Elk Grove Village Aug 5-7

Jessi starting the tt

Elk Grove Village has been a controversial race from the start with lost of disparity between the men and women's races, both in ranking and prize money. It's taken some time, but the promoter (the mayor of Elk Grove Village) seems to be interested in making some changes for the women. This year the women got 3 days of racing; a time trial on Friday, and crits on Saturday and Sunday combined as a timed stage race, and on with National Race Calendar points on the line. This meant that we'd have a top notch women's field right here in our back yard. With the disappearance of Downer's Grove, this is a big deal for the bike racing women of Chicago!

Going into the weekend I was cautiously optimistic feeling that I had gotten some fitness at Superweek. While the fields were small, we as a team had ridden hard. I thought Friday's time trial should be a good course for me being a short flat power course with a couple of tight turns. I gave it my all but still turned in a fairly poor time. Jessi was our best finisher, riding well and finishing in the money!

I had a great start in Saturday's crit. I was in awesome position for a few laps--good enough to get sworn at by Tibco--which I took as a compliment that I was right were I should be--but unfortunately I did not last very long. I was sad to see that with the exception of Jeannie, the rest of our team was not in the pack either. The general consensus was that we were tired.

The next day we rode almost the same course, the only difference being an extended stretch making the hairpin turn further out. Jeannie and I went to the line and the pace was much slower. I lasted longer, about half the race, but still ended up dnf. Jeannie finished well in 6th place.

As a side note, Stacy was saying over the weekend that she didn't feel well, and she did not start the race on Sunday. She was chalking it up to being tired and late season fatigue. We now know that she was suffering from some rather serious head injuries relating to previous crashes. She underwent treatment and is recovering well, but it was a serious scare, and the lesson learned is to take head injuries very seriously!