Memorial Weekend Fun!

Team BH was back together again for a second full weekend of racing fun traveling down to Iowa for three (or four days in Devon's case!) of racing.

Friday: Devon jumped into the super-fast Cat 3 Men's road race that ended in Burlingtion, IA and got a great 1hr+ motor pacing session to get her legs ready for the weekend.(Devon climbing "the snake" in a break of three)

Saturday: SNAKE ALLEY! Several of us have a love-hate relationship with "the snake" but we were all committed to finishing it. Devon was definitely more on the "love" side and she placed third for a podium finish despite dropping her chain on the last climb. Kristen had some wheel trouble and had to stop at the top of the hill and fix it, but she and Madeleine and Anne all finished strong.Sunday: HOT HOT HOT at Weed Park. We all found the legs were a bit peaked from the day before but we gave it our all. A long course with a fast descent, a scary speed bump, a decent uphill, and a twisty finish was the course-several more strong finishes made us happy but excitedly looking forward to Rock Island and a flat crit!

(Kristen working the break at Quad Cities)

Monday: Rain once again threatened the 8corner, flat, fast crit we were doing; but luckily only few drops fell during the race. It started out hot and heavy with Madeleine on the front and then Kristen, Devon, and Anne trading off chasing down riders or working the breaks. Kristen made the winning break and worked hard and took second to Tibco pro, Meredith Miller. Devon attacked with five to go and with Madeleine and Anne covering any attacks drove it home for 7th; Anne took fourth in the field sprint.

(Quad Cities Criterium Podium. Photo Credit: John Greenwood)

Here's what happened from Kristen's perspective:

I don’t even think I realized I was in a break until after it had been established for a while. My goal was just to stay near the front. When I did finally assess the situation, we had Tibco, two Lipsmackers, and one each of ABD and Kenda. I knew my teammates were back in the field covering everything, and that was a great feeling. I held my own and was able to cover a couple of really strong Tibco attacks. With one lap to go, ABD went for a prime and tried to hold it for the finish. It was a bold move and earned her the most aggressive rider award for the race. It also worked well strategically for me. I played it cool and finally Tibco chased hard and I fought for her wheel. We passed ABD on the back stretch and my plan was to ride Tibco’s wheel to the final corner, take the inside line, and come around her for the win. However somewhere around corner 7 I bumped into Kenda who was trying to do the same thing to me by coming up on my inside line. I lost some momentum but was able to hold on for 2nd. Afterwards I found out Devon had managed to break free from the field and had ridden solo for the final 5 laps of the race to hold on for 7th. We were thrilled to have two podiums for the weekend!
(Team BH USA patrolling the front of the field)

It was a great way to end a fun weekend that started out with a ride to Iowa on the super comfortable Cuttin Cruiser. I was also thrilled to have finished Snake Alley which I can honestly say was directly impacted by being wildly cheered for every single lap by the Cuttin Crew folks and tons of friends parked on the hill. Thanks guys!! Another highlight of the weekend was watching the women’s cat 4 race at Quad Cities. What an aggressive bike race! There were attacks, bridging, solo efforts and teamwork. It was great to see that we have a new group of good women bike racers coming up the ranks.

Thanks SO much to Anne's cousin, Rachel, who hosted us at her beautiful art gallery/studio and found us terrific local restaurants to gorge ourselves at post-race. Also thanks to Barry White for making the trek down to pump us up, motivate us, and cheer for us. Thanks to Jason Meshberg for being "the Voice" on our radios-always knew the right thing to say and when to say it!