BOA BABY...

Here is a quick little recap of the NRC Bank of America Crit in Charlotte this past Saturday. First off, I was going into this race much more confident than last year's BOA. Last year there were 96 girls on the start line and I was probably one of the least experienced. This year there was about 60 women but I was coming off a strong tour de toona and much more crit experience. Now just b/c there was fewer women didn't mean it was going to be easier. The difference in last year and this year was about 30 of the girls who were average at crit riding decided it would be safer to watch from the sidelines or better yet just read about it on cyclingnews.com. Last year this race started out with 3 crashes in the first 3 laps. I spent most of my race deciding which pit was closer.

This year's race coudldn't have started out any better. I had my first NRC call up and it was an unexpected one at that. I looked at the race bible after registration and almost peed my shorts when i saw that i was going to be called up 9th. For all you crit racers out there, you know what getting a call up means. NO fighting for the start line. I was on top of the world. With that alone I had no doubt this race was going to be good for me. That feeling lasted about 3 minutes until we started and I had trouble clipping in and got yelled at by about 5 girls. I looked up and i was going into the first corner about 30th. How in the hell does that happen? So I found myself in my normal crit mode, riding mid to back of the pack dying to hang on. I went back and forth from the front to the back for a few laps. Dodged one crash and then found myself with a flat down the long straight away. I saw the pit and decided to pull off to the side and cut the course to make it to the pit quick. I freaked out at the Crane Creek boys but got a quick wheel change and was back on the bike with about 4 minutes to spare. I was quite nervous about not being able to rejoin the group so i asked the pit guy every so sweetly to give me a nice long push as I didn't want to blow myself up on this effort. The pack came around and the next thing i knew i was at the front. SWEET. I kind of like getting a little break in the middle of the race and hanging at the pit as long as I didn't have to eat concrete in order to get it.

The race continued on getting harder as more and more riders fell off. With 3 laps to go we were coming up the long straight away up to the finish and I had just moved up near the front when I heard a huge crash happen not far behind me. Apparently about 10 girls went down all across the road. I was very lucky. Usually I find myself dodging these instead of being in front of them. After the crash, there was only about 23 girls left. The last 2 laps were brutal. I was holding on strong to the Colavita rider, Sue Palmer's, wheel but I was on the edge. I look back and think I should have just taken the flyer on the last lap but instead I stayed in a safe place and moved up a couple of spots at the end to claim 14th for the day. All in all it was a good day for me with a 14th place finish and a little check that will come in the mail eventually.

For now i am trying to recover from Toona and BOA. Next race will be in 2 weeks. I have taken a few days off and tried to kick a little cold. Today I am about to get back on the bike for a slow 3 hour ride.

Big thanks to Chris, my DS for the evening and for bringing the team car out to the race AND trying to set up that finicky little trainer AND the minor wounds you suffered while trying to get the number plate on my bike. What a trooper!

By the way, keep checking the site. There will be some new updates coming up in the next week or so. Also, check out the updates on the gallery and tell me what you think.