Dead Dog Classic

Saturday
The day started bright and early. I had to get up at 5:30am to make it to packet pick-up by 8:30. My race didn't start until 10:40. Crazy ordeal. And I had to pay a $10 "late pick-up fee", even though I preregistered online. Can someone explain this to me? Anyway, I didn't warm up for the race, because there wasn't anywhere to warm up. The race was 54miles and started downhill. It was neutral until we hit the base of the first downhill. Renee from Vitamin Cottage attacked from the gun. She stuck it for the next 12 miles pretty much. A few people tried to real her in solo, but eventually the pace picked up from 15mph to 20mph+ and we reeled her in at the base of the climb. When we caught her, she jumped again. This girl has some spark for sure. Eventually things split up as we made our way up a 9-mile climb. I found myself in a group with 5 others. 4 of them were members of the Colobikelaw.com team. The other solo riders, who also had no teammates in the break, was Meredith Miller of Aaron's. Meredith took turns pushing the pace and eventually got it high enough that no one would come around her. People started popping, including myself. I was riding with a girl from the Colobikelaw.com team for a while. Then she dropped me. My legs weren't feeling it. Not sure why. Could be the lack of training, too much hiking for class, or the fact that we were at almost 11,000feet. Yes, when we got to the top, I could see tree line. Really wish I would have brought my camera as it was the most amazing view that I've seen yet. Anyway, I rode to the turn around by myself and eventually got caught by two other riders on the way back down. We rolled turns and caught up to the 4th place rider. There were 4 of us in the "chase group". I rolled a few turns, but my legs weren't feeling it so I sat in quite a bit. The finish was on a mile long uphill. It hurt bad. Two Colobikelaw.com girls took off. The other girl in our group was a cat. 3 so there were no worries there. I finished 6th around 4minutes off the winner's time.

Sunday
First was the criterium. It was 40minutes short. I took a flier on the first lap that lasted around 10minutes. It was a good warm-up. Eventually I got caught. I went for a few primes that were time bonuses. A Colobikelaw.com girl and Renee got off the front. No one really wanted to work to catch them. I wasn't going to do much since I had no teammates. Anne from Vitamin Cottage and I decided to bridge up to the two riders. We caught them with 4 laps to go. All of us rolled turns until the last lap. Everyone sat up and I honestly thought we were going to get caught. The final corner came and Renee started to pick up the pace. I latched on to her wheel. Anne came around me and I grabbed on to her wheel. It came down to the final meters and I gave it my all. I thought for sure Anne had won the race. I had thrown my bike and didn't see her do it so I wasn't 100%. It took the officials some time to review the finish to see who won. I ended up getting the win, barely. I didn't see the tape, but it was really close.

After the criterium was done, I got to do my favorite thing in the world - a time trial haha. The course was 5 miles downhill, a turn around, and then 5 miles back uphill. The grades weren't steep by any means. There was some wind (there always is in Wyoming). I rode Eddy Merckx style, as always. My time was 26:51 or something like that. Meredith flew by me before the turn-around. She started 1min 30seconds behind me. I need a time trial bike for these stage racing things. Anyway, I finished 7th in the time trial, putting me in 4th place overall. The race was pretty fun. Wish there would have been more people in the field though. I also wish my legs would have felt better for the road race, but you'll have that. Now I'm up at Pingree Park for another 2 weeks. This weekend there's a race in Niwot. Not sure if I'm going to make it or not. Lots of stuff to do still. Thanks for stopping by and have a good week!
-A