Michele and Modesto

Great racing for DBC this weekend. I heard of a lot of top ten placings! Niki did awesome and hung with the dudes.Michele Molesto RR5.17.09Men Elite 4/5 Molesto RR, no that is not a typo... skip to laps 3 & 4 for the action. 7 laps on a 9 mile course- OUCH! Lap 1 I was excited to race with the guys again. Niki and I went with 12 other DBC guys for a totally of 14! We immediately formed a train on the left hand side of the road and went all the way to the front of the pack. The temp was HOT and so was the pace (at least I thought so).Halfway through the first lap I started feeling awful and was falling farther back in the pack in each turn. Niki and I found ourselves at the back of the pack at the end of the first lap. Lap 2 Niki was able to move back up into the pack while I struggled to collectmyself in the rear. I hung on until the first left turn after Hall Rdand decided that I was either going to puke or fall of the back and just chill out. No spunk in me this weekend! I came off the back and watched the pack go. Even though I knew it was hot, I started getting the chills, had goose bumps, and had to zip up my jersey to "stay warm".I was going to tell the officials that I was done, but Paula was cheering for me and told me to keep going, so I did. Little did I know what was waiting in the next laps... Laps 3 & 4... I lost track. The Mstrs 35+ 1/2/3 group passed me and I drafted them on a straight away until I got popped off at the corner. Next, the Mstrs 35+ 4/5 group passed me and Rod was up near the front. Rod told me to get into the group! I hopped on at the back of the group and started racingagain. But after a couple of minutes, the moto dude pulled up alongsideme and told me to get out. The next group that went by had 900 #s.They told me to get in, and then insisted by opening up a spot for me.I ended up riding with them for quite a while, almost 3/4 of a lap. Then the group with 300 #s passed us. That was intense! Put two full sized fields right next to each other, toss in a couple of moto dudes who are horn happy, and a left turn... I just thought, Crit! On the back half of the course the moto dude finally realized that Iwasn't wearing a 900 # and he told me to get out of the group, so I was once again by myself. I could hear some guys coming up behind me because they were chatter boxes. All of a sudden, there's a hand on mya$$. This dude grabs my left cheek and then slides his hand along my thigh as he rides by... Seriously? WTF! There were two of them, theyhad 300 #s, and all I could catch was the Morgan Stanley kit of the guy who did the grab and run. I was in such shock that I had no witty comeback to yell at him. And I didn't even get his number! Lap 5 The Pro1/2 field FLEW by, but I didn't even attempt to jump onto that bullet train. I tucked into the next group that went by and went though the feed zone with them. I watched this guy pull a Gatorade out of his back pocket, take one of his water bottles, uncap both, pour the Gatorade into the water bottle, chuck the Gatorade bottle, and then replace the water bottle in its cage. Wow, now if he could do that with no hands on the bars and hold a straight line through the feed zone,you'd think that the Morgan Stanley guy could have pulled out pen and paper, wrote down his phone number and slipped it into my jersey pocket! Lap 6The officials showed me a lap card for one more lap. I held up twofingers as I went by because I knew I had two more laps. Paula yelled,"No just do one more lap and you're done." This of course meant that my field was shortly behind me and I was about to get lapped by them. Whenthey went by, every DBC guy in that field said, "Hi Michele!", or "Keepgoing!", or "Hop back in!" You guys are awesome! Finally, the motocan't tell me to get out of the group because I'm back in with the same200 #s. I did most of my 6th lap (their 7th lap) with the group. In the final miles they took off and I fell off the back. After I crossed the S/F line I circled back to talk with the officials. I wanted tomake sure that I was done and the officials said that I would be placed,but that I didn't need to do the last lap because the race was over. Ohthank God! Lessons learned:1) Not so spunky every weekend.2) Those moto dudes are so picky when your number doesn't match therest of the group... darn rules.3) Watch out for Morgan Stanley... doesn't he know that I can figure out who he is when the results are posted?4) Do yourself a favor and just get rid of the neutral feed zonewater bottles ASAP. Don't' look at them, just chuck them when you're done. You don't want to know how much mold was really on the inside ofthat bottle!