Wow, 3rd at my first El Tour de Tucson!

I surprised myself this weekend, with a stacked womens field, and so many different variables to the tour itself. First waking up at 4:00 am to get a spot in the Platinum line so you don't have to play catch up the whole race. There was a VIP section in front of us with most of the XOOD girls in it, so I was already feeling like the rooky with over 300 people in front of me. The first wash was smoothed out so much that we could ride right through and not even get off our bikes, that was nice. Then I got back on the main pack with only 100-200, then we got stopped by a train so another pack joined back on. We stayed together for a while with every corner crossing your fingers that it would not be you to go down. People were crashing left and right, I hate that sound. Water bottles flying, tires flatting, people yellling "hold your line" what a crazy race with that many people. Going down Freeman was amazing with all the little rollers the group would go up and down like a caterpillar. Then we hit the second wash, and it was pure chaos. Riding, running, recking, how ever you could get through, I was totally exhausted. Then someone said that I was the first girl out of the wash, sweet. So I pushed hard to get on a group, not the main group but we formed a pretty good group. Two other girls were with me Erica Allar and Mari Holden I didn't know at the time, but these girls are awesome. Mari Holden went to the Olympics for time trialing. As we went down Sunrise and turned on Oracle another group caught us with my team mate Kathryn, she said that she alsmost went down on the loose road into the wash it was really fast and sketchy. Two other girls joined in also Robin a Cheer wine girl and Jennifer. So it was us six until the finish so it was really exciting to know I was going for the top six. I was excited with that alone, and then it was down to the final sprint, I got behind the Tandem team Tyler and Mimi that also raced for XOOD and they helped pull me for a while and then we hit this right turn for the finish, I did not even know we were turning, it could of been disasterous, but I made it, I almost got in second position by a foot, but I just did not have enough time, I really have to work on my sprinting. It was so exciting just to finish in one piece and then to finish in third behind an olympic time trialist, I'll take it, am so excited. Me and Kevin went on a ride today and talked about the Tour de France were they do day after day of 100+ miles and to survive all the stages alone, but then for Lance to win 7 of them in a row. How the perspective of getting 3rd in the Tour de Tucson really isn't that big of deal, but for now, wow!


Being on a team with the coolest people really motivated me, I felt like a Pro so I tried to ride like one. Everyone did really well, with no one getting hurt, that was a huge success.