There were only 6 of us females, but there are never very many females, and for a first time USCF race, that is really good I think. We took off around 11:45 am in overcast, cool conditions. The six of us road together. One girl made the foolish mistake of pulling most of the way to the Beast (the big ugly hill, errr mountain), which I knew she would pay for. The pace was comfortable up to the Beast. We hit the feedzone about 1k before the beast and everyone was cheering for me. We made it to the bottom of the beast, and I dreaded going up. Three of us hammered up it while the other girls struggled (one girl even unclipped). Once making it to the top, a girl took off, then there was me, and the third girl dropped way behind me. I tried to catch the girl in front of me, but she was really laying down the hammer, and I was doing good to breath by that point. I kept it strong on the small loop keeping my pace above 20 mph. Once I hit FM 177, I was right behind the men's cat 4, I was even gaining on them a little bit, that was until we hit the beast again, ugh. This time, the goal was simply to make it to the top, not pull anything fancy (like I could have if I wanted to). I creeped slowly to the top and hit Hwy 69...only 20 miles to go. I tried to just keep a good strong tempo in order to keep the others away. The sun came out and it became a typical hot humid east texas day. I made it to the finish line with the easy 2nd place. Turns out I was gaining on the first place girl in the end, but I had no idea. All in all, it was a good race...I felt I rode strong. Third place showed up a few minutes after me, and the remaining 3 girls showed up a long time after that.

I should have grabbed the first place girls wheel as soon as we climbed the beast...I shouldn't have hesitated. I think had I jumped on her wheel, she would have backed off and we could have worked together.

Nothing. I waited around for my trophy and loaded up my things. Then my friends and I went to eat at On the Border where I proceeded to put away lots of mexican food.


Ummm, my inferior riding abilities, but I am getting better if I do say so myself.


It was a great race! Oc fourse, my team was hosting it so what can I say. I think the officials were the main complaint about this race. They were slow on posting results, which started backing things up. Also, several of the people who did this race were first timers...the officials did not explain very many of the rules such as no drafting from another race pack, centerline rule, feedzone rules, etc. Also, some of those police officers were a little lazy on traffic control (but perhaps I'm still angry over the speeding ticket thing, lol).