I wandered the show again, picked up more swag and as I walked around the media center, I saw Mario Cipollini. I about peed my pants and I called my best buddy at home. She squelled on the other end of the phone and screamed, get me an autograph!! I'm like "there's no way. He's protected in the Media Center." I did not know how long I could linger as I had to work on getting a bike for the crit. So I hovered for a while. And since I did not really pee my pants, I decided to go to the bathroom and chance missing Cippo. I returned with Mario getting ready to leave the Media Center. Woohoo! I hit the lottery. I danced around like a little school girl waiting for Mario to exit. It was all for my buddy at home. Really. She loves Mario; me not so much. Although, meeting Mario was one of my highlights of Interbike. The other was Stuey saying "You do not have a belly." We got autographed posters the other day and I asked if he could sign it to "Bellie". :-) I just melted when he said I did not have a belly! Jenette just laughed her arse off at me the whole time.
Could my eyes get any bigger?! I wanted to grabbed his butt but I am a silly old American.
Another highlight - riding the strip in Vegas, before and after the race. Here we are on our way to the Mandalay Bay parking lot crit. We were a site on the strip. Jdub heard people say, "picture, picture" "gimme your camera!"
Back to the bike situation, Felt came through big time! THANKS FELT!! After my exciting encounter with Mario, I skipped through Interbike to the Felt booth like a girl skipping through a field of flowers. It was before noon but I was a bit anixous about finding out if they had a bike for me or not. Otherwise, my back-up plan was to rent a bike from a local shop. The bike Felt let me borrow was at the Saris booth, displayed on the roof racks. It took me a while to work out the logistics and with trust and super friendly people, I was off and riding a Felt. Check the link; the bike I raced was a 2008 Felt FW2, 700cx47. Dave thought I should be on a 45 but all they had was a 47. I knew it would be fine as I have been racing bikes for the last 7 years on bikes a smig too big. I would have like a shorter stem but I did not want to mess with switching out any parts.
I ran back to the hotel to work on adjusting the bike and slap on my pedals. Jdub was relaxing for the evening's main event. I gave her more swag and showed her Mario. I reminded us to drink, drink, drink. It was unseasonably hot and it's usual dryness. I went to my people to borrow tools. They thought I wanted to do my own repairs in our room. "What room are you in? We come fix it." No, no. I'm working on a bike. Tape measure in hand and a wrench, I am off like superwoman. When I return the tools in my race kit and bike, I looked like superwoman to these guys.
USA Crit Finals: Parking lot crit at Madalay Bay. I hate parking lot crits. Since we were the first race of the evening, we had the course to warm up on. FW2 sailed on this course. We dialed in the course lap after lap. No brakes course. It actually was a pretty awesome course. We lined up with rock star music and super star call ups. Jdub raced well just on the end of the main pack for the first few laps then settled in with the top third. I surfed the tail feeling comfortable; that deceivingly comfortable feel. Three laps later, I tell myself to move my ass up. Riders left and right were getting popped from the tail. The pace was hard and fast, but I fought my way to stay in the race, still surfing on the whipping tail. It took me half the race to get on the end of the pack, probably because the tail snapped.
The FW2 was a sweet ride. No brakes unless some silly goose of a woman hit her brakes or flicked her bike through the turns. I used the course to my advantage, mainly racing on the left side. I felt like I was on a roller coaster and in control. For example, I would coast into the first left turn after the s/f and roll up the left side of the pack into the top third of the pack a couple times. It would be the third turn that women would fight for position and I would filter back. Then I would use the sweeping right bend to roll up again into good position, taking a tight left turn like a race car driver, inside left, jumping out of the next left turn. Sweet. No brakes just floating the turns and rolling up in good position. It was somewhat magical because it was Vegas at night and my FW2 rode awesome. With three to go, after that third turn where those women kept fighting for position, someone crashed on the right in front of me. I luckily kept racing on the left side of the pack and the FW2 guided me around the meyhem. My heart jumped out of my chest as I could not afford to crash a full carbon bike. Cheerwine dominated the race and buried themselves for their rockstar, Laura VanGilder. Jdub and I survived crashes and she duked it out in the sprint for the finish. Check out Cyclingnews for a race report from the front end.
