Ohio UCI

Okay so what can is say about Cincinnati?? First off I'll just say that I was lapped. There, I've said it. I'm not proud of it but it's not that shocking either. No one with any sense in their head would be racing the As in my situation and certainly not at UCI races. However, it was a good experience and I was able to get a sense of how fast I need to be next year. Yeah, I know, a hell of a lot faster. I'll be ready next year though as I was only just barely lapped and the winner was way ahead of the next woman.

I liked the course though. Lots and lots of twists and turns. I like corners actually. Corners make me smile even the one I went down on after it started to mist and the grassy corners got slick. Luckily I could smile as I went down on the left as I'm not to anxious to crash on my "bad" leg. The course had two sand pits-most people road both. I ran the longer one as I felt that I was actually faster running. Also, I had a great start again which is always nice. I actually blasted out so that the crowd wouldn't realize too quickly that I was slow. That first half a lap when I was with the other women sure was cool. I can't wait to get a little faster so I can stay with them longer.

Also, on the plus side it was a fun trip . . . a weird comment given that we got to Cincinnati at 11:30pm on Saturday night and left about 6pm on Sunday. I can't really say that I learned much about Cincinnati in that short time. However, we stayed with our teammate Todd who very kindly offered to let us sleep at his house. He lived in what looked like a very cool neighborhood but given our late arrival we didn't get to explore. And then since I was serving as the race photographer we had to leave Todd's about 10:30am and we all had slept as late as possible. Next year we'll have to get there in time to check out some of the trendy little shops.
I may not have had the race of my dreams but my teammate Matt kicked some butt and won his race so there was much to celebrate on the long drive home. Matt even bought Dave and I dinner at Chipoltes with his winnings (so you can see that we are a totally fun and supportive team so you might want to consider joining the Alan team). One of the highlights of the drive back was the comment from Matt that he thought I had a lot of anger . . . just because my idea of mellow music is Hole doesn't mean anything. Plus my choice of Rammstein on the drive to the race surely was a factor in Matt's winning . . . I mean that is excellent pre-race music and fills you with just the right amount of anger to really rage out on the race course. I may have to feature that for the A Men's race on Sunday!

Ohio ends my little trips around middle America for the season. I really enjoyed the experience and I even got UCI points which is pretty funny. I'm not sure what I'll do with them. I wonder if I can ebay them . . . there has to be some women out there who could put them to use. I guess next year they'll come in handy. I mean due to my lack of points last year I didn't get a choice starting position in Cincinnati . . . I mean I had to start in the front row. Oh wait, I got to start in the front row even with no points. Hmmm, I wonder what I could get on ebay????

Oh yeah and about the picture . . . do you like my color coordination. I got these fabulous team arm warmers in matching blue. Thing is that my arms are too stick like to keep them up. I guess I need to hit the gym and get "pumped up." At some point I lost my black arm warmers so I had to wear my purple ones that look fabulous with my other team kits. I like the oh-so-not pro look of the red, white and blue with purple arm warmers and black knee warmers. It's like the anti-fashion look or maybe I just look color blind. You decide.