Tour of KC race weekend

Lindsay, Bryan, and I drove from the beautiful land (IOWA), to Kansas City for the tour of KC.

The Twilight criterium friday night looked to be a good race. Two good climbs, and on sharp fast decent to take the juice out of everyones legs every lap. Following a fast start, 70-80 category 3's got up to speed around the course.. At 10 minutes into the race, I uncorked an attack. I am told, Justin and Bryan did a great job blocking for me following the attack. I was away for 4 laps, and then the field caught me. Following one lap, a racer road into me in the bottleneck portion of the race, and I crashed on the tarmac. After that bell ringing, I received my free lap, and got back into the pack. I immediately attacked and went off the front again, this time only for two laps. With 2 to go, bryan attacked and I went to the front to block, he stayed away with the win, and I road it in for 17 place.

Day two of the tour of KC. I woke up with a swollen arm and sore back from the crash. Luckily, the crash did not affect my breathing, or positioning on the bike. Today was the cliff drive classic, the race that everyone wants to win. It was wet and muddy, and the roads were slick. Luckily, no one in our field crashed today. 9 laps of a ~3 mile course with two substantial hills. After lap 4, I attacked and one rider was able to get my wheel. Kelly Benjamin from Cheerwine! Why was a female in the field of threes, you ask? She was training for next week at donner's grove, and needed some big pack experience. This was that big pack. I pulled most of the lap until the hill, and she pulled around me. She gapped me off on that hill, but I did not need to get here wheel, because I knew I would catch her on the crest of the hill. Following another mile, I flicked my elbow for her to pull around. She said she couldn't help. Oh well. I road tempo until the s-bend area, and we were swallowed up by the field. Ended up 29 on the day.

Day three was overland park. Figure 8 course. Bryan and I started very far back in the field. We moved up every lap. With two to go, I got in top 10, but a guy in front of me lost his grip on the road. I locked my breaks, ran up on the curb, and managed to bunny hop back on the course, and saved myself from another crash. I lost 20 wheels, and ended up getting 23rd on the day.