Taking a break

(My daughter Lucinda on the podium at Wonder Lake Criterium--I was racing the men's race)

The big happening in women's cycling this weekend was the Tulsa Tough weekend. As a team we did not have these races on our schedule, and decided this weekend to take a little breather, race close to home, get some good rides in and face time with our families. We've got a huge month coming up and want to be mentally fresh. On Saturday I did the Flatlandia group ride. We got a sitter so Jason and I could both go. My first big group ride of the season and it was so nice to see friends and have a great group of guys and gals to ride with. We rode hard and we left crazy early in the morning and even though we had some flat tires we had a lot of fun. That afternoon I took the kids to a birthday party where the glow sticks they got in their goody bags inspired Jason to camp out with them in the backyard for the night. I stayed inside :).

Sunday we decided to go visit Grandma Sue out in Woodstock, IL and then ride over to the inaugural Wonder Lake Criterium. It was a fabulous day, sunny and 70's. Just gorgeous. We were able to leisurely get up and enjoy a lovely family breakfast before we jumped in the car and drove out to Woodstock. We dropped the kids off with Grandma, and she drove them over to the race so Jason and I could ride over together. Lovely ride. There's lots of new development out that way but there are still some really pristine country roads. It was a real treat to get to ride with Jason two days in a row!

When I got to the race it was a major bummer that no other 1/2 women were there. The cat 4 (but soon to be cat 3) racer Jannette Rho, who had soloed to victory earlier in the day in the cat 4 race, was still there and was game to jump in the race. We convinced another cat 4 woman from Get-a-Grip to race making our field 3. We asked the officials if we could race together with the men's 1/2 race and just score us separately, but they told us no because Janette and Get-a-Grip were cat 4's--I think that was a wise decision on their part--But they told me I could race with the men 1/2's directly after the women's race.

At the start of our race I told Janette I would not attack until the end of the race but would be game for riding hard. So we traded pulls during the race. Janette did her share and we did get a good hard ride in until 1 to go when I attacked and stayed away until the end. I did feel a little bad--I remember when I was a cat 4 never really enjoying having to race against cat 1/2 women. But sometimes it's just good to try to ride a little harder than you think you can handle...which is why I jumped in the men's 1/2 race directly following ours. It was a small field of maybe 15 or so riders. I went into the race with the goal of trying to actually race it rather than just hang on for dear life so early in the race when there was a break of two off the front I tried to bridge up solo. I was alone for about half a lap before I blew up and when the field caught me I could not catch back on. Instead of chasing, I rested and waited for them to lap me and then was able to jump back on. At this point I was just trying to ride around with the group. I thought about quitting but our old friend and cycling mentor Jon Grell was there watching. Not wanting to disappoint him I pressed on determined to finish the race. A couple times there were some hard accelerations where I blew up and thought "ok I'm dropped" but then I would look up and see the field slowing and think "oh $%*& now I have to keep going" :). So I would catch back on and managed to make it to about a half a lap to go when they accelerated and did not stop until the finish. Also being a lap down I didn't want to be anywhere near the sprint. I was happy with the effort, and definitely rode a lot harder than I wanted to.

On the whole it was a great family weekend. The Wonder Lake Crit was a great course. Nice sweeping corners and smooth roads. I hope they have this race again next year!

-Kristen