I went up to Madison, WI on Sunday and raced the Great Dane 2 crit with Gigi. Waiting for the juniors to finish their race, I looked around at all the strong, tough, young, slim, muscular, hard looking women around me and I felt outclassed. I felt like a fat old woman who was going to have her ass handed to her.

The race started fast [and stayed fast, we averaged over 20 mph for the whole 34 minutes], and in my first lap I was thinking 'WHY am I doing this? It's ridiculous!' I was braking in the corners and getting caught up in the grooves on the road. But soon I was in the flow. As is my wont, I stayed near the front -- which isn't the best place to launch an attack, but is a good place to chase them down.

And chase I did. About half way through a Capitol Velo Club woman shot off the front. She was strong and I thought A) she's dangerous and she has a ton of teammates here to block, and B) if I could bridge, we could maybe stay away together. So I charged off the front after her. Unfortunately, I don't have much explosive power this time of year, so I just ended up bringing the pack up to her. And as we caught her, two more girls attacked. And after half a lap, I chased them down too. And so it went with a couple more attacks.

Now there were a lot of teams present and a lot of strong women. I should have let some of them do some of the chasing.

On second to last lap, I attacked on the little hill on the back of the course . . . to be caught on the little hill leading to the finish [yes, an uphill finish! My favorite!]. So I sat back a little and recovered for half a lap -- staying near the front.

Coming down the descent towards the right turn onto the finishing uphill stretch, we encountered about 20 racers from the next race pre-riding the course! Someone shouted at them to get out of the way [where were the marshalls!], but they screwed up a lot of women's attempt at good positioning. Not me -- I was third wheel going into the turn.

However, I found myself slightly inside the woman ahead of me. Instead of visualizing my line and KNOWING that I would follow it, I got spooked and touched my brake --- and lost 3 places right there.

The two on the front had 8 feet on me after the turn, and I saw the Capitol Velo chick from the early breakaway shoot by me with a nasty uphill acceleration. I was standing, charging up the hill and a woman came around me on the left, and then another on the right. I did not let them pass, I stayed with them. I spun harder, and gave all that I had. And while they both crossed the line inches ahead of me, I feel great that I did not give in, but fought as hard as I could.

I got sixth and Gigi came in eighth right behind me. [the random men on the course HAD screwed up her positioning] No upgrade points for sixth, unfortunately.

What was SO great about this race is that I was a real force, I was a player. And what was so great for Gigi is that, as Hillsboro did for me, this race showed her that she is a strong and capable racer. No more struggling just to stay with the group -- we're both contenders now.