Okay, well this was a stage race and this format really isn't set up for that, so I thought I would describe my weekend here. I left for College Station on Friday, out-running the rain and clouds. I arrived around 8:30 and a friend and I went and ate so much Mexican food I thought I was going to burst. Everyone else showed up and of course wanted to go out. What made me think that I could go to College Station and not be dragged out? So we went to play pool and listen to a live band. We got home around 2:30 am, and I went to bed around 3:00. I then had to get up at 5:00 am, which was not fun. One of my friends decided to tag along with me, which I was greatful for, to keep me company. We arrived in Anderson around 7:00 and I proceeded to pick up my race number and start getting ready. My time trial start time was at 8:36. As I was getting ready it started to sprinkle, then drizzle, then rain, then total down pour. I already wanted to give up, but wouldn't let myself. Luckily, I managed to claim a spot under the covered walkway to warm-up on my trainer for about 20 minutes. Then, I headed over to the line-up as the rain was starting to calm down (it might not be such a bad day after all). This race was different in that the time trial was not arranged by categories, but by when you registered, which meant I was chasing a M4 and being chased by a M3. I felt tired and stiff on the time trial and my time reflected that. Plus, the later your start time, the better because the rain stopped and the tailwind increased. I ended up 6th overall...not too great. We then loaded up and drove the road race course and then headed back to Navasota to eat "lunch" (we ate at 10:30 because my road race was at 1:35). After lunch we came back to Anderson. I wanted to double-check where the race started and discovered that the road races had been delayed...I was now starting at 3:05. Ugh! I couldn't believe it, I so could have taken a nap had I known this sooner. So, we passed the time away by listening to music in the car until it was time to start warming up. Once again, I warmed up for about 20 minutes on the trainer before heading to the start line. The road race took off and I felt good, the pace felt slow and I really wish that we would have picked it up to drop some people. There were 5 San Jose girls and 3 Peyton girls and the rest of us were 1-man teams. San Jose totally controlled the race unfortunately. I made the bad error of leading way too much, but I felt great in the race and was so excited that I actually stayed with the pack and was able to shut down any attacks that started. I came in 4th, which is awesome for me because like I said, I never do well in road races because I used to be so scared of crashing and would not really get in the pack, therefore, wasting so much energy being out of the draft...to the point I would end up being dropped by the lead pack. This time, I was confident and stayed in the front half of the pack and was always on a wheel. I now love road races again! After the race, we left and headed back to College Station and ate at Chili's. Then, of course, we went out again. We went to a Swing Dance party at A&M (yes, I know, I can't believe they made me step foot on that campus), and then we went out dancing and then ate at Denny's at 1:00 in the morning. So, I went to bed at 2:30 am that night and got up at 7:30 am. My road race was at 10:50, which was in the heat of the day. Only 11 people started the second road race...people were dropping like fly's. Once again, the pace was extremely comfortable and I even managed to gain some bonus seconds on the hot spot. I tried to lead less, but I still lead too much. We would manage to drop a couple people each lap, but if we had really raced smart, we could have had the group down to 6. Unfortunately, about 1.5 miles from the finish we encountered a horse and buggy trail ride on the road and had to slow to a near halt before being escorted around them, which gave a couple girls a chance to rejoin the group. The fight for the finish was brutal and I managed 6th place. All in all, I felt great about my race weekend because I had regained my confidence and I can tell that I have improved on the bike. The course was great and the officials did a fantastic job. Oh yeah, I ended up 5th overall out of 15 so not too shabby for me in a road race. They were giving a payout to the top 6, but took that away and only awarded trophies to the top 3 :(, oh well...it's not about the money or prizes anyways, it's about having fun, which I so did.

Obviously, I shouldn't have gone out both nights with my friends, but it's difficult when I don't get to see them very often and I want to hang out with them. I need to learn to keep my cool and not lead so much and let others do the work. I also need to work on my sprinting abilities and of course, climbing abilities...I climbed well except to when it came to needing to accelerate quickly going up. My eating and drinking were good, don't feel like I need to change anything there (breakfast both days was a granola bar and crackers with juice and gatorade, and then I ate a clif bar while warming up; i took one water and one gatorade on the road races with me, which was plenty).

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See Comments; Also, in road racing it is so important to have a team. It would be great if I had at least a couple of other people to work with. Generally, in the women's races there never is numerous women from one team, however, this time with San Jose having 5 girls, they really used team tactics, and some not so nice tactics, like trying to push people across the centerline and jumping in front and then slamming on the breaks in front of everyone to allow they're teammate to get bonus seconds. I understand road racing is tactical, but doing it by detrimental moves such as that is not right.


This stage race was a blast. This past year I had grown to hate road racing because I was so nervous about riding in the group, therefore, I wasted a lot of energy by not being in the draft and would end up losing the lead pack. This race totally turned that around for me. I had a blast and the race ran smoothly considering the circumstances. I said I was giving up road racing at the end of this season, but I may have to reconsider now, it would be fun to do this one again.