Tour of America's Dairyland (TOAD) June 20-30

TOAD was a 11 days this year, mostly crits with a few road races snuck in, and the first 4 days were on the National Criterium Calendar.  Sarah had been up at Nature Valley, so she wouldn't be racing.  Because I wanted to focus on the upcoming Prairie State Cycling Series, I only did 6 of the races.  The first 4 because they were NCC, and then the last two because they were on the weekend.

For the first part, the kids and I went up and stayed with our family in Gurnee, and the kids got to hang out with their cousins while I drove up to Wisconsin every day to race.  There were huge fields and big teams every day and the racing was fast!!  I felt decent, but every day there would be a big surge at 5 to go, and I would either be gapped, or so gassed from closing gaps of other riders getting gapped that I was not able to get near the sprint, but  I avoided all crashes and finished all the races.                          

                                                                                 at the line with Australian champion Kimberly Wells

not always on the back!! :)

After that we went home for the week and went back for the final two races, Downer Ave and East Tosa, both in Milwaukee.  Downer Ave is a really fun race, and there was a $1000 mid race prime for the women.  At this point most of the huge teams had left due to the races not being NCC.  Sam Schneider and Laura Van Gilder were very close in the overall.   This can be a good situation for someone who is not high in the standings to go off the front, so my plan was to attack after the prime and try to get a break going.  I knew Alison Tetrick of Exergy, was thinking the same thing.  She's a very strong time trialist and had shown up for the last couple races of the series, and won the day before.   She went a couple times during the race, and I was on it!  I really wasn't able to help much, so she shut it down each time.  When $1000 prime happened late in the race, she went for it, got it, and kept going!  On the next lap I attacked, got off the front, and chased for about 2 laps before I burned out at about 5 to go.  I was bummed, but felt good that I had gone in with a plan and tried to execute it.  

That night we stayed with my cousin Patti and her husband.  So fun!  We had a lovely time and the next day went to the beach.  Something I'd never really done in Milwaukee before.  The beaches there are absolutely lovely.  It was a bit cool for swimming, so we didn't bring the kids' suits, but that didn't seem to matter to them.  

The next and final day was in Wauwatosa.  This was a square course with a slight downhill and the uphill was on the s/f stretch.  The race felt fast, and I never could get into a groove.  Late in the race I was able to move up and go for a prime, didn't get it, and it burned enough matches to finish the last two laps otb, once again, with no $.   Not exactly how I wanted to end my TOAD experience.  But it was great to see old friends, and make new ones, and get to stay and hang out with great family! 

My arm is now totally healed, but I'm trying to keep the sun off of it in hopes of not getting a scar.