I am in down town Philly today and we got back a few hours ago from the Lehigh Valley Classic race in a place called Allentown Pennsylvania.  It was Fast with a capital F. 

I guess I should start at the very beginning: 

A while ago, my teammate Leah Goldstein, Storm Trooper Extraordinaire, fantastic teammate, and booty kicker, kicked some booty at Gila and won the GC.  This was while I was tromping around the state of Alabama, but OMGawsh when we won that race, when I saw her podium picture (I can’t get it to load) and smile, I don’t know if I have every been more proud.  And I wasn’t even there.  Good thing, because I might have just passed out in excitement.  It really meant alot, it really meant alot to be her teammate.

And so this moment carried us into Mt. Hood.  Which is a race that I love.  First of all, its in Oregon.  Second of all, it has some spectacular stages.  And it was the first NRC ValueAct won last year.  And it was a great race again this year, with Leah taking 3rd GC, and I got 12th in the prologue which really showed me that I can pedal pretty hard with the fast girls for about three minutes because TT’s n stuff are not my strong suit (sweat pants are actually my strongest suit).  And I was also road a two-girl break away for about 80K that was tough, but rewarding.  And I said damn it feels good to be a bike racer that day.

So Sunday, me, Lara Kroepsch, Hannah, and Chrissy showed up for the CSC Invitational in DC.  Actually, its in Arlington, but whatev.  And Lara is racing real hungry, she got herself in that break with Cath Cheatley and Andrea Dvorak from Colavita and they were out of site in no time.  Lara kicked it for 2nd place that day, while Chrissy really helped me out and we picked up 9th overall after the field sprint, with a full water bottle accidentally shoved in my eyeball with half a lap to go.  Note: you cannot get hydrated through your eyeballs but you could possibly get dehydrated through your eyeballs.

Which leads us to where we are today.  In host housing, Philadelphia with very little internet.  But the plus side is Whole Foods is just 2 blocks away.  And like I said, today was real fast and after a 4 women break got up the road I managed (with alot of help from my friends) to squeeze out third in the field sprint for 7th overall.  And we packed up, hopped on the turn pike or something, and headed back home. 

We got super lost on the way to the race today.  We spotted a car with some racing bikes and so we followed them for a while.  But just to make sure, I hopped out at a stop light and went and tapped on their window.  Imagine my surprise when it was none other than Mike Hernandez from www.norcalcyclingnews.com.  I am pretty sure I scared the daylights out of him but I just wanted to make sure he knew where he was going before we committed to following them around the beautiful state of Pennsylvania.  And believe me, it really is beautiful and I would know because I saw an awful lot of Pennsylvania today by accident.

And I guess that’s where we left off.