This is my first official blog posting. Expect to hear mostly about cycling, sometimes political thoughts, complaints, and fun!GEORGIA CUP:
With the season well under way for me, my fifth weekend of racing, we traveled down to Gainesville for the second Georgia Cup for the 2007 series. The weather for the weekend was looking quiet nice maybe even a little hot. I arrived at registration at 6am, it was still dark, but I started my race prep. By 8am I was at the line up for my time trial. I was really looking forward to this particular stage. At the final count I took off into the headwind and slight uphill. I quickly approached the girl in front of my and made a pass. After the first turn around the conditions changed to tailwind (yay). Then, approaching the second turn I had passed my one-minute woman. Until later in the afternoon, that was my only indication of how I did in the TT. I ended up getting 8th place, behind some top notch girls. Going into the crit I sat 8th in the GC for the weekend. The criterium was a pretty simple course, and my goal.. not to loose any time in the GC and that was it. Barb, was also in the crit and she was looking strong. The group suffered through the prime laps which were for time bonuses. Barb was in a better position for the sprint and did well. Me, I accomplished moving 7th in the GC.
Sunday morning, we arrived again in the darkness. The course consisted of the wall, a 9% grade hill which the KOM was on. The rest of the course was uphill or downhill, no flats. The pack, consisting of about 25+ women, as were the other races took off at 8 am. When we approached the hill the first time the field immediately broke up. A Sorella (Dana) made it with about 6 other girls into the first group of women. The rest which was most of the other women consistently chased the group ahead. Several riders fell back and were caught by our group, only 4 riders were in front of us now. We did 6 laps of brutal climbing. On the last lap we had 4 girls ahead and about 10 left in our group, the rest far behind. As we approached the "wall" for the last time my legs completely locked up. I watched the group slowly move ahead and I did everything I could to keep my pedals turning. I looked back to make sure no one else was behind me. I made it, I lost about a minute behind the main pack. I ended up moving down the GC to 10th place. Still not bad for my first official stage race/omnium. Now time to train and recover and come back stronger for the next race.
