Always a bridesmaid...

Steve wearing his bridesmaid's dress at Chung's wedding.









While the hubs was splitting too-small pants on the dance floor (in his words: "good thing the shirt was long"), I was racing bikes in my own little Valhalla, aka Durango, Colorado.

Sunday morning (the day after the road race) was pissing down rain. I had plans to meet up with good Ridgway bud and badass in all things Danika. My hardcore teammates opted to hang tough on their trainers and Danika and I went to the Steaming Bean on Main St. Durango. As we were polishing off our beverages, the clouds parted and the sun came out. We did a lovely little spin up past Turtle Lake. New road lover Debby and Kinsey joined us (after Kinsey took 2nd in his crit) for the mellowness. I rolled back to Comp-town in time for lunch before I met up with the rest of my DFT teammates for the afternoon criterium in downtown Durango.

With Marisa winning the omnium, our plan was to protect her and hopefully get a win. Carmen McNellis from Colavita ended up initiating a break containing 2 Colorado Bikelaw women and me. With 4 people in a break, 2 of which were overall threats to Marisa, I didn't want to work. Once we lost one of the Colorado Bikelaw girls, I was game to work and thus took my turns at the front. Marisa and the rest of tmy DFT teammates blocked like champs back in the pack.

I've won a few field sprints at this crit (though there was always someone off the front) so I was really hoping for a win. I won 2 primes pretty easily coming out of the last corner in 2nd place. I was hoping it would be fast coming into the last lap but it wasn't fast enough and Carmen was able to get a jump on me right before the 2nd to last corner. I dorked the last corner and while I was closing in pretty fast, she was able to hold me off for the win. It was disappointing--but at the same time it was great to be in the break and I felt really good. And while its frustrating--its also the cool thing about bike racing--the fact that tactics and good decisions play so much into who gets to throw their hands in the air at the end of the race.

Both Velonews and the Durango Herald did nice write-ups on the crit. Wherry--bestest pro dude on the planet--won the men's crit. It was AWESOME to be racing with all the fans on the course. Hearing my name at various points along the course was totally sweet: Melissa, Meredith (who was 5th in her crit), SP, Kenny (2nd in the 3's), Comptons, Jimmy, Danika and the rest of the Durango peeps were ALL out there. So great. I could see but not hear Moira yelling on each lap.

After the race, we got some dinner and recovery beverages at the Steamworks brewery. Marco (our interim director) also joined us with his wife and supercutey little boy. It was a lot of fun hanging with the teammates and their S.O.'s

Sunday morning was the time trial. The course is really great starting out FAST with some rollers and ending on a climb. I was happy with my ride, feeling like I went as hard as I could. I dorked a few corners and ended up doing a 36:58 which was over 2 minutes off of the winner, Kristin McGrath's. My time was the EXACT SAME as last year--but it looked like almost everyone was about a minute slower than their times from last year. Or that's what I heard at least. So I'm going to take that as hey I got faster (and have a TT bike this year). Now I'm really lusting after a TT helmet and disc. Teammate Marisa ended up in 4th. Since Terry took 3rd in the TT and the crit, she was able to steal the omnium overall from Marisa by ONE point. And with the ominum paying to 5, I of course finished 6th in the omnium. Looks like the hubs wasn't the only bridesmaid this weekend.

Notwithstanding those small setbacks, it was a FANTASTIC weekend capped off by a spectacular pallet fire at Comp-town. I still have a ashes in my hair and a smoky smell to my skin. I'd call myself mesquite flavored with a slight hint of road trip nastiness.

Two days at home and then I'm off to Tulsa Tough on Thursday. I'm FIRED UP for some more racing and really hoping to improve my results!