I had my orals and dance rehearsal on Saturday so I could only make Sunday's bike race in Gresham, OR (between Hood River & Portland on I-84).

In order to work on my bike handling skills in a pack and to get a killer workout, I did the men's B crit. It took some persuading to convince our Conference Director, Bill Wykoff, to let Mara and me race. 45 minutes of racing with a bunch of dudes. It was actually incredibly fun. The course had a 90 degree downhill to uphill corner that I was nervous about, especially riding with strong-but-not-necesarily-good-bike-handlers boys, but I didn't see any crashes there. I got dropped from the lead pack and rode with about five other guys. It was tough, but not completely out of my league. It was fun to try a race that felt completely new since I've never raced in a men's race before.

After finishing the men's B race, Mara & I had ten minutes to spin around before the start of the 45 minute Women's A race. I was certain that I would get dropped quickly based on the burning sensation in my legs during the men's race. Because of that, I decided that I might as well sprint for the primes while I was still with the lead pack. But I stayed in the pack, and ended up getting top four in each of the six primes. Rj & I made some short attacks early in the race and then Mara attacked about half way through and ended up staying off the front. Rj & I hung out in the chase group and let the other girls try to get Mara back, except that they gave up pretty quickly, so it wasn't very interesting in the pack. The finish was on top of a hill and I sprinted into third place. Which I was very happy with, since I wasn't sure that I would be able to finish the race.

I also found out today that I passed my oral exam for Whitman yesterday!