How do I start? We drove up to Battenkill, we stayed in a really nice Bed and Breakfast, Aaron had to wake up really early for his race....no, let's get to the good stuff!

As I'm half awake, watching my helpless husband stumble around the bedroom to get ready for his race, I lay slightly amused. It's 6:45am. He's not a morning person, so add the race jitters and he's a train wreck! But I just lay there in the cozy sheets and watched. He got everything he needed, and then he decided to kit up. For some reason, his brain wasn't functioning properly and he decided to lather his legs up first with embrocation. (If you don't know what embrocation is, it's this warming cream you put on your legs that contains hot chile peppers!). Aaron gobs this stuff on, and then reaches for his chamois. I watched as he pulled his chamois up. I can't remember if I was thinking or actually said this,

"Are you sure you won't get embrocation on your chamois?"

They were on, and he was headed out the door. Then all of a sudden (about 4 minutes later), Aaron bolts back into the room tearing his shorts off as quickly as possible! He was nearly in tears. "What's wrong!"

"I have embrocation on my balls and they are on fire!!"

I helped him get on a new pair of shorts (this time covering his embrocated legs before sliding on the chamois). Whew, they were on, and he was still in pain, but he got out the door. The whole time I was painfully withholding my laughter. I didn't want to laugh in front of him because he was just a wreck and needed some empathy. But being that I don't have balls and that I was raised in a family that makes fun of things of this nature...rerunning the scene in my head has become the greatest comedy act in history!!

Now to the race.

Bob and I arrived to the race around 10:30am, where Bob had some time to kit up and head out for his master's event. The weather was beautiful (upper 60's), so couldn't have asked for a better day. I had a few hours to find the Kenda tent, see my team manager Paul, and bring them some muffins. It was at this time that I get a call from Silke.

"Hey Silke!"

"It's Aaron. I crashed out!"

Aaron was ok, but he had broken his new helmet. His bike was fine, but because none of the follow cars had an allen wrench to fix his bars (they were twisted), he couldn't finish the race. He was pretty bummed as finally he had been riding very strong in the cat 2 field. I found him and took him to the car.

My race was quite an adventure to say the least. Our team had decided that since there was a history of the race finishing in a sprint, that everyone would help Stacey Jensen and I. We had a strong team, but for most of us, it was the first time riding together. Cara had flown in from LA, Colleen and Lauren had come from Atlanta, and Jen Martin had driven from Pennsylvania. I wasn't nearly as nervous as last year when I wanted to hurl before the race. It could have been my husband's 'episode' that morning that eased my nerves as this time, I was excited like a little kid in a candy store! I couldn't wait!

Our field consisted of one other strong team, Farm Team, and then several individual strong riders including some top Canadian champions.

For over half of the race, I was sitting in, conserving (my teammates doing much of the work). Laura and Silke would chase down breaks and man the front. At one point, Silke attacked and made a 25 second gap on the group. I whispered, "You can do it!" I was thinking back to Boonen's winning move last week at the Paris Roubaix and knew that if anyone could TT away - it would be Silke! Contrary to our pre-ride a few weeks ago, where we were pushing through sloppy muck, the course was very dry, dusty, and full of loose dirt and gravel. Thus, I was very happy with my decision to throw on the extra wide (25cm) tires.

With 25 miles to go, things started to get spicy. Veronique Fortin (who is the Canadian National Champ and ended up breaking away and winning) attacked on a hill. As she had been riding very aggressively throughout the race, I jumped and caught her. She was taunting me on the climb (I think she wanted me to attack), but I just sat on her wheel and kept it cool. I wasn't ready to burn up my matchbox quite yet. The group came back together and I was predicting it would turn into a pack finish, so I was sitting about mid-pack (not a wise decision as I look back) and right when we turned onto a long dirt road section (into the wind), that's when the attacks happened and the pace picked up.

The peloton became so strung out as the road was very loose with dirt/gravel and hard for people to get any traction. I moved up, passed people who were creating gaps and was about top 15 at that point. Then, the front 3 girls attacked and started breaking off. I kept moving up to try to get to a point to chase it down. I knew this was the race and I had to give it everything I had. I caught a few girls and we started making ground coming into a hill. I moved up, then came flying down the hill, (the gravel was very loose!) and that's where my front tire went flat. I heard the hiss of the air leaving the tire. There were people on the side of the road.

"I need a wheel!"

"Right behind you!"

I turned, and sure enough the cycling goddess was with me as the wheel car was right on my wheel and I had my flat changed in less than a minute.

Then I just chased my heart out up the next hill and onto the flats. I was running low on matches so it was just everything I had. I caught 3 girls (one who's my good friend Kate) and initiated a pace line. They were cramping and tired, but I kept encouraging them to pull through and we were almost catching the group up the road. We had about a 25 second gap to close.

Finally, we caught them right at the base of the final climb and I moved up to the front of the group and tried to push the pace. My teammate Laura was in the group. Soon however, I realized that we might be too far back to catch the 5 girls up the road and I wanted to conserve for the finish (since everyone else wasn't trying to work). So I pulled a little the last 5 k's but with 2 k's to go, I tucked in and Laura found me and moved in front of my wheel. Soon, both of us were boxed in as the pace was much slower than my ideal sprint, but right before the turn to the finish, there was a tiny opening and I pushed through and sprinted my heart out as my legs were trying to cramp and seize up on me. So I pushed as hard as I could and got 3rd in the sprint. Laura wasn't too far behind.

I was disappointed that we didn't make the podium this year but happy how I caught back up because in the past, I don't think that I would have had faith in myself to catch back up. Veronique Fortin ended up breaking away and winning by a minute! I was surprised for Crystal Anthony who placed 2nd! She has been dominating the cross scene (especially in the NorthEast) and had ridden the race on her cross pit bike!! So, kudos to Crystal!

Aaron had the camera and was able to take a few short clips of me leaving to race and the sprint finish: