The Queen of 23rd Place Finishes 15th!!

Yesterday was the Reading race, the second leg of the Triple Crown race series here in Pennsylvania. Like in Lancaster, the women did a criterium, then the pro men did a road race.

The race was a lot of fun. I was worried because it was a 1.9 mile loop, usually criterium courses are a mile or less, and I was expecting the course to feel long and boring. But it was great - there were 8 turns, some little rises and descents, plenty of varied pavement (i.e. potholes!), some wind, and a lot of spectators. We did 13 laps, none of which felt boring due to the big teams attacking, countering, etc. I tried to race hard and to not worry about running out of gas for the finish - I came across the line 15th! If you have been following my blog you will have noticed that I seem to be the world's expert at finishing 20-somethingth place. But I am breaking out of that rut starting yesterday!

I don't have photos from this race right now - Devon was busy getting ready for his race. And after I finished my race I scrambled to change clothes, check results, buy a piece of pizza for lunch, and find the Monex van so I could go to the feed zone.

Here is the only picture I got of the men's race which went by at standard warp speed. Dan Schmatz went down in a crash early in the race - after I took this photo his soigneur helped clean him up and get his torn spandex off. What a mess.

Then after the race Devon and I spent 40 miles lost on the Pennsylvania Highway system, which as far as I am concerned wins the award for least-tourist-friendly-and-least-well-marked-and-hardest-to-turn-around-in-after-making-a-wrong-guess-as-to-which-exit-you-are-supposed-to-take in the whole country!