Wonderful Weekend...

This past weekend was full of fun and excitement at the Monumental Memorial Cycling Weekend in Beatrice, NE. Three days of racing and meeting new friends, just cannot be beat. Our team, teamFIRE, was definitely representing big time. We were known as the "green guys". Everyone did great. GREAT JOB teamFIRE!!!!!

The whole thing started off on Saturday morning in O'Dell, NE for the Gage County Rad Race. Since I am a cat 5 rider we only had to do 4 laps which was 40 miles. The weather didn't seem like it would behave. There was some serious dumping of the skies all morning. Then, at the time the race was to begin it stopped. The sun came out and it was going to be a good day for a race. Being my first road race, I stayed with the main pack for 3/4 of the first lap where I fell back. I stayed in front of the second pack for the rest of the race. Around the third lap I saw 2 more people ahead of me who also fell off the main pack. I decided to add another personal goal for myself in this race. The plan was to catch them and finish ahead of them. Halfway through the third lap, I caught them. I crested a hill and punched it on the downhill getting some good speed and overtaking them. It was going good, I was feeling great. Then I discovered my true weakness. I suck at hills. This is definitely an area I need to work on improving. The lead I had over the two riders was lost. They overtook me. So it was on again. Halfway through the last lap I passed them again, this time I wasn't letting up, not even on the hills. On the last stretch, the hills before the finish, I stood and pumped it. My legs were going numb, my body didn't want to go anymore, but I held the pain off and finished strong and wasn't passed. I think I like road races, that was just plain fun. Then it started raining again when everyone finished.

Now we arrive to Sunday. This day was to be the Old West Trail Time Trial. The weather behaved this day, nice clear skies the entire time. This was a 20 mile ride, 10 miles out, 10 miles back. Lots and lots of rolling hills. My pace felt much better than on the TT I did the prior week. The hills are definitely where I was weak. Hopefully Marc will help me improve in this area. Not much to say about this race since it is all individual effort. The person who everyone seemed to be talking about was Morgan Chaffin from TeamKaos. That woman is another machine like Sydney. I would love to watch a race between these two women. It would just be incredible and awe inspiring.

The last day, Monday, was the Industrial Row Criterium. The weather was acting squirly. When I arrived there, it was drizzling and looking to be very wet. Then it stopped and a few holes in the clouds appeared. The Masters 3/4 race was held first, followed by the Womens 1/2/3/4 race. Congratulations to teamFire's Janna for taking first for the Cat 4 Women. Then it was the Cat 5 Mens race. There was time to do a couple of warm-up laps. Then right when it was time to start, the rain came down and the race was on. The first lap wasn't too bad, then after turn 3 there was a nasty head wind and the rain felt like thousands of tiny needles jabbing ripping into the flesh. The second turn in the second lap, my rear tire slipped out from under me and I did 15 foot body slide across the road and into the grass. I had hit the pavement on my left elbow and hip. Both are sporting some nice road rash and bruising. Other than that, I got back up on my bike and finished out the race. I caught back up to the people I was with when I went down, but did get lapped by the main pack. I was overly paranoid about every turn, there were a couple of times I felt my rear tire slip a little, but not enough to come out from under me again. There were 2 more accidents at the same spot during the cat 5 race, one of them being a fellow teamFIRE member. After the race, the rain stopped again. Then during the Mens 1/2/3 race it started drizzling again. One rider, Tom Price, did go down and from what I heard, he broke his pinky. If you want to see the x-ray go here. Thanks to the Folks from Lincoln Blog site for the information.

This was definitely a fun and exciting weekend. Walked away with 1st in all 3 events and overall for the Mens Cat 5 35+ grouping. I am definitely hooked on the racing thing. Just need to work my butt off to get better. Well, hope everyone had an exciting weekend too. Next up is Lewis and Clark mountain bike race this Saturday. Then a couple of weeks of just riding and one week of doing the BRAN (Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska).