Tulsa is Tough

As my fav Willie Nelson says, "On the Road Again."

Some down time at home and now it's business time on the road. First stop, Tulsa, OK where you could cut the humidity with a knife. They call it Tulsa Tough and they don't lie. Three days of crits (yay!) in crazy hot weather (boo!).

There are three of us here... me, Tayler, and Olivia. Check out the article our superb host wrote. There you can see some pictures too since I am lame and never take any. Written from the "host" perspective.

Day #1- 2 of us racing. Tayler is sitting this one out. KDoc, our team doc, is giving the red light for a couple more days while she recovers from a crash last week.

Not great luck for us last night. Sometimes bike racing doesn't come down to the strongest or fittest. Luck plays a part and we had none of it last night.

Olivia went down in a crash and was out. (After 4 hours in the ER, we find out that nothing is broken but she is banged up.)

After the crash, which took out about 25 people, a break went off. I was near the crash when it happened so was out of position to follow the break. So, being alone now, I decided to play it smart and hope some other teams would do work to pull it back. Nada!

I followed one good/hard move to try and bridge the break with about 10 laps to go. Good effort but we didn't make it.

Field sprint for 5th. Damn. Ok, get in position.

I got on a train headed for the front and felt like I was sitting pretty. In the beginning of the last lap, sitting about 6 wheels back and the girl in front of me lost control of her back wheel. It skipped or slid or something. Either way, since I was so close to her, we both went swerving out of control and hitting the brakes. I went from 6th wheel to 20th wheel in 5 seconds. That was something that couldn't be compensated for in the last lap. BUMMER! Bad luck- that's what I'm talking about.

That's bike racing folks. Somedays it works and others it doesn't. The good news is that we are all safe and sound this morning and I have another chance tonight.

This weekend kicks off my road season. After a full winter, 1 week break, and about 1 month of training at home... I am feeling great! I worked out my "1st big crit of the year" nerves last night and the fitness is here... now it is time to find the "luck" part.

More tonight!