Tacchino Cross Turkey

A nice morning drive on Rt 7 east at 6 am was very welcome. An extra hour of sleep was nice too!

I made my way to Leesburg for today's race. I missed yesterday's since it would have forced me out of bed at 5am to get to Fairhill, MD for a 9 am race. What is it with these early races. They just keep getting earlier and earlier. Which I guess is nice considering MABRA gave Women 3/4 our own race today. No C men to maneuver around.

The course was similar to last year's except there was a prologue. A very grassy course, I added more air to my front tire after my ride through of the course. I love grassy courses--I think they are an advantage for my strong, sexy legs, but this grassy course had parts that would suck the soul from your legs, leaving you gasping. And it wasn't just me.

On the line, I shut down the new girl in town. There's a very nice newbie who has done many of the races this season. This race was going to be her 3rd or 4th. Each time on the line she talks incessantly about how challenging the course is, how slow she is, blah blah blah. This would be fine, except that the minute the whistle blows she is a ruthless mother fucker and wins or comes in top 3. Yeah, you suck!

So today she spotted me and was about to tell me how awful the course was, and I just said "I'm not going to listen to you anymore." She thought I was joking, but whatever. Today she battled for 3rd. Ugh.

Anyway, my race was ragged. Despite two good rides through on the course, my legs didn't feel warmed up, but I was happy to hear the whistle. I kept with the lead group for a lap or so and managed to keep with two women in front of me for a ways. A girl behind me caught me and I chased her for awhile. There was a gal in yellow who was on me the entire time. At one point, I let her overtake me but she declined. She said I was too good on the technical parts that she worried she'd get in my way.

Whoa?! Say what? Me? a technical goddess?! Who? Where? My ego had been sufficiently boosted and I stayed in front of her the rest of the race. :)

The course was tiresome. And after 2 laps, we still had 4 more to go. GROAN! However, the more I rode, trying to keep yellow girl a safe distance behind me, my legs felt stronger and stronger. On the bell lap of the leaders, I dreaded the thought of having to do another lap, until 3/4 of a lap down, I felt the breath of the leaders behind me (okay, so I heard the announcer...). I glady let them pass me so that I could end this misery that I love so much.

I finished mid pack, I believe. Confirmed: I finished 11 out of 17. Same as last week. The top ten is so close I can taste it!