I was amazed at the number of women at the start of this race. 36 starters! I don't think I've ever heard of any group of women that big here in Texas, or in Louisiana either...

So the race was really really slow for the first 15 miles or so. Then, after that, the pace started to pick up. A couple of women attacked on the corners, and I was stupid and chased them all down. It was a pretty boring race overall except for the huge crash that happened about 3 feet behind me...one of my friends and a former teammate on the UT Cycling team ended up busting up her should pretty bad. So that was bad. The only good thing about it...I wasn't involved. I very easily could've been, and that would've been painful to say the least.

Anyways, I ended up in a perfect position to win the race, but my legs gave out at the sprint. They seem to be doing that a lot lately...I don't know why. It's kind of frustrating...

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February 28, Tunis Roubaix:

3rd place

Owwwwww....owowowowowowowowowowow. OWW. This race was painful for so many reasons. First of all the course was bumpy and gravelly as all hell, but it's a Roubaix so that's expected. Also, my seat is too high on my bike, I think, because my hamstrings/glutes were killing me during and after the race. And my hands. And my feet...my feet still hurt, actually.

It was really windy that day. I think the wind speed was around 25 mph or thereabouts. I ended up getting dropped by the pack about 20 minutes into the race--the guys at the front were pushing the pace really hard. So I ended up catching this A&M guy later on, and we worked together for a while (well, to be honest, he did most of the work because he was going to quit the race). We caught Laura Whittle of MSU, who also worked with us. Then the A&M guy changed his mind and decided to stay in the race. Maybe it's because he was riding with two badass women? Who knows. Anyway, Laura and I ended up dropping him. We worked by ourselves for the last 30 miles of the race (the total distance was 56 miles), and she ended up beating me in the sprint. Again, I lose the sprint. Why, why?? I don't understand.

So that was Tunis, 2004. We got free t-shirts, and there was beer and pizza at the finish line (but I didn't get any because I got back too late). And I got a nice little glass for getting 3rd. The race was over in a little over 3 hours. Average speed was close to 18 mph. Ouch.

************************************

March 20-21, Fayetteville Stage Race:
(AKA: "The $55 Ass-Kicking")

13th place

Let's just leave it at that.

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And the epic continues......

Let me tell you, a LOT has happened since Tunis of last year. At the 2004 SCCCC Road Championships in April, I managed to not do so well in the road race. The team time trial was a success in my opinion because my teammate Brenda Moczygemba and I managed to finished the 20-K course with an average speed of 20.5 mph. I thought we did a great job and ended up getting a default 2nd-place out of two Women A TTT teams.

The next day was the criterium. I had managed to pull ahead of Laura Whittle of MSU. Jennifer Purcell of MSU had lapped me, but I caught on her wheel and managed to stay there until this pesky right turn took me out. I crashed at 22 or so mph, skidded across the concrete and landed on my right hand. Everything hurt, and I was pretty sure something was broken, but I decided that this was the championships, damn it, and I wasn't about to DNF because of a silly injury. So I finished, 4th place out of 4 in the crit, and found out later that a big patch of skin was gone from my right leg (which is still a big purple spot, 7 months later) and both my thumb and wrist on my right arm were broken. It was interesting (to say the least) to go back to school in time for finals with my right hand (being right-handed) broken.

I was off the bike for two months, and started riding again in mid-June. I still had a brace on my hand until July, but I went out and rode with my arm propped up on my aerobars. I rememeber hating that so much. And when I finally got the brace off I was so slow I could barely hang with the old-n'-slow group.

It was then that a mortal fear of losing my fitness hit me. I was so afraid that I would never get back into shape, it drove me to train...and train, and train, and train. For all of July, and all of August, I rode at least 300 miles a week. It wasn't long before muscle memory got me back into riding with the Louisiana racers again, though I still stuggled. An un-official time trial held by Team LaS'port let me know that I was a minute slower than my time on the same course last year. Talk about discouraging.

But I kept riding lots, and eventually the call came out that LaS'port needed women to do the LA State Team Time Trial Championships to be held in Baton Rouge. I heard that two of the three women I would be riding with were incredibly fast; I had never ridden with them before and was not looking forward to the reaming I knew I was going to get. Well, needless to say when the time came to do the 32-mile race, I felt unprepared. On the first of three laps, I pulled for the same amount of time as everyone else in the rotating pace line. On the second lap, I don't know what happened: my legs stopped working, and my throat felt like it was closing up on me. That happens a lot when I race, and I always end up wheezing like someone with asthma (hmm..?), so I ended up taking shorter pulls at the front. On the third and final lap, I had had a Gu and felt much better. I was also mad at myself for not doing my share of the work (even though I still felt terrible), so I got to the front and started taking longer pulls. One of my teammates was getting tired, and she shortened her time pulling and I decided to take longer pulls. Towards the end, I decided to give it everything I had and pulled for several minutes. I even managed to accelerate towards the end, though I don't think it helped our time any. We finished with an average speed of 22.5, getting 4th of 4 in the state. That placing was really disappointing. What surprised me was right after the race, when I realized I couldn't move my legs anymore. I seriously could NOT get off of my bike. My teammates rushed to help me and it turns out that I was severely dehydrated. Whoops.

The great thing about that race was that I had held my own with these women that were so fast, and I think maybe I was just as fast as they were. I just didn't know it.

Here I am leading the other ladies of the LaS'port team time trial team.

After that I didn't race for about a month. In the meantime I kept riding lots, did my first century in hilly east Texas (in 5:30), and nearly did a double-century two weekends later (190 miles for the weekend). On August 17th I moved to Houston, and had a hard time getting out on rides. It turns out I really needed a break from two months of hardcore riding. I went to a local bike shop soon after I got into town and found out about group rides; I did a few 40-milers, a few 60-milers, and lots of the super-fast Tuesday/Thursday rides where we finished 24 miles in a little less than an hour. It was just the kind of short, interval-type work I needed to prepare for the upcoming Fall '04 Collegiate racing season.

Pretty soon the time came to try a warm-up USCF race, the Chappell Hill Road Race just to see how I stood amongst the other Women Category 4 racers in Texas. The pace was fairly fast over a hilly course (I believe we averaged close to 22mph). I felt very good though, and was confident at the end. Well, the sprint came, and I seriously underestimated the steepness of the hill we had to climb to get to the finish line (I tried to climb it in my big ring, as others in their small chainrings flew by me). My placing was terrible, I think I got 13th or so.

Chappell Hill marked the beginning of the marathon racing season I just recently finished. I would race all but one weekend until the beginning of November.

The first collegiate race of the fall was the SFA Stage Race in Nacogdoches, TX. What was great about this race was that we stayed at the home of one of the racers, whose family happens to live in the area. They were some of the nicest people I've ever met, and they fed us some GOOD FOOD. The road race on Saturday was a VERY hilly course, but I ended up getting a flat and losing the peloton. I (and most of the other Women A racers) ended up going the wrong way and even though I left them behind, I ended up getting last place because of the time I crossed the finish line. It sucked.

The crit the next day was awesome. It was on cobblestone/brick in the town square of Nacogdoches, and was a very fast course. I ended up getting third, but in my opinion I would've gotten second for sure if my right cleat hadn't popped out of my pedal four times during the course of the race. But oh well. It happens.

The next weekend I participated in the Baylor Race Weekend, which consisted of a two road races and a time trial. The first road race was in Clifton, TX. The pressure was on, because for the past two years I have DNF'ed in this race by getting lost. I don't know why, but apparently it's just really hard for them to mark the course well enough to keep people from going the wrong way. Anyways, this time I didn't get lost, but some of the other racers did which was disappointing. During the race, Laura Whittle of MSU stayed with the group longer than I did, but got dropped just a few minutes after me. I managed to catch up with her, and we worked together for a while until she got a flat. I was SO ready to duke it out for second place, but it turned out that wasn't going to happen. Jenn Purcell of MSU turned out a great performance and not only beat the Women A racers, she beat all the guys too!

That afternoon was the 13-mile individual time trial. I felt great, and managed to get a 0:38 (20.5 average) over a hilly course. The result didn't matter, though, because a sign marking one of the turns on the course fell down and most of the racers got lost. The time trial as a whole was scrapped because of that.

The Baylor road race the next day was flat, and fast. I was tired at the start of the race, and an attack at the very beginning by some of my UT teammates insured my getting blown off the back of the pack. I ended up working with Brenda for most of the race, and we sprinted at the finish. I got third place.

The last USCF race of the year came the following Sunday: the Texas State Road Race Championships. The race was three laps of an incredibly flat course with two big hills on it. One of the hills was designated as a "King of the Mountains" (KOM) hill and points would be given to the first three people to climb it on each lap. The other hill led up to the finish line. The total distance was 40 miles, and there were 27 starters. The pace was very, very slow. None of the women wanted to pull or attempt at breakaways, and while there were a few attacks, none of them stuck. My strategy for the day was to sit in the group and save my energy for the final sprint. I knew that if I played my cards right I could win. On the first KOM climb, I was blocked out and unable to contend for points. On the second climb, I made sure I went into the climb with a good position in the group, and managed to get fifth--not good enough for points, but close. On the last KOM climb, I gave it all I had, but still only got 4th. I was proud, though, because even though I didn't get points, I still proved that I hadn't lost all climbing ability by riding in super-flat Houston. The final sprint came, and a whole slew of women broke the yellow-line rule (Brenda and I ended up filing a protest after the race, which caused one of the women to be disqualified--and rightly so). I stayed on different wheels until we hit the 200-meter mark, and that's when I went for it. I was sure to climb the finishing hill in my little ring--no big-ring mistakes this time like at Chappell Hill--and slowly increased my speed until I was going all-out at 100m. I passed a bunch of women on my way up the hill, and was elated when I finished 3rd. So I didn't win like I expected, but I proved to myself that I was a top-tier Cat 4 racer, and started to seriously think about upgrading.

The next weekend there were no races, so I went home to LA for the weekend. I did a 62-mile ride that Saturday morning and managed to average 21. It was great to see most of my old riding buddies again--and to put the hurt on them.

I stayed in Houston the following weekend to participate in the SCCCC Track Championships on Saturday and the University of Houston Criterium on Sunday. It ended up being yet another disappointing year for track racing, as we got rained out and the race was cancelled. Rumors are that the event is going to be re-scheduled for March of 2005, but I haven't heard anything definite yet. Sunday I rode the U of H crit half-heartedly. I hadn't done a full week of training since before the State Championship, and was exhausted from such a long and challenging racing season. It was a very technical crit, with lots of corners, including a right turn (...I hadn't done a right turn since April, when I broke my arm...) which bothered me a lot more than I'd like to admit. When we got to that corner I went right out the back of the peloton; I was VERY nervous about it and wasn't willing to cause a crash by staying in the group. The great thing is that I managed to get 2nd place.

Once the SCCCC website was updated I found I was in second overall in the conference. The scary thing was that we still had the UT Race weekend ahead of us, and I knew that if I didn't do well in Austin I would drop to third overall for sure.

Check out the SCCCC Website for my current conference standings.