Mountaineer Stage Race

Sorry for leaving you breathless with anticipation, Fan. I know you are waiting for a race report from the stage race, but we really needed to watch Rock 'N' Roll High School last night.

Due to extenuating circumstances, gunnar and I were the only Bi-Atches attending the Stage Race. Please keep Goose and his family in your thoughts right now. And Mike is busy attending to his incubating Baby Bi-Atch. And Freddie is still MIA somewhere amongst the cow manure.

The stage race started out with a 21.8 mile hilly TT. Not exactly our cup of tea, but we are bike racers, so we will race whatever you throw at us. Gunnar did well, coming in 4th place. Here's a picture of him passing his 14 minute man (Mike Miller). Apparently Mike brought his camera in anticipation of this moment.

The TT was followed by a lovely picnic and siesta by the Tygart River, before crit time. Somehow, gunnar and I still managed to arrive 15 minutes before my crit-start. ooopie.

Apparently, a certain somebody thinks "siesta time" = "play time."

Due to the abysmal turn-out of women racers, I got to race with the 40+ men! It was hot and everybody was tired from the morning's TT, though, so when the official said START, there was not much response. To liven it up a bit, I blasted my way from the 2nd row through a small gap in the 1st row and yelled ATTACK!!!! I was doing it as a joke, though, and certainly did not expect to stay away until 4 laps remaining! At this point, 2 men bridged to me and I just tried to stay out of the way for their finish.

Bunny, suffering all by her lonesome. Thanks for the cheers, Kids!

gunnar's crit followed thereafter, and he pulled a HERO move and attacked with 7 laps remaining. (He must have been inspired by moi.) In any case, thanks in part to some timely assistance from a couple lapped riders, but mostly because he has massive thighs of steel and lungs like a blowfish, gunnar soloed to the win, with 42 seconds to spare! Good Jorb, Nars!

Nars, after total crit domination.

After refueling with Smoothies from Sheetz and some Chinese food, we were rearing to go for the next day's road races. I got to race with the 40+'ers again, even though there were 6 or 7 hardy women that showed up. Thank you for racing, my fellow female bike racers!!!
My buddy Kean warned me that he was going to attack up the 1st 3 mile climb, so I was ready when he went. It turned out that just me and Kyle were able to stay with him, though, which made for a highly painful race. I have not suffered that bad for a looooong time. The 3 of us worked our tails off (I definitely did not do my fair share, though I did what I could) and managed to stay 1 minute in front of the pack of frothing 40+ men for the whole race. Thank you, Kean and Kyle, for the encouragement, jokes up the climb, and not dropping me. That was definitely one of the hardest races I've ever done, and my stubborn pride was the only thing that kept me in that break.
gunnar was fortunate enough to get to do 2 laps of that course (for 5000 total feet of climbing). His group broke up quite a bit on the second lap, and gunnar was in the chase group behind a solo rider. Coming into the finish, he attacked early in an attempt to get second, but got stuck behind a Magnum Wagon in the covered bridge, and lost his gap. So, he ended up 3rd, still an excellent result! Nars moved up to 2nd overall in the stage race! WOOHOO!

All in all, it was a super fun weekend, but we missed our friend Goose. :o( Jackie misses her snugglebuddy, too.

Special thanks to:

• Ryan Post, Thad Kelley, Emily Moy, and all the others that worked their tail off for this weekend
• My Mom and Pop for coming to visit, cheering for us, and buying us delicious smoothies!

Mom and Pop, zipping around the crit course.

• All of our fellow racers that showed up. Hardy souls, indeed!

Special request to all female racers in the Mid-Atlantic area: Please come try racing in WV! Not only are these races super fun and challenging, they pay well and often have PIZZA afterward. What more do you want? If just one or two of you comes and brings along a few friends, we could have a nice female pack. But if all of you say "there aren't enough women racers to make it interesting," there obviously won't be enough women to make it interesting. Thanks!