Home From Toona

This is a photo of a "Barn Raising" They stopped to watch us zoom by....pretty cool.

Sat: Killer 98 mile day

I suffered like I've never suffered before. Let's put it this way. I was in the caravan three times and still made it in the front group. It took me almost 45 minutes to catch back on to the front group...just in time for the second monster climb....not good timing... Mara and Kristen were up the road and then there was my group. I tried really hard to position myself well for the sprint hoping to hit the podium. Well, I almost wrecked with Lynne Bessette and there was no good positioning after that. I ended up 15th for the day I think. Kristen won and Mara came in afterwards....Amber Rais won our field sprint. The team suffered behind me. Anna and Bowles were in an early break and got a jump on the first climb. I caught up with them towards the end of the climb where Bowles helped launch me to try to catch the caravan and front group. It took some time....but I got there.

Sunday: Crit averaged over 42kph! We were only a few minutes slower than the men. Our large peleton dwindled to about 30 women in the end due to the high speeds and torture!! I suffered in the begining and used Bowles to get into a better position. Anna covered attacks and even attacked on her own! With 7 laps to go I really got myself into a good spot. I was about 6th wheel onl the fifth lap when a Cheerwine rider crashed into my front wheel. Someone swerved causing her to jerk and thus hit me. I flew into (literally) the hay bails and bounced off of them and continued to race. I closed the gap, opened my brakes (b/c I knew that my front wheel was not true) and tried to regain a good position before the sprint! I was about 11th wheel into the final turn and ended up what I thought was 9th. I come to find out it was 11th??? Still confused on that one. My wheel was completely crooked and the brake still rubbed when it was wide open! So I was lucky to even get 11th I guess. My wheel went completely flat immediately after the race....more luck I guess.

I leave for North Carolina on Thursday...11 hr drive in the van!! It will be fun to race with Jen again. She's our super fast sprinter!!!! Wahooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Stay tuned.

Drove home with Anna and got in around 12 midnight. Slept horribly b/c I missed Maddie so much that she slept in our bed...with me, Bill and Zabina (our huge dog). Not good for sleep. But got almost 12 hours in last night.