What a weekend!

So the competition at the AVC was a lot more stacked in comparison to IDGP. In most of the mass start events over 12 women showed up and about 5 or so women were there to race. Dominating the field of course was Becky Quinn. She won every race with the exception of the 5 mile - it was agreed before the race to let Kele solo off the front and win it. Annette was there to race, as was Kele, Auna-Brit and Heather too. Heather did much better at her home track and after a little thought - we think she was feeling the pressure of having the national coaches and pro teams at the IDGP. She had several podium finishes and it was great to see her do so well.

I ran too small a gear for the final Keirin heat - I should have geared up an inch or so. I ran a 50x15 and should have been in 51x15. Oh well. Lesson learned.

And I'm done with Miss N' Outs. I didn't even get my heart rate up. Oh well.

The points race was great! I was definitely collecting a lot of points - up 14 when suddenly I pulled up track and moved in behind Noreen. Then she let a gap open up and I had to close it to the main group. Then the group took off again for a sprint and I couldn't hang from exhaustion of the early points. Unfortunately the group ended up lapping me and I slowly clawed my way back up to 0 points. 75 laps with sprints every 5 laps - we averaged over 28 mph. I ran a smaller gear - 49x15 and the legs felt better... but I'm thinking I may have been better off with a larger gear. Oh well - I managed 5th.

On the last day we had our 5 mile scratch race. It went well - I was definintely in control of the race. Although at one point I was in the sprinters lane, following Becky Quinn and Annette. Annette didn't look down track when she followed Becky and Mary was trying to sneak in between us. Unfortunately that caused a crash and Mary went down, grazing me and lucky I just kept pedaling and snuck through the crash. At that point we had maybe 10 laps to go. The wind up slowed down as we stayed up track and continued racing. Then the final sprint came and I got behind a slow poke and had to come the long way around for 5th. Annette was relegated for failure to hold a straight line, which put me into 4th place. All in all it was a good race - despite the crash and near wipe out. I'm stoked that I'm learning from my experiences and putting my knowledge to the test. It's so enriching to have such good competition - and I'm stoked that I'm getting hungrier for a win - I can sense it coming together. This level of competition just shows that you have to be on your toes at all times and take advantage of every situation. If you give these women an inch they'll take a foot. I ran a 50x15 for this race and the gear felt perfect.

Now two days at home and then I'm off to Wisconsin!