Bike racing is fun. Its exhilarating and crazy and really, really, hard. I imagine its REALLY fun to win. Or to have a chance at winning. Or even to be useful to your teammates. But until I get to that point, its fun.

Racing is to riding a bike as Ballet is to walking. You need all sorts of skills and muscles and knowledge that take time and effort to acquire. Some people are able to do it much faster than others. But even though my improvement is incremental, I AM improving.

Last Saturday, I raced the Downer's Grove crit. The amateur women's race was a 20 minute plus 1 lap 3/4 crit — 20 minutes around a mile long, hour glass-shaped course with a small, steep hill on one end, with the category 3 and 4 riders racing together. I'm a 4 — the beginner category. A 4 gets to be a 3 by doing really well in a whole bunch of races. I'm going to be a 4 for the forseeable future.

It started to rain just as our race started. I don't think it made that much difference in my race — I was chasing from the whistle. It was super fast and super hard. Ideally, one wants to be near the front of the pack in a race, and I was clinging to the back, using up WAY more energy than I would have if I were better positioned. I just don't corner well enough to keep a good position on a technical course like this.

My climbing is better than my cornering. I had no problem with the little hill. However, on the second to last lap, I got behind someone who just died going up it. I was forced to brake hard and swerve into the gutter. I stayed upright, but ended up 20 feet behind the pack. So I spent the last lap chasing hard.

Into the finishing stretch, I came around the racer ahead of me and reved up my sad little "sprint." 10 feet later, she floated right by me and crossed the line. Sprinting is one of my biggest challenges. I practise all the time, I think I understand the mechanics of it — I've been drilled enough — but I always get dropped like a stone in the sprint. I think its the 'fast-twitch" muscle vs. the "slow-twitch" muscle thing. You need fast-twitch muscle fiber for explosive power . . . and I don't seem to have any. Anyway, I finished 18th out of 33 with 26 finishing. And it was really sorta awesome just to be a part of it all.

One of my teammates took an early flyer, got caught and then popped and was dropped. Another crashed out in a slick corner. And the third finished a respectable 8th. They're all 3s.

This coming Saturday is the Sherman Park crit — my team, xXx Racing-Athletico stages it every year. I'll be racing the cat 4/master's women race. 40 whole minutes! Woo! I'm looking forward to the race and to volunteering and spending time with my teammates. And seeing how I'll do in a field without the 3s to speed things up.