Women's Cat 1/2 road racing in New England

Question posted on Facebook: It seems that Cat 1/2 Women's fields aren't included in a lot of races here in New England. Seeing races with a Cat 3/4 women's field only is a little frustrating. What have other Cat 2 ladies done in order to keep racing?

I’ve seen many versions of this question over the years, but didn’t feel like what I know is worth saying much about (even though part of my day job is to facilitate knowledge-sharing) until I saw this thread yesterday on Twitter. Hmmm, maybe even though I was a terrible road racer (but had some success in crits), I could sort of be a mentor. (This comment was right-on.)

This is my perspective as a woman who raced 11 seasons on the road, 9 as a Category 2 (1.5 seasons in Hawaii, half a season in DC, 9 in New England). I won two Division 2 collegiate national championships in 2000 in the criterium and team time trial. I stopped road racing in 2008 – once I started a family, I didn’t have that much time to train and big packs started to feel more dangerous. (I don’t want to find out how hard it is to care for two small children with a broken collarbone or separated shoulder.) So now I do cyclocross and some mountain biking.

How do I keep racing when there’s no Cat 1/2 women’s field?  

Do a mountain bike race instead and support a promoter who is offering a women’s field. Mountain biking is great training to improve bike handling skills, and it’s a very supportive and friendly atmosphere.

Try out track racing at Kissena or T-town. I thoroughly enjoyed the two seasons I raced on the track in New England, and the opportunity to practice sprinting and tactics over and over again paid off on the road.

Go to Wells Ave. I haven’t been there in years (perhaps the weekend car traffic is excessive now?), but I remember it as being pretty supportive and safe. Even better, go with your whole team. The best races I had with my teammates on IF happened after we had been together for years and had stopped trying to come up with race strategies before the race started. Instead, we were so familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses that we could key off each other (and communicate) during the race and know when to attack, counter-attack, and start a leadout.

I don’t think that racing with men is a great option, based on my personal experience. (Aside from Wells Ave. and the track.) Men’s racing tends to involve a lot more incidental (or purposeful) contact than women’s racing. After one terrible experience getting leaned on in a corner by a guy with 70+ pounds on me, who starting yelling misogynist insults at me when I asked him to stop, I decided it wasn’t a good option for me. (At first I thought I had done something wrong by getting upset. Later that day, I told the story to an official who said I should have reported it right away and that she would have DQ’d him.) Unfortunately, I know that my experience wasn’t unique, though I hope things have changed in the 10 years since it happened. Of course your mileage may vary, and racing with men may be a great option for you if you’re training for a top-level women’s race with a huge field like the Liberty Classic. Or if you’re braver than I am. Or if you have more physical mass and strength than I do. (I do know some women who don’t mind or even enjoy racing with men.)

What else can I do when I’m not racing on a particular weekend?

Not having an opportunity to race on the road every weekend is not necessarily a bad thing. 30-40 races year-in and year-out is a quick road to burnout and injury. Years of road cycling left me with some really strong muscles but also really weak/tight ones, including the iliopsoas (hip flexors), gracilis (inner thigh), gluteus medius, and vastus medialis (inner quad). I’m working on this in PT now. Try some cross-training – hiking, swimming, yoga, etc. Use the extra time you gain back from not driving for hours to sleep in, read, see your non-racing friends, clean your house, and generally keep your life in balance and your interest in racing fresh. 

Do a hard training ride with your teammates (for the same reason I gave earlier for doing a training race). GPS and social sites like Strava and RideWithGPS give us so many options for great ride routes. 

Put together your own mixed-terrain cyclocross route/ride. I did this last year and enjoyed every minute poring over maps and friends’ Strava rides, as well as exploring trails and ultimately hosting the ride for my friends. It helped keep riding fun for me.

What could we do to encourage 1/2 women to race locally and promoters to offer more races?

Here’s what Laura S. had to say (in a discussion on Facebook) about contacting promoters: “My suggestion when contacting promoters is to be professional and courteous. I always hear from promoters that ‘women whine for races and then don't show up and race.’ If you ask for a race and they offer it, you had better be there!” I haven’t had much success personally contacting promoters, so I gave it up. And I try not to complain too loudly about promoters. They’re mostly doing the best they can and I realize it takes a lot of time and money to promote a race. I have no interest in doing it myself. When a promoter does offer a field that includes Cat 1/2, support them with your attendance and race hard.

Serve on the NEBRA board or offer to help them as a non-board member. I served in 2006 and learned a lot. I ran a women’s racing summit. We posted a list of female-friendly clubs and also included rules in the NEBRA ranking system standards for promoters to follow regarding women’s races. I know NEBRA continues to work hard to promote women’s racing in New England.

Here’s something that Amanda Lawrence (now Rossolimo) and I did in 2004 that seemed to help: we ran a New England Cat 1/2 women’s series. We kept things pretty simple. Hincapie Sportswear donated leader’s jerseys. Serotta donated a custom frame for the winner. We gave a restaurant gift certificate to the first place team. We contacted 15 promoters who were already planning on offering 1/2/3 fields and asked them to be part of the series. It cost them nothing and helped encourage attendance at their races, so they were happy to participate. 71 women from 30 teams raced in series races. Keeping track of series points is now easier than ever, thanks to Colin Reuter, whom my friend Emily recently described as tied for her “favorite Internet male feminist.” It’s not too late to try this again for the 2014 road season if someone wants to take the idea and run with it. 

I was lucky enough to get my start in New England racing through the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference. By percentage of overall racers, they have 2-3 times the number of women racing than USAC racing in New England. Collegiate cycling teams tend to train together and have (usually volunteer) coaches – this really helped me improve a lot in a short period of time. Shortly after I graduated, the ECCC took a top-down approach and led the way among all collegiate conferences by instituting equal series points for women (which was highly controversial at the time). They also added more fields for women (the number of women’s fields are now equal to the number of men’s fields – the hope being that if the ECCC builds it, the women will come), including an “intro” field that features experienced racers mixed in to instruct the beginners in a race situation. This sort of thing is possible because with all the travel involved in collegiate racing, everyone who is racing tends to arrive at the venue at the same time and then stay all day long. There are some factors unique to collegiate cycling that can’t be duplicated in senior/master’s racing, but some that can.

I hope this was helpful and thought-provoking. Thanks for reading.

Summer fun

One of the hardest parts about being pregnant (for me) is forgoing group rides, which is how I get a lot of my exercise and adult social interaction. I'm not quite back on the bike yet. Maybe next week? But I think about it all the time.

My team, HUP, periodically hosts rides where we just go out in the woods and have fun riding 'cross bikes. Then we enjoy coffee at Ride Studio Cafe afterwards. This ride was in June 2011. I've seen a few others get organized since then and I keep wishing I could go!

I rode the Grand Fundo in July 2011 with past and now again, current teammate Brenda. I was so unprepared but my friend Brad told me to go slow and eat real food. I followed his advice and made it to the finish just fine. It was so fun to ride with Brenda again!

I finished up the summer of 2011 with Tour of the Unattended. My team, HUP, helped put it on, so I got to help select some of the stages. It was so much fun and amazingly, I won the Prospect Hill climb, probably because the strongest rider waited until after dark and wasn't sure where the finish was. I should also mention that there were only three or four women, but we still all had a lot of fun.

 

Here I am with the family at the Ride Studio Cafe-hosted after-party.

 

I hope to be back on the bike soon. I already registered for two 'cross races!

Biking, grilling, eating

Elliot and I attended a reception for Team Rialto at Ride Studio Cafe in May. The event included a raffle to raise money for the Pan Mass Challenge, and I was lucky enough to win a copy of a cookbook by Jody Adams, the chef/owner of Rialto, and two spots at an upcoming cooking class. Elliot's Grammie came from CT to spend the day with him so Ed and I could attend the class. It was so fun -- Jody is a great teacher and the food was, of course, amazing.

We started the day with a short bike ride to the Cambridgeport Farmers Market.



Rialto kindly provided us with sparkling water, coffee, and scones to enjoy while at the farmers market.



There was no shortage of beautiful produce and flowers. Ed bought fruit and cheese to take home.









Jody picked out some fruits and veggies for the class members to enjoy later that afternoon.



Once we were back at Rialto, Jody and her sous chef, Cory (?), began demonstrating/preparing a meal of grilled summer vegetables with romesco sauce, grilled lobster with an avocado/tomato/corn salad, and grilled fruit with summer sorbet.



I'm not much of a cook and so was relying on Ed to listen to the lesson while I snapped photos (around 300 for the day!). But one thing I learned is that everything tastes better with olive oil and salt.



Peppers on the grill.



Did I already mention that olive oil makes everything taste better?



The grilled veggies:



The lobster:



The dessert:



Thank you so much to Rialto and Ride Studio Cafe for this great raffle prize. Ed and I had a great time. It's been a while since we've gotten to go out for a classy meal without Elliot and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Ride #3

Things are getting off to a slow start this year with riding. We kept getting sick and sadly, were not ready for the Ronde de Rosey. Looked like a lot of fun though! My second ride of the year, a month ago, went pretty poorly. I totally fell apart 2 hrs in to a 4hr+ ride (stupid) and ended up urging my companions to go on without me. I would have called Ed to pick me up had I not left our only car capable of transporting both a baby and a bike in Lexington. Ride #3 finally happened yesterday. My team's new kits just came in, so I arranged to meet up with Chip and his friend Steen at Ride Studio Cafe. After espresso and croissants (and picking up my bag of awesome kit), we headed out on Battle Road, which is maybe even more fun on a road bike than a 'cross bike. Tomorrow is Patriots Day, so it was crawling with minutemen and redcoats.

After that, we did most of the CRW Thursday night loop. It was windy and I am terribly out of shape, so the route markings enabled me to keep Steen and Chip, who aren't familiar with the area, heading in the right direction so I could suck wheels. Fortunately, they were quite gracious and waited for me after each hill.

We've been having lots of gorgeous, sunny days lately, and Ed has set up the Chariot as a trailer so we can start taking Elliot on rides. So I hope that soon, riding my bike will become such a common occurrence as to not be worth mentioning in the blog.

Cognitive dissonance

The two conflicting ideas that I held in my head simultaneously:

1) I should get out and ride. I've been off the bike since the Sterling race in late November. And before that, most of my "training" for cyclocross consisted of swimming and baby-wrangling (not at the same time). Brad and I were emailing about the Rapha 500 (which he completed!) and I was feeling inspired. I even had a brand-new set of fenders all ready to install on the Redline.

2) I should begin my return to training by going on a ride that Chip invited me to, even though it was clear from the email that there would be guys there that I wouldn't be able to keep up with on a group ride at the zenith of my post-baby bike fitness, which is many months behind me. Oh, and I should ride to the ride because driving to Ride Studio Cafe (just one town away) would be totally lame.

I think you can probably tell where this is going.

I saw the invite in my email around 9 pm last night, then stayed up late to install my fenders. I stubbornly wanted to do the work myself, so Ed kindly supervised and helped me out when I got stuck. I had lent the bike out to a friend for the fall and so needed to change out the pedals and wheels as well (and the stem... but I forgot about the stem -- will fix it for next time).



Rode to RSC, feeling okay, though cold (it was mid-20s). Enjoyed a ham and cheese croissant and bought some Terroir Coffee beans for later. (Yum.) (BTW, I'm sure I would have been waaay faster if I hadn't been carrying that extra 12 oz during the ride.)



There was more coffee and croissants all around as the guys arrived. All rides should start this way. (Photo of Richard by Chip.)



As we were about to get started, I realized I was totally outclassed (and I realized that I knew before installing my fenders that I was going to be outclassed), so I told several people not to wait for me -- I know the roads, have a cell phone, etc. But everyone was so nice and waited several times. And they were not hammering, either -- I just got dropped like a rock on every tiny incline. Chip was sick this week (and also, he is one of the very nicest people I know), so he stayed back with me and we picked up a third guy once we were definitely dropped. And really, it was a great ride. It's been so long since I've ridden outside in the winter that I'd forgotten how it can be kind of awesome.

I'm not planning on doing any road racing this year, but Ed and I have been thinking about the Ronde de Rosey so... day one of training is in the bank.

A new record

In 2003, Ed and I had the mixed tandem Charlie Baker Time Trial record for about a week. In 2006, he rode it several times on the tandem with our friend Brooke and traded the mixed tandem record back and forth with our friends Mike and Cathy.

This summer, I noticed that while there was a mixed record and a men's record, there was no women's record. So I went out and rode the course by myself on my TT bike to gauge my fitness. My time was embarrassingly slow -- I don't love TTing and baby-wrangling has wrecked my forearms, so the aerobars hurt. But Ed talked me into giving it a try anyway. I asked Brooke if she was interested. We started training together a few weeks ago, and it turns out she's an absolute natural as a tandem pilot. (And it's nice for me that I can use drop bars as the stoker.) We first met at a bike race in 1999 and have done many of the same races throughout the years, so we're each pretty comfortable with the other's riding style and worked together really well.

We made it to the time trial last Wednesday and set the women's tandem record at 22:27.5, 26.05 mph for 9.75 miles. This is only 50 seconds slower than the last time I rode the tandem on that course, with Ed, in 2006. :) Brooke and I had a lot of fun and we'll be back again tomorrow!



Having such a cute Supporters Club president to cheer us on at the finish helped!

Grand Fundo

More than two weeks ago, I headed out to western Mass to ride the excellent Grand Fundo, so called because it was more grand and fun than a Gran Fondo. (It has been so hard to find time to blog!) Hup United was out in full force and it was sooo much fun.

I got there nice and early to enjoy breakfast with Meg and JD. They live right by Mt Tom which was quite misty that morning -- it totally reminded me of Hawaii.

Here are some of my teammates before the start:



Meg and me, blanco and noir:



Meg has the coolest nom de course:



Here's everyone getting ready to start:



After that, we rolled out. I was a little freaked out being in a big pack for the first time in almost 2 years. Meg got a flat after about a mile, which was fortuitous: it gave me an excuse to stop trying to keep up with the pack. :) After she got a sweet neutral wheel (Zipp), we rode with some other Huppers. Eventually it was just me, Meg, and JD. I think we were last for a long time, though we start to catch up with other groups on the road. I was feeling pretty frisky for the first few miles, and then the dirt roads (yeah!) and climbing (no!) started.

I'd perused the Grand Fundo site in preparation. I registered that it was 64 miles, 20% on dirt roads. I noted this sentence and then did no further investigation into the course profile or description: "The Grand Fundo route isn’t that difficult." The organizers suggested that it would take about 4 hours to complete.

And looking at the site again, it wasn't super difficult -- only 3000 feet of total climbing. But when I was on the ride with my out-of-shape ass in the saddle, it felt. quite. difficult. (Also, our teammate Chip's Garmin recorded 105-degree temps. It was probably more like mid-90s, but it was HOT.)

Chip had left his shoes at Meg and JD's and had to go back for them, then take a shortcut on the ride course to meet up with us at the first water stop. (The water stop was awesome. Everything about this ride was very well-organized. Good route markings, good route, etc.) Shortly after that we met up with Cathy, who had gotten a flat, and our merry band was complete.

The halfway point was the ice cream truck stop. I was incredibly bummed that the heat was doing a number on my stomach and I felt too icky to eat ice cream. Can you imagine? Here's my teammate Mark with ice cream:



My teammate Stephen's special Hup edition Sketchy cyclocross bike:



After a while I started to feel better and pushed on through to the finish. At one point there was a shortcut, which I'm glad Meg didn't point out to me, because I would have taken it. :) At the finish, we all enjoyed a yummy BBQ (though I felt it was too hot to eat pig parts, personally) and I finally got my ice cream! It ended up being really fun and I'm sure I'll go back if it happens next year. There is just something about riding on dirt roads that makes me really happy, and this ride is definitely easier than the 100K D2R2.

Here's Meg's ride report and Chip's ride report. For really great pics, check out Podium Insight.

Training camp

I'm not complaining, but having Elliot around has made it tough to get in many miles on the fleet of bikes. Last week, I had a work-related conference to attend, Enterprise 2.0. (Excellent write-up here.) I spent way too much time figuring out the best way to get to the hotel, the Westin Boston Waterfront. All options were bad: driving, driving to Alewife/T/walk 1 mile, driving to Wilmington/commuter rail/T/T/walk 1 mile, get dropped off at bus stop/bus to Alewife/T/walk 1 mile. All were 90 minutes+. So, I decided to ride. Ed got my Redline ready for action and gave me a great route.

Here she is, many years ago in San Diego:




I went through the backroads of my town to Horn Pond (where I rode on the bike path), then on to the Mystic Valley Parkway where I learned to sprint when I was in grad school, then past a couple of places where I used to live in Medford and into Cambridge, over the Charles River by the Museum of Science, around Boston Garden, onto Congress Street past Faneuil Hall, on to Summer Street over the Fort Point Channel.

Getting back to the title: I ride so infrequently now that 4 days of 2x18-mile rides is a "training camp" these days.

I really enjoyed the ride, though it hurt to get up early enough to feed Elliot and then ride in, as I was pretty slow with the backpack and then needed to get cleaned up at the hotel. The bellhops all got to know me, as the hotel suggested that I keep my bike in the bell closet. :)

On the first day, I randomly saw Rachel walking around with her baby on my way home. We had a nice chat.

After the second day, I put a bell on my bike because of a few close calls with drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. It really worked well on days 3 and 4.

If I go to the conference again next year, I am pretty sure I will ride again. Training camp paid off: I went on the NEBC women's ride earlier this week and was not last up Strawberry Hill or Page Hill (I should also note that I was not in the fastest group). So, progress!

Tandem ride

Riding my own bike is becoming less fun, so last Sunday we got out the tandem and rode to Verrill Farm in Concord. It worked out really well. I used the telescoping stoker's stem to get a nice upright position and Ed didn't have to wait for me. Next time though, I will get out the Camelbak. I had trouble getting to the bottle cages on this bike when I wasn't pregnant and now it's pretty much impossible. Fortunately on this ride, Ed had a spare bottle in his back pocket that I could get to easily.

Pic from the back-of-the-tandem cam, as Claudia would say.



The pumpkins at Verrill Farm were looking really lovely.



We had so much fun that we bought a tandem tray for our roof rack earlier this week. We've already got a few rides planned. We'll be doing a belated anniversary trip in mid-October in southern Maine and now we can take the tandem. It seems fitting, since it was a wedding gift from my dad.

August

This month has gone by in a blaze of humid discomfort. Here are a few things we did.

I made myself a Mad Men-atar and have been enjoying season 3! I made one for Ed too.





Ed bonded with his sister Liz's dog, Micah, during a quick visit to the in-laws in CT. I knew that pocket was good for something.



A couple of weeks ago, we watched the Gran Prix of Beverly crit. It was fun to see some friends from racing and we scored a bunch of great deals at the Craft sample sale.



I got to see Matty B at the crit!



We've been riding together a bit. This was taken after a short ride around our town last weekend. And we've been swimming with Minuteman Masters. The bump is really slowing down my freestyle (Ed is faster than me now), but my fly, breaststroke, and backstroke seem thus far unaffected.



And of course, we've been trying to keep Miss Betty in fresh cardboard. Nom nom nom!

Portsmouth

On Sunday I headed to Portsmouth for the final crit of the season. It's always a fun race and Susanne Delaney does a great job of promoting it. I got lucky number 13.



The race itself was pretty hard. I managed to hang in with the pack but didn't have the juice to move around much or stay in front. I had a bad feeling going into the penultimate corner on the final lap: it was off-camber, leading people to drift off their lines, and we hadn't taken it very hard on previous laps. I was next to Sam when she went down (fortunately no serious injuries) and briefly locked up my rear wheel when I slammed on my brakes in the turn to avoid her. I still managed to finish in the pack though for a very satisfying end to the season.

Afterwards I got a chance to walk around Portsmouth and chat with JD. Here he is hard at work while the men's race finishes.



David Rizzo posted some photos of the women's race on Flickr.

What next?

The track season wrapped up with a Sunday full of racing (Sept. 7) and one final Wednesday night (Sept. 10). The Sunday races in particular were so much fun. I had a great day and posted the fastest flying 200m time for the women. I had some decent results in the many events of the day: 500m, scratch race, points race, team pursuit, match sprints, and keirin. It was pretty tiring and many days later I still did not feel recovered.

Below is a video of one of my first attempts at keirin a couple weeks ago. It took me a little while to warm up to it but it's actually pretty fun. (Thanks for the video, Mark Bowen.)

Last week I did what was probably my final group ride of the year. Even though the CRW groups started at 5:30 p.m., we barely finished before dark, and the crowd was pretty small. This Sunday will be my final crit of the season.

Up next, of course, is cyclocross. I was registered for my second race of the season last weekend but wimped out because I hate riding in rain and mud. So we'll see how long my 'cross season lasts. ;) Obviously I'm not really committed. True 'crossers love the mud.

I've been trying to think of other things to do to keep myself busy in the off-season. I've picked up a knitting project (finally, my sister will be so pleased) and have been devouring books. Two recent faves are Heat and Sweet and Low: A Family Story. I'm looking into joining a swim team (I tore the house apart last night trying to find a swimsuit I purchased in 1998) and I even bought a cheap compass so I can try out orienteering. Sadly, I'm not so great at self-directed exercise; I'm hoping that having a plan to be someplace for a specific event will spur me on.

In the money

Yes, I was 10th, and yes, it was $20, but I was still pretty happy about my race at the Gate City Cyclone Crit last Saturday. The field was completely dominated by two teams, so I resisted the urge to chase anything down and instead concentrated on riding smoothly and feeling comfortable in the corners. Done and done. With one to go I tried to poach the NEBC train but I moved up too early. We got swarmed and I was too far back when the field sprint started, but like I said I'm still happy. It was a real confidence booster.

On Saturday night we headed to CT for an early birthday dinner for my sister-in-law, Liz, and a nice visit with the in-laws. I went to do the Tokeneke RR just 8 miles from my MIL's house. We were with the 55+ guys which made for a huge field (50 women, 20 guys). I went to the front figuring I might as well pull to Beach Rock Road if I could since I always get dropped there. However it was not totally downhill for that first 8 miles as I remembered. :) I made it about halfway and then stayed at the back, getting stuck behind some guy who locked up his rear wheel apropos of nothing just before the turn onto Beach Rock, a nasty, bumpy climb. After that I was alone and tried to ride my own pace. I really don't enjoy the climbing though. 2400 ft/22 mile lap, x2. It's all up or down. Around mile 15 I saw Ed riding around. He rode next to me to the start/finish and then I dropped out. I got the camera and we got some pics of my teammates while riding the course in reverse.

I've ridden by this building numerous times and it was fun to finally stop and take a look. It's part of the Saville Dam.



I was really suffering by the time we finally finished and seriously questioned whether I have the endurance for D2R2. But we kept checking the forecast and it's not going to be raining (fingers crossed) and we got some new equipment and we're going! I think it's going to be fun. Or at least, very bloggable.

Can I get out of my own way?

It's already August and I feel like I haven't really started to feel comfortable yet while racing, but I'm kind of running out of time. The road season ends for me in about 7 weeks. My fitness is better than I really deserve, given the hours I've put in, but I still get kind of nervous at races -- especially on courses where I've crashed or Ed has crashed. My last two crits both fell into that category (that category being "places where Ed or I separated and/or broke a shoulder in 2003"), so I'm trying to give myself a pass with my less-than-stellar performances. I recently re-read my account of my win at collegiate crit nationals in 2000 and was kind of in awe. I used to feel comfortable cornering on cobblestones at 30+ mph? Who was that kid?

I realize that the fear is a nice problem to have. After all, it stems from having much more to lose now than I did back then.

Rather than race at Bow Road Race today, I drove the pace car for a couple of fields (supporting my wonderful club, NEBC) and enjoyed the excellent view of the women's race. The course is very hilly and very selective.



I was driving a Volvo wagon from a local dealership. It is much more complex than my '96 Civic, in which I roll down windows by hand and there is no rear windshield wiper, so my non-car-owning passenger (Bill) and I had quite a time trying to figure out how to close the sunroof while it was raining inside the car and we were driving down a hill at 45 mph with 30 female cyclists behind us.

Bill is an amateur photographer and took lots of cool photos of the racing through the sunroof during the non-rainy periods.



My teammate Silke was in a break for most of the race and got second by centimeters. Or maybe millimeters.

In recent weeks I've also been to the track. Here you can watch a video of me sprinting for third in the win-and-out a few weeks ago. It's kind of cool but also illustrates my problem of needing excessive personal space while riding.

I have several more trips to the track planned as well as a road race and a few crits. The 'cross bike will be out again soon as well. So here's hoping that I'll relax enough to start racing a little bit more like the 23-year-old me. :)

Attleboro and New Britain

Two races this weekend. Attleboro went pretty well. It was a combined masters and 3/4 race and sketchy as hell. At one point someone came up on the inside of turn one and hit my elbow with her shifter. I think this same rider also hopped on the granite curb to cut turn 2. I get the feeling that not everyone needs intact collarbones and acromioclavicular joints to do their jobs like I do. :) I managed to get near the front before the finish and got 4th overall, 2nd in my 30+ field. Cathy got first in the 3/4 field. I'm so proud of her!

Today was a different story. It was super windy and the breakaway strategy I had proposed was clearly unwise. I rode poorly and kept getting stuck behind riders who were letting gaps open. I popped off in the wicked headwind to the start/finish about 2/3 of the way through and jumped back in after getting lapped. With one to go I got stuck on the right as the pack drifted toward me and had to put on the brakes to avoid hitting an outcropping from the curb. I felt like such an idiot. After that there was no getting near the front to try to help Silke, but she pulled off an impressive 3rd place nonetheless. Ah well. I had the best time with Brenda, Silke, and Pauline, so that made it all worth it.

All the driving was boring and kind of silly. 300+ miles for 2 crits? I decided to scale back next weekend and am just doing Claremont on Saturday and then Wells Ave with Ed on Sunday.

July 4th weekend

We didn't do much to celebrate July 4th -- we had planned on going to a Sloan Fellows event but were both feeling icky (bronchitis) and so stayed in. The first season of Mad Men was so entrancing that I couldn't even be distracted long enough to check out the Boston Pops on TV.

We spent all day yesterday on Cape Ann with our friends Craig and Neilie. After a very hearty breakfast at Sugar Magnolia's, we wandered around downtown Gloucester and Rockport, including Bearskin Neck. Halibut Point was a lot of fun.





It ended up being so warm (and non-rainy!) that we almost could have gone to a beach, which was our original plan. We joked about a junk food stage race with fried clams as the third stage (after stage 1's brunch and stage 2's ice cream), but it was just too much.

Today, feeling nearly recovered from the bronchitis, Ed and I headed to Wells Ave. He got to wear his new NEBC kit for the first time and I felt surprisingly good considering that the only ride I've been able to do in the past two weeks was the MS Ride. So I've registered for a couple of crits next weekend and hope to make it up to the track on Wednesday before heading to McLean for work on Thursday and Friday.



I'm taking tomorrow off and am looking forward to sleeping in. I hope you all had a great weekend as well!