Tour de Leelanau

The Host House

Breakfast

Lake Michigan


The Finish

This past weekend, I rode for Aaron's Corporate Furnishings at the Tour de Leelanau, a one-day UCI race in Michigan. Our team leader, Felicia Gomez, needed the UCI points to get into the Olympic selection pool for the Canadian team. Because Kristen Sanders broke her wrist at Downers Grove, they needed a guest rider.

The weekend is all a blur in my mind because so much was going on. I left for Orlando Thursday night after my physics quiz and flew out of Orlando Friday morning. Felicia and Nicky picked me up at 11:00am in Detroit, and we barely made it to the Managers' meeting at 4:00pm in Traverse City. That night we stayed with our host family in a beautiful B&B about a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan (see pictures). We ate dinner, I put my bike together, and crashed into bed at around 10:00. The morning of the race, we ate a full breakfast and went to drive some of the course. We focused on the KOMs because Felicia is a climber. Although the finish was uphill, it couldn't really be classified as a real "climb." We were going to have to whittle the group down as much as we could before the finish to give Felica the best possible odds.

The race started without any mishaps. One thing: about a quarter of a mile out we all had to slam on our breaks to let a herd of deer bound across the road. The pace was pretty slow until the first KOM. Nicky and I did our jobs well. I drilled it from the bottom of the climb and then Nicky took over to lead Felicia out for the KOM points. We dropped more and more people at each KOM (some caught back on after) until the last one. The final KOM came right after a sprint. My job was to go from the sprint to the bottom of the climb. I was surprised because when I looked back, we'd dropped a lot of people. I guess I'm stronger than I thought.

Nicky led Felica up partway until she blew up. I ended up catching her and we rode in to the finish with two Cheerwine girls. It was one of the longest 40k I'd ever experienced. The cold weather threw off my drinking and eating habits and I was cramping up pretty bad. When I woke up the morning of the race, it was 44 degrees outside!

In the end, Tina Pic took the win, Felicia got 4th, and I came in 9th with Nicky right behind me. Here are the results. I was happy to be able to work for a team mate and still get a top 10 finish. I rolled over the crest of the hill and coasted right into the "cookie tent" where I proceeded to sample each different kind of cookie. I checked the anti-doping list and then went back to the van before I froze to death.

We headed back to the B&B where I packed my bike, showered, and ate dinner. We left for Detroit at around 9:00 pm and got there at 1:30am, only to wake up at 6:30 to catch my flight back to Orlando. A lot of traveling! I got back to Gainesville mid afternoon on Sunday and finished some homework. I was back in class Monday morning having flown to Michigan, raced 70 miles, and come home. It's kind of unreal.