Hillsboro-Roubaix

First race of the 2009 season was this weekend. It was supposed to have been Kent Park last weekend, but like all things good it was cancelled due to crappy Iowa weather. Since Kyle's race was full in like the first 2 hours after registration opened, he was not able to race. So, I rode down to the race with Hopson who also gave a lift to Nenninger and Price. We left the morning of the race at 5:30. Pretty f-ing early, but I wasn't driving, so not really a problem. We got down there before 10, which meant we made great time, but something seemed to be missing...that something was my front wheel. No one saw it come off the top of the car, if you are ever driving between Iowa City and Hillsboro, IL on I-80, 74, or 55 take a good look around, you may score a sweet front clincher wheel.

Registration was a real pain and took nearly half and hour, but during that time Hopson managed to find a race tire to put on a backup front wheel that Nenninger brought. Thank goodness he did and he put the tire on there for me!

I started like dead last. Not really sure how that happened, but being one of only like 3 ladies that was there sole without teammates may have had something to do with it. I actually didn't even see the break happen. I later learned there were 7 girls that got away and we managed to swallow one of them back up.

The race was full of dumb mistakes on my part and some general misfortune. I locked handle bars with a girl that had come up next to me. Of course she blamed me even though she came up next to me...but that's just how it goes I guess. Then, about 2/3 the way through the 1st lap I drop a bottle while trying to put it back in my bottle cage. It got worse when we came bombing down this hill into town. At the bottom of the hill you hit a really rough patch of road and apparently that was where my second bottle was lost. So not a single drop of water for me on the last lap.

Not much happened the second lap. We picked up a lost sole from the break and that was about it until about 2 miles from the finish. That's when the ladies started to really turn things on. As you came into town you had to climb 2 hills, bomb down one hill, go up a gradual climb and then there was a flat straight away. I decided early on that I wanted to push the pace on the second hill in hopes of stringing out large group out. Then I hit it hard again up the gradual hill but after turning the corner, I was just about out of steam. About 7 women beat me across the line, but there had been like 15-20 of us at the start of the hills. So I was happy with that. I placed 14th which was 6 places higher than last year.

Next up is Sylvan Island MTB race on the 19th. Finger's crossed that there will be opportunities to ride mountain bike before then :)