My second race, my first C's.

As you can see by the look on my face....I was worried. Jen and I rolled up to the start line, looked around in the pack of C's and thought....HOLY SHIT! Where the heck are the other Novices? We only saw team kits, shaved legs and strong looking men and even stronger looking women! But heck it's too late now right. (Claire i did think about letting the air out of my tire and claiming flat...i'll admit it...)

So we rolled out and it was a "neutral roll out". Then the race began with a climb and then descend and then a corner.
As you have read I lost my fellow dEVa Jen right out the gate with a crash that took her out of the race right before the first corner. Now I didn't know at this point it was Jen, I just knew a rider went down.

I tried to steer out of the crash and into the corner and I watched the pack pass me by and that was good-bye to the pack for the rest of the race.

Lucky for me ignorance is bliss. As i had no idea that the whole pack passed me, i figured there must be more behind me still that got caught up in the crash. So i pressed on. I came upon a few that had dropped off the pack and we worked together for a bit, but I was tired and couldn't hang on for long. I also came across "Mighty Rider" Connie who also worked with me for a bit, but eventually she too was off. Riding alone really does take all your "matches" fast. But the fun part was I did get to "visit" with fellow random riders from random groups. First I had a visit with the A's as they whizzed by me and I hung on to their draft for bit as they happen to be going into a decent. (I even got a "cheeky" wink from one of the A's Mighty Riders)..... and then the B's whizzed by and said hello, and then I was caught by an EV'r (Cam i think) who had stopped to help out the crash we rode together and that is when i learned it was Jen who crashed, Cam assured me she was ok. Cam was my race Angel as he gave me a much needed rest/tow for almost a whole lap. And then we were visited by the lead group of the C's who also cheered me on as they passed. I tried to jump back in but they were in their last lap and were all sprinty n shit, and i was all blown out n shit.
I rolled up to the finish line anyway, and I think i may have even missed doing one last lap! My speedo didn't make any sense mathematically, but lets just say for what it's worth that i finished the race! HA!
The Bradner course kicked my ass, lots of climbing and corners and descents. Which is actually really cool, now its just training and getting stronger so I can see what it would feel like riding it with, oh lets say other bikes.....

The good news is that Jen walked away with a real banged up hand, but will be riding again real soon. I got a good dose of "suck it up" , oh and the sun was shining! Our first race in the sun, being able to feel your hands when you change after a race is really cool.


And the farm animals were real friendly, you can see here Adam Barlev made a great new friend, who had no fear of large packs of cyclists coming at him down the road. So for the saftey of our fuzzy little friend and all the racers, Adam had locked him down for a cuddle.

Thanks to Lisa for the pre-race pow wow. And Jen for the photography and shouts of encouragement as we passed!

Ove and out.
Liisa "689"


and check out the great race shots from dEVa Jeni
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93792696@N00/