Today’s race was a road race south of Milwaukee at the Alpine Valley ski resort. The race was delayed because of a crazy woman who doesn’t like bikers so we all had to wait about an hour for the police to reallocate officers to the various corners of the course. Her complaint was that civilians aren’t allowed to direct traffic, but her real intent is to thwart the bike race. Last year she supposedly parked her Jaguar on the finish line to block the race. She’s wacko!

Our race was supposed to be 100 miles but with the delay they shortened all the races. It didn’t really matter as I cut my race even shorter, intentionally. It was super-fast from the gun and the climbs were steeper than I thought they’d be without much rest in between due to a decent crosswind. I didn’t have the legs to move towards the front and I was suffering quite a bit. After about an hour of pain I decided I had enough of a work out and pulled myself. We were also all over the road even though the yellow-line rule was in effect. There were times that the whole field was strung out on the left side of the road. Heather’s race was OK, but she didn’t have good positioning for the finish so didn’t end up so well. One thing is different about riding out here is that the roads are always undulating so it’s hard to settle into a rhythm. It’s more like mountain biking where your effort keeps going up and down due to the terrain. We were both disappointed with our races but we have a whole week to make up for it.