Stage 2 and 3 of the Gila

Alrighty! I think I gave you enough time to digest my previous long entry. So here I go talking about the crit and the other road race. So the night before the crit, I took an ice bath for recovery. It was funny, Adam Zimmerman's family(who we stayed with) were looking at us like we were from another planet and kept saying, "You are going to take an ice bath? Really???" My race was at 8 AM the next morning... far too early. I woke up feeling not too rested. I didn't sleep well the night before because I was nervous about someone wrecking me in the crit. I didn't really enjoy the crit although I normally think crits are pretty fun! It seemed the whole race I was getting bumped off peoples' wheel and would get pushed to the back of the pack, have to work hard to get back up near the front only to get pushed back again. I guess that's where road racing experience comes into play. I was taking the inside lines on all the corners for the first half of the race until someone in the pack made a sketchy move and made the person next to me almost wreck me and I almost hit the curb. After that, I was a chicken and was taking the far outside line. I almost got dropped a couple of times because I was working so hard and riding in the wind a lot just because I hate riding in a pack!! On the last lap, I got out in front with a couple people and took the final turn WAY too wide b/c I was nervous and then thought the finish line was much closer than it was and started sprinting about 15 seconds too early. If ONLY I had waited, I could have come in like 2nd! Instead, I just finished with the pack. The whole day I kept thinking, "GOSH! I'm such an IDIOT!" in a Napoleon Dynamite fashion. Brian Boitano would not be proud of my race performance. haha I didn't mind so much and didn't lose my GC position. However, the girl in 3rd for the GC won the crit gaining 30 seconds on me to tally it up to being a full 3 minutes ahead. The girl who was in 5th in the GC got 3rd in the crit receiving a 5 second time bonus putting me only 1 second ahead of her. I knew the next day would definitely have to be a good day. I spent the rest of the day trying to rest the legs and watched the pro women and men's crit. By the evening, my legs were feeling pretty sore. Nina and I put a HUGE bag of ice in the tub that night, and the water was so cold that the ice wasn't even melting in the water. That was the longest 7 and a half minutes of my life, but it sure did help!!!!

Stage 3 began Sunday morning at 8:45 AM. This course had by far the most climbing compared to the road race on Friday. Nina kept saying it is a good course for mountain bikers, so I just hoped she was right and tried to save my energy until the climb. The pack rode together the entire way until the climb(which I think from start to finish is about 18-20 miles). The pack was going soooo slow through for the whole race(except the climb). Nobody wanted to take a pull. At one point, I was in the front of the pack, pulling, and I slowed way way way down because it was someone elses turn and no one would go in front. I moved over to the side of the road until someone moved up. There was this CRAZY girl in our group. She didn't want to pull anymore, had a confrontation with someone, and tried to WRECK her! She lined her back wheel up next to the girl's front wheel and tried to swerve over and actually hit the wheel. Fortunately, the poor girl did not go down. That was VERY uncalled for, especially since this girl was in last place overall. She probably just started racing and this crazy girl was trying to wreck her. The crazy one also elbowed this girl earlier too. Yikes! The crazy one also purposely slammed on her brakes when there were people behind her. She could have hurt the entire group and was really being quite ridiculous, especially since it was only the 3,4 race!!! STUPID ROADIE! There were a few attacks, but all were shut down except for one in the beginning of the race where 2 people got away. I knew we would probably catch them on the climb anyway. At one point, Jane Gagne signaled for me to go with her on an attack. I was a little unsure if I should go since we were getting close to the climb and her teammate was in 2nd for the GC. I thought maybe she was trying to tire me out before the climb so they could attack. I went with her and over a cattleguard. My heart stopped. I heard a loud hissing sound, but kept sprinting forward. Fortunately, it was not a flat...I don't know what it was. Another girl(the crazy girl who was 3rd at the moment in the GC) went with us, but the pack shut us down. Soon after, the climb started and split up immediately. There were the 2 who broke away early in the race somewhere up there, and four other girls. Three of them were ahead of me in the GC. I tried to go slow and steady since I knew that 20 miles of climbing is a LOOOONG way. I eventually picked everyone off except for the race leader and one of the girls who had attacked before. I passed a sign that said 15 miles to go and was cursing to myself. My legs were starting to feel tired. I kept going, but at about 8 miles to go, a girl passed me. She was not a threat to the GC, but I still didn't want her to beat me. She passed me on her ZIPP wheels(they are pretty much the lightest wheels you can find and are $1500 a set! Imagine that!!! I wish I had some! ha). I passed her on a descent, but at 2 miles to go, she caught me again on the climb and we were battling it out. At 1 km to go, I couldn't pedal anymore. I totally detonated and she went ahead. At 500 m to go, I kept looking back and only hoping that no one would come up behind me because I had absolutely NOTHING left in my legs and could barely make it across the line. I missed third in the stage by 27 seconds! Oh well!! I ended up putting about 3:45 minutes into the girl who was 3rd overall in the GC and beat her to get on the podium finishing 3rd overall in the stage race. I was very happy about that!!!

Today, the only sore part of me is my back...I tweaked one side of it. I almost wish I had another race to do today. It's so fun!!!!! This weekend I may go to Nathrop for a race, but they are forcasting snow. I am not going if that forecast remains. I don't need anymore bad weather!!!!!!

On another note, Thursday is the last day of my undergrad. YEEEEAHAHHHHHHOOOOOO!!!!