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