Sunny King race review (by Maaike) (BooKoo Cycling Website)

Saturday May 5th, Anniston, W3/4 race
That Saturday started with a drizzling rain, reducing the enthusiasm with which I was heading to Anniston, but luckily when we were about to start the race the skies had cleared and the pavement was actually pretty dry. We had 5 girls in the race, definitely dominating the 20 or so women that showed up. We actually had a tactical plan: Meridith, Kelly and myself were going to be on the front of the pack, attacking and/or controlling the pace, whereas we'd save Brooke and Elizabeth for the sprint. I was happy to hear that some of the strong racers in Athens and Roswell had catted up to a 2 and were going to play with the big girls in the afternoon: more chance for us to take control of the race.

The race started off horribly with a big crash in the field due to inept riders, resulting in Elizabeth going down and the rest of us thoroughly startled. Thanks to Jeff B. who'd put in his campy 10-speed wheels in the pit, Elizabeast was able to continue after her free lap, ignoring the road rash and what turned out to be a broken helmet. Brooke, Kelly and Elizabeth were able to sit in the pack whereas I was too afraid to be in the back since I figured I'd be blown off the back after a couple of turns. This unexpectedly resulted in me pulling a heck of a lot in the race, interpreted by competition and fans as 'dictating the pace', and 'attacking', hahaha! If they only knew it was all show... A lap before the end a girl named Whitney (I think) went off the front, but everybody was too pooped to chase, including myself. Luckily Elizabeth's fresh road-rashed legs served her well, and she easily bridged up to her, taking the win with 'two fingers in her nose' (pardon the Dutch expression). Brooke sprinted to 1st W4 place (we were scored separately), Kelly was 5th W3, I finished something like 8th W3 and Meridith completed the BooKoo triumph by finishing 4th in the W4 category. In the race we were also able to take some wonderful primes, including a lifetime supply of Utter Butter which is currently at my house...anyone in need of shining smooth buttocks is welcome to take some :-). Finally, this race report cannot be complete without mentioning the awesome cheers from the sidelines: there were so many BooKoo fans and friends that every lap we heard our names called out: it definitely lifted our spirits during the race: thank you all!