I drove the three and a half hours to Baraboo, Wisconsin on Saturday for the Circuit of Sauk road race. This was a last minute decision -- its a long drive for a race only 30 miles long. But its hilly, so I thought it would be good training for Joe Martin stage race next weekend. And Jackie was out of town, so I went.

And when I got there, realized I'd forgotten to bring a jersey. I ended up racing in my orange base layer and xXx arm warmers from a few seasons ago. Snappy! Without pockets, I had gels stuck in the tops of the arm warmers. Heh.

Circuit of Sauk has a serious hill - its loooong and steep and it breaks up the pack. I was off the back halfway up that hill. I spent the rest of that lap alone, battling the wind, catching and dropping a stray racer. The next time up the hill I passed two more, one of whom stuck with me and we worked together and picked up two more racers.

After the long descent with the treacherous crosswinds, we were down to three. I waited too long to attack - my legs had no sprint in them - so I came in 13th right after 11 and 12.

Afterwards I rode the course two more times with the Flatlandia girls - great training in beautiful scenery!

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Sunday, I planned to race the women's 3/4 and the women's open at Vernon Hills. I'm not a great crit racer, but its fun and good practice. The 3/4 was really fast and there were a ton of attacks. I put in a few myself, but nothing got off the front.

I found myself near the back at the beginning of the last lap, so I started to move up the outside - better to take some wind and improve your position. The last lap of a crit is always aggressive and occasionally sketchy - a Team Kenda rider went down and took out my teammate Courtney right in front of me. I had no where to go but on top of them.

I hate crashing, but its part of the sport. I got off easiest - bruised ribs [that are WAY more painful than they are serious], and my bike seems mostly OK. Not sure how this will affect Joe Martin next weekend. I'll see how I feel in a few days.

On the good side, my teammate Gina Romero WON! And Heidi came in fourth. A great showing for xXx!!