We drove through the late hours of the night. Colleen, Shannon, and I, also known as 'Comedy Central' were singing, cracking jokes, making fun of the commentator, and eating candy. The garmin, 'Dingo' had taken us through some back roads of South Carolina. We were in the middle of nowhere, driving through the dark and a man suddenly comes from the shadows and nearly jumps in front of our speeding vehicle onto the highway. We gasped! Was he drunk? What was that about? Our minds raced as Shannon, a criminal investigator, had been telling us crazy stories from work.

"Put on yer prostitution glasses," she'd say in her thick southern accent, as we entered Atlanta.

Colleen and I pretended to pop on our 'prostitution glasses' and start seeing if we could spot some criminal activity in the wee hours of the night in Atlanta.

After dropping Shannon off, Colleen and I headed another 30 minutes to Cumming where we were finally in bed by 2am. I literally conked out and awoke at 10am to my husband, Aaron calling to check in on me. "I woke you up, Melissa? You are such a pro bike racer...go back to sleep!"

The last two days had been such a rush! Tuesday, Shannon, Colleen, and I drove up to Beaufort, SC for a downtown crit. The weather was beautiful and the location was near the water. After seeing the Chiropractor the day before, my neck and body felt so much better from my crashes, so I was ready to lay some aggression down on the course!

I can't quite remember the chain of events, but it was around 10 laps into the race that a prime was announced. A girl had gone up the road and as we came around the straight, I saw my teammate Christy near the front. I came zooming by, thinking I could give her a lead for a prime, but soon I had caught the girl, looked back and I had a gap on the field. I took off. There was another prime, and another, and I held my lead for a few laps! Finally, the field caught up and I sat back in. Kat started attacking and riding super aggressive. Colleen and Liz ran into some bad luck on a crash on one of the corners. As the race started nearing the end, I moved up, but was pushed back. The field got crazy! I wanted to give Christy a lead out, but I wasn't in a great spot. We ended up finishing in the field but were psyched that we'd racked up some points. We were in 2nd place for the team standings!

After the race, we all headed to Kat's house in Savannah, GA. Her and her husband Bill had just moved into their new home two weeks ago, so it was a treat so check out the new place. It was HUGE!! Several rooms, open floor plan, and a pool! We helped break-in the new place and even met their 'guard' spider. Shannon was all excited about the swimming pool, ran outside in her bathing suit, but soon came scurrying back inside as a giant spider had crawled out of the noodle she'd been floating on!

Wednesday we were racing in Walterboro, SC. So far, this was my favorite day of racing at Speed Week as the course was longer and faster! This meant that we were more strung out into the turns so less crashing. The race started off late. We were amused by the announcers ignorance of the time or what he was saying into the mic. It was 10 minute until the scheduled start of our race and they had just started the cat 2,3 men.

"You women should start in 40-45 minutes, give or take a minute or two...or we might start you at your scheduled start time, so be prepared for that."

We all rolled our eyes. Did he know what he was even saying?

The race started off fast with many primes. I felt awesome and maybe a little hyper, so I was playing defense on the front. If anyone went off the front, I was on it! I even bridged a few breaks and brought back some attacks. Everyone on the team was riding very strong and staying near the front of the race. We told Christy to hang tight and save her legs for the finish. At one point, a few girls went off the front and Laura van Guilder took off. I knew that if she was going after the break, it was a good one, so I grabbed her wheel and chased! We were caught. Then with about 8 laps to go, two unattached riders got off the front and were able to hold their lead. I attacked a few times to try to chase, but the field would follow and slow. Kat made some attempts too. We started to gain but as the end neared, it seemed as if the sprinters wanted to save their legs for the final sprint for 3rd place, rather than sacrifice by chasing the break down.

With two to go, Christy was further back in the peloton. As I had failed my job of giving her a proper lead out the previous day, I gave everything I had to find her. I spotted her on the left side and shot up the side of the peloton, past her, made sure she had my wheel and took off. "Green, green, green!" she screamed, letting me know to put on the gas. We moved up and as there was a prime on this lap, I didn't want her going for it. Another rider got in my way as I pushed up the side. This was the rider who took me out the first night in Athens, so I was sketched out about pushing by her. We got to the turn and as the field was fighting and bunching up, I pushed hard and let Christy go around me. "Sorry," I yelled at her. I needed to hold on for one more lap. I pushed back into the field and started moving up as much as possible. It was a chaotic mess! One lap to go! I pushed forward and could still see Christy's helmet up in the field. I needed to get her even further up, but as we turned the second corner, the field became strung out and there was no way I could bridge the distance to the front. She was up there though and ended up finishing 12th! It was her best finish thus far. "Thanks Melissa! You brought me from 30th all the way to the front!!" I had no idea!

Our team was psyched. We had a long drive ahead as Colleen and Shannon needed to work the following day, but our excitement made the drive all the more adventurous for 'Comedy Central!'