Piece of Cake Road Race

#1- Icebreaker crit yesterday, got 2nd of 6 riders. Boring and windy. Felt more like a bad, training day, than a race.

#2 It's about stinky time I win that Piece of Cake. Well I actually won a little cash and a basket of goodies. Darien was out today. One year after Miss Tessa arrives and she's rolling and racing again. Damn, that's awesome.

It was nice to ride tempo for the first lap. We actually managed an organized, rotating pace line and everyone did their part. There were a few attacks here and there, but again, on a flat course, nothing stuck. Seriously, everything was reeled in within 30 seconds. I wish a couple of the women would have wanted to go long to see if we could get away. There was a lot of action from about 4 of us. We could have at least tired out a few.I jumped a few times, but where I earned my stripes was being in the front for the last... foreverness. I'd be out front, someone would jump, I'd help chase, and drive to the front again. I didn't feel like I was really working all that hard, more just controlling the pace and watching everyone. I did see a lot of the, um... gorgeous Woodland river bottom wilderness most of the last 5 miles. After the race, many riders would tell me that I deserved the win, since I was out there so much.

Finally, coming out of the last turn. I was still... there. soon after, a Group Health girl took a jump, with Mindy announcing to her that she was on her wheel. Thank you Mindy for announcing that the two of you were ready to sprint already. I think I'll jump on your wheel. Plus, I know you can sprint, and would be a lovely lead out. Then Andrea jumped inside and unfortunately for my cozy train, she was going a little faster than us. She was not going to win again this weekend. Thanks for the 30 yard ride, Group Health, but I have to go know. Bye.

I quit worrying about a wheel to follow. Mindy was the only one I trusted. I put my head down and drove home. I opened a bit of a gap, but didn't keep it. Luckily, as you can see in the photo, the finish line came when it did. I wanted to crop this shot, but I love Darien's screaming face on the left.



Don't know why, but I keep getting the same ridiculous song in my head when I'm racing. I just realized this today. Eminem's "Without Me," must have a spin tempo or something. At Mason Lake it was the verse about "... No, I"m not the first king of controversy, I am am the worst thing since Elvis Presely to use black music so selfishishly, to...." This week, the repeated verse was the bridge, "This looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, cause we need a little controversy, cause it feels so empty without me." The strange thing is that I won both races. I'm not sure that I want that to me my song.

So the family down under is all here now. First impressions are good. Logan is still shaking off jet lag when the time change hit. Poor kid is all messed up. He's got really long legs and he's quiet, which I know won't last long in this family. Richard has a lot to say. We chatted the whole way to Saturday's race. He's funny and was totally amazed voer the change machine at Safeway. And Aaron is.... well, Tuckie is Tuckie- seems to have mellowed out a bit (which he would deny.) It's going to be a good year with the guys. Everyone has that sense of humor to go along and get along. Adam has the hippy hair- do again. He's taking care of Sadie and Pepper next week- hope he doesn't feed them beer or wine :)