Racing down under.

We raced to the are track, arriving minutes before registration closed and the racing began. My warmup consisted of a hot lap around the course, frantic number pinning and a mad dash to the restroom. Monique's last piece of advice before the start: stay with the belgian girls. Thankfully they wear an unmistakable light blue kit and in our field of 20, they were easy to spot. All of the girls also wore pink bandanas on their helmets so officials can sort out the results.

We tolled out, slow at first and nearly fell over once we hit the massive head wind on the back straight. The winds were high yeterday, which meant limiting your time in front as much as possible. So what did I do? Take as much wind as possible. Who is this yank?

Eager to get going, I picked us up a few clicks and that's when the attacks started coming. Guess what happened? Yep, my rubber band snapped. I watched helplessly as one of the belgian girls soloed off the front. Their timing was perfect and I rode back in with my tail between my legs. No worries though, there's another crit tonight on kew boulevard. I've already practiced patience in my head. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. And you can't rush or push the process. It will be what it will be.