Saturday Feb 19 in Greenville, SC

Field: Cat 1/2/3 Women, 40 or more racers

The course was relatively flat with some small rollers. We started at 9:06am. Team Kenda and Headstrong had big teams out there so my goal was to get into any break if both teams were represented.

This time I even knew how many laps (five) we had to do but unfortunately as it turned out it would never had made a difference.

The pace was anywhere between 15-28mph. It was not the most exciting race so there is not much to write about. In those five laps, I was in two attacks which were caught in a matter of minutes. On the last lap, I positioned myself somewhere in the front third of the field. The pace was super slow and it seemed everyone was getting ready for a sprint finish. We all were quite packed with two miles to go when suddenly the girl in front of me lost her balance and crashed. I had no other way to go but to crash into her. I flew over my handlebars, straight on my head, and got buried by two or three other riders who fell on top of me. After a quick self check, I examined my bike that was quite damaged. The most obvious was the seat angled upwards; I fixed that on the go, jumped on my bike and headed towards the finish line. While riding I realized my big chain ring was bent, my rear wheel out of true, and my helmet adjuster was broken.

I guess at least I got my crash for 2011 out of the way. Luckily, Chuck was able to straighten my chain ring (he says: ghetto style), equipped me with new wheels and let me borrow his helmet….looks like I am ready for the crit tomorrow.