I was soooo not in the mood to race, shivering in the rain at the start line...

I went up the hill hard a few times and Colleen (multi time national junior champ on road and track) rode up next to me and said "If we keep the pace up on this hill, we'll drop people". So she and I took turns, with Arley from Boston Scientific pitching in. And she was right - I looked back and there were six of us: Jackie, Colleen, me, Arley, Emily from GPOA, and Barbara from Somerset. Tough group! We lapped a few girls. I tried keeping a high pace up the hill and heard after the race that they were fighting for my wheel. Got into a little predicament at the end, since I knew every one of these girls could beat me in a sprint. So I gunned it out of the saddle on the last rise, but was passed by them all at the line. So, sixth place for me. I was just glad it was over

Here's a photo from one of the early laps.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...9890513&size=l