Memorial Day Races - Snake, Melon and Quad.

Snake Alley Criterium - 9th Place

"Little Mountain Goat hammers up the Snake, taking a 9th place finish."

Not quite as a strong as the 17 year old youngest mountain goat who won the race but pretty dare close. The snake was everything that everyone had told me. It was a very tough race but so much fun. The real challenge for me was descending. I just wasn't feeling confident as I was at Fox River Grove. During the last few laps I did manage to pass a few riders. Oh well, I do have unfinished business with the snake and it will be as a cat3 hopefully next year.

Melon City Criterium - 5th Place

The Course, "Take off , speedy turns down, get ready... bamb... goes my front wheel as I try to glide over a massive speed bump and then.... wheeee -- get some air as I land." Then, hit the climb .... still climbing ...not really a climb, more like a little incline but enough to tire those sprinters. I was loving it except for the speed bump. It was a great course. Race started and me a group of 5 went off strong from the start. We held a good break through out the entire race. Last lap, I tried to move up. Again my confidence on that speed bump caused me to break a little every time as I hit that thing, causing me to make up for it every time and making my legs push harder to catch up and do more work. I believe I really could of won this race if I was better prepare mentally for that speed bump. Last lap of race, I wasn't up front, which I should have been, but was able to sprint and take 5th Place!

Quad Cities Criterum - 6th Place

"Flat territory, lots of rain, slick pavement, and lots of corners. not a mountain goats dream, but a fiercest Lyon type attitude came out ."

I woke Monday feeling really good, rested and ready to go. Had a big smile on my face. Rain came. Reports of lots of crashes on the 2nd to last turn. Riders going to the hospital. Rain had passed and our race was a bit dryer but still slick. When our race started, I held position with top 7 or so riders. Crash, turn 6, right in front of me. I was able to dodge it. The rider was down for a while and they did not neutralize our race so they made us ride around the down rider for 3 laps or so. Kind of a bummer because we had to slow. Anyways, I shot out front a few times. I was really focused and felt determined to win this race. Last lap, I got blocked in. I tryed to move to 3rd position. A rider in front of me skidded her wheel. Almost crashed. I lost my chance to go around and pass like I wanted to. So I kicked it into a harder gear and just sprinted as hard as I could to the finish. 6th Place finish!

Memorial Day Weekend was a weekend of not only racing but racing with my team mates and fellow Chicagoan racers too like P5. It was great to see P5 team Cathy, Ginger and Jerel racing. Great job out there. Our group trip to Iowa consisted of Leah, Molly, Mia, Janette, Kristen and oh ya ... Josh. Josh ( Molly's husband) whom had to put up with us women for the entire weekend. Thank you JOSH!!! One of my team mates Kristen Meshberg did a fantastic job a writing a blog about this weekend. So I will not go into details for her blog tells all of this "epic" weekend it was!!!

Here is the link... http://pwppedalingwithapurpose.blogspot.com/