Tour de Champaign Day 2: FASTGRRRLZ GET VICIOUS

Not gonna lie: I was out for blood on Sunday.

It was a small field that lined up on Sunday morning, but a certain person who had finished in a certain place that they didn't deserve happened to stick around for a second day of racing. And proceeded to talk sh*t about "those b*tches from Wild Card" on the line as I was standing directly next to her. Whoa bear, whoa. What a Nasty Girl.

The race was actually kind of boring. None of our attacks really stuck. Nasty Girl was dropped. I wasn't feeling so hot to trot, but I was really excited when I saw Claire T. still in the main pack when we had 3 to go (keep your eye out for her in the coming seasons!). We came down to the last corner, and I was in pretty good positioning. A.Miles had so kindly blocked going into the last part of the last lap. And I just sorta gunned it. I remember thinking I might have gone a little too early, and couldn't tell where Vanderkitten was, so I just plowed through the line instead of throwing up the classic V arms (Varms?). I'll take looking like an amateur at the line over looking like an idiot and getting pipped a few meters short any day.

We started the Women's Open with another tiny field. The pack rolled around pretty slowly for a lap or two until there was a prime. I had no intention of going for any primes. Nor did I have any business doing so as my goal for this race was simply to hang on. But as we came into the straight away Nasty Girl began to go for it with probably about 100 meters to go. I could see her getting ready for it, and no one else really moving. This is incredibly unsportsmanlike, and I promise never to do it again, but I rode right up on Nasty Girl's left as she began to sprint for the line, turned my head to give her the B.Chan I VILL CRUSH YOUR SOUL look and then stepped on it to win the prime. Nananananana!

So shallow and pedantic. And yet so gratifying.

My hubris ultimately led to my demise in this race as the field attacked over the top of the first prime and the race blew up from there. I did lap nasty girl twice, however, before I cramped hard core and ended up pedaling around by myself for the last 15 minutes of the race. Not how I wanted my first Pro/1/2/3 race to go, but I should have been expecting as much seeing as I puked up my heed and soy protein after the first race of the day.

All in all a REALLY fun weekend. It was great seeing all the locals come out and hopefully enjoy the atmosphere at bike races as much as I do. And after learning that the pro women who showed up are more than 25 years older than me and still kicking ass, I am PUMPED for my career as a cyclist. Time to find a good team in Philly, so if anyone has any suggestions, lemme know.

So now I begin peak period in preparation for the last legs of my racing season in the Midwest. Axel is off to Superweek, I almost got hit by stupid SUV drivers on their cell phones twice on my way home today, I did the TT in seymour and dropped some time, and I joined twitter.

Until next time....