CHEQUAMEGON FAT TIRE FESTIVAL 06

Thank goodness I had more fun this weekend to make up for the half *** race that I did on Saturday. That is about how I feel about the whole ordeal. We headed up to Cable around noon on Friday with our buddy Eeeeeeeeeeeee. We arrived around 6:30 PM or there about and we were welcomed by Ted and Andrea, Anna's parents who welcomed us for a weekend of celebration. They even had pasta dinner ready for us when we arrived and it was delicious! The night came quickly and it was 5:00 AM when our alarm clock went off. Ty got up and headed out with Sanjay to set their bikes up before the race. I got to sleep in a bit til 7ish which was a nice perk for having a preferred start.

I rode from the house which was just behind Telemark to the start of the Short and Fat. The morning was cool and I wore my winter Alterra jacket hoping to stay warm until the start of the race. After 10 mins on the road and a few warm up drills I was ready. I headed to the start and found it very easy to set up my bike, plenty of room. I started to think, should I put it right up front or a bit back? I know that the massive start it will not matter. I plopped the bike down somewhere in the middle and sure enough it had to be behind that Lobecki guy. I saw more familiar faces, Murphy Kate, Violetta, Karen Deboise Merra and Sara Lucas. One quick trip to the port-a-potty and then I was ready. The weather was starting to look threatening as we approached the start of the race. The gun shot could of not gone off sooner.

The start was a bit slow, I was able to keep in the pack of the top 50 for awhile and I saw people starting to pass on the far left of the pack to get ahead. There were some in experienced riders out there making there way to the front and not calling out there moves. Literally, these guys were coming within inches between me and another almost taking us out. I see this guy swerving in and out like a drunk man, knowing he is going to cause a problem somewhere. I was not the only one PO'ed about this idiot. I inched over more to the left as we were proceeding down the paved road at a pretty good clip, just in time before this huge wipe out to the right of me. I thought to myself it must of been that jerk who caused that crash unfortunately and hoping it was not too bad. Everything was going well, I was feeling great had a good pace and felt I could keep it up for awhile. We finally hit the hills of gravel road and the pace slowed a bit as people dropped off and others from behind caught up. Somewhere after 20 some minutes of gravel road I was feeling a bit tired and my pace slowed and that is where I got ******! I remember seeing quite a few women passing and I felt like I dropped to 30th or something. I kept plugging away and hoping for a miracle. I thought to myself where is the power I felt last weekend on those climbs? Where is the grass? Finally after how many miles of gravel road we hit the grass, my favorite:) I started to see the fun again and some girls in site. I was able to push it to the limit from here on out having fun on the rolling hills and passing all these guys who were making me work around them. Some people love to take the nice paved line at there own turtle pace and you have to learn to work with them by keeping off the beaten path or you will never get anywhere.

All of a sudden I see the sign, 4 miles to go Short and Fat as I looked down at my watch to see how much time elapsed since the start. No, I don't watch my heart rate during a race, but I do watch the time to see if I could beat last years time of 1:11 which was looking grim at that moment. I pushed it as hard as I could feeling like I was going to puke any minute, I caught up to some womam finally and told myself no matter how much it hurt I was going to pass her. I kicked it up another notch towards the end, one last hill climb to go, up and over, and flying to the finish. 18th over all again, must a hit the wall.

At least some of us had a good race, Congrats to Mikey for his 9th overall finish, I really got some nice shots of him at the finish. I had fun taking pictures of everyone that I could at the race, so make sure you check out the link at the top of the page. Thanks again to Anna and Sanjay for enviting us to stay with Anna's parents this weekend in that sweet home nestled just up the finsh line from the race, we had a great time and even made some new friends. Also thanks to Jo and Mike for letting us party it up with them on Saturday night and stay at there lovely pad on Rosa lake. Sorry if we missed the awards but the commentator was dragging it out a bit too long and were anxious to get out of there and have some fun.

Sunday morning we headed back up to Telemark to watch E in the crit. The weather was cold and misty rain, and it looked like it was going to be a muddy race. The rain stopped just in time for the start, and it was really fun watching some of the pros' mixed with some of our WORS's riders in the competition. I think next year I am going to enter this race, you get a chance to race against some of the top notch racers just for fun. After talking to Sara Lucas before the start of the race, I thought to myself that really looks like fun. There were only a handful of women who raced and that is a shame. Sara did pretty good 1st in her age and 4th over all next to Sara Kylander-Johnson. Oh yea, Murphy Kate and her dad Tim did the Tandum race and they did pretty well too! The last race consisted of all the best riders of the day competing for a first place finish which was the most exciting race to watch this year by far. The sun came out in full force at the start of the last race, it got nice and warm, wouldnt you know just as we leave Cable.

Next stop, Wisconsin Rapids.