Tulsa III

Ready to go! (photo by Ronee van Deemter)

Saturday evening we were treated to a lovely BBQ dinner at Tim and Melissa's house. There home is gorgeous and it was great to sit on the patio and enjoy the evening and the food was delicious!

Waking up Sunday we were hopeful to battle back after a rough start. With 5 out of 7 of us having hit the pavement our host house is more like an infirmary. Last year Sunday morning we were treated to a huge storm in the morning. This time the skies were clear and the sun was shining. I particularly like the course with the short power climb in it.

As was typical, we took the Riverwalk bike path to the race and this time had no dog or drunken cyclist encounters. The temperature was over 100 when we started the race. Today I actually had a new friend coming to watch. It really is a small world. A friend in France has a friend in Tulsa and she put us in contact with each other. And never having met her right before the race, I hear someone call out my name and it was Ronee, she had found me!

It is already strung out (photo Ronee van Deemter)

As is typical the race started fast. Melissa on her SRAM pit bike dropped her chain on the first lap and went to the pits but was a lap down. As the race progressed we kept dropping riders thinning out the pack. With about 18 laps to go I got stuck at the back of a crash on the climb and had to stop my bike. Due to complete race brain I tried to chase back on not even thinking that I should have gone to the pits having been involved in the crash. Dumb move on my part, as I never made it back to the front group and just dangled off the back. So my race was done. We only had Melissa, Leigh and Melodie left in the race and they held their own and finished with the front group.

Suffering! (photo Ronee van Deemter)

I actually got to chat with Ronee and her girlfriend Carrie which was nice since we had been Facebooking and texting before. It was great during the race to have someone cheering for you. Ronee took the photos in this blog which are awesome for her first time as a sports photographer!

After the race it was back home to pack up the bikes to fly home that evening. Never a dull moment when racing. Our flight from Denver to LA was delayed and X and I did not get home until about 3am. We had quite the adventure at LAX with the Flyaway bus to Van Nuys driving past us. Thanks to a great Prime Time driver who stopped and drove us to the Flyaway or we would have had to wait another hour. Luck and miracles do happen every day.

With Ronee the famous photographer!

The past 4 days have been filled with work and laundry as I am currently on my way to Philadelphia for the Liberty Classic race. As always, Ashton and Tren at Sundance have saved the day for me as Tuesday evening while putting my bike together I broke my seat clamp bolt. The fun never ends with bike stuff but they totally helped me out so I was able to do my sprints Wednesday on my rockin' Storck bike. Sundance Cycles is also one of those miracle things.

Check back for the update from Philly. Life is full of adventures!

The kittens, X, Liz and myself! We survived.

Tulsa - Part II

Well, the girls made it home from the hospital at 2am. Melissa received 9 stitches in her arm and Virginia has a broken collar bone and 2 broken ribs. Not good.

VK Club member Brittany in the 3/4 race

Saturday we got up and those of us not “broken” went on a morning spin where I was chased by this crazy dog who bee lined for me though I was the furthest rider from him. That was a fun way to get the heart rate up quickly. Then on the Riverwalk bike path we were almost taken out by a guy on a bike holding a mysterious brown bag which I think would explain why he was weaving. Eventually we made it down to the race course to see the end of the Women’s 3 /4 race and cheer on Brittany a Vanderkitten club member. It was then back to the house to rest up for our afternoon race. The weather was not too hot but on the ride back you could feel the mercury rising!

Melodie, Leigh and X on the Riverwalk trail - beautiful day!

At 2:30pm we left for our race. Melissa, the brave soul that she is got set up on a SRAM neutral bike and we were back to a force of 6. We were determined to have a good race today and I wanted to be aggressive. My legs were feeling pretty good and the other VKs were keeping good position in the front of the pack. I did a mini attack up the hill and felt pretty good. Just after that lap going through the start/finish straight there was a huge pile up of girls probably 30 on the floor. I was able to unclip and jump off my bike but then someone hit me from behind and I ended up on my behind. No injuries for me but a lot of the other VKs went down including X right next to me. Liz is the only one who has been pavement free. The referee neutralized our race which I thought at first was due to the crash but actually it was so they could bring an ambulance on course to assist a spectator who had heat stroke and was apparently having seizures. We had to wait about 15 minutes.

We were eventually restarted to race for 40 minutes. My legs felt like crap which I’m sure was a mutual thought throughout the peloton. I could never seem to get my rhythm back but fought hard to get my body to turn around. The race was crazy and the pack was moving in strange ways. I have to admit this has been the strangest racing I have ever done as far as pack movement and bike handling. With 5 laps to go I was sitting in a great position on Laura Van Gilder’s wheel but then everything shifted and I was back in 25th place again. With 2 laps to go Melissa made a huge move to the front and I got on the train about 4th wheel and fought to get into the pack. I was not very successful and the pack slowed causing a massive surge and I was swallowed up. I could not get out and just suffered finishing a poor 48th. Liz held good position for a top 30 place.

I am very frustrated and I think all of the crashes have gotten to us mentally. I have never seen so many crashes on nice big open roads.

Today is another day and we are hoping to have some good come out of it. I am off to go to the race now. Ciao!

X soaking her wounds after the crash