Tuesday, May 26, 2009

1st to DFL in 24 hours



I decided to do ABD's crits this weekend. I'm dying to be on my mountainbike but the races were close to home and I could race for free. Saturday went well. I hung with the pack of women (30+, 40+ and one 50+ woman) and finished 2nd in my age group and I think 8th overall in the about dozen racers. Sunday we were with two men's age groups. I couldn't hang with the faster pack but noticed no other 30+ girls were up there either. I rode with two guys most of the race, took first in my age group and got quite a few compliments about riding strong. The compliments about strong riding and the top podium spot were very rare and very nice.

Then things started to suck. We thought we had someone to watch Christopher Sunday afternoon so Tom & I could actually go on a mountainbike ride together. She said she couldn't last minute. On Monday, I had a good chance of taking the overall and getting $50. A teammate and another girl even said they were going to just ride with me the whole race to make sure I got the overall. I'm sure my few readers know where this is going. I had a horrible race. It was really windy and we had a smaller group and I can't draft for anything. I fell off our little group. My teammate had previously shot off and ended up winning the race. The other girl who was going to work with me worked with one of my competitors and, working by myself in the wind, I almost reeled 'em in but couldn't. I ended up with the same amount of overall points with another girl. Even though I had beat her the previous two days and my best placing was a first vs. her second, she got the overall. Then, I realized I lost part of my skewer for my front wheel that had been in the pit. I was told that there were no vegan sandwiches (they had a PB and J for me the day before) and I couldn't find the spare umbrella we keep in the car. Someone at least lent me a rain jacket as it rained on me for several hours being a course marshall. And, then last, I had to argue with the volunteer coordinator because she didn't want to give me one of my volunteer vouchers (which I can use for race fees). So, I was cranky. Some seemed to be annoyed I was in a bad mood. But, what a crappy day!

On a good note on Sunday evening, we briefly had the training wheels off Christopher's bike. He's "riding" the bike without pedals like a pro. We took the training wheels off his little Trek, he rode a very small distance (with me kind of holding the back of his seat), he started tilting to the side and wanted his other bike. He is sooo close! = )
[Edit: I added a photo taken on Saturday since it shows the new bike. It no longer has the white seat, which you can't really tell since my butt's on it.]

1 comment:

Julie said...

we're sisters in DFL's this weekend. it's the journey that counts, right? :)