I have BIG hair this morning.

It's Monday morning. Do you know where your legs are?

If you're lucky and were diligent about proper hydration and nutrition and slept like baby - their steady throb will have disappeared by the morning from yesterday's race.

Oh, Elma. Supposedly the inspiration for Matt Groening's Simpson cartoon. And the locale of our Washington state road race championships. The leg throbbing is the reward from pushing yourself for 66 miles around and around a pair of nuclear silos.

A field of 15 or so category 1/2 women showed up to contest the title, with HB having the largest representation: Jocelyn, Julie, Brook, Liz N. and myself. Both Bikesale and Keller Rohrback had three ladies a piece and then a few singlets - Cucina, Olympic Orthopedic, Athlete's Lounge (out of Portland) and Alison Beall (awesome to see you racing Alison!).

The course favors an all around rider, with a little bit of climbing, descending, flats and head winds. The weather forecast for the day, for once, was sunny and 65 - perfect bike racing weather. Not to mention there was a tailwind on the climb.

Things were going peachy until our first climb up the hill and Liz suffered a mechanical. We found out afterward her front derailed broke off - and she was suddenly on a fixed gear of 53x11. Ouch. (But being the badass that she is - she continued riding the course for three or four more laps.)

Second time up the hill - Brook's chain had a mind of its own and leapt off her bike. Dang, second rider down. Our field advantage vaporized. On the second to last lap, a move finally stuck with each team having a rider in it. Let the knitting begin! Or let me rephrase that, let the knitting begin until Tricia slowly and steadily ripped everyone's legs off on the hill the last time up to separate from the rest of us, riding in for 5th. You know you're in trouble when you stand up and then sit right back down from the searing pain the legs transmit to your brain. I was pretty happy with a top ten (despite our low turnout in numbers) after being in a break, attacking and racing my bike.

Stephanie (KR) won, Jocelyn silver, and Cathy (Cucina) bronze. Well done ladies, well done. Next up: Ravensdale.