South Carolina – Mon 4/28 and Tuesday 4/29

Monday

Well today we woke up to rain. We packed up the car and started our road trip to South Carolina. It was pretty uneventful but we encountered quite a bit of rain on the way. Luckily we have an iPod adapter so we were cruising to some tunes. The drive took about 4 ½ hours.

We are staying on Lady’s Island in Beaufort which is just the most beautiful town. Our house is gorgeous right on the bay and our hosts the Kessel’s are wonderful. We went on a 1-2 hour spin to open our legs up and we ended up getting rained on. I think the storm must have been following us from Georgia. The rain was pretty intense and the wind kicked up quite a bit. I know I should have turned around sooner to go home and I think that is why now I am feeling like I am fighting off a cold. I was completely under dressed for the rain and quick change in temperature. Luckily we were able to get our wet clothes off right away and jump straight into the shower.

Ridin' in South Carolina

Jenny showing off our host house

Nancy and Steve are hosts are so fantastic. I feel like every night we are eating at a 5 star restaurant. We had the most wonderful Salmon, pasta and salad the first night. Nancy has an herb garden and so everything had that extra added fresh taste. Our accommodations are also wonderful and we have plenty of room to spread out and relax.

Sunset off of the back balcony!

Tuesday

We awoke to much better weather but it was still pretty windy outside. We went on our morning spin and ran into the Colavita men’s team again at the same point where we had seen them the day before. Our morning spin ended at the Waterfront Park were we did a school talk with the Colavita guys and a team from Virginia. The kids were great and they were very impressed with Luca’s bike tricks that he performed for them. We mostly talked about safety, the importance of wearing a helmet and nutrition. I think we might have gotten some kids interested in doing the kids race that happens right before the women’s race that evening.

Downtown Beaufort

They have carriage rides downtown. Beautiful horses!

At the school talk

Back home for some R and R before packing up to head back across the bridge for the race. The course was a shorter course than Athens and had some rough sections with a tight narrow street after turn 1 and some rough really bumpy sections in the road. I was sitting 3^rd overall in the series so I got my second call up of my career. Yeah! Off we went and as is usual the pace was fast from the start. Colavita had some fresh legs on their team so I knew there would be more to look out for, etc. Attacks were very fervent off the front and quickly into the race I started to develop a spasm in the left side of my back by the lower part of my ribs. This was debilitating and I found myself suffering at the back end of the pack. This is not a place that I usually ride so bad news for me. The other 3 Vanderkittten's were riding great and staying near the front. After one break got away that was reeled in by Kele M., Tina Pic (Colavita), Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) and Rebecca Larson (Aaron’s) got off the front. I should have been with this but was suffering so much that at this point I was just happy to still be in the race.

The other VKs Kele, Jenny and Melissa did there best to bring it back or bridge but the front break had just enough manpower to stay away by 25 seconds. With about 20 laps to go I started to feel better as I had been trying to stretch my side out during the race. I launched an attack up the side but was immediately pounced on by the pack. We were getting down to the wire and now I started to think of the finish. We were actually gaining on the break and several girls tried some really hard jumps near the end of the race to bridge up but were unsuccessful. I tried my best to stay near the front but the pace was not too fast and so it got very bunched up. I was able to sprint at the end for a 6^th place in the field sprint and a 9^th overall. Not quite what I wanted but giving the circumstances it was palatable. Jenny T finished in 10^th place right behind me with Melissa S. in 19^th. Kele who had continued to try and catch the break finished I believe in 23^rd place. She is making best friends with the SRAM pit guys as her seat post broke in the middle of the race so she had to get that fixed and get pushed back in. Crazy stuff. Currently overall in the series I am sitting 5^th and Jenny Trew is 10^th.

We came home to a lovely dinner made by our hosts of lamb chops, mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables and collard greens. Yummy! I do not believe that I have ever eaten so well.

View of the bay from downtown Beaufort

Backyard of our host house! Absolutely gorgeous.

Flower picture for X.