Superweek, Lancaster and Altoona and the Broken Bike!

Illinois, Wisconsin - Superweek
Superweek is always a really hard, full-on and super demanding on your body, there's no getting around it! It was 7 days straight of racing and if you were lucky you might get a rest day. The weather on majority of days was fairly warm, in the 90's and very humid. I think were actually had one day were it was a little cooler and boy did that make a difference!
Most of the racing went like this:- Brooke sprinting with Sherri and Elizabeth leading her out, Leeanne and Dale chasing everything down and not letting a thing get away unless we were in it, Liz moving people through the pack and helping Leeanne and Dale if they need it, Arley looking after Brooke and Sheba hard from the gun. Then if there were people that had a rest day then the plans would change a little but not a lot, Emma would then help with the chasing and attacks.
With everyone working really well together we were able to help Brooke everyday. Dale and I would make sure the field was having a hard time as we both spent multiple laps off the front in most of the races. Sherri and Elizabeth did all the sprint stuff for Brooke and even helped Dale and I went they could. The other girls did a fantastic job in their roles too. All of this then allowed Brooke to be consistent enough throughout the whole week to finish 5th overall for the series and 4th in the Sprint Points. Awesome Job Everyone!!!

Lancaster - Grandview Heights
Grandview Heights is one of those races that we always try and get to. It runs past the driveway of Michelle Bote's (old teammate) house. The course is fairly technical with some off camber turns and a few potholes and bumps along the way. This was a very interesting local race for us.
Firstly, Robin Farina tried to get away numerous amounts of times within the first few laps, but we had somebody on her straight away. I then went with another move but this didn't come off either and actually caused a big problem. I had hit either a bump in the road or something on the road as I went through turn one. I heard a crack and a wobble of the front, it then settled for 100m or so, until I went to accelerate with Robin and I had a flat in the front. I then had to cut through the course to get back to the pits (which is allowed). I got my new wheel then off I went again. I was then in the break with Robin and then Dale bridged across, a couple of others got on her wheel. For the whole time we were in the break there was only 3 of us working, Robin, Dale and Myself. We tried to get the others to work but they wanted to sit in so they could win the "LOCAL" race. I tell ya that's no way to impress other riders when your looking for a team next year! Robin, Dale and myself were not impressed at all...yes we all were racing the next day at Altoona so we didn't want to expend too much energy but we still did what we had to do to keep the break.
Robin finished in 3rd (as she jumped early)
I finished in 6th as I got boxed in and
Dale finished in 9th as she did a huge lead out with 2 laps to go!

Altoona - Tour de Toona
So I get to the race and go to place my bike in the wind trainer for warm up. I happen to look down at the bottom bracket for some reason and I notice something....yes a crack! That creaking noise that I heard in yesterdays race was my frame cracking, I was wondering why I felt like I was loosing power!
I then show this to my Team Manager and he said that it is just a scratch and that I should just ride it. He then said if I want a second option to go and see Merlin at the SRAM neutral support and see what he says. He took one look and said "yep that's a crack alright!" I knew it...I have seen plenty of cracked frames in my life time from working at TBE for so many years. Merlin then sets me up on a bike that is too big but is the smallest bike he had....51cm and I ride a 48cm. The bars felt like they were 2 foot wide but that was ok because I can still race!
So the race, First lap Robin did it again, went from the gun and I was right with her. We got away for a lap but then Cheerwine and Colavita weren't too happy with that so they brought us back. I was then trying to recover, and mean while, Dale and Arley were at the front trying to go with everything they could...they both rode like "Rock Stars!" A few riders got away and there was some chasing and some let go, you know the normal things that happen with the big teams there. There was 5 laps to go and Arley tried again to get away but unfortunately was unsuccessful, then Dale counter attacked and still again was unsuccessful, then I countered her and splinter the field (according to Arley) but only had a 2 sec lead and was then brought back. So I then had to try and set up for the sprint....which was interesting to say the least. I had less then 3 laps to recover from my attack and work my way up in the field, people were becoming a little reckless and dangerous, chopping in corners, fighting for wheels etc. Well I finished up 21st which was still in the $$ and hard work on a bike that was too big for me!!!