Awesome xXx women.

Sherman Park WAS fun -- I think we put on a great race. Lots of primes, deep payouts, long races and lots of races. I raced the women's cat 4/masters race at 8:40 am, then I worked registration for three and a half hours, then I got ready and raced the women's open -- very cool of the organizers [Stockmaster!] to give cat 4 women two chances to race!

We had 19 women in the 40 minute cat 4/masters race, 15 of them cat 4s, and 10 xXx women. And for once we didn't just ride around and around at varying [slow] speeds. Cecile and Emily attacked in the second lap and got a good separation. Seri chased and unfortunately took two non xXx racers with her. Then Seri got dropped from the break and rapidly dropped from the pack. Then Cecile drifted backwards to the pack -- so just Emily, a Turin girl and a Tati girl up the road. Gigi -- our captain on the road -- gave me the nod to bridge, which I did easily. When I got there, I pulled Emily off the front and made the Turin and Tati girls do the bulk of the pulling while I sat in. I challenged the Tati racer in a sprint prime and lost roundly, so I knew we had to drop them.

With two laps to go, four or five more xXx girls bridged up -- perfect timing! We'd tired out our competitors and now had overwhelming numbers. I attacked at the start of the last lap and with six girls in black sitting on, neither Turin nor Tati had the will to chase. I rode the lap as hard as I could manage and crossed the line in first place! And this year I raised an arm in victory.

Our sprinter Anna took second, Denise took third -- first in 35+-- and the Turin girl crossed fourth. My awesome teammates set me up for this win and I'm happy that I was able to make good on the opportunities they created. All in all, an interesting and animated race.

The women's cat 1-2-3-4 open was at 3:30 pm, so lots of time to rest and recover. And while my legs felt good, my lungs still burned with the efforts of the morning. We had 10 women for the 60 minute race, and my goal was to score some more upgrade points. And with four teammates in the race, my chances were good -- if I had the endurance.

We rode in uneventful circles for 15 or so minutes. Gigi and Greta pretty much towing the pack. Then the first prime was announced [socks] and there was a contentious sprint among the cat 3 girls that Greta won effortlessly. Francine, cat 2 riding for Alberto's, took the opportunity to attack with Greta. I followed wheels up to them and counted six in the pack -- too many. So I was ready when we came round again for the next prime sprint [which Greta also calmly won] -- when Francine took off and Greta was right with her, I chased hard -- Beth blocking for me -- and caught on with them. The three of us worked well together, all taking hard pulls. I felt I was weakest of the three, I was the only one who'd raced earlier, and just didn't want to get dropped. But I took my pulls and made them count. As we rotated through, I could hear Francine breathing hard and was comforted to know that this was hard for her too.

After 10 or 15 minutes of pain, we started asking how much time we had on the pack -- to find that we had a minute and a half and were less than 30 seconds from lapping them. !!! So we did lap them, which was pretty awesome. And here is where my fatigue made me stupid. I should have realized that Francine would take the opportunity to try to drop Greta and me. I should have ridden right by the pack and kept on pushing hard. But I braked and sat in and Francine immediately attacked and Greta went with her and I could not catch them. I already had third place and that was the best I was hoping for anyway. So I sat up and told the girl on my wheel that she could chase them for fourth place, but I was done.

I sat in for the rest of the race, attacking periodically to soften up the field for the sprint. Frankly, I'm not sure why they bothered chasing me -- they should have let me go waste my energy. But they did, so I took advantage. When it came to the sprint, I went early with Beth on my wheel. She came around me and took fourth, and I actually crossed the line third in the sprint -- Coach had said that going hard before the corner into a short finishing stretch was a good tactic for me, and this proved he was right.

However, the officials were pissed that I'd taken part in the sprint. They told me in no uncertain terms that I should have sat back and let the lapped riders do their thing and not gotten in the way of the cameras. Which, if I ever lap a field again, I'll totally do. Sorry. [Although JT lapped the field at the track a week and a half ago and then led out Matt and Kirby. Track must be different.]

Thanks to a little help from my friends, I scored 5 more upgrade points! That puts me at 12 -- 15 if they count my win at Sherman Park last year. I now feel confident that I will get the 20 I need. Yay. Thanks, girls!!!