For real this time...

IOOk, so i did my last USCF road season of the year. Really. One of my friends (and ex-teammate) is now on the women's Team Priority Health. Plans to race together kept getting canceled (as well as this one too) but finally i headed up to Michigan for the Priority Health weekend. This comes after not riding for 2 weeks, being a bum for about a month and eating cupcakes and delicious italian food. I figured with winter training coming soon and a trip to Portland, i was going to relax a bit and finally eat what i want. Oh and yes, i thought i could race the 2/3/4 fields...

Needless to say a course of cobblestones, potholes and lots of turns (Grand Rapids) wasn't easy. I stuck with the field for about 15 of the 35 mins (guessimating b/c the officials forgot to turn the clock on). After getting dropped, i rode past an official and asked "how much time left?!" and he looked me confused. Next lap, i look at him and raise my hand and he says "keep going!" (ok, no kidding). Next lap, i look at him, he looks at me. Hmm. Finally, i hear Eddy say "well, we don't know how much time is left b/c the clock isn't on..." and next time i look at the clock, it says "6" laps to go. Decent race, wasn't sore after so i decided i'd race Ann Arbor. After spending the afternoon visiting the MSU campus (and stuck in football traffic after ironically commenting how i miss the traffic-less Michigan), i spent the evening with Em and her friends in AA. I must say, its a great town.

The morning started with rain that didn't stop until about 10mins before the start. A little less corners but a lot more hills and downhills. And wet. And rain puddles. And carpet on the RR tracks b/c, if you couldn't tell, the course was slippery. I debated racing b/c my confidence is nowhere needed for this sort of thing, but i still paid my fee and suited up. From the start, TPH took off (found out later this was the strategy) instead of taking it slow as i had assumed it would (similar to Downers two years ago). Tactically it worked well b/c the field broke in the first lap. TPH took a couple of primes as well as several money spots (4th, 5th, 7th, and 12th, i believe). Em did awesome! Me...well, approaching turn 2 on the downhill was enough to break me. Each turn was slower and slower and wish as i may, i couldn't change that. I still finished and while i think my apparent last placing is wrong (i mean, if you lap someone, don't you think you should be placed ahead? i don't know, thats just me) but in the grand scheme of things, whats the difference in a couple of spots from the end, especially this season? Not much, but so ended my USCF road season.

The weekend was tons of fun (even met an Ann Arbor ABDer, the mystery Michigan guy i kept seeing on results page), after hanging out with Em & co, i headed to Jackson for lunch with Mel. And we realized nothing has changed and try as we might, we have not grown up at all. Like i misprounced purple and that throw us into a laugh fit. Oh and mel couldn't find the cheese at bigbys. Good times!

Now, its on to cyclocross, my FUN season. i've been looking into getting my own cross bike, and i specially want this one. i've been spoiled (borrowed bike) by the Bianchi Team Concept...sigh...