From the Allanti State Championship Road Race (visit Bart Nave Photography for more race photos)…

I forgot my nice camera, but Ryan was able to shoot a few photos of my race with his camera:

Girl at Bike Race Scales Bridge and Throws Bike off the Top

Well, I thought about it, but then I would have been copying this guy, who was wandering around on Nashville’s Gateway Bridge with a bible and a bottle of water during our races Sunday morning.

My race was not so spectacular. After getting 3rd in the Saturday afternoon time trial (behind Kirsten Sass and Debbie Milne), all I could do was hope to place well enough to hold on to 2nd in the omnium. However, sprinting for too many primes would be my downfall. There were 4 offered, and I went all-out for all of them (losing each to Debbie). By the 4th one, Debbie countered her own attack and dropped the rest of the field (including me). We actually had a pretty good chase going, but as soon as the officials gave us the “3 to go” sign, everyone sat up, and Debbie’s 11ty-billionth solo victory was in the books.

How’d I finish? Well, I’d done 4 all-out sprints already, so of course, I didn’t have a whole lot left in the tank and ended up finishing 3rd in the pack and dropping me to 3rd overall in the omnium. I keep telling myself that I can’t expect to be kicking a ton of ass at the end of a couple of pretty tough weeks of training, but it doesn’t make poor racing strategy any easier to swallow. However, a 24oz Fat Tire at Mellow Mushroom does help a little :)

Ryan raced a couple of hours later with several of his teammates. They were all pretty tired from their 60 mile race the previous day, and a 3-man break (not including any of the Memphis Velo guys) stayed away, leaving Ryan in the pack to sprint (though he did make a couple of valiant efforts to get away from the group when it looked as though they were going to quit chasing).

I’ll post some photos soon!

I’m pretty tired, so I’ll keep this brief-

Debbie got away from the field about 1/2way through the 1st of two RR laps. I was chasing with a couple of other girls who didn’t seem too concerned with catching The Milne since she wasn’t from TN (so she wasn’t a threat to the championship jersey). So, I threw in a little attack on a little hill and got away from them. The course was tough, and the temp was over 90, but I managed to stay away for the remainder of the race (though I never caught Debbie).

I was 2nd overall & won the State Championship. It would have been nice to not get beaten so badly, but considering I am training through this race (over 200 miles for the week), I can’t be too suprised that I couldn’t keep up with her attack. It’s aight- I get a nice, new TN state champ jersey for my troubles :)

I’m not sure how many local racers read this (other than Lauren!), but I figured I’d clue readers in on how the state RR championship/Allanti omnium is shaping up for the weekend…

Here are the current omnium entrants:

Womens 1/2/3/4 Overall		top
Kailin	Acheson	Team Reliant Bank/Harpeth Bicycles
Carol	Farmer	Velo Vixens Cycling Club
Mary	Mayhew	SCO/Bike Zoo
Debbie	Milne	ProBikeCycling
Lisa	Starmer	Team Reliant Bank/Harpeth Bicycles
Andrea	Wilson	Team Kenda Tire

You’ll notice that Debbie Milne is going to be there. She and I have been swapping wins this season, although hers are usually more of a beatdown, and mine are a little bit more luck :)Â The last time we raced, she and Lauren kicked my butt all over the place (in my home town, no less), so I’m hoping to dish out a little revenge on Saturday!

Other riders of note:
Though she’s not listed in the overall competition, Kirsten Sass, who dished out her own beatdown at the State TT, is signed up for the Allanti TT. She told me last weekend that she was still on the fence about the road race, but that she wasn’t riding in any more crits for a while since she had some big triathlons coming up. I hope she decides to come out & suffer with us as we chase Debbie over the hills.

Also, worth a quick mention is Mary Mayhew. She is ahead of me in the TBRA BAR points at the moment, but since the powers that be changed the points calculations to even the road for those of us that don’t attend all of the TBRA races, I should be able to catch up with her in the next few race weekends.

I’m feeling much better about this weekend than for the Memphis race. My training volume has been high, but it’s helped me drop a couple of pounds and get acclimated to the heat & humidity. See you all on the road!

The headset will be here tomorrow :)

‘Til then…