Fox River Omnium

Great racing close to home!  Saturday was a fun course in Elgin with a tight downhill/ uphill chicane that spit you out onto the finishing stretch.  It was a local race, but 4 Vanderkitten were there from out of town.  So it was all the usual locals, including our team of 2 Spidermonkeys against 4 Vanderkittens.  Sarah's instructions from her coach were to ride hard and get a workout, so she agreed to cover any attacks and bring it down to a field sprint for me.  There were a lot of attacks, mostly from Vanderkitten, but a few from some other locals including my old teammate (and current teammate on the track) Stacy Mosora.  Sarah covered them all.  I and a few others jumped in very sparingly.  The chicane was fun, but only if you were in front.  It became apparent that to win the race you had to be first into the downhill.  I felt pretty mediocre during the race but on the final lap I gave it my best and attacked hard, but it wasn't quite enough.  Two VK made it ahead of me and that's how we finished.  Happy we made the podium, but super bummed that I missed the podium picture!  We were the last race of the day and when I rolled in after a short cool down, they had already done it.  I was absolutely thrilled with our teamwork.  Teamwork only works if you have a strong teammate and I have a super strong one!!!!!  This race made me excited for races to come.....

Saturday's race:  Kittens and Monkeys

The next day was Fox River Grove, an awesome course with a huge hurtful hill right next to an actual ski jump.   The course was very long and the descent was awesome and fast and wound through neighborhoods.  Sarah and I lined up (she had placed third in the 30+ race earlier in the day--I would have liked to have made that race, but I wasn't able to allot the time that day) and I was able to hang for about 2 laps.  After the second time up the hill I blew up, and then just settled in to try to finish.  We only raced for 30 minutes which was pretty short, and after a while I started to pick people off from the shattered field.  I was getting great speed and having a lot of fun on the descent.  Midway through the race Sarah appeared and helped me pass a couple of riders.  We flew down that hill together but she was killing me on the uphill so I told her not to wait.  We finished 7th and 8th.  Fitness was gained!  After the race I rode out of there to meet Jason and the kids at a family BBQ celebrating cousin Vicki's graduation in Grayslake. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride through some beautiful country that I don't normally get to see.  

Fun courses.  Great Omnium.  So lucky we have this here in our neck of the woods, and totally worth traveling to!  Thanks to Team Psimet for putting on such a great event.

Sunday's hill.  This had to be a warm up lap....