42 degrees, raining, and windy

Doesn't that sound nice? That was what the weather decided to dish up for Saturday's road race just north of Madison. I must admit I was a little frustrated but I certainly wasn't going to let it get the best of me. I pride myself on my overly optimistic attitude and there could have been a thunderstorm . . . or it could have been snowing. The weather this year has been moody so it wouldn't be out of the question :)

I was impressed with the number of women who showed up despite the conditions. There were just over 20 riders at the line and it was good to chat with the hardy gals. A relatively short road race - 2 laps of a 15 mile course with two pretty good climbs per lap. Julie F from Planet Bike went hard from the gun and we were strung out on the cross wind section. She got a gap at the base of the climb and my teammate Mo helped to bring her back. Over the top of the climb there were 7 of us together with some distance on the main field. Working together in an organized fashion proved a little difficult but we finally managed to put more distance on the field. In the cross wind section our group splintered and 3 were left - myself, Julie, and Trek-VW rider Jill. We worked well through the rest of the race and soon the dropped riders were out of sight. Coming into the finishing head wind straight I stayed sheltered and both my breakmates admitted they didn't realize this was the finish until we were about 200m from the line. At this point the drag race began and my positioning helped me to take the win. It was a great race and fun to be in the break with such strong riders.

It was nice to get a win in my last local race before heading down to Arkansas for Joe Martin this week. I'm really excited to head back to Fayetteville for my third edition of this stage race. We've got a really good team put together and I'm hopeful that we can animate the race and execute some good team tactics. It'll be great to be back racing an NRC event and I'm looking forward to seeing my teammates!

Today was beautiful out and I went for a nice 4.5 hour group ride. Lots of good climbing west of town and it was fun to ride in a strong group. It's nice to get to ride with Dave and the guys - plus Jill (who recently moved here from FL) who rode awesome. People are always surprised that we have climbs like Blue Mounds around here - a sustained (and steep!) 15-20 minute climb. Nice way to spend a Sunday.

School has been pretty chaotic as I'm trying to prepare sub plans for my two week absence and get caught up on grading. With just 6 weeks of school left the kids are getting antsy and a bit lazy - especially my seniors. I'm amazed how many students are "sick" on Friday afternoons! They're great kids though and it's been fun seeing them go through all of the college acceptance drama and nervousness.

I'll try to update when I'm in Ar-kansas - first big racing adventure this year! Should be a blast!