Superweek Races 1-3

also titled: "my aegis is bombproof but my skin is not"
superweek race #1. lame lame lame but in a good part of chicago (blue island) and a great neighborhood. i got 13th in a sprint finish. some girl decided to ride into my front wheel while i was minding my own business at the front of the pack (sound familiar?). in my groundward trajectory, i had to use the girl next to me like a garbage-can lid on a sledding hill. i think she got the worst of it. my aegis was just fine (needed some adjustments by jose the sram genie in the pit), and my injuries look much much worse than they feel. cases in point (sorry that my naked hiney is in one, but there was no other way to illustrate the fact that my left hip looks like a supernova):

superweek race #2. fun crit in bensenville, near o'hare. different course than last year. i decided with 19 laps to go that this pack riding was lame and went solo for about 6 laps. i was joined by a very very nice girl named ambre from florida, and we tried to make the race interesting. in the end, it was brought back and i sprinted to a shameful 17th place.
superweek race #3. one of my favorites. alpine valley near east troy, wisconsin. an 80k (such lame shortness!) circuit race with a few punchy hills. much much fun! i helped kelly benjamin win the field sprint last year for 2nd. this year i was only helping myself. after doing my part to shatter the field on the repeated climbs, i ended up 7th in a bunch finish. very very fun race. i will definitely do it again every chance i get!
and here is bear. my favorite host dog. we stayed in a chic suburb of chicago (barrington hills) with a very very nice family (cathy and bill bishop). they rocked. bear was freakin awesome. see? he loves me.