I had a lot of time on the bike this weekend and really, really enjoyed it.

On Saturday, I participated in part of the Erik Sprattling 3 State Memorial Ride -- Erik was one of the founders of xXx. He would regularly ride from Chicago to Wisconsin, back down through Chicago to Indiana and then home. As I was planning to race on Sunday, I didn't think I should do the entire 150 miles, but I rode up to the Wisconsin state border and back, which ended up being approximately 115 miles.

What was really cool about it was that it wasn't a big deal. I didn't suffer during the ride, I wasn't exhausted when I got home. My legs weren't destroyed. The pace wasn't blistering -- no one wanted to burn their matches attacking on St. Mary's with 90 miles in front of them -- but it wasn't sedate either. It was just really fun.

Sunday, I drove to Wisconsin for their State Road Championship race in lovely Spring Prairie. This was my third year in this race, and every year I'm impressed by how great the race is -- its a good course, well marshalled, well organized. A big thanks to all the organizers and volunteers.

There were about 20 women in the combined cat 4/masters women field. And it was a strong group including Janette from *mostly black bulldog*, a couple Tati girls, Kim the strong newbie from the Memorial Day masters race, and a bunch of tough Wisconsin women. Two new xXx teammates, Dana and Natalie in their first road race, were also in the pack. There were a number of attacks in the first couple laps that could not get free from this group. It was a hard, interesting, animated race. I felt comfortable in the pack, able to move around reasonably well, able to follow the moves. My new HED stingers rode like a dream -- I was cornering more confidently and my bike just felt lighter and more responsive. Those wheels just eat up the pavement.

I don't know if Saturday's miles were to blame, or if I'm just not climbing as well as last year, but when Natalie launched a blistering attack up the big hill at the end of the third lap, I got gapped. The pack let Natalie dangle off the front almost to turn two. Finally it caught her, spit her out the back and slowed down. She and I caught back on and tried to recover.

I knew at this point that I wasn't going up that hill fast enough to contend. So I tried to get Natalie and Dana in good positions. I wanted to get on the front and drill it, but everyone was trying to get up front and I got blocked in. And then we were at the hill. Dana took 5th in the cat 4s and Natalie took 11th -- awesome, especially in their first road race. I finished at the back of the pack.

It was a good race, and good training for me. I have a lot of work to do, but I'm enjoying the process.

Afterwards, Dana and I stayed to cheer Heidi on in the women's open. She stuck with the front group -- that included the tough cat 1 racers from team BH -- for the entire race and finished strong in sixth or seventh place. SO cool to see.


You can't tell, but here she is cresting the hill on their fourth lap.