Hopkins Crit

Yesterday was a special day, for a variety of reasons. First, it was the one-year anniversary of the day I met Stratton. Yep, let's go back to exactly one year ago, when I, fresh outta college, decided to check out the Twin Cities as a prospective place to live. I had met Margot while racing in the fabulous ECCC, and she first mentioned the idea. Throughout my senior year of college, I had managed to completely avoid making any decisions about my life in the following year, but once I got home (yes, to the UP of Michigan) for the summer, I realized that it was time to get on it. So I headed on down to the Cities to check it out. Margot and I came up with a few good reasons for me to live here.
1. The cycling scene is pretty sweet.
2. There are jobs available.
3. Housing is (comparatively) cheap.
4. There's plenty of art/culture/entertainment -- all that metropolitan stuff.
5. MN is still a blue state, and the Twin Cities are really blue.
6. It is still the midwest. I love the coasts, but there will always be something so endearing about the midwest...
7. I could pretty much drive everything I owned from the UP to the Cities in 7 hours in my Honda Civic. Not bad.

And, while I was checking things out, I went with Margot to the Hopkins Crit, 2005. Where I met Stratton, and a couple other Bellas. Let's not relive that race. I got dropped like a bad habit after a few laps. And I was pretty intimidated. In spite of that, I managed to get a job, sign a lease, and move on down.

This year's Hopkins Crit went a lot better for me. They had a separate cat 4 field, where Sarah and Paula represented the Bellas in the lead group.
photo from skinnyski.com

I'm sure Gilby and Annie have some reports about that one too. The women's open race was a bit later, and most of the cat 4 Bettys decided to do that one too. And I was the only Bella in the race, out of 14 women. Kind of a tiny field.

Anyway, we started out pretty quickly, and I went up and sat at about third wheel. There were a couple attacks, and then I heard someone say that we had a big gap. Awesome! I love it when I find myself part of a breakaway group that I didn't even realize was happening. There were 6 of us, and then there were 7, and then there were 6 again. Two Bettys (P and K), two Flanders ladies, Anne, and me. It wasn't an easy race. Teresa attacked again and again, and the rest of us chased her down again and again. After a while, we lapped the rest of the field, but to be honest, I barely noticed. I was pretty focused on staying close to the wheel in front of me.





photo courtesy of Matthew Pastick





In the last few laps, I nearly got shelled off the back of the breakaway group, but Betty K was there to help me back (she is Awesome!) Then, with 2 laps to go, we came around the third corner and there was a crash. Betty P was down. I was just far enough behind her to swerve and miss her, and fortunately, she was OK. After the crash, though, our break sort of splintered. I ended up with one of the Flanders women, and after playing cat and mouse for a lap and a half, she decisively kicked my butt in the sprint. Oh well, I still came away with 4th place.

Of course, we all stuck around to watch the men's P/1/2 race. Some guys lapped the field. Some guys won some money. They can probably tell you more about it. Thanks to Nature Valley/Penn Cycles for putting on a great race.

Thanks also to Sascha, for hosting a post-race TdF-watching BBQ. And to Annie for sharing with us her obsession with pie. Yes, it was delish. I'm blatantly stealing this photo of the pie from her blog.


And I'm out.