Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. -Harriet Beecher Stowe

As I stood in line at the registration booth, waiting for Aaron to grab his number for the Sterling road race, I was pleasantly surprised to see the one and only Silke Wunderwald registering last-minute for the women's race. She had emailed me a few days prior telling me that she wouldn't be at the race as she was doing the Wachusette Hill Climb in the morning. However, one of the other riders (Crystal Anthony) managed to peer pressure her into doing the race! I was delighted! My partner in crime was back!

"I don't think I'll be very useful today," she explained to me.

She always said things like that before a race, but I knew better. She was a strong German woman who had guts of steel. The hill climb was just a warm-up. She had finished 2nd and had some remorse about her finish that morning, so I knew she had to redeem herself today. I could see it in her eyes.

Our race started off extremely casual as it was neutral for a few miles. As Silke and I sat at the front, we chatted and caught up on the happenings of the past few weeks and set a little plan of attack for the race ahead. According to her though, she was spent from the morning so to my surprise, the race unfolded with a much different outcome.

The neutral car sped away as we came to the base of the climb. It was an 8 mile circuit course with a short punchy climb. We fought up the hill and pushed the pace. But it was in no time at all, that Silke was off the front attacking! I thought to myself, "Ok, now she's going to make me work today!" Immediately the pace picked up as the pack chased her down and another person countered the attack. We chased. At a half a lap, I attacked and Beth from the Farm Team came with me. We pushed to gain some distance on the field but they started catching us on the back side. Right as we were getting caught, the moto official slowed us down and put the entire field into neutral and then a stop. We were all fired up.

"What's going on! Why are we stopping?!"

The men's pro-1,2 field was just about to lap us. We couldn't believe that they didn't just let us ride single file and allow the men to pass us like any normal race, but they felt it was 'safer' if we were stopped. We shook our heads. The men blew by and I cheered for Aaron.

We started back up, a little lost with our momentum but it didn't take too long to get back into the race. As we approached the climb again, Silke and I pushed the pace over the top. She attacked again!

The race continued like this with Silke attacking, then me counter attacking until finally, her attack stuck! She was alone this time and with over 20 miles to go, I knew she had a Tom Boonen effort ahead of her. I moved forward and tried to slow the pack down at any chance I could. We stayed around 30 seconds behind her. As I was able to rest (a lot!) because I didn't have to chase, she was up the road pushing through the pain.

With one lap to go, we began to catch her. I saw her looking back at us. She told me later that she was hoping we'd catch her, "I can't believe you guys didn't catch me! I was in so much pain!" But as she noticed that the group was distracted and tired, she turned her head forward and starting gaining even more time! I knew that if we caught her, she would be wiped-out from her gargantuan effort and would suffer in the finishing sprint. Plus, she deserved to win with the effort she had already put forth. So again, I went to the front and slowed the pace. Every time a pace line formed, I participated by pulling through and slowing down. One lady caught on, "Watch out for this weasel!" she smiled. Silke had made so much progress that lap that we could no longer see her. She was over a minute up the road and finally everyone had given up on chasing her. It was time to focus on 2nd and 3rd place.

As we turned the corner for the final climb, I led the group and started pushing the pace up the hill. The sprint started and I stayed side by side with two other women. I was saving my 'turbo gear' for the right moment. Then Beth from Farm Team moved forward and had half a bike on me so I shifted down and just laid on the pedals. I moved forward and won the sprint by a bike length!

Silke later said that she was cramping so bad near the end that it took her a while to get up the hill for the finish. But she did it! The feisty German dominated.

Aaron's race also went really well. It was his best finish yet with the men's pro-1,2 field as he was 41st. They averaged a whopping 25mph for 80 miles!!