk back to the car.  Getting into flip flops also helped as well.  Steph and Kelly were wonderful enough to walk the cooler back from the feed zone and I began to take on as many fluids as I could.  It took a good 30 minutes for me to feel semi-normal.  We packed up and were St. Louis bound.  A much needed stop at Chipotle in CoMo refueled our tanks.  The races were great, the road trip was fun.  These will be definitely be on my radar for next year.

Race Report: Living the High Life on the Highroad

I usually do a lot of research for races when I'm not familiar with the course. I typically plot them on mapmyride.com and make myself post-it notes of what to expect and study it for a week prior to the race. I'm pretty happy I didn't on this one. Because, if I had, I probably wouldn't have raced today. Now, I knew I was getting into a hilly time trial. I knew this was the course the pros had used twice in the Tour of Missouri. And I knew there was at least one climb where I would probably need to come out of my aerobars. I had no idea how long and big thes climbs would be though.

It was a long drive down to the course and that gave me plenty of time to hydrate. I have to disclose that I did have a slight detour on one of my nature breaks. I thought I was turning on the road that led to the gas station, instead I was turning onto 44, heading back to StL. Oops! Other than that, my trip was calm.

I turned off of 65 and realized that I was actually driving in on the second half of the course. I was immediately intimidated. The hills were incredibly long. I got down to the end of the highway and parked. I was still trying to decide which bike I would ride. I was worried about riding the 11/23 on the TT bike and I had my road bike with the 12/27 on it. I decided to warm up on the course on my TT bike and see if I could handle the hills on it. On my way back from registration, I met the promoter and he advised the TT bike. He also told me to ride about the first four miles of the course and then come back. He said I would hit the biggest hill that way. He neglected to say the one immediate prior to that was only a slight bit shorter. Again, in this case ignorance was better.

The warm up went well, but I realized the second half was going to hurt. There was a diagnol wind, that coupled with the hills, had me crawling in some places and feeling unstable in my aeros on some of the downhills. I got back and continued to spin around to keep my legs warm. I put ice in my bra and and ice pack at my lower back and headed up to the start/finish. Larry called me up (I was the first on the course) and gave me a countdown. Just as I was taking off, the starting tent started to collapse! I ducked and pedalled and took off. The first down hill was less than a hundred yards. This is the first time I ever have been able to get this bike into the 54/12 and maintain a +90 cadence. I think I hit 44-46 on that first descent. The first climb was small. I was on the second longer climb when I was passed for the first time. It wasn't long after that I got passed again. This climb went on forever. It never got really steep, maybe 4-7% at the most, but it was long. There was a steep long descent and then another long climb to the turn around.

I made the turn and had a great descent. I was passed the third time there. The climbs on the way back were much harder. I found myself struggling to maintain a 50 cadence. I was able to stay in the aerobars on the descents, but had to sit up for the climbs. The last two climbs I had to alternate sitting and standing to climb to keep forward momentum. The final climb was about a mile long. I was glad I had pre-ridden it because it gave me a great psychological advantage when I was tired. I knew how much longer I had to go and could gauge how much I had left to give.

I did some light spinning for a little bit after the race and continued to hydrate. There were only three women racing today; no one in the Open race (yes, I tried to race it but they told me only 1/2/3). I finished about 4-5 minutes ahead of the woman in second and about 22 minutes in front of third place. It was a physically hard win, but a race I really enjoyed in spite of it. I'm glad I made the trip and hope tomorrow's crit goes as well.

Living on Tulsa Time

You put a bunch of Rev girls on a group ride and usually something epic will happen. At the very least, we walk away with a good phrase or story...you let us road trip to Tulsa to race and watch out--it's the making of a great comedy!

Our actual drive to Tulsa was pretty calm and uneventful. Steph won the Oklahoma State Line Sprint and promptly got to pay the prime at the toll booth. Funny, I didn't think that's how primes worked. We got closer in to the city and I was navigating. Let's just say I need to work on my timing. A quick dash across three lanes, 5 eff bombs by Steph, and me being called a Klucker effer (by Steph again) later and we found the hotel. We got unloaded our stuff and headed out to the Blue Dome Crit. BTW, Steph really enjoys company in the revolving door if anyone happens to get a chance.

We found the race course, parked and headed over. The Blue Dome Crit is an eightcorner course, sorta a figure 8, with 90-degree corners. We got there in time to watch the Men's 3 race and cheer on the Hub riders and Big Shark's Jonathan Shilling. The guys did great. Next up was the Pro 1/2 Women. I was so in awe of the ladies out there. They took the course at top speeds, nativating through the corners so easily. Carrie Cash was dubbed "Queen of Primes" walking away with some fat money. We met up with Allison, Courtney, and Jessi while we were down there. After the race we headed to McNellie's for dinner and refreshment. Apparently Tulsa had an avocado shortage because none of our dinners came with the avocados promised. C'est la vie--still good food.

Alice & I enjoying are cold beverages. *Photo cred: Steph Nadeau

We watched the end of the Men's Pro Race after dinner while walking the course. AMAZINGLY high speeds. We headed back to the hotel for bed.

The next morning started with coffee and breakfast. I know we looked a sight in the hotel dining room, chowing down on oatmeal and fruit, still in our jammies. Teresa and Jamie came down and we got course pointers from them. We got back up to the room and slowly got dressed. We knew it was going to be a hot one with heat indices of 101 predicted. I got a text from T to come down to Cat 3 central to talk strategy. Uh-oh!

So here was the plan. I was the sacrificial lamb. I would attack from a good position about four laps in, once everyone had calmed down. They said after turn two or three would be best. I would stay off as long as possible. Once caught (cause we all knew I would get caught) I would sit in and stay in good position. Jamie would then attack a couple of laps later and T would go with her. I would move up and hold back the pack (yep, little ole' me hold back 50 other girls!) and would go after anyone else who tried to chase them down. In hindsight I must, who the hell were we kidding!!!

Back in the room, I shared the strategy and we finished getting ready. The Hedge and I headed downstairs. Let me just say, Saturday in Tulsa was hot with a side dish of humid. I was dripping wet when we hit the course.

The course was a six corner L-shape with two small hills/false flats. The headwind would hit you in the face on the downhill between turns five and six. We rode over to course and started to look for roads for a warm-up. CycleOps had open trainers at start/finish so we jumped on those and got a good hour in for warm up while watching the men's races. We about 10 minutes before our scheduled start time, I hopped down and got women trying to get on there. I ended up with a rear starting position. Pre-race instructions and a whistle--lots of girls struggled getting clicked in their pedals. Since I was in the very back, I had to weave through them. This was not part of our plan. I stayed calm and started working my way through the crown. I picked off racers in front of me one-by-one. I felt like I was playing frogger on the bike. On the back downhill I was finally where I wanted to be. I planned to sit there until after turn three and then go like hell on the false flat. Turn 6 changed that. I heard it, then saw it. Carbon carnage everywhere. It was my first time with a crit crash and I was right behind. I stuck to Teresa's wheel and went right. I was almost too wide and went into the curb, but I made it through upright and without clicking out. I wasn't geared well and couldn't jump back on with the girls who were ahead of the crash. Time to start picking them off again. The first was the girl in the brown kit. I got on her wheel and others joined us. Within two laps of the crash, I think we had 6-8 women in a small group. Alice was with me, but I didn't see Steph. I knew Teresa was ahead and saw Jamie heading to the pit. I wasn't sure wher Allison was. I started to organize us to chase back on, but the girls in the green kits got smart enough to realize that had two girls in the lead group and refused to work--can't blame them. We did our best to work around them, but we it didn't help we had one girl who just wanted to go on her own several time. Disorganization reigned. And I got a bit annoyed as well when I saw the girls who may or may not have gone down behind me get put on the back of the lead group as I was working my butt off. I know that's the free lap rule, but it sucks when it works against you. It was time to make the best of my situation, ride smart and finish strong. There were still plenty of opportunities to learn. With five laps to go, our chase group got a prime. I thought, Ok, this is mine. Smart racing. I took 2nd wheel and sat in. Let the others work for me. The girls in green want to control our pace, let them. On the down hill, the girl in black went wide and tried to go for it. No way, I grabbed her wheel and let her lead me out around the corner. Where was a good spot to go? How long could I hold a sprint? About 250meters I stood up and added gears. I couldn't see her in my peripheal vision, but I wasn't going to let up. That sprint felt like it went for ever and my legs were crying. I crossed the line and heard Towle said it was close but 145 took it--yeah, baby! Our momentum through the sprint let us catch some girls who had dropped from the lead pack. We had a larger group now. We finished that lap and got neutralized. The main field went by us after turn to and crashed as they tried to pass. It was behind me, so I was clear of this one. I momentarily thought about trying to jump on with them, but no one else made a move, so I stayed put. We got our bell lap and I knew positioning would be key. Even though I was out of it, it was another opportunity to work on my sprint. No one tried to go this time. We rounded the corner and I hit the sprint in the same spot as before. I took this one with what felt like a comfortable gap. The scoring ended up screwed up, but even with that I wouldn't have been top 15 for money.

After the race, we headed to Sunday's venue and pre-rode the course to get a good view of Crybaby Hill and the sharp right. To me Crybaby Hill is like Carl Street in my neighborhood plus about 50 feet. The little turn and continued uphill wasn't fun, but it was do-able. Still, I kept la, la, la-ing the La Quinta theme when Steph would try to tell me the grade.

Back at the hotel we showered and decided on Mexican for dinner. We text Courtney and she joined us. We headed back over to Brady Art District. We got acosted by our rude waiter before we even sat down. He didn't like how we walked to the table and told Steph to move it. Then we practically had to beg him to take our drink order. Finally, Steph headed in to find someone else to wait on us and Courtney let our waiter know his services weren't needed when he came to take our order. A little sangria and lots of good food later, we met up with the other girls.

Spectators Extraordinaire: Alice, Me, T, Steph, Jamie, Courtney, & Allison *Photo cred: Courtney Green

We got the opportunity to watch the Pro Women tackle our course. It seems the corners gave them as much trouble as it did the Women's 3/4. It was a great race to watch and to see tactic and strategy unfold. After the race we walked over to the Trek tent and oogled pretty bikes. We also happened to stumble upon the Pride Parade on the next block. Queen, roller derby girls, and lots of candy! We had a blast. But Steph's sweet tooth was aching for ice cream so thus began our next adventure.

We asked folks on the street about somewhere to get ice cream. After a few moments of thinking they recommended the Nantucket Creamery and gave great directions. We ended up in a neighborhood with a great rich kid park and found ourselves at a posh outdoor shopping mall. Steph's and my phones both showed we were on top of this place but we couldn't find it and we were on a deadline. Their website said they closed at nine and it was 8:46. Finally after asking a few folks, we found this cute little ice cream place tucked away. It was worth effort.

The trip back was a hoot. Alice was driving and apparently is able to change red lights at will. As Steph's yelling red, red, red and the car showing no apparent signs of stopping, the light turns green. It was then that Alice realized what Steph was saying and we stopped. I laughed so hard I threw my head back. Ooops! Phil is right about needing those headrests in the back seat.

Sunday morning came with a gentle wake up from Steph. We'd all missed our alarms but only by a few minutes. We headed downstairs to the coffee shop and had breakfast in bed or on the floor or whereever there was a vacant spot in the room. I had decided to be the stinky kid on Sunday and wear the same kit (in all fairness I washed it out in the shower) because I love our new kits. While I was as calm as could be pre-race Saturday, I was torn up on Sunday. I kicked back on the bed and tried a little savasana as Alice and Steph finished getting ready. The time was finally upon us and we headed out.

Pre-race yoga--helmets are a must for safety! *Photo cred: Steph Nadeau

Sunday's course was a four corner crit. The start finish was along the river. An easy right turn to Crybaby Hill with turn two leading to a little more ascent. On the backside after the short climb, there was a roller with a big ring hill, right turn into a screaming descent and a sharp right back onto the start/finish. We rode over to the course, pre rode it again. The descent seemed more scary with the rodes closed. We rode over to the CycleOps tent and they were still setting up so we rode up the trail & back & came back & got on a trainer. I spun on the trainer for about an hour did two hard efforts. In hindsight I should have done more. I got off the trainer with 10 minutes to go before our race. This time I chose a better spot to get on the course. I sucked down the Gu and waited. They opened the course to us and I rolled up. This time I was sitting 3rd wheel for the start. I decided to start in my small ring because the hill was so eminent. We got prerace instructions and the whistle. It was a fast start and I lost ground in the small ring. The hill was there right away. I got out of the saddle, not because I had to, but more because of the mental factor. I was fighting to stay on when we hit the backside. Time to play frogger again. Grab a wheel, breath and go. I heard Carrie yelling at me on the down hill that to stay in and work hard. Three or four laps in they called the first prime. I moved through the pack trying to get through the front and couldn't make a hole. We hit the descent and turn with some faint of heart girls breaking hard and we started to split. I was off the pack. Alice was with me and we started working together. I had been out of the saddle for the climbs up until this lap and decided to try it seated. Felt good but it wasn't crowd pleasing--I think I should have been doing it seated all along. With 10 to go they called the QOM prime but we were way outta contension. With nine to go, we caught a Tulsa Tough girl on the top of the climb. I asked if she wanted to join our party and she said she was fading. I hopped into the big ring and did the descent and second hill and the big drop. I looked and Alice and girl were off my wheel..do I wait or go? I decided to go. With seven to go I thought I was going to be pulled. I looked at the chief official and shook my head no. I'd come this far I wanted to finished. It actually energized me and the hill felt easier that time. Around and down and around and I saw the official in the middle of the road. I knew what that meant. I sheepishly tried to shake him off again but got the signal. My day was done. Disappointing, but fair. They'd pulled men in the 5's race and had pulled other women already. I felt my Facebook status said it all, "Got drowned in the Riverside Crit. This little tiger shark bit off more than she could chew."

We watched the end of the race, with Jamie taking the QOM prime and finishing 5th. After seeing the results it was back to the hotel to shower and pack. That process actually went smoother than expected. We found a nice restaurant on the way out of town, grabbed some ice coffee and headed east. This drive was calm and easy with no eff bombs. We shared the driving, Facebook and Twitter posts and lots of silliness and laughs as we recounted our adventure. And maybe did a little pre-planning for Tour of KC.

All-in-all in was a great experience to race with large fields. It was good preparation for the upcoming Grove races. I successfully navigated a crash, took a prime and learned lots about moving up in the field.