School is now well underway and now racing is too! This weekend was the kick off to the 2010 racing season. The first was in
Belterra, a community just southwest of Austin. The course was "L" shaped with small hills on either end of the L with a U-turn at the top. For those that haven't figured it out, I'm racing for Metro again this season. We did well attacking one after the other until a break that was good for us was formed- Saturday it ended up being Lauren with Kelly Benjamin from
Colavita. I just sat at or near the front and covered moves with Jen. Once the break was more than well-established, I started attacking again. Nothing stuck, so I waited for the finish to help Jen out. The lead out worked like a charm: I went with 1 mile to go and as soon as we turned the corner to go up the hill to the finish, Jen was able to come around and win the sprint. I pretty much was dead by the base of the hill so I
shakingly hobbled my way up, still finishing 10
th. We ended up 2, 3, and 10
th, plus a crap-ton of primes- bravo Jen. Great first race from all.
Sunday was at the driveway and it was quite chilly!! We did the long course which is about 2 miles. For those who don't know the driveway, check it out at Holland
Racing's website. The race went very well again- pretty much the same start with attacks until something stuck- this time with Jen and Kelly Benjamin. Not my lucky weekend for getting away ;-) People were a little more active today being at the front, but not so much with initiating their own attacks. Louise did a great job attacking a bunch! I kept attacking but I never got away alone or with people that wouldn't contest the sprint with Jen, so I stayed with the pack. There was an attack on the last lap which I chased down and went on by to lead out Lauren. Little did I know, we and four others had a huge gap on the field. I nearly died realizing I still had a solid 200 meters to go before the end and that I had to beat the rest of the field. Jen finished 2
nd, Lauren 5
th, me 8
th, and Louise 9
th. Not too bad for early February! Great races with great teammates.
Nuf' said.
It was great to get a first weekend of racing under my belt. My progress so far as been fantastic thanks to Simon
Kessler. I've only been doing speed work for a couple of weeks and I already feel so strong. I can't wait until May/June and beyond! Definitely have some exciting stuff on my schedule this season- guest riding with
Veloforma for
Redlands, Tour of the Gila with Metro, Collegiate Nationals in May, a bunch of NRC stuff in May/June, last year of U23 Nationals in June, and Europe for the rest of the season.
With school I've felt as if I've hit the ground running. This semester is group projects galore including a very interesting marketing consulting project with a local Austin company. I'm just taking school one week at a time. I'm in some interesting classes this semester and they will all together make me more well-rounded which is the point of school, right?
Work is going well, too.
LUNAFEST is looking quite amazing right now. DEFINITELY go if you are in Austin (
www.lunafest.org). I can't believe how many absolutely wonderful companies are on board helping out to make this such a great fundraiser for The Breast Cancer Fund and Texas Advocacy Group. It is truly remarkable and definitely gives each of these companies 1000 brownie points in my book for future purchases :-)
I haven't had much time to play as of late- between training, school, work, and applying for real-life jobs, I'm pretty darn busy. This weekend I should get a couple moments to breath and relax and enjoy life, especially Valentine's Day ;-)
Until next time...
