RACE WEEKEND !!!

Short version: I PLACED 2ND BOTH DAYS, AND ILLINOIS PLACED TOP 3 TODAY !!!

Long version:

Road race on a 10 mile loop on Saturday. Somewhat hilly with a short steep climb finish. Halfway through the race, my contact lens flies out and my front and rear derailleurs start skipping like crazy. I'm thinking, great, I'm gonna have to drop out, but then the derailleurs stopped giving me trouble, and I got used to monocular vision. I was in a breakaway with 5 girls (Purdue, Michigan State, Depaul, and one of my Illinois teamates), and we stayed in a nice paceline for awhile until it just became a blob. The Depaul girl passed me up the hill - she certainly was better at them, even though she was pushing ridiculously high gears. (The way Lance Armstrong does it, he spins at a high cadence rather than trying to push high gears, which is the way I've been trying to do it.) Anyways, she placed 1st, I place 2nd, and my teammate, Morgan, got 5th.

I get back to the hotel, Morgan points to my chain and goes, you realize that's broken? I look, and my jaw drops: a link was entirely off the pin and twisted up off the chain. I have no idea how I was able to stay in the race with it like that.

Sunday:

1km criterium race around the Capitol building in Madison. Road had a lot of potholes, unfortunately, and there were quite a few flats along the way, including my teammate Morgan. I couldn't get into my 2 lowest gears on my cassette when in my big ring, which was fine for the crit, even with the uphill portion. (The way John fixed it, he basically just took out two links, making the entire chain shorter.) Morgan and I were either 1st or 2nd for all of the preme laps. Unfortunately for the Depaul girl (Janny?), she didn't have any teamates to come help her off the front of the pack, and she basically pulled us around for the last 5 laps of the race. On the last one, I pulled out and started sprinting all out. I see someone passing me and freak out, until I realize it's BECKY, another one of my teamates! And then I hear Morgan screaming: 1st, 2nd and 3rd !! Come on come on!!! And that's the way it was. Sweet.

Illinois went from having no women's team to conference champs.