Tulsa Tough. Like a bat out of hell, the top women’s field raced round and round for the biggest cycling fans in the country. From streets filled with families, tents, beer gardens, and lots of cowbells, the weekend was an event to cherish. The first two days were on relatively flat courses with slight inclines and tight corners. It was fast from the gun and needless to say, I found myself moving forward yet constantly getting pushed backwards. The first day I ended up finishing in the pack (39^th).

Day two was a longer mile circuit. It was fast but with the head-wind, brought a challenge to the peloton. Amity made the first break. It was early on into the race, but seeing that a few strong riders and teams were in it, there was a chance it would stick. We were rooting for her back in the pack. As I had initiated for our team to do the ‘buddy system’ as our plan of attack, and since Amity was my ‘buddy’, I felt like I could sit in and semi relax. After half the race had gone through, I moved up closer to the front. The sun beat down on us and even with the ice in my bra, I felt myself taking heavier breaths in the dense air. The race move on and the break was still up the road. But with just under 10 laps to go, Amity came back to the pack. I thought maybe she had been blown off the group as she was with some notable riders, including the National Champion…but later found out that she sat up after the girls had been taunting her.

“You can’t let them get to your head,” we told her later, “because they want to get rid of you, so they put thoughts into your head.”

I had remembered back to a national race a few years ago where I had tried bridging up to a break, and hearing some top riders say, “Oh, just let her go, she won’t make it,” and how it had gotten to my head. But that’s what you have to suffer through if you want to be at the top. She was guaranteed 4^th place if she stuck with the group and with that would have come more respect from the group.

“If you made it in a break, you deserve to be there,” we said.

Later in the race, with just a couple laps to go, Amity’s wheel got caught on another girl’s wheel and I was trapped behind them and the curb. I was able to move around and chase back onto the group. I yelled for Amity to grab my wheel and let me take her up. With just a few left I was in a tough position and ended up finishing in the pack.

My cousin David, who had grown up near me, drove up from Oklahoma City to watch my race. I hadn’t seen him in over 5 years, so it was such a pleasant treat to have him at the race and to catch up on old times.

Sunday’s race was the grand finale for the Tulsa Tough. Now, if I had thought that the previous stages had the craziest fans, this race topped all of them. The course involved a short punchy hill and at the top, the spectators were allow onto the street as if they were watching the Tour de France! They had costumes on (or almost nothing on), wigs, hats, painted chests and lots of water and blow horns! We would funnel through these crazy fans, go down a slight hill, up a block and turn right onto a fast decent onto a cambered right hand turn to the straight-away.

As it was another hot day, we had prefilled nylons with ice to stuff in our sports bras to keep our core temperature keep cool. But in my mind, it was actually a great means to give women's cycling much more sex appeal as we would all line up with huge busts. I was psyched about my 'wonder bra'! However, within 15-20 minutes, our icy implants were melted.

Immediately when the gun went off the field fought for position on the hill. We went up, and as we funneled through the screaming crowd, I had to squint my eyes as the water from their hoses and water guns sprayed my face. We pushed over and as the laps started, the field became strung out. We would come back together on the straight. Early on, there was a crash on the hill and I saw Allison Powers go down. We pushed forward and I tried to stay in the top 15 riders as I felt that a break could go at any time. A few riders went up the road during the race, but we brought them back. At one point a group was up the road and I tried attacking. The NOW Novartis team played defense and grabbed my wheel. I pushed forward as I was gaining on the rider up ahead. I pushed and as we came near the finish line, we caught the rider. I recovered in the group. The pace picked up with more attacks and I just stayed on the wheels. Gaps were forming and I could see that there were only about 30 of us left in the front group. Amity was still in the group with me. Gwenn and Beth stuck in until they were gapped off with about 6 laps to go. As we came around with 2 laps to go, we were lapping the group however for some reason; some of the riders were jumping back into our field instead of the officials pulling them. I was thinking, “Oh great, this is going to get messy!” They were jumping in as we were flying down the hill and into the cambered turn. I moved forward.

The next lap was so important for positioning for the finish. We came up the hill and then as we moved to the decent, I moved around on the inside. The National Champion, Robin Farina was yelling at me, “Keep pedaling, keep pedaling!” We were flying downhill and I was starting to slow for the turn. But all of a sudden as I was coming on the inside of the cambered turn, I was approaching the rider in front of me too fast. I must have clinched my brakes in fear of rear ending her and all of a sudden my back wheel skidded out and my bike turned completely sideways. I was turning in slow motion and I remember thinking,

“Oh great, I am going down and I am taking down the field and Robin Farina!!”

But all of a sudden, I was able to control my bike and steer out of it. It was as if my winter riding-on-ice skills had kicked in. We came out of it with a gap between us and the riders ahead. Robin yelled at me,

“Geeze!!! Nice save! You’re one lucky girl!!”

I expelled the air out of my chest and a smile rolled across my face as I chased back onto the pack. As the near crash had made me feel like the 'sketchy rider', I was less aggressive on the final decent and hung back on the last lap for the turn. It was ironic because I was behind Amity and she took the exact line I had taken into the turn and ended up taking herself out! I was able to ride around her and sprinted to the line for 21st. Amity was fine, just banged up and frustrated about how it finished up. I was psyched about the race and very happy to have been able to control my out-of-control bike.

I know that Tulsa is a race I will definitely be back to next year. The promoters did a phenomenal job of promoting the event and getting the whole community involved. I mean, there were welcoming signs and bike art at the Tulsa airport when we arrived!! You can’t beat that. Plus our host family was first class to make our experience so welcoming and fun!

Now I'm off to pack up my apartment...Scottsdale, sun, heat…here we come!