Amanda Miller

Nothingness

My face is swollen. The pain is slowing going away. I can still ride, hurray! I need to thank Andrea V. for stopping during the race. I didn’t realize she didn’t finish the race because she stopped to help out with the carnage. That was pretty cool. Bits and pieces of the crash are coming back to me. I still don’t remember hitting the ground or how I got from the course to the sidewalk. Not really sure why I started this post. Ah..now I remember. DRAMA! I’m tired of drama. I had enough if it while in highschool and can’t seem to figure out why there is so much drama involved in cycling. Does anyone have an answer to this? I try not to get involved in it because I have better things to focus on in life. Just my two cents. I am not pointing fingers at anyone. I’m simply tired ot everyone complaining. I guess it doesn’t only happen in the cycling community. It happens everywhere. I suppose I need to just get used to it…or else wear my iPod 24/7 . Anyway I’ll leave you with some pictures. Some of them might be gory though. Also, thanks to everyone who left me comments about my crash. It’s nice to know people care!

-A

3 stitches and a black eye fun stuff

Nothingness

My face is swollen. The pain is slowing going away. I can still ride, hurray! I need to thank Andrea V. for stopping during the race. I didn’t realize she didn’t finish the race because she stopped to help out with the carnage. That was pretty cool. Bits and pieces of the crash are coming back to me. I still don’t remember hitting the ground or how I got from the course to the sidewalk. Not really sure why I started this post. Ah..now I remember. DRAMA! I’m tired of drama. I had enough if it while in highschool and can’t seem to figure out why there is so much drama involved in cycling. Does anyone have an answer to this? I try not to get involved in it because I have better things to focus on in life. Just my two cents. I am not pointing fingers at anyone. I’m simply tired ot everyone complaining. I guess it doesn’t only happen in the cycling community. It happens everywhere. I suppose I need to just get used to it…or else wear my iPod 24/7 . Anyway I’ll leave you with some pictures. Some of them might be gory though. Also, thanks to everyone who left me comments about my crash. It’s nice to know people care!

-A

3 stitches and a black eye fun stuff

Quad Cities Criterium

Not much to say about this race. Was feeling half way decent. Even got off the front solo for 2 1/2ish laps. That was pretty cool. Need to work on that though…definitely not a strong point of mine. Last lap to go ended the race for me too early. From my understanding, two girls caught handlebars and went down. Unfortunately, they went down directly in front of me. I had no where to go but into them. All I remember is seeing one of the girls laying in front of me. From my understanding, I hit them and flew into the air. I came back down and landed on my head. Good thing we are required to wear helmets or I might not be here right now. My helmet took a crap load of impact and there are several cracks throughout it. My face took some of the beating as well. Lots of road rash on the cheek bone, along with three stitches. I had to go to the emergency room since I was knocked out. Now that I think about it, I said some really off the wall things before I went to the hospital. Anyway, after the crash, the next thing I remember is sitting on the sidewalk up against a building. I also remember blood dripping out of my nose onto my shorts. That was a little scary. I’ve got to say thanks to everyone who helped me out! So now I sit here with road rash in several spots and a bit of whip lash. I also had to get a tetanus shot..so my arm will be killing me tomorrow. The bike seemed to make it out the best. Looks like I might need to order a new rim, but that’s it. I haven’t really even seen it. Well time to get some rest, maybe. It will be interesting trying to sleep with this. I’ll leave you with some pictures.

Quad Cities Criterium

Not much to say about this race. Was feeling half way decent. Even got off the front solo for 2 1/2ish laps. That was pretty cool. Need to work on that though…definitely not a strong point of mine. Last lap to go ended the race for me too early. From my understanding, two girls caught handlebars and went down. Unfortunately, they went down directly in front of me. I had no where to go but into them. All I remember is seeing one of the girls laying in front of me. From my understanding, I hit them and flew into the air. I came back down and landed on my head. Good thing we are required to wear helmets or I might not be here right now. My helmet took a crap load of impact and there are several cracks throughout it. My face took some of the beating as well. Lots of road rash on the cheek bone, along with three stitches. I had to go to the emergency room since I was knocked out. Now that I think about it, I said some really off the wall things before I went to the hospital. Anyway, after the crash, the next thing I remember is sitting on the sidewalk up against a building. I also remember blood dripping out of my nose onto my shorts. That was a little scary. I’ve got to say thanks to everyone who helped me out! So now I sit here with road rash in several spots and a bit of whip lash. I also had to get a tetanus shot..so my arm will be killing me tomorrow. The bike seemed to make it out the best. Looks like I might need to order a new rim, but that’s it. I haven’t really even seen it. Well time to get some rest, maybe. It will be interesting trying to sleep with this. I’ll leave you with some pictures.

Melon City Criterium

Wow what a completely different day. Today was the Melon City Criterium. Our race was 14 miles = 14 laps. More people lined up today. I think there were 42 riders. The race took off and my legs didn’t feel so well. They felt a bit heavy, especially up the hill. The race seemed hard. Nothing too exciting happened. A few people attacked, but nothing stuck. I tried to maintain positioning, but still don’t have the holding your spot down yet. I kept getting pushed out of the way. Guess I need to be a more aggressive rider. Sorry this is a short report, but the race was kind of boring. We rode in a pack for around 40 minutes. The sprint came; I redlined it on the hill and didn’t have much left for the sprint. I came across 12th. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for. Ah well, nothing I can do about it now. I learn something new every race. Guess we will see how tomorrow plays out. Until then!
-A

Melon City Criterium

Wow what a completely different day. Today was the Melon City Criterium. Our race was 14 miles = 14 laps. More people lined up today. I think there were 42 riders. The race took off and my legs didn’t feel so well. They felt a bit heavy, especially up the hill. The race seemed hard. Nothing too exciting happened. A few people attacked, but nothing stuck. I tried to maintain positioning, but still don’t have the holding your spot down yet. I kept getting pushed out of the way. Guess I need to be a more aggressive rider. Sorry this is a short report, but the race was kind of boring. We rode in a pack for around 40 minutes. The sprint came; I redlined it on the hill and didn’t have much left for the sprint. I came across 12th. Not bad, but not what I was hoping for. Ah well, nothing I can do about it now. I learn something new every race. Guess we will see how tomorrow plays out. Until then!
-A

Snake Alley Criterium

Snake Alley is a hard enough race as it is. This weekend hasn’t looked the best all week with bronchitis and the weather. Go figure it decides to rain hard during my race on Saturday. I was so close to not even racing. The only reason I did was because my family showed up. So without a warm up and little pre-race preparation, I made my way to the start line. The race was 12 laps up the Snake…ouch! Fortunately I had a front row spot. Don’t know if it was a good thing or not. Surprisingly there were 30 racers. Anyway, the race took off. My goal was just to finish. I had no idea how my lungs were going to handle the climb. The race started without any rain but the course was wet. I had some rain tires that seemed to work awesome. I was able to stand up on the climb. To me, the climb was almost a recovery place. It seemed like the race was going pretty slow up the Snake. Probably because people didn’t want to slip out on the bricks. The downhill was sketchy and the manholes even worse. I ran over on once and my back tire slid out. Mid-race the skies opened up and it poured and got really windy. That was scary. I couldn’t see where I was riding. Anyway, I felt good and my lungs didn’t burn. I just kept riding with the lead chase group. There were 3 girls up the road. I guess we were gaining on them, but the last few laps they had quite a gap on us. The last lap came and Kathren Walberg pushed the pace up the hill for the final time. I stuck on her wheel through the downhill. Her teammate Samantha Schneider was with us. It was us three sprinting for 4th. I came across 6th. I just didn’t have it for the sprint. I was a little nervous with the water and all. Also, my tires had 90 PSI and I could definitely feel it on the straights. All in all I was pleased with the race. Honestly, I’m glad it rained. I think the race would have been 10 times harder if it hadn’t rained. That’s all for now. Pictures to come soon!
-A

Snake Alley Criterium

Snake Alley is a hard enough race as it is. This weekend hasn’t looked the best all week with bronchitis and the weather. Go figure it decides to rain hard during my race on Saturday. I was so close to not even racing. The only reason I did was because my family showed up. So without a warm up and little pre-race preparation, I made my way to the start line. The race was 12 laps up the Snake…ouch! Fortunately I had a front row spot. Don’t know if it was a good thing or not. Surprisingly there were 30 racers. Anyway, the race took off. My goal was just to finish. I had no idea how my lungs were going to handle the climb. The race started without any rain but the course was wet. I had some rain tires that seemed to work awesome. I was able to stand up on the climb. To me, the climb was almost a recovery place. It seemed like the race was going pretty slow up the Snake. Probably because people didn’t want to slip out on the bricks. The downhill was sketchy and the manholes even worse. I ran over on once and my back tire slid out. Mid-race the skies opened up and it poured and got really windy. That was scary. I couldn’t see where I was riding. Anyway, I felt good and my lungs didn’t burn. I just kept riding with the lead chase group. There were 3 girls up the road. I guess we were gaining on them, but the last few laps they had quite a gap on us. The last lap came and Kathren Walberg pushed the pace up the hill for the final time. I stuck on her wheel through the downhill. Her teammate Samantha Schneider was with us. It was us three sprinting for 4th. I came across 6th. I just didn’t have it for the sprint. I was a little nervous with the water and all. Also, my tires had 90 PSI and I could definitely feel it on the straights. All in all I was pleased with the race. Honestly, I’m glad it rained. I think the race would have been 10 times harder if it hadn’t rained. That’s all for now. Pictures to come soon!
-A

Wapello to Burlington Road Race

Well Crash Fest #1 is over for the weekend. Fortunantly there weren’t any wrecks today. I did the men’s cat 3/4 race. The race was the usual – everyone in a pack with a few people trying to break away. Nothing stuck though. I started out towards the front, and eventually made my way back to the rear. Not sure how, or why. I really didn’t want to be in the back but oh well. I just kind of rode along until the end. I was getting a little anxious and wanted to move up but couldn’t. Anyway, the sprint came, a little late though. For some reason people were hesitant about moving into the left lane, even thought it was closed. So basically all I did was tried not to crash. I came across the line 17th. Not bad, unfortunantly it was 2 out of the money. My lungs felt decent. Still not up to par, but what can you do. Tomorrow is Snake Alley. We will see how the weather fairs out. Could be an interesting race. That’s all.
-A

Wapello to Burlington Road Race

Well Crash Fest #1 is over for the weekend. Fortunantly there weren’t any wrecks today. I did the men’s cat 3/4 race. The race was the usual – everyone in a pack with a few people trying to break away. Nothing stuck though. I started out towards the front, and eventually made my way back to the rear. Not sure how, or why. I really didn’t want to be in the back but oh well. I just kind of rode along until the end. I was getting a little anxious and wanted to move up but couldn’t. Anyway, the sprint came, a little late though. For some reason people were hesitant about moving into the left lane, even thought it was closed. So basically all I did was tried not to crash. I came across the line 17th. Not bad, unfortunantly it was 2 out of the money. My lungs felt decent. Still not up to par, but what can you do. Tomorrow is Snake Alley. We will see how the weather fairs out. Could be an interesting race. That’s all.
-A