Redlands so far

This is one of the hounds Ted and I saved. Isn't he cute? I desperately want to take him home with me.

I'm in Redlands, California now, and it's been quite a whirlwind of a trip. Our team is pretty happy just to be here after a wave of questions over whether we would be allowed to start the race. We originally had five of us heading down here, which is the minimum number needed to start, but one of our girls has a nasty hamstring injury and was hoping to cancel her trip. She searched and searched, and eventually found a girl from California who agreed to ride in her place on our team, so we thought all was set.

Monday night, around 10 pm, the California girl decided to bail on us, so we were down to four riders. We all emailed and called, desperately trying to find a replacement, but no luck. I was supposed to be heading to Spokane on Tuesday afternoon for an early Wednesday flight, but I cancelled those plans and waited. Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, the promoter agreed to allow us to start with four, so we were good to go.

Yesterday's stage was brutal for me. It's been a while since I last blew up that badly. I was feeling good and climbing well up the first major climb, but then I blew sky high and all of the women I had dropped began passing me back. I guess it didn't help that I rode the last 15 miles solo in pretty windy conditions. I just got slower and slower as the race went on and finished way, way down. Yikes!

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, congestion, headache, and a cough. I'm not exactly sure what to do about this afternoon's crit. Part of me feels like I should just start it since I am here, but the other part just doesn't feel so great. Hmmmm... not sure.