Sunday, May 20, 2007

A Win, and a TON of Fun

Hi y'all!
Me, Kate, Eikes, Dr. J and Anna kept the silliness going all weekend. We were in rare form (in the humor department) and somewhere in there we did some bike racing.

Short story is one win, two top 10s for the weekend and some fine teamwork to boot. We'll call that a good weekend.

Weekend officially started on Friday when Kate got to town. One of the neighbor dogs came over to say hi so Alibi (Al) got to play with Gabby.

He's got nuclear energy and does not stand or sit still longer than .5 seconds.



Here he is doing an Al move, what I call the "Stealth Slime" because he is so quick he can slime up your face in no time.

I think Al is a Boston Terrier. Here he is...the most photogenic little dog in the world. Makes me look good! I should carry around a funny looking dog then no one will notice that I haven't combed my hair all day.




Since Kate and I were hungry we rolled over to Noodles for some take out. I was short .66 and the guy let us go. How cool is that? We must of looked like really hungry girls on bikes. Anyway, we were really tired and hit the hay soon after dinner.

We all trooped up to Baraboo on Saturday for a race that has a main feature of a 1 mile climb with a grade of about 10%. Due to some last minute wheel issues and flat tire, I didn't get a warm up and so the first lap was a bit rough on the ole quads. Julie cracked open the race on the climb and went zoom...only me and one other could stay with her and then I had to ease off and watch J and the other rider cruise off. I fought it for awhile, thinking I could ride solo but then realized I needed to ease up and get my legs loose so I waited for the field. We had a fun bit of cat and mouse the rest of the way, with me making a bit of an error in my leadout in the end but all the same, Eikes had a good finish and so did Kate. Dr. J won the race by about 10 minutes and even better she caught and blew through the men's field that started 5 minutes ahead of us. Some of my pals in the men's field said that when she went by they they were in awe of her just cruising on by while they labored up the climb. Welcome to the hurt locker, courtesy of Dr. J!

Since so much of bike racing is tactical in nature it's rare to see a win on pure strength. Clearly J is in a class all her own.

After the race we sat around waiting for official results and there was a creaky old swing that we decided to play with. Here's a few photos.



Kate looked like a little kid waiting for someone to push the swing.




So eiks gave a good shove.




Then Anna hopped on while Julie held on.

Sunday was a super fun local crit called "Wheels on Willy." We won it last year with a stellar team leadout of Natalie. She was there and it was awesome to see her. She repeated her win in fine form. The race was interesting in that the course was new and there were a lot of strong, solo riders willing to chase. Rachel and I took turns trying to get away and covering other moves but after a few tries we realized it was fruitless to try and slip away. Still, one of the best attacks of the day belong to Kate whose attack with about 6 laps to go just about cracked things open. She had a large gap but as they did in all the other attemps, the solo riders just sat on not pulling through. We decided to set up for the field sprint. Unfortunatley, a crash with a lap to go took out a couple riders and Kate had to unclip and while she managed not to crash it took her out of the finish as well. The crash messed the final sprint in that the spot to make any final move was littered with a body and a car and officials flagging us to the side. Eikes and I had to slow down and move over which cost us in the sprint, but in the big scheme of things, everyone got through safely and there will be more races. It was great to see Natalie repeat her win and no one was hurt, including the two who hit the deck--always good when everyone can walk away.

So that's the wrap up. Sounds like Cari had some fun on the track and heather is still tending to her knee. Hopefully the Betsy's had fun in their events.
Talk to you all soon!
dq

4 Comments:

Blogger Kate said...

That was defiantly a great weekend! Thank you guys for everything. The big attack was for all of the other attacking and covering Bex and Rachel had been doing the ENTIRE race, while I was hanging on by the skin-skin-skinny of my two front teeth--- wondering when someone would let us recover!!! :) I am beginning to LOVE the pain.

Big High fives for all of my teammies.

ps... "HI DAD"

2:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great job girls... sounds like a fun weekend.

Just of site of that swing makes me dizzy and motion sick- those of you in Arkansas know what I am talking about.

Cari

4:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Cari, did you barf in Arkansas on a teeter totter?? Do tell!!

And yes, that attack of Kate's was stellar, and each time rachel went up the road I was thinking "I LOVE my team!!! "

4:31 PM  
Blogger Kate's Dad said...

Hi Kate! Keep up the great work!

9:13 PM  

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