Saturday: Athens, W3/4 race, 8:45 AM
About 30 women rolled up to the start line Saturday morning on the 4-corner crit course a few blocks from downtown Athens, including Kelly and myself sporting BooKoo-BBC colors. Unfortunately Mike and I had hit traffic leaving Atlanta that morning, so I had only about 5 minutes of warm-up, resulting in a nauseated feeling about half way through the first lap, wondering why in the world I used to like doing crits... Luckily I could focus on Kelly's MedPlan-marked behind, and I hung on for about 15 minutes. It was supersketchy though, with scary turns, and a crash in the first lap did not remove that sinking feeling from my stomach that this was going to be a hard race. Luckily we both avoided the downed riders so no premature end of the race for us. After about 15 minutes the MedPlan advertisement could not prevent me dropping from the main pack, and after chasing the pack for about a lap and a half I gave up and started to slow-pedal. I got picked up by 2 other dropped riders, and we worked together to not get lapped, in which we succeeded (small silver lining right there). Kelly ended with the main pack and sprinted to 15th place, I got 22nd of the 25 riders that ultimately finished the race. Funny detail about the race was that Kelly did not realize I was behind here when she spit out some superfluous salive halfway through the race, hitting myself and my bike full on. She mumbled an apology, but I assured here that she only had covered her team mate in spit, so nothing to worry about, hahahaha!
Mike's first crit! Sporting a BBC jersey graciously provided by Jeff (no more Sponge Bob :- )) he waited nervously for the starting signal in the midst of about 40-something guys, and got to the front quickly once they went on their way. He was in the top 5 or so in the first few laps, but then realized that it's much easier to be a bit more in the back of the pack, so he was able to recover some. He was able to hang with the main group, unlike at least half of the contestants, and finished strongly in about 15th place, despite looking more and more pale with each lap :-). It was a fast race, averaging about 25 mph, and was definitely a good experience.
Sunday: Roswell, W3/4 race, 12:45 PM
A beautiful day in historic downtown Roswell saw 3 BooKoo-clad women at the start: JC, Kelly and myself were going to represent the best energy drink and coolest bike shop in the US of A! Again about 30 riders at the start, and all three of us were able to wiggle ourselves to the front line of the line-up. This course had way smoother corners than the Athens crit, and it was a much better race with less sketchy riders. I actually had warmed up thoroughly for a change, and what a difference it makes! Granted, the pace wasn't as fast as in Athens, but it was still a dynamic race with multiple attacks that were all covered. Kelly and I were able to hang with the pack, and with 2 laps to go I told Kelly that I'd attack on the straight-away across the start-finish line, to string the pack out, wear the other girls out, and position her in a good spot for the final lap. Well, as soon as I said that they announced it was a preme lap, so I sighed 'so much for that idea' - of! course everybody was going to sprint the next lap, no chance of me attacking and getting away. Fortunately, I was actually in a good position when we came around the last corner, so I figured I might actually go for the preme. That didn't work (got 4th or so I think), but I was able to get to the front of the pack (be it with heart pounding in the chest and thinking to myself why the heck I need to be so aggressive), and when the actual finish came in sight I was able to sprint to 6th place. I was actually wondering why this was the case - with a sprint the lap before and not being in supershape this was a bit surprising result! Well, as it turned out, half the pack did not know we were on the last lap! Lots of bitching and moaning could be heard, but in Dutch we have a saying: 'if you're not strong you gotta be smart', so I guess I was smart enough in that race to pay attention to the signs with the number of laps to go :-)... Kelly raced strong and finished 15th (again: ! so consistent!), JC was able to finish and flash BooKoo-BBC colors for lots of photographers along the course, so way to go!
