Historic Roswell Criterium, Georgia

Today was the Roswell Criterium– 2nd race in the Speed Week Series and our 2nd race in Georgia before we head to South Carolina.

After our delicious blueberry pancake breakfast at Pam and Bruce’s, we dragged ourselves away from their slice of paradise and hit the road towards Atlanta.

We had enough time to quickly call in at our next host, Duane, who is putting us up in his absolutely beautiful house just out of Roswell – he is so lovely that he is giving up his own bed and sleeping in the basement so that we each have our own room! I tell you, we have been blessed with super hosts this trip!!
We unpacked White Lightening (our van/cavern), and had a bite to eat before heading to the racecourse. The race was at a more reasonable time – 4.15pm, and the temperature was perfect – mid 80’s….We were ready to go!! It was a bit of ‘wait and see’ how we were feeling, with Kate and Anna nursing bruised bodies, Jenette an injured back/knee and me, well, just not very fast legs at this early stage of the season!!

The race was fast and furious again, I had a bit of go off the front early (which hurt my legs a lot!), then poor Jenette got caught up in a crash - she got back on again after getting a new wheel, and rode exceptionally well for the rest of the race considering the pain she was in. She ended up rolling across the line in 27th.

Anna had another great ride – was away in the penultimate break which was caught and the counter attack was the successful move which ended up winning the race. Anna was 5th in the bunch sprint to take 15th overall. Great effort!! The race was run by the local girl - Tina Pic. A legend of the peleton!

Kate, sore as she was, lined up and was riding exceptionally well before getting caught up behind the crash Jenette was in. I was so impressed with how gutsy she was even lining up today. She is looking forward to a rest day tomorrow to give the body some more recovery time!

I had a much better race and am feeling like I am starting to come up. Rolled accross the line somewhere in the 40's......quite a few places to make up in the coming week!

We had such a great evening hanging out in Roswell after the race – it’s such a picturesque town and we watched the men’s race over our delicious meal on the terrace at the ‘Swallow at the Hollow’ restaurant – fantastic! I was extra excited to catch up with my good Kiwi friend Heath, who won the men’s race last night in Athens….if we thought our race was crazy last night, theirs was absolute mayhem….200 men!!

In the morning we are going for an easy spin with Duane, then heading to the absolutely beautiful, quaint town of Beaufort, South Carolina, to stay with some old friends of mine on the beach front……it’s a good life! Our next race is in Beaufort Tuesday night.

Till then
D.T :-)