Tour O' Granite Country

Since i started on this whole "...The Granite of New Hampshire in their muscles and their brains.." posting a bit back, I had better finish it off.

Jeannette, Catie and I went up to Albany to see if we indeed had the granite of..umm..granite country, in our muscles and our brains. The weather the first day took some brain work to tolerate, a bit of rain, a few delays and well, kinda miserable really. After the TT, BW had about a 50" gap on me, Jeanette and Missy. Catie was close behind us. Circuit race neutralized all that and Jeanette was 12" up. I got my first "naughty" violation, crossing the "virtual" yellow line on the back side of the 5.6 mile circuit. Granted it was close and I kinda thought i was done, fell off the back a bit until i sheepishly asked Matt if i was done. "Nope."

Sweet, get back on but i am more cautious with my attacks from there on. I did get a time penalty which didnt help my already slow-ish sprints to the finish line where the others were racking up some time bonuses. I did manage a long-ish sprint to at least not finish DFL in the circuit. That felt good. I've got the long sprint, or the long acceleration down especially uphill.

Sunday we went back up, team VERVE and planned our strategy to keep Jeanette up and to hopefully pull Catie into a podium spot. All went well, and after the first lap we were having a fun time working it, attacking, etc.. I knew since Missy dropped out that there was a slight = good! chance i may get dropped in the final lap so i worked as much as i could, until it was time for me to do some TT work for my upcoming 50 miler. Worked out fine. They went and i didnt, and i ended up having a nice ride for the last 20 miles. Cant say it was what i wanted but at least it wasnt raining and the course was so hilly and challenging it was a good mental workout as well.

Worst is that i didnt see the finish. Jeanette held off 2 BW's and won. Sweet job.

Way to go VERVE.

Thanks to Mike D and all his homies for the work. I loved the set up and the courses, very fun to have a circuit race and the RR course was the most challenging i have ever done in my long 1.5 years history of cycling. (Ok maybe 2 years cuz the season is almost over isnt it.)

Up next is Firehouse 50 Solo where i sure hope that Marlo Crosby Mcgyver isnt doing it bc she is in my age group ( oh well, she is super talented so if she is it will be a nice person to finish behind!) and then Irongirl Du in september. Um. Assuming i start running again ..sometime.