Fitchburg - Days 1 & 2

Here is Anna's report from Day 1 and 2 of Fitchburg:

Well, I figured I'll give you all a brief version of the past 2 days of Fitchburg. Expect another one probably Sunday, to finish off the race. Thursday. SO unfortunately, luck would have it that a super important scientific conference (on prokaryotic development) was happening Wednesday through Friday in Cambridge, and I couldn't really not go to it, but didn't want to skip Fitchburg either, since I get so few opportunities to race NRC races while staying in my own bed. SO I got a friend to pick up my numbers for me, and another friend agreed to drive me around to make this possible, but my Thursday went kinda like this: get up, eat a quick breakfast, ride my commuter bike over to the conference hotel and sit through 2-ish hours of talks, get into my friend's car, swing by home to pick up my bike and stuff, get to the race with about an hour to my start, warm-up, race, cool-down for about 20 min, pack up the car and drive back to the conference where I presented a research poster before sitting through another 3 hours of talks... SO add to that a sinus infection and you have my time trial. It was slow. About 20 watts lower than I can hold training, 2 minutes down in the GC and 56th or so place. Ah well. Some of the talks were super cool and the GC place means I don't have anything to lose going into the next races, so can be aggressive and enjoy myself. Kate, however, had an awesome time trial and finished 13th. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to talk with her afterwards, given the schedule outlined above. Today. My day was kinda more of the same duel-life thing, but at least I didn't have to present my poster again. Sadly, I had to skip the talks that are most related to my own research, but so be it.There was a crash in the first lap and Kate, although (praise be) she didn't go down, something happened to her bike and when the neutral follow dudes stopped to help, they didn't fix the problem and after a valiant attempt at riding through it, Kate ended up pulling out (she's a bit unsure whether someone hit her, or just the combination of potholes and heavy braking did the damage). Anyway, I know she could totally have stayed in if not for the equipment issues, but as we all know, $#!& happens and after a really big ice cream, hopefully the intact skin will seem like the most important thing. There are other races!! Warming up, I felt pretty darn exhausted (probably more from the work and the opportunistic pathogenic bacteria that have colonized my head than the race), and was worried lining up that it would be a disappointing race. Still, knowing I had nothing to lose helped, and I was able to ride into it. Still not consistently, but there were even parts of the race where I was able to sit up near the front, right where I want to ride. Unfortunately, Team Type1 and Colavita made it pretty clear that the field was going to stay together, and that's pretty much what happened. Anyway, I finished a respectable 23rd; nothing super thrilling, but after yesterday, I felt like I was back in the game. OK, tomorrow's the road race and fireworks, and Sunday's the crit and ice cream. If all y'all don't have a road race and a crit to ride, at least I hope you can all find fireworks and ice cream!! Peace,Anna